Hi
We were lucky enough to adopt our beautiful Bonnie in January of this year. She has settled in brilliantly, no problems, has been checked over by Angus our vet but from the day she came she has been a particularly fussy eater! We feed all 4 dogs at the same time, some days she just looks at her food then walks away! She was like this with the GRF food and we moved her onto Chudley greyhound maint food and put butchers tripe in each feed and she's still picky. The only time we guarantee she will eat is if we put some pilchards or sardines in which we do 3/4 times per week.
We are new to picky eaters as all our dogs have been good doers over the years and we just wondered if anyone had similar experiences and how they got round it

My lady is a picky eater and a food guarder !

drives me mad as the others are fine
In her case she is given a set time to eat it and if she does not eat it then its away.

I give her more next meal and she tend to eat this all then so I think it's a power thing with her

Mags

How many times a day is Bonny fed? You need to remember she was fed once a day when she was at the kennels. Maybe she is still used to this routine. I think some dogs can easily adjust to a new feeding routine, some not.

Hi Stan
We feed Bonnie twice a day 4.30am and pm. It would be and extremely large feed once a day and our problem is the other 3 are gutsy so no chance of leaving it for her to pick on throughout the day therefore of she leaves it all or just eats a small amount we remove it after a while, we try her again after her walk and sometimes she eats it all then or only picks.
Very frustrating

Thanks Mags

I agree it's very frustrating especially when the others eat up with no problem unless they are unwell.

Think we have a little "diva" in the making


Nikky

Hi Nikky and Willie,
Maybe it would be good to try to give a tiny meal in the morning and a bigger one in the afternoon, or otherwise. Just give her the feeling that she is treated fair but that would bring her back to her old routine. In the kennels they do not get huge portions but it is enough for them. A tiny meal just to let her have a few licks and then a bigger one. You can email or call Celia how much food a day they get in the kennels.
Best wishes,
Stan

Hi Stan
Many thanks for your advise, we're going to try your suggested regime and see how we get on, will let you know how it goes!
We did check out amounts with Celia when we got Bonnie as we weight out all our dogs food each day so wanted to get it right from the start but if your suggestion doesn't work we'll contact Celia and Jimmy.
Thank you again
Nikky & Willie

Our daisy can sometimes turn her nose up at food and it STRESSED me out. But after talking to the vet they say it's nothing to worry about she has gained weight and maybe just isn't hungry. It was a worry but :(

In my opinion, if there are not underlying health issues, dogs look happy and are not turning into skeletons everything is OK. It is like with people, some it a lot, some eat quite little. I wish I ate less...

Hi Stan
Yep I agree with you, maybe its jealousy on my part that I'm not more like her
We're on a roll tonight as it Pilchards night so see what our new regime brings in the morning.
Thanks again
Nikky & Willie

Hi Kayleigh
I agree that it can be a bit stressful but at least we know from our vet that she's in tip top condition.
When all the other dogs eat every meal like its there last and "miss fuss pot" turn her nose up at all your efforts then we do find it a bit frustrating
Nikky

Bonnie sounds exactly the same as my Morgan! My other grey Jack can positively inhale his food, but she will only eat if she wants to. It worries me occasionally, but I have learnt that she will eat if she wants to, often last thing at night, and always if she has sardines or tuna mixed in! Ostensibly she is fed twice a day, b'fast and tea, but she often doesn't eat till night time, she' s the brains of the two of them and knows exactly what she wants and when she wants it-she won't eat if she needs out for a pee, and often eats a wee bit then demands to be let out so I spend half my time dancing about trying to stop Jack eating hers as well!

Hi Averil
Yep I can identify with that exactly, the back door must be constantly left open at meal times no matter what the weather may be!
She troops in and out whilst the others create a pool of slavers wanting Bonnie's food
Nikky

We've some greyhounds who go to bed with nearly a whole meal still in their bowls. By morning it has gone.
Unless she is not eating at all, don't worry.
Jimmy.

Exactly Floyd, he will eat half of his meal and needs to go for a pee, every time and since always.

My two are picky eaters too but to be honest it is my fault, I cook for them so they only eat granules if they realize after evening walk that there is not meat tonight.

Hi
I went through this whole thing with our grey Sue. She point blank refused to eat her kibbles in the morning, first couple of days it was very worrying so we gave her some fish at lunchtime and then she woofed that down as well so knew it was nothing sinister going on, just her being a picky eater (lunch and dinner were ualways fine after first couple of days). We started off feeding her in a different room away from our other grey Joey. That worked for the first few times then she just refused to eat all together. We had to hand feed her to get her to eat. Then she started getting tea and toast or weatabix n tea at breakfast and she woofed that down with no complaints. Then we came to the conclusion she was bored of her chicken, rice n garlic kibble, so bought some different flavoured kibble and she has now started slowly but surely eating kibbles again. Still has the odd day where we have had to revert back to toast or weatabix with tea.
Also you could try some warmish water in her food (assuming she on kibbles), warm water makes the aromas of the food smell stronger and more appealing. If shes on a tinned food you could ding it (literally 2/3secs) in the microwave that will have the same effect.

