Fussy Eater

Hi Corey,

That is difficult and frustrating problem to deal with, and unfortunately one not easily solved.

My belief is that when this occurs there has to be some underlying problem with the digestive system or the gut.

In some instances the reason for the dog not wanting to eat is because the smell of the food aggravates existing stomach discomfort and a feeling of biliousness. This in turn can be brought about by excessive stomach acids or a low grade gut infection, or a pancreas that is not function correctly and not producing the enzymes needed to digest the food properly.

In other cases the cause can be an intolerance to wheat (gluten), or even the yeast that is added to many animal vitamin mixtures for their B group vitamin contents.

While it is called “wheat intolerance”, gluten is also found in rye or barley, and even many yogurts contain gluten to stabilise the product.

If this is the case digesting the food makes the dog feel bilious within 24 hours and therefore doesn’t feel like eating at that time.

Often the cause of fussy eating is an intolerance to gluten, and you may have to look carefully at the dogs diet and substitute all wheat based product in the diet with cooked rice.

For a starter I would suggest a stew using beef, chicken and rice as the main ingredients and see how you go from there. If that is not successful, adding something like Thrive D to the diet may help, or a human product designed to supply additional digestive enzymes to the diet.

The other choice of course is a complete dry food based on chicken and rice, but unfortunately these are often not very palatable to the dog either.

Sorry mate, like I said not an easy problem to fix.

Cheers,
Tom