My dog won't eat unless handfed. Can I add raw egg to his food?

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.

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.

There are a few things you can try: One is trying a different type of bowl such as ceramic or plastic, or one that is wider or flatter, as sometimes the feel or sides of the bowl can be scary or irritating, especially if Simba is interested in eating still. The other is to start offering a piece of kibble from your hand with the bowl in your lap, and alternate one piece of kibble in hand, one dropped in bowl, back and forth, while praising each time he eats from the bowl. You can also sneak in a few tasty treats to make it extra fun for him. As he gets used to "eating" from the bowl with you there, you can gradually add more to it and then distance yourself from the bowl to encourage him to eat more on his own.

Hello, thank you for your question about Simba. One other thing that you could try to help entice him to eat some of the white rice would be to pour some low sodium chicken broth onto it to help it have more flavor and be similar to the chicken that is eating. In general since he will hopefully be on this bland diet for a short period of time, if he continues to eat only the chicken or protein in the meal, this will not cause any significant problems. Hope this helps, good luck!

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Adding a bit of boiled egg to Max's food will not hurt him at all. If you want to stop this, then what you can do is add a bit of chicken broth to his food and skip the egg and see if he eats it without the egg. You can also try and switch to a completely different dog food and see if he likes the new food more than his current food. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

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!

If Simon suddenly isn’t eating a food that he had been eating well before, you definitely need to see your vet. If he is eating it but just waits for you to put the home cooked food in, I would say he has you well-trained! Try avoiding the home-cooked food for a day or two and I bet he gets hungry enough to eat. Also try offering whatever food he was eating before he stopped eating or before he came to you. Best of luck to you and Simon!