I have an older gundog breed puppy (nearly 12 months)who was a very good doer until about
5 months of age and then decided that food was not important. Always fed
a complete dried food without problems.
Tried diffenrent varituest of food, fresh ,diffent times, left in cage overnight,
added pilchards etc and letting her miss a meal but I would be lucky if she
eat half of one meal a day instead of her normal two. Not even bothered if she
had compotion from other dogs

Came into season and hey presto she was eating 2 meals a day,
back to complete food and would even steal.

Now some 2 and half months since she has been in season and we are
back to not eating She is fine and lively and has been check by my vet
who says she is a picture of health.

The lack of interest in food seems to be related to hormones

Any suggestions before the weight starts to fall off her as at present she is
carrying the correct weight and in lovely condition

Which breed is she?
Certain HPR breeds are notorious for not carrying weight until they reach 5 years of age and then go into reverse and you end up fighting to keep weight off ! lol
Having had this problem with my GSP's over the years, I have accepted that this is the way that certain individuals are. As long as they are happy and otherwise healthy, I let them get on with it now. It is very frustrating but I have found that you can't force feed a dog that doesn't want to eat. All you can do is make sure that the food that they do get is of the best quality available :-)

Leigh

Sally, welcome to the forum and for letting us know that it is a weimaraner :-)

This is almost exactly the problem I have had with my 4 year old elkhound. she was much better after her litter of 9, but his lasted only for about 6 months. she isn't as bad now as in the first two years, but will have stretches of weeks where she may eat 3 or 4 times a week.

She is fit healthy and wiry, and everyone that meets her assumes she is the puppy of my 4! I found no matter what you did you could do nothing about it. I have just mated her for her second litter (her last babies were 2 in November), she had been eating very badly prior to her season and until the dog came to stay, now she is being a piglet, go figure! she started eating again once she had stopped standing for the male.

I console myself with the fact that she will be great to show in Veteran classes, as she will not have gone to pot, and will be youthfully fit. she has done reasonably well in the ring, but has always done this in spite of lack of body and coat!:D

As long as she is bright eyed and bushy tailed just feed her, if she doesn't eat, then offer it again at next meal, and stop beating yourself up about it :)

Give "Restore" and "Moor Gold" from stock Nutrition a try. It has transformed my 5 month Westie puppy who also decided she wasnt going to eat or grow any more. Within a week her appetite doubled, within a fortnight her general condition was very much better, and now after a month she is the right weight for her age and her coat and condition is better than it has ever been.
Sorry to repeat myself folks- and no, I'm not on commission!

the best advice I ever got was "starve the bugger, it will eat when it's hungry enough"
I know it sounds cruel but believe me I was winning with this dog and he would eat something for one day maybe two and then stop and after getting this advice I put his meal down to him morning and night if it hadn't been eaten in ten minutes I took it away, the only thing this dog ate for the next SIX DAYS was grass and water, on the sixth day he ate and only ever missed a meal again when a bitch was in season.
One other tip which might work as I know it has with others is to give him pedigree petfoods weaning porridge as I know many people who entice poor doers with this and it has kicked their eating off.

you know the old saying sometimesyou have to be cruel to be kind. and the more you mollycoddle a dog that is healthy and wont eat the worse they become. .complex creatures arent they :( I think dog exhibitor is right but only if he is acting up. other then that, westie lovers remedy sounds good to me