[tiffanyabdo]

I have rescued a chi recently. She was severely neglected prior to me getting her. She was 7 months old when I got her and had never eaten anything but table scraps. I am having a really hard time getting her to eat dry/wet puppy food. One day she will eat wet food like it is going out of style but the rest of the week she barely grazes it. I have tried warming it (since I store in the fridge) and I have tried mixing dry food with it. She also eats a lot of grass so I am not sure she is taking too well to the food but I know switching brands isn't a good idea either.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do with this situation? Maybe a good brand that most chi's like?

 

[michele]

Have you tried Ziwi Peak ,mine can't get enogh of it.I had trouble with Dottie eating and she needed to eat every few hours as she was very small,she will always eat it no trouble

 

[Zippy]

Zippy is a senior rescue dog. He is on a RAW diet because I had a very hard time finding any kibble or canned food that he would eat very much of. He also had a huge human food obsession when we first got him and would go completely crazy with barking, jumping, running, and begging whenever my wife or I would try to eat anything. We are having zero problems now, though, since switching to RAW. Not only does he eat all of his dinner but he actually gets excited about it.

 

[Tink]

I rescued Tango at 7 months. He had been fed inferior kibble and table scraps as his diet. Not only that, but he'd never eaten from a bowl, he'd just been fed his meals piece by piece through the crate he'd been kept in 24/7. He was underweight, undernourished, and had no idea what to do with normal food/feeding.

As much as I wanted him to eat to fatten him up and get him healthy, I also knew that I was NOT going to be hand-feeding him for the rest of his life, AND I had NO plans to cater to his every whim regarding what food he preferred.

So once he'd been checked out by the vet and the immediate infections and worms he had were gotten under control, and she said it was OK, I started dealing with his food issues. No more hand feeding, no more tempting him to eat with a variety of things. He was going to get a superior quality grainless kibble and limited ingredient treats, period. I knew that a healthy dog will NOT starve themselves. They WILL eat when they get hungry enough. So armed with that piece of wisdom, I began. He was old enough to be fed twice a day, so I first thing in the morning, I put down a bowl of his kibble (dry, no added stuff, no moisteners) and left it down for 15 minutes. He didn't touch it. So I picked it up and didn't try feeding him again till dinner time. He did have a few licks of Nutrical two or three times during the day, because I didn't want him to have any kind of hypoglycemia issues, but other than that, no food. I put a bowl of kibble down again at dinner. He sniffed at it, but still wouldn't eat. OK, took it up again. Offered some more Nutrical mid-evening which he licked off my finger enthusiastically. Next morning, same deal, a bowl of kibble in front of him....he sniffed, walked away, then came back and chowed down, YAY! He ate the whole bowl, and has never had another food issue since!

Of course I was worried when Tango wasn't eating, but I knew it was going to be for the best. I made sure the kibble I offered him each time was fresh, but other than that didn't do anything to make it more appealing. He eats twice a day, 1/8 of a cup of food each time, (he's 3.5 lbs) and is now an enthusiastic and non-picky eater.