Why is my dog suddenly eating slowly and walking away from her food?

Some dogs are slower eaters than others, but I see that Kisses is four months old. This is the age when puppies are teething, and it could be painful for her to eat, causing her to eat slower or not eat all her food. Try soaking her food in warm water, or gently warmed low sodium beef of chicken broth to make her food softer. This may help encourage her to eat. If this doesn't work, then I would have her seen by a vet as a decrease in appetite can be a sign of a medical illness. Best of luck!

If only Sydney could talk! It could be related to her teething. You may try soaking the kibble in warm water until it is softer. See if she will eat it that way. Its also possible you are feeding her too much. Puppies eat a lot while they are rapidly growing but then the growth slows down and they don't need as many calories (although they are still growing). If soaking the kibble doesn't help or if she begins to show any signs of illness, I recommend to have her examined by the veterinarian and checked for parasites. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! What you are seeing may be normal, or it may be indicative of an underlying issue, it is difficult to know for sure. There are some dogs who are good at self-regulating their food intake; when they are full, they stop eating and then come back again when they are hungry. It could be that her growth spurts have slowed down and she doesn't need to eat as much as she did when she was growing so rapidly. It can also indicate an underlying GI upset, however (intestinal parasites, foreign material ingestion, gastritis, etc.). If she is acting normally, good energy level, normal stool, and no vomiting, then I would continue to monitor it over the next couple days. If she starts not wanting to eat, vomiting, have loose stools/diarrhea or otherwise acting ill, then I would recommend she be evaluated by a veterinarian to determine what the underlying cause may be. Good luck!

Thank you for submitting your question. Minxy is such a small dog that she needs to be eating regularly. If her appetite change came after adding the canned food to her diet, I would stop that. She may not be liking it. If you added the canned food to encourage her to eat, then there is a primary problem affecting her appetite. Since she is so young, I would have her evaluated by her veterinarian. She may have intestinal parasites. If she does not have any medical problems, I would try a different diet and your veterinarian can recommend a probiotic to add to her food. Some of them are flavored and will entice a dog to eat. I hope this information helps!

Increases in the environmental temperature can cause dogs to not want to eat. You can try leaving her food out longer, feeding her earlier in the day when it's cooler or feeding her indoors where it could be air-conditioned. With this breed they can be predisposed to certain stomach conditions if only fed once a day. Therefore I would try to get her to eat two meals again if possible.

It is possible that something is medically wrong with her however, I would first recommend feeding her the old flavor of food to see if that's the issue. If she eats that flavor then you may want to consider keeping her on that food. If you would rather switch you can slowly transition but mixing the two together and slowly transition the old one out.

She may be "saving his food for later". not be hungry or you are giving her too much food. Try feeding her smaller amounts three times a day and take away whatever she has not finished in 10 minutes.