Why does my dog only lick the topping off her food and not eat it?

Patty could be licking her dry food to get it moist before eating it because she is having dental problems and it may hurt to eat dry food. These dental problems could be gingivitis, a tooth root abscess, or a broken tooth. I recommend taking Patty into your vet for a health exam. Your vet can check out her mouth and determine if there is a dental problem causing this behavior. If there is a dental issue, she will need a cleaning, scaling, and polishing, plus any broken teeth may need to be removed. I would take her into your vet today or tomorrow. In the meantime, try soaking her food with low sodium beef or chicken broth to see if that helps her eat.

My favorite brands of food are Acana, Origen, Lotus and Hobest Kitchen. You can see if they are available in your area. Some of the freeze dried raw diets such as honest kitchen are very palatable to picky eaters. I also find that adding fish oil and warm water to dry kibble can be very appetizing. It is also a very healthy supplement for them.

I don't know if I would be necessarily worried but maybe a bit concerned. She may have a dental problem that is causing the issue. I suggest you get her to the vet for an exam to check her mouth thoroughly to be on the safe side.

Hi there and thank you for using Pet Coach to address your concern. Based on the description you have provided, I am not too concerned since she seems to eat anything but her kibble. Many times, this is a preference problem. Some dogs like kibble and some like canned food. Some dogs prefer home cooked food over canned or dry dog food. Flavor can also be a factor and size of the kibble. I would suggest by switching to a different sized kibble and see how she does. If she still won't eat, then I would recommend switching to a different flavored kibble. If you are still unable to get her to eat the dry food, then I would recommend you switch to a canned diet and see if Luna will eat the canned food. If you are still not able to get her to eat her food, I would recommend adding a probiotic such as Purina Fortiflora to the food as this makes food more palatable in addition to providing good bacteria to help aid in digestion. If you are still unable to get her to eat dog food, then I would recommend home cooked meals. I recommend using the following website: www . balanceit.com and use the free autobalancer along with purchasing a vitamin and mineral supplement through the website. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

As long as she eats and is not losing weight, don't stress out over it. It is true that smaller breeds can be a bit more finicky. Switching foods would not be recommended as it can lead to gastrointestinal upset and reinforce her finicky nature. Instead, try mixing in a bit of warm water or a teaspoon of baby food to stimulate the appetite.

Hi there! Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! There are a few things you can do to make his food more palatable while he gets used to it. For example, you may add low sodium chicken broth, veterinary approved gravy which you can get at your pet store or pieces of boiled chicken to it. Good luck!

Some dogs are just picky eaters or are not very food driven. So we have some dogs, like your typical labrador, that will eat anything and everything within 30 seconds of it being put down, and others that are more picky and graze throughout the day. There are not necessarily medical drawbacks to leaving her food down throughout the day, or at least leaving it down for a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening. Sometimes unfortunately with dogs who are picky we just have to be tough and not offer them a different food every time they decide they aren't excited about their current one. We can predispose dogs to food allergies if we are changing their foods all the time and we do get allergies later in life it is much harder to find a good diet for them. I would choose one food and stick with it, and she will eventually get hungry and eat it. The exception is toy breed puppies which can develop hypoglycemia if they go too long without eating https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4952329 , but adult dogs should be able to tolerate this. I am a fan of the purina pro plan line, which is available at most pet stores and is good quality, they also have dry diets, wet diets, and their Savor line has kibbles along with softer/chewy kibbles which my dogs love. If there is some treat that she is very fond of you can mix it in with the food that you want her to eat and slowly decrease the amount of the treat each day so she gets used to the other food. Some people find putting some low sodium chicken broth on the food can entice them to start eating a food and you can slowly decreas the amount placed on the food, or warming food up slightly makes it more appetizing.