Hi everyone,

I'm coming to the end of my tether with my 16wk old Cav pup, i finally got him on a complete dry food he'll actually eat. (pedigree dry puppy complete) He doesn't touch his meals all day, i'm constantly throwing away good food. Tonight after a little coaxing i knelt down by his food bowl and gave him some from my palm, he acted like i was giving him treats. I then layed some on the floor, again he scoffed them so fast! He ended up eating a satisfiying portion and definitely loved it. Normally he's so excited at meal times, then he sniffs in the bowl and walks away! :(

Trouble is, i can't keep feeding him like this every meal time, but i'm beginning to think (as daft as it may sound) could it just be the food bowl he doesn't like? It's a silver metal ordinary pet bowl. I wash it thoroughly every meal time.

Advice greatly appreciated, i'm at my wits end!!

Michelle

How long ahve you had him???

Some puppies can just be awkward and remember - they wont allow themselves to be starved... but the more you pander the more they will become fussy.

My last litter of shih tzu puppies were amazing - I always have a bowl of pedigree puppy complete (dry) down and in the last week i had to remove the bowl until meal times as they were scoffing the lot and easily crunching them - never been able to manage that with pups i've bought but at least i knew their new owners would have no problems with feeding.

why dont you try just putting a small amount on a saucer and see how it goes -

do you leave the bowl there all the time? With dry food i tend to leave it out rather than just feeding at meal times but it depends on the dog really as some might wolf it all down in one go - mine always tend to pick at it though throughout the day

Hi Michelle

It might not be so daft you know! My younger Spin went right off having his water from a metal bowl and nothing would persuade him to change his mind about it. He would just wait until the older one had finished at his dish (a much smarter ceramic one!) and then would lap up what was left, spin slobbers and all! When we replaced the metal bowl with a plastic one (yes, I know he's deprived compared to the older one, but honestly, we couldn't find a ceramic one to match, LOL!) he went right back to drinking from his own water dish. So I'd give it a try getting rid of the metal dish!

Funnily enough, they both eat from metal bowls without complaint! How contrary is that, LOL!

Lesley

Hi Lesley

Yes, it may be the silver (stainless steel?) bowl that's the problem. We have cats and dogs and one cat in particular loves to drink out of the dogs' bowls but when we changed from ceramic to stainless steel the cat began to act very strange. He would go to the bowl fine, drop his head down to drink then back off, come back and put a paw in the water and pat it, shake his paw off then drink. We couldn't understand what he was doing until we realised he could see his own distorted reflection in the bottom. He stuck his paw in to touch the 'other cat' and of course realised there wasn't one there - just water and then he was OK. He still goes through the same routine everytime. Maybe your dog can see another 'dog' in his bowl and this is what put him off.

Thanks "dog behaviour"! That entirely makes sense as it would explain his sudden aversion to it, ie one day he just caught a glimpse of the "dog in the bowl" and was put off thereafter. And with being a big girl's blouse, wouldn't dare stick his head in where the other dog was lurking!
Many thanks
Lesley

Arghhh don't go down the hand feeding route it's a typical Cavalier thing :) I have read(suggested by cavalier experts) to try a small flat plate apparantly this sometimes works don't know why. I feed mine on an high quality complete food that they do not have to eat a lot of. One messes about but the other three(especially the youngest) are really good eaters. It could be he is starting to teeth & they always seem to go off their food a bit when this happens

They also enjoy biscuits(which are included in their diet) one likes bone shaped ones & will not touch any other type, the poor eater loves the carrot shaped ones for some reason.

& they all love to steal our GSD's food-little do they realize it is exactly the same as theirs just a different size kibble

I have to agree with moonmaiden, cavs do seem to have a thing about hand feeding. My mum recently got an 18 month old bitch who is the fussiest thing going, unless my mum hand feeds her! My lewy, also 16 weeks old, would have been exactly the same if i hadn't stuck to my guns and refused to hand feed. To begin with he'd eat off the floor or out of the bowl if i had my hand in it, then i realised i was making a rod for my own back so he'd have 5 minutes to tuck into his food after which it was lifted. Also at the start he was eating out of a little cereal bowl, he now has a dog bowl and generally cleans up all his meals. As your boy is on dry complete maybe it might be an idea to start off with a handful on the floor, Lewy seemed to like cleaning up the floor when i did this! It might be an idea to try a flatter bowl just in case this is the problem.

Erin

I don't use metal dishes for the cavaliers they either have plastic spaniel dishes or deep plastic cat bowls that look like a ramakin dish

The bigger dogs are such fast eaters they don't have time to see anything in the bottom of the dishes :D

Hi everyone,

We've had Harvey almost 2 months now and doesn't seem to be getting any better. Though i will be investing in some new dog bowls over the wkend, hopefully this will do the trick! A small price to pay if his appetite improves :)
Normally drinking water from his water bowl (smaller but matches his food bowl) doesn't seem to bother him, though it does make sense that he can maybe see a reflection inside the bowl. But your definitely right, i shouldn't go down the hand feeding route :(

Any ideas as to what bowl i should go for??

Fussy little devils aren't they?

I use human bowls for my 2 shih-tzu's,i hav'nt been able to find a dog bowl that is shallow enough. I got mine from k-mart in the crockery section. shih-tzu's have such flat faces they dont like having their whole head inside the bowl,which always happened with the regular doggy bowls.

Christine

I had a Cavalier when I was younger and he was a really fussy eater (couldn't eat ANY chicken products as it gave him a dose!). At first he refused to eat from the bowl (and my Mum started the hand feed thing but eventually got fed up sitting on her hands and knees). We ended up putting it down and if he didn't eat it - tough! He would eat when he wanted..and after a few worrying days where he didn't eat at all, he stood and scoffed the whole bowl at the start of the third day! After that we left him to it and he never starved!

He had 3 walks per day and the vet said he was in superb condition (not fat like MANY Cavaliers you see!!). He was diagnosed with throat cancer at 6 months old and the vet thought he's only last a year max - he died at the age of 17 from a small hole in his heart (which he'd also had since a puppy). So I'd put his food down and if he doesn't eat it after a set period of time, lift it. Maybe try again a few hours later and see if he'd eat it then. Eventually he will take it...

Really miss my wee dug - he was such a placid dog and absolutely adored long walks (and fish fingers!). Have you tried a tin of Tuna? Ceilidh would go mad if he caught a whiff of a tin of that being opened. He always got a LARGE tin at Christmas while the rest of us had turkey!

Hope the bowl thing works for you though!

AL

I must admit i'm now starting to think i'm rather lucky with Lewy's eating, another lady at ringcraft has a cav pup the same age who wont eat either!

Erin

BINGO...Cant believe it, cassie hasn't been eating very well at all until today, I bought her a new ceramic bowl and she wolfed the food down. She had a stainless steel one before. She's 17 weeks old and had a plastic bowl at first and if I think about it the eating problem only started once I got the metal dish, at least now I can stop putting all her meals in her kong to get her to eat.

Deb :)

Dont they just make you want to spit!! Just when you think you have them sussed they come up with another one. I hate the lot of 'em!

John