My 20 month old Westie is becoming a fussy eater.

When we first got him at 8 weeks, he was on dry pebbles which he loved. After about 8 months, he started to ignore his food although perfectly happy in himself and still weeing and pooing fine.

After he had the snip in Jan, they gave him Hills ID to be on for a couple of days due to surgery and he absolutely loved it and we saw him out on weight.

In June/July we noticed he was doing the same as he was on his dry food, not really eating - but absolutely fine in himself. He wasn't going for days without food, just a day or so. Thought it might be the warmer weather but decided to try him on Cesar. We bought three different flavours as was wondering if the same everyday was what was making him bored.

Once again he loved it and was always looking forward to breakfast and dinner and was yomping it down.

In the last 4 weeks or so, he has started to leave his food again. Now we alternate the flavours he has every day. I know they say you should leave the food down for 20 mins and if not eaten, take it away. Unfortunately, I can't wait for 20mins in the morning to see if he is eats his food as he sleeps in the kitchen and I give him his food before I go off to work.

He doesn't have any human food, apart from the odd bit of cheese or chicken if I am cooking.

He is fine in himself and is still energetic and cheeky and still has his walks and is still weeing and pooing fine. He sometimes goes to my in-laws and he gets some of their dogs diet food as a treat (a few pebbles not a whole bowl full) and he quite happily will eat them.

I can't keep changing his food every 6 months because he gets bored. We tend to buy his food in bulk so we end up having loads of food so it becomes a waste if I keep changing it but I don't want to see him go hungry.

Any suggestions?

I'm not an expert, but I experienced much of what you are going through. My advice would be to find a food (whether wet, dry or a combination of the two) that your dog likes and then stick with it (as long as it is a good quality food, and the dog isn't experiencing any adverse effects, e.g. allergic reactions, diarrhea, etc.).  If I changed my fussy dog's food every time she turned up her nose, I'd be on about my 50th brand by now!  One day she won't go near it, the next she gobbles it up like caviar.  I've learned that she eats when she's hungry, and is perfectly happy with the same food day in and day out.  (I feed Royal Canin dry for one meal, and James Wellbeloved wet for the other).

I've read many times that a healthy dog won't starve itself and believe me, this is true.  My little dog often went 24 hours without eating as a puppy until the penny finally dropped and she realised she was getting nothing else.  She still sometimes sniffs and walks away, so I pick up the bowl and offer it again later.  When she gets hungry enough, she clears the bowl.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

> I don't want to see him go hungry.

He won't.  As long as there is no medical reason for not eating then he won't starve.  I have a 'self regulator' and it's not uncommon for dogs to adjust their eating according to their activity levels.  Does he get walked before you go to work?

Have a think about the times you exercise and feed him.  You could always drop to one meal a day if he appears to prefer to eat in the afternoon or evening.  You'll probably find he is more likely to eat well after a walk and after he's emptied his bowels!  My terrier type mongrel is one of those dogs that thrives on routine and he likes his input and output at regular intervals :)  My gundog on the other hand...

As someone else has already said - find one quality food you are happy with and stick with it.  If you'd like some reassurance about how much he's eating it's a good idea to weigh each portion.  You'll probably find he's getting what he needs.  It's hard not to worry about them missing meals though isn't it :)

BTW he probably eats at your parents because of the competitive element.  Mine improved almost overnight, when our pup arived.  Good luck

we are going though the same at the right now with our 11month old gsd ,he can go 2/3 days without food ,so now hes on a good food and still looks fine on it ,just stick to what ever you choose ,he will eat if hes hungry ,my hubby started adding different stuff to it and he would eat the little bits of what ever he'd put in lol ,i went mad at him when i saw what he was doing so now he just gets the same each day and its up to him if he eats or not :)

White Lily:
LOL - this sound so familiar, had the same with my GSD as a youngster. :-)

Royal canin do a fussy eater food

GSD's can be fussy, im adding chicken to our pregnant females dry food, something i would not normally do but she needs to eat, i just put the food down for the other dogs, if they dont eat i take it away, they all eat now. adding things makes them worse as they soon get fed up and want something different, they are clever dogs ha ha!

Agree with Louis on the Royal Canin for fussy eaters.  It's called RC sensible, and I tried it and didn't have a dog that refused it.

One of my bitches will go for 2/3 days without eating. Don't know why. Shes not underweight by any means, is full of energy and perfectly healthy. Its just her, so I don't worry.

Changing food can make this behaviour worse certainly, so I would stick to a good quality food and dig your heels in. As long as your dog is fit and healthy he won't starve.

Mine are on RC mini sensible and love it!! it's the only dried food I have bought time after time. All the others I have tried have endied up in the bin, so thumbs up from here!!

My fussy poodles have R C mini sensible as well as natures menu in tins it certainly seems to be the prefered dry food for them.