If none of the above suggestions from others work theres another couple of suggestions you could try.

Katie

Crumbs - a greyhound who doesn't want to gorge? I want one!
My lot are SUCH wolfers and scavengers, it would be nice if they showed a little more restraint.
Foxy has recently torn her front leg slightly and is wearing a buster collar, which gives her the perfect opportunity to bolt her own food then push the others out of the way and use her 'tent' to stop anyone getting at the bowl she's commandeered. I do intervene!
Jock will eat ANYTHING dead he finds on the beach, given half a chance, despite the fact that he's put on about 2 kilos since he came to stay, so he can't be hungry.
As Celia and Jimmy say, if she's well in herself, don't worry, but you also have hearty eaters in the house, so the contrast must be worrying. I would be off to the vet in a flash if one of my gang didn't eat, but it's a sudden change in eating habits that's cause for concern rather than a status quo of delicate eating.

Hi Jimmy
Unfortunately we can't leave Bonnie's food out for long as they rest of the gang are only to willing to eat it for her but we do take on board what you are saying.
Thanks again
Nikky & Willie

It's funny with the "wee" thing, strange

Thanks Katie
We now have quite a few tips to try out with Bonnie, we started off the week trying out Stan's idea of less in the morning and more at night, early days but so far so good. Fingers crossed it keeps going.
To be honest I think we are the stressed ones about this rather than Bonnie!
Nikky & Willie

Hi Marion
Yes it is a bit worrying when all the others are such good doers but thanks to everyone's kind replies I think we need to de-stress about Bonnie's eating habits. We know she is fit ,healthy and happy and that's all that matters
I hope Foxy is better soon, she sounds quite a character, I just have this mental picture of her dominating the food bowls with her buster collar

Regarding feeding in general...
I know a few "professional" dog breeders in Poland and most of them feed their dogs once a day, with water available 24 hours a day. It concerns the big dog breeds. The small dog breeds require feeding more often (twice or even 3 times a day). I do not know why that is...
We used to have an Alaskan Malamute and we fed him once a day. REX (his name) never looked very slim. He was a well built dog.
So giving Bonnie a tiny meal in the morning and a bigger one in the evening should be OK if she accepts this routine, of course.

Foxy is brilliant as always

We had the same problem with Raven. We ended up cutting right back on breakfast as we were constantly binning more than half of it. Bit of trial and error with her main meal to find her preferences and thankfully she clears her dish now. Like Bonnie, she gets sardines mixed with her kibble several times a week. We think she has a bit of a diva streak too

If you look at behaviourist websites they tell you not to pander to them. Unless the dog is unwell it will never starve itself. You should place the bowl down, leave it 20 minutes then remove it. Sticking to your normal meal times. Then put it down again at the evening meal time and leave 20 minutes. She'll soon get the picture.

We shouldn't live our lives round a fussy dogs eating regime. Don't change the meal times, carry on as you are. Unless she is unwell she won't starve herself.

Maybe she doesn't like Chudley!

Hi Nikcky
Just thought I would see how you are getting on, has Bonnie started eating again normally??
Just reading the other comments too. The one about giving a little meal in the morning and a big meal at night. Be careful with that cause these dogs are big chested they are more at risk of twisted guts (GDV). We have had a scare with one of our greys (thankfully turned out to be an acid reflux type thing. But of course she decided on a Saturday late morning for this to happen, made it to our vet just in time but they put our emergency vet on standby) and were told by our vet that feeding them more frequently is advisable, so went from 2 meals each day to 3 meals. Which worked brilliantly until she went through this phase.
I also tried the if you arent going to eat it then you arent eating till next meal time. It is amazing how stubborn they can be, my girl went 4days without breakfast before we tried her on scrambled egg n toast then weetabix the following day. Have to say out of the 2 she prefers weetabix and gets that every few days now.

Hoping your little one is getting back to eating normally cause its not a fun experience
Katie

Lady is eating better but it's more to do with Alba standing next to her!

Mags

Hi Katie
Bonnie has continued to eat her meals now for almost two weeks
We stopped the tinned food giving slightly less in the morning feed and more at night, not too much of a difference though as we have experienced a twisted gut many years ago, very scary!
Sardines and Pilchards are alwAys a hit so we feed this 3 or 4 times per week.
Warm milk is also a hit! We had her weight taken at the vets again on Saturday and we are back to where we started when we got Bonnie so hopefully we can put on a couple of kilo, fingers crossed
Thank you for asking about her we've been quite overwhelmed by the response from everyone, it's been great
Nikky