# My westie just wont eat his food



## b.mueller5 (Oct 29, 2010)

My westie (Skylar) just turned one on the 22nd so I recently switched him to Blue Buffalo Small Breed Adult Fish and Brown Rice Recipe from Blue Buffalo Small Breed Puppy Chicken and Oatmeal Recipe. The only way I can get him to eat it is if I sit right with him and watch him to make sure he eats it. He would much rather eat the Beneful that my other dogs eat (I know Beneful is bad for them but its my moms dogs that eat that and I cant afford to pay for good food for them to). He didnt really like the puppy food either but he would eat it. Even then he perfered Beneful. I am thinking about switching him to Innova. What do you guys think should I switch his foods and see how he does on the Innova?


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## KodiBarracuda (Jul 4, 2011)

I think of course beneful is delicious, its full of yummy fluff, like tasty human food is full of crap (think fast food or sugary cereals) its tasty yes, but that is because it is full of stuff that makes our minds think its tasty like fats and oils and such. I have a jar of science diet that I got when we got Kodi and he loves the stuff, so we use it as a training treat but would i feed it to him? No way. 

I would stick with putting down whatever food you want to give him, then picking it up in ten minutes if he doesn't eat it, and then put it back down at his next meal. No dog is going to starve itself because it doesn't like the food.


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## abi88 (Jul 2, 2008)

Some dogs dont like fish formulas. I would love to suggest other brands of food to you, like Taste of the Wild, but if you are looking to stick to BB you may need to try a lamb, chicken or something other then fish!:wink:


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## Charis (Jul 12, 2009)

You may try a different flavor but with how expensive BB is and the fact it is good for the dog - if it were my dog they would be finishing that bag before I bought a new flavor. Put it down for 30 minutes. If he doesn't eat - pick it up. Don't feed him again until his next regular meal time. Put it down for 30 minutes again. Keep taking up the left overs at 30 minutes. He will eat. It may take a while but he will eat.


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## abi88 (Jul 2, 2008)

Charis said:


> You may try a different flavor but with how expensive BB is and the fact it is good for the dog - if it were my dog they would be finishing that bag before I bought a new flavor. Put it down for 30 minutes. If he doesn't eat - pick it up. Don't feed him again until his next regular meal time. Put it down for 30 minutes again. Keep taking up the left overs at 30 minutes. He will eat. It may take a while but he will eat.


Nearly any store you buy from(DEFINITELY if it was a "big box" store...and the company it's self) will allow you to return/exchange foods!:wink:


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## john47 (Apr 5, 2010)

unless ill the dog will not starve himself. i would give him his food if he don't eat it in 15 minutes take it away and he gets nothing untill his next feeding. ( no treats either). when he gets hungry enough he will eat. it may take 2 or 3 days.


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## Jilly&Whissy (Aug 31, 2011)

Hi there! A lot of dogs are actual grazers and will only eat when truly hungry and you said yourself they will not starve themselves. My 1 year old Lab is an example of this and will only eat when hungry which is ideally better for their digestive tracts to prevent incidents such as bloat of from the dog becoming overweight. My dog is almost 65lbs with not a stitch of fat on him but lean muscle (I'm kinda anal with his weight and exercise haha). But now going back to the food, grocery store brands such as Beneful are appealing to generally younger dogs because of the high concentrates of processed fats in the poultry/lamb etc. but after a period of time loose interest from containing mostly corn gluten as strange as it sounds. This happened to my 13 year old Brittany Spaniel as throughout the years she was on a grocery brand, then on a no preservatives brand containing no grains and all chicken that she enjoyed but this food called Acana made her gain weight like crazy. Then I had the chance to work along side my vet and it was incredible to learn about different foods so overall my Lab. is on Medi-Cal Preventative food and its great in all ways, even the price is not bad considering the size of the bag and how much he needs to eat. The more protein and good grains in the food the more the dog will feel full therefore you use less food as a grocery brand in the end. 

Sorry for the long reply but it is all too interesting! Plus I'm new 

Overall if you were not interested in a vet brand food then I would switch him to another fish food as some will simply not like the smell or taste of different meats. I have to ask though, did you gradually mix in the new food with the old food or go from one to another the next day?


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## Sarayu14 (Apr 26, 2010)

Brittany's are no longer considered spaniels. In fact they have not been called a Spaniel for a number of years.


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## Jilly&Whissy (Aug 31, 2011)

Yeah in the AKC, not Canadian as mine was a Reg'd Brittany "Spaniel" 13 years ago so yes they still were called that in Canada. I know what my dog was and her lineage. If you look on the CKC they are still considered Spaniels by them to date.


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## Sarayu14 (Apr 26, 2010)

The CKC needs to make their site way more user friendly, that is the reason I don't use their site. BTW I am a Canadian if you didn't already know that, oh right to those in the east, we out in the west are not important. Sorry if I sound a bit snide; but it has been a bad day. I need to go and watch my dog dance around her frozen duck foot (cutest thing ever) before I go to work.


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## KodiBarracuda (Jul 4, 2011)

frozen duck foot??


