My small dog is a picky eater. How can I get her to eat food?

It depends on the amount of food your are giving her. A dog her size should be eating around 1/4-1/2 cup of food twice daily, so if you are giving her more food than that, then you are likely overfeeding her and she is eating as much as she needs to eat. I am not sure how she can have a high temperature but no fever??? She either has a fever (greater than 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit rectal temp) or she doesn't. Please clarify which is the case with Tusu. It sounds like everything else is well with her, so she could also be becoming a picky eater. You can try high quality foods such as Royal Canin, Hill's Science Diet, Evo or Eukanuba to feed her and see if this makes a difference with her appetite and enthusiasm about food. I wish you all the best moving forward with your pet Tusu and her finicky eating. Best of luck and take care!

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.

If she’s a normal weight then she may be only eating what she needs to maintain her weight. If she’s thin then I recommend giving a food with a higher calorie content so she’ll get more calories while eating the same amount. Many dogs aren’t that excited about food and as long as they are healthy this is nothing to be overly concerned about. I would stick with one good quality brand and offer her as much as she wants twice a day. Often taking medicine will decrease the appetite so she may pick up eating soon since she is done with the tick fever treatment. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Kylie.

I am happy Luna is feeling better but a picky eater can be very frustrating. In my experience most dogs will not starve themselves. Changing foods often or back and forth Luna is learning if she does not eat she will get a better or different food. If the vet told you she is healthy I would start some touch love on her. I would get a food you want to feed and put it out for her. If she does not eat for 1-2 days than I would not be concerned. Typically once Luna realizes she is not getting anything else she will eat. Also if LUna is holding her body weight I do not get overly concerned. My own dogs will eat fast one day and slow or not at all the next. I think dogs will sometimes change there eating habits and this is okay as long as they are maintain weight and are still happy and healthy. I hope that helps

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.

Hi. I would recommend trying a different high quality food to explore if there is one she may like better. Science diet, royal canin, Iams, and Purina are the top quality brands. I would also make sure she has had a full exam, especially of mouth, and labwork, as well as a fecal sample test just to be sure there isn't another obvious cause of decreased appeitie.

This sounds like a fairly large amount of food for a 7.6 lb dog - she may not be hungry. If she seems to be losing weight you should see your veterinarian to make sure there is nothing medically wrong that is making her not want to eat. Otherwise I think you can measure out how much food she needs in a day and just leave it for her to eat. She'll eat eventually when she is hungry.