Our five month old Labrador Ralph is off his food!!! He would normally run over hot coals at the sight of his food bowl but he is not fussed at all. He will still eat his treats but is off his BETA puppy food. He is 100% fine in himself - getting up to mischief. Is he just fed up with his food? What should I do? Change the food over?
Thanks

Lisa

Hi LisaW,

I have a notoriously fussy breed that quickly tires of a routine diet.  Personally if I were you I'd not give in to his being fed up with it just yet.  If you can hold out and make as little fuss as possible about whether he eats it or not then he will not pick up any negative vibes from you - that can make things worse :(   If he is happy, healthy and keen to eat treats he is most likely holding out for something tastier - bit like kids would rather eat sweets/cake/crisps than meat and two veg :P  Put his food down for no more than 5 minutes - if he totally ignores it for longer than that lift it immediately, but without any fuss.  Be consistent with each mealtime and offer NO treats, scraps etc in between - if he is OK healthwise and hungry he will eat it. 

There are lots of ways of spicing up complete foods but if you add things not only will they disrupt the balance of the diet but will also mean he's unlikely to take "plain" foods again.  You could try adding a little warm water to his food so that it develops a slightly stronger smell.

HTH, regards Teri  :)

One thing it might be to do with is around the same time he went off his food...strangley out of character... he gave off a slight growl when I went near his bowl which took me be suprise because he has never done this before and he hasn't even barked yet and he is very placid and friendly. Anyway I told him off for growling at me. He ate his food fine for two days, didn't bother when I went near his bowl all seemed well then he went off it. Could the two incidents be connected?
Thank you for your reply.

Hi LisaW,

It's not impossible for both to be connected but would depend on how you told him off and how sensitive he is (eg. too firmly on your part, he's overly sensitive) but glancing through your earlier posts on him both seem unlikely - Labs are notorious gobblers so I doubt if it's that straightforward but hopefully some of the breed aces will spot this soon and have been through this too ;)

Meantime, I know he's a youngster, but is he still at the teething stage?    Or he may have a painful area somewhere in his mouth, such as inner cheeks, lips, under tongue, roof of mouth - will he let you check his mouth thoroughly?   How long exactly now has this been a problem and roughly how much food are you getting into him in comparison to when he was eating keenly?  

My personal approach would be different dependent on the answers to above - for example it may be that he'd do better to have a vet check to rule out a medical cause but equally when you stop and think through exactly how much he is eating you may realise that there's little difference in his intake at all - just on *how* he's eating - I hope that's some way clear :rolleyes:

Regards, Teri :)

Hi teri,
Thanks for your advice. I didn't think that the incident with the food would be the cause - I only said no firmly and put on my 'grumpy' face he is used to this and knows to put down my best work shoes quick sharp when I do this, but it doesn' bother him that much as he will try his luck again with my shoe after half an hour.
Actually now you mention it I have noticed a slight difference in the way he is eating his food - before he just seemed to open his mouth and suck it up -I wondered if he even chewed it! But now he is picking up each little bit at a time and chewing at the back of his mouth and spitting it out. He is probably eating about 20% compared to usual. I'll check inside his mouth as he is used to this as part of his training for GC award. Else I think a trip to the dreaded vet may be in order. I'll try the warm water tonight with his tea.
Thanks
Lisa

Good luck Lisa - in view of his age (now who's skimming posts :D - just noticed he is all of five months, bless) I think he's more likely to be having teething pains.  Have a look and see how many of his teeth have changed over and if there are either some currently slack or some mushy/bloody areas on his gums where the large molars are just pushing through.   Just like us this can be a very uncomfortable time for pups :(

If that's the case, softening his diet slightly may make meal times less painful whereas conversely adding good tough, hard toys for him to bite down on and soaked and pre-frozen raggers will help too.

If eating only 20% of his ration has being going on for several days, get him checked out though.

Fingers crossed, Teri  :)

You were right! His gum had swelled at the side by his tongue (new molar nearly through) and it was red raw. We put some warm water with his tea and breakfast and he gobbled the lot and looked for more! :D !
Thank you for all your help.
Ralph says thank you too.

Aw, poor baby - well at least he's eating now and you know there's no real problem, just the natural course of events ;)

{{{hugs}}} to Ralph,

Teri :)