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## Sarayu14 (Apr 26, 2010)

yeah, I feed prey model raw and they get duck feet and other things. Will explain more later, but have to go to work now. They also like chicken and beef heart, beef tongue and lungs. But just to see her pick up that duck foot and toss it in the air and then dance and pounce on it, and then pick it up again, drop it do a play bow and then eat it, it was the funniest thing in the world.


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## kafkabeetle (Dec 4, 2009)

Jilly&Whissy said:


> Hi there! A lot of dogs are actual grazers and will only eat when truly hungry and you said yourself they will not starve themselves. My 1 year old Lab is an example of this and will only eat when hungry which is ideally better for their digestive tracts to prevent incidents such as bloat of from the dog becoming overweight. My dog is almost 65lbs with not a stitch of fat on him but lean muscle (I'm kinda anal with his weight and exercise haha). But now going back to the food, grocery store brands such as Beneful are appealing to generally younger dogs because of the high concentrates of processed fats in the poultry/lamb etc. but after a period of time loose interest from containing mostly corn gluten as strange as it sounds. This happened to my 13 year old Brittany Spaniel as throughout the years she was on a grocery brand, then on a no preservatives brand containing no grains and all chicken that she enjoyed but this food called Acana made her gain weight like crazy. Then I had the chance to work along side my vet and it was incredible to learn about different foods so overall my Lab. is on Medi-Cal Preventative food and its great in all ways, even the price is not bad considering the size of the bag and how much he needs to eat. The more protein and good grains in the food the more the dog will feel full therefore you use less food as a grocery brand in the end.
> 
> Sorry for the long reply but it is all too interesting! Plus I'm new
> 
> Overall if you were not interested in a vet brand food then I would switch him to another fish food as some will simply not like the smell or taste of different meats. I have to ask though, did you gradually mix in the new food with the old food or go from one to another the next day?


Yet another post rife with misinformation. Why am I not surprised.

1. Some dogs are ok self-regulators but it's generally preferable to teach your dog to eat when you feed them. A few reasons I can think of are that you are better able to regulate how much the dog eats so they don't get too much or too little, you can more easily tell if a dog loses their appetite, which is often the first sign of illness, and in multi-pet households it can prevent food guarding.

2. "Grazing" does not prevent bloat, nor is bloat caused by a dog being overweight.

3. If your dog gains weight on a food you need to decrease the amount you are feeding. You can't expect a feed the same amount of Acana as you do a food full of fillers like Beneful. I'm not sure what you meant by the statement "you use less food as a grocery brand in the end" but it sounds like you're saying you need to feed LESS of lower quality foods. Alas, the opposite is true.


To the OP: Have you tried Taste of the Wild? My generally picky dog ADORES it unlike any other food we've tried. Regardless of what you're feeding though, I recommend implementing the 15 minute rule, as someone else has already mentioned. Whatever the dog doesn't eat within 15 minutes you take up and don't allow the dog access to it again until the next meal. Over a couple of days your dog will learn that if they want to eat, they have to eat when food is provided. This method has worked wonders for my dog, and it only got easier once we switched to TOTW because she likes it so much.

Sydney really likes Beneful and 'Ol Roy, foods two of my relatives feed and I think it's just because it's different and might even contain sugar. I know they don't smell anything like meat!

As for your mom's dogs, have you looked into any moderate quality cheaper foods? I would look into 4Health, Whole Earth Farms, Kirkland and Natural Balance for feeding decently on a budget.


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## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

I went thru his with my young dog, Josefina, she went 3 days without eating & i found out that not eating for a while makes her have seizure-like fits (yes, she has been to the vet & did have BW done). Anyways i found out that it wasn't the food (they get TOTW high prairie dry/wet) & Izze eats it with gusto so i k ow its not the food (she won't touch it if the quality is questionable or if something is wrong with the food. 

Well, i found out that it was the crate she didn't like , i had bought her a Remington plastic crate, she had been raised in the square metal cage-crates. I had one at home, so i switched them & viola! (So far) hr problem is solved, sometimes its something as simple as that, that BB food that you are feeding has grains in it perhaps he doesn't like grains? Just a thought. If you want to stay with BB, they make a wilderness line hat is grain free. Orjin is also very good, & they have a grain free as well... If that's what you want to go.


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## shellbeme (Sep 9, 2010)

b.mueller5 said:


> My westie (Skylar) just turned one on the 22nd so I recently switched him to Blue Buffalo Small Breed Adult Fish and Brown Rice Recipe from Blue Buffalo Small Breed Puppy Chicken and Oatmeal Recipe. The only way I can get him to eat it is if I sit right with him and watch him to make sure he eats it. He would much rather eat the Beneful that my other dogs eat (I know Beneful is bad for them but its my moms dogs that eat that and I cant afford to pay for good food for them to). He didnt really like the puppy food either but he would eat it. Even then he perfered Beneful. I am thinking about switching him to Innova. What do you guys think should I switch his foods and see how he does on the Innova?


Seeing as how this post is a couple weeks old I don't even know if you are looking at it anymore but I'll share my experience anyway. I had the same problem with my maltese when we brought him home. What I do is feed him a mix of dry and canned. I feed him twice a day and mix in a teaspoon of canned food in each feeding-he now eats it like crazy. One can lasts us a while so I portion it out and leave just enough in the refrigerator for a few days, the rest is put in the freezer. It's been working great for us.


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