# Dog won't eat food from bowl?



## owl2010

I was feeding my dog (a 25 pound puggle) from a deep bowl, and she wouldn't eat her food. The vet said that I needed to get a smaller bowl, so I did. It's much shallower and the food takes on more of a "mound" shape. She won't eat out of this bowl either. When I put the food on a paper plate she eats it. BUT the other weird thing she does is push the food around and try to tip the bowl or paper plate over. It's very odd.

I have 2 questions:

1) Why won't she eat from the bowl, but she will eat from the paper plate?
2) Why does she push it around and try to flip it over?

Could this have something to do with a physical problem that messes with her eating?

Thanks so much!


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## RubyFeuer

My dog wouldn't eat out of a bowl either when he was little. He also barely ate because he was so stubborn for a while about his food and about his bowl. He would eat it off the floor but not out of the bowl. I can't say why she won't eat from the bowl or why she tries to flip it over, but I can say that if you don't indulge her and just feed her in a bowl anyway she will eventually give up and eat out of it. Maybe if it is a plastic bowl she doesn't like the chemicals in it or something. I thought it was that for my dog so I switched him to a metal bowl and it still didn't work. 

Eventually though I just gave up trying to figure out what exactly he wanted because I even tried switching dog foods and everything. Just put it in a bowl and get one of the ones with the wide base and rubber grip ring around the bottom. Kong makes a nice one that works well because I also have a big dog who likes to play and he knocks into the bowl all the time and it doesn't tip over. It does spill some of the food though if he hits it hard enough. But ya lol, one more time just to reiterate (I'm really bad with babbling and repeating myself, but it's how I get myself to cover everything) just put the food in the bowl and when she gets hungry enough she'll eat. Don't give in even if she doesn't eat for a day. Try to keep the training to a minimum because just the energy from the treats will keep them stubborn about it longer. You could even put her on a feeding schedule. 

Just put whatever amount of food in the bowl for her, get her attention and make her sit before sitting the bowl down. If she tries to get up before you put the bowl down then lift the bowl back up and wait for her to sit again. Once she is sitting put the food bowl down and say "ok" or something to let her know she can go eat. Leave it there for only 15 minutes and then if she eats during that time great, but if she doesn't then o well and you pick up the bowl. Try again a few hours later and do the same thing. If she eat then great if she doesn't then o well. 

Eventually she will get hungry and eat when you put the bowl down. If she starts eating towards the end and goes over her time limit that's ok, but just take the food away after she finishes eating. Some people don't allow that and take it away at the end of it, but I let my dog finish eating if he was still eating after the end and I have no issues. After a while once they are eating out of the bowl consistently you can keep the schedule or start free feeding it's up to you. Sorry this was so long, but I know exactly what you are talking about lol.

I broke it up so the wall wouldn't look so freaky lol.

You can do whatever you want this is just a suggestion and this is what worked with my dog who acted just like yours with food and bowls and such.


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## hanksimon

Does she have a sense of smell like a beagle, and you've changed food in some way - new brand, new bag, older bag ?


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## xxxxdogdragoness

Mine don't like metal bowls because of the sounds they make, I have always used plastic bowls, even the cheap ones from the dollar store lol with NP with eating out of them lol. Jo went through that for a while but I just stuck to my guns & so far she is eating everything. They soon keen that it doesn't pay to be stubborn when you are going up against the person who controls the food lol.


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## LuvMyAngels

Do what feels right to you. Just because one person had success waiting out a dog/puppy doesnt mean its the right choice with yours (the opposite is also true).

When Buster came home at 9 1/2 weeks he was afraid of kibble in a bowl. It didnt matter if I used stainless steel, plastic, glass or even a paper plate. He would vomit bile with a bowl of kibble a couple feet away. Dump the same food onto the floor and he'd vacuum it up. I had to desensitize him to food in dishes. At one point I had a 100lb dog eating from a bowl sized for a Chihuahua...his face barely fit in enough to get his food. Then we started trying a gladware baking dish (black, light weight, square plastic), he eventually accepted that. He's 2 and only been eating from an actual dog bowl for maybe a month.

