Hi, I havent been on ere for ages!

My grandparents have a cavalier king charles spaniel. He is about 7 years old. He is a rescue.
He wil not eat dog food (complete or chum). He has meat ie sausage instead. Not only that, sometimes he wont even eat it out of his bowl - my grandad has to feed him it.

I have already suggesting, leaving the bowl on the floor till he goes to it coz he is hungry, or trying another brand of dog food. The one I reccomended was James Wellbeloved.

Does anyone have anymore suggestions?

Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Thank you, Ashleigh

i have the same problem i put mine on a barf diet with natural biscuits thru the same company i give thebiscuits as a treat and she had the meat the other times just dont overfeed

My dog loves some fish mixed in with his complete dry food. He's not too keen on the dry alone but half a tin of tuna, mackeral or salmon and he licks the bowl clean about three times over (he eats about 200 grams dry per serving). It's smelly, which dogs love, and good for them too.

When I give my dog her food she sits and waits for 'extras'.  Sometimes she gets scraps sometimes she doesn't.  she knows that once I've walked off that's it, likely there are no extras and she eats her food.  If she didn't get on with it she would be jolly hungry.  she has tried holding out for 'extras' by not eating her food  (she was quite young and was obviously trying it on) but it's skin off her nose not mine because she was the one that went hungry not me. She learnt!

Most dogs would delight in being hand fed tasty titbits but it doesn't mean that they'll starve if you don't! Getting this dog to eat a sensible doggy diet out of his own bowl is all achievable but does your grandfather actually like waiting on him hand and foot? Because an awful lot of so-called "picky" dogs have been made that way by their owners who aren't really that fussed about changing things!

However, if he is being offered Pedigree Chump as an alternative then I can easily see why he'd prefer sausages! ;)

Even better and more effective than leaving the bowl on the floor, ONLY leave the food in the bowl for 10 minutes, then remove it! He will soon learn to eat or the food vanishes. Picky dogs are usually made by the owners. :)

Having been caught in this trap years ago myself with a rescue German Shepherd who did need a special diet but through my fussing, he was very underweight, became extremely fussy I repeat the advice i was given. "There's no such thing as a fussy dog just one that isn't very hungry"! I know there will be exeptions to this but when faced with this behaviour afterwards I have just persevered and now my dogs are usually too much the other way and have to be taught that there are nicer things than fresh cat poo!

I think the trick is always to decide which food you want to give, and there are several good quality ones, and then introduce with a dressing of your dog's current favourite. With a puppy it's much more gradual. Then just be consistent and try and ignore those spaniel eyes and as Goldmali says make sure it's only available for set times. I give my cocker spaniels 'Nature Diet' and 'Burns' now as this seems to suit them with some fresh meat as a treat and carrots or tripe sticks as treats, but you have to go with what suits your dog. When I finally managed to get my GSD onto dog food 'Chappie' was the only brand that didn't upset his stomach although I couldn't stand the smell.

Have you tried Naturediet?  This is a moist complete food but I mix it in with the James Wellbeloved biscuits and both my cavaliers love it and can't get it down them quick enough!

If he's literally only eating sausages that's not a well balanced diet! I agree to try JWB, my Cavaliers do well on it, and one of them was a picky eater as a youngster. I don't know whether at 7 he might be too stubborn to change, but if they're determined to get him to eat normally, they need to put the food in the bowl and put it down, and take it away 10 minutes later whether or not it's been eaten, no matter how guilty they feel. I had to do this with both my Cavs and I felt awful - but it worked within a few days with one of them. The other I eventually changed his diet and he was fine from then on. :-)

thank you all for your replies!

ashleigh