How to get my dog to eat kibble from his bowl, not just my hand?

Add warm water or a couple teaspoons of baby food to his food to stimulate his appetite. Check his mouth and gums for injury or signs of periodontal disease (redness, swollen gums, bad breath, visible plaque/tartar build up). Discontinue hand feeding. This may worsen his being finicky. Changing the food bowl may reignite interest. Prepare his food at mealtimes and leave it down for 20-30 minutes. Pick it up afterwards whether he has eaten or not. Repeat this at the next mealtime. Do not offer any other food or treats between meals. Zeus will not starve. He will eat when he is hungry as long as you are firm with him. Regular mealtimes are recommended since dogs thrive on routine. If he develops any other symptoms (lethargy, vomiting,diarrhea, loss of appetite), then have him examined by your veterinarian.

This can be a very frustrating problem, but is quite common among small and toy breed dogs. Since you've tried offering timed meal feedings and a variety of different bowls for Snowball, you may need to try a very slow, gradual process to wean her from hand feeding. Start by feeding her from your hand, as usual, but keep your hand over the top of her bowl. The next meal, move your hand closer to the bowl so that it is just above the bowl. Later, put your hand in the bowl while holding kibble. Eventually, move your hand to the edge of the bowl, then out of the bowl altogether. After awhile, try just sitting beside Snowball while she eats from the bowl. It may take days to weeks on each step to gradually wean her from hand feeding, but this typically is successful for most dogs. I hope this helps and that all goes well!

Stop hand feeding your puppy, as he might get used to it and then generally refuse any food that is not being fed to him by hand. Depending on what type of bowl you are using, there may be an odor that he does not like. Plastic bowls often emit chemicals which could be uncomfortable for the dog (and also can cause skin problems). Change his food bowl to either ceramics or metal and keep it meticulously clean, ie wash it and rinse it well after each meal. Make sure he is hungry when you feed him, ie feed small amounts more often. Take away any food he has not eaten within ten minutes.

First I would recommend having your vet examine Simba to make sure that he is in good health and there is not a medical reason he prefers spoon feeding. If he is in good health it is probably safe to wait him out for several hours - he will eat when he's hungry enough. You could try putting some canned food in with his kibble to encourage him to eat as well.

This can become a very frustrating problem! You can try adding a very small amount of low sodium chicken broth (assure that it does not contain onions or garlic) or a tablespoon of canned food to Yahoo's kibble to tempt him to eat. He may simply be trained to eat from your hand and may require a bit of coaxing to eat from the bowl. Start by feeding him from your hand over the food bowl, then gradually move your hand down to the bowl, eventually removing your hand from the bowl altogether, but you may still need to sit with Yahoo while he eats. It may take a week or so to gradually leave Yahoo alone to eat. I hope this helps!

Your vet excluded inappetence secondary to systemic disease therefore, I would suggest to leave his food in the bowl and have a bit of patience. If Simba is hungry he will eat the food you provide without hand feed him. I wouldn't mix anything can get easily rotten (as raw egg) as at the beginning of the process it might take 12 + hours before Simba goes to his bowl! Try with different dry food flavors and just let Simba know the food is there available for him! Please post again on the forum if you would like to discuss it further. I hope my answer was helpful.

Some dogs stop eating from a bowl and it's fine as long as you are fine with it, feeding directly on the floor would be the preferred alternative method, make sure you clean that floor area after each meal. If you would like to try the bowl again, change the type of bowl and it's size as well, those changes might work.