Ive had some suggestions that maybe his litter mates bullied him away from the food dish, only allowing him to eat kibble that'd fallen out of the dish. It's possible knowing how soft Bus can be in some situations, especially in those early days. I'll never really know, he sure isnt telling.


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## lisaj1354

Pepper will drink out of his stainless steel bowl, but will only eat out of a flat plate. he also pushed his food around, and sometimes will grab a toy and push the food onto the floor and then eat it.


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## xxxxdogdragoness

That's why I love the 15 min rule, sometimes Jo still doesn't want to eat at times but I still use the 15 min rule, she doesn't like it being taken away you can tell but I'm not about to coo coo a dog about eating their darn food. If they don't they fp hungry, no treats or anything until they are eating their kibble consistently.


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## owl2010

hanksimon said:


> Does she have a sense of smell like a beagle, and you've changed food in some way - new brand, new bag, older bag ?


We've only had her for 3 weeks, and the first food she was given was Purina Dog Chow. Refused to eat it unless we mixed in some Alpo wet.

Now she is eating Versus Weight Management brown rice with lamb. She will eat it randomly, but she doesn't get excited when we put her food out. She won't even go up to it. I can't keep buying dog food, this stuff is expensive!



lisaj1354 said:


> Pepper will drink out of his stainless steel bowl, but will only eat out of a flat plate. he also pushed his food around, and sometimes will grab a toy and push the food onto the floor and then eat it.


She drinks out of her bowl perfectly fine, which is great because I like taking her on long walks. I'm just worried that she's not getting all the vitamins and nutrients she needs. I can't find a food she likes. I'm worried, but everybody says I'm overreacting.


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## Shandwill

Like others, Russia will reluctantly eat out of a metal bowl. Initially, she was seeing her reflection in the bowl, and once we got past that, her tags clinked against the bowl and startled her. (Big, scary Caucasian Ovcharka running from her bowl...hhmmm.) Now she'll eat out of whatever...including between the couch cushions, floor, coffee mug, whatever. 
Prophet was a stray when he found us and would dump his food out and only eat off the ground for the first couple of weeks. He has never been overly excited about his food, but it helped when I started putting about 4 oz. of warm water on it just before giving it to him. Seemed to appeal more to his nose that way.  I've also used salt-free chicken broth, which he loved. He does, however, seem more interested in his food if I give it to him in a Kong or his new Kong Wobbler, which he is crazy about.
As her momma, there is no such thing as overreacting! You'll find what works for the two of you.


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## Historian

My Clio will only eat or drink from a ceramic bowl, plastic and metal must taste or smell funny to her... She's such a princess sometimes


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## xxxxdogdragoness

Yeah every dog has their idiosyncrasies I supposed, that's why Izze doesn't eat out of ceramic of metal because her collar linked against it & to this day she won't eat out of one lol. Plastic works for us lol.

Bit I know a lot of ppl that use metal & ceramic bowls & they are very good, so if they work for you then cool!


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## CrazyPup

owl2010 said:


> 2) Why does she push it around and try to flip it over?


While I don't have an answer to your first question (the other members had pretty reliable answers) I do have one for the second. I used to have a mini-schnauzer and she would always do this, pushing her food bowl when she was done with it until it either flipped over or it fell from the porch. We got her from a shelter (not one of the nicer ones either) and she never got enough food when she was little so she developed the habit of hiding her food so she could finish the rest of it later instead of one of the other dogs getting it from her. It's the dogs way of "burying" their food so they can have it later and not have to worry about it being taken away from them.
Hope this helped


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## Amaryllis

Kabota was terrified of the sound of his tag hitting his bowl when I first got him. I did train him to eat out of a bowl, but now I just feed him out of toys. There's no rule that you have to feed a dog from a bowl. They make a lot of fun feeding toys you could use instead, like the Kong, the buster cube, the tug a jug, etc.


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