8 month cc not wanting to eat her food as much anymore?! Should I rotate?

[kguitarchic18]

So we had a few issues with food and finding the right fit to not upset our cane corsos tummy. We have had her on Acana for the past month or two. At first she gobbled it up no problem, and I started adding either a little wet food, or the stella and chewy freeze dried patty as a topper. We bought our second 28lb bag of kibble and about halfway through she seemed to not be as interested in the morning meal. She won't eat the kibble alone anymore, I have to add something to mix with it.

When she is at my parents and running around 24/7 she eats no problem because she must be working up a bigger appetite? (she still kind of "picks" at her breakfast over there though) At home we play and walk in the morning, but she seems to not really want her breakfast. Sometimes she gobbles up her lunch and sometimes she doesnt.

I am not sure if if maybe she is just going through a growth spurt and her appetite is changing? Or maybe she is just sick of eating the same thing everyday? She liked the TOTW food so maybe I will buy a bag to swtich up some meals?

She is 8-8.5 months now, is this normal? I dont want her to loose anymore weight as when we went through her stomach issues she got thin and we have been trying to beef her back up ever since.

 

[season]

Sounds to me (my opinion) you are creating a picky eater. I feed my CC TOTW. I don't mix anything with it or add anything as a "topper"....if you pick a good quality food you shouldn't need to add anything to it. My advice: Pick a food. Stick with the food. Stop adding things to it (could be a reason it had "tummy" issues). Follow the recommended guidelines for feeding. Stay consistent. If you are worried about your dog getting bored then you should do your best to not worry. It's a dog and they will eat what they are expected to eat. I have had no problems with TOTW at all. I have switched flavors (protein sources) within the brand. A lot of dogs appear to have issues with their "tummys" but so many times it created by over feeding or feeding them too many different things. It might feel good to us to do it but it doesn't help the dog.

 

[kguitarchic18]

She loves TOTW but it was too high in calcium for her at this age. Maybe I will just go back to kibble and let her wait until shes hungry enough to just eat it plain. I was adding the toppers as another source of nutrition, as I know just feeding the same kibble everyday some people have mentioned that its healthy to get protein sources from other meals as well. Her tummy issues are related to chicken, not to what I feed her now. But she is stuck at 4 1/2 cups, anything over and it comes right out.

 

[Th0r]

Your toppers are tastier than the actual kibble so I agree that you are the one that made her picky.
I add olive oil for breakfast nothing for lunch and plain yogurt for dinner.


Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[musicdeb]

Sounds like she eats when she's been exercised with no issues. Put her food down for 20 minutes in the morning and if she doesn't eat it, pick it up and feed her the food at the next feeding adding the 2 meals together.

Adding toppers does create a dog that will not eat kibble without the topper. I fed my last dogs toppers and they refused to eat without it. In other words, I had created 3 little monsters.

How much food should she be eating each day? 4 1/2 cups sounds about right for her at 8 months but the food is fed based on weight.

Dogs will eat when they are hungry. As long as she is drinking water, playing normally and going potty normally, I would not fret this too much. Some dogs will not eat to self regulate their food.

Titan used to stop eating for a day or 2 when it was really hot or if he had extra food the day before.

 

[season]

She loves TOTW but it was too high in calcium for her at this age. Maybe I will just go back to kibble and let her wait until shes hungry enough to just eat it plain. I was adding the toppers as another source of nutrition, as I know just feeding the same kibble everyday some people have mentioned that its healthy to get protein sources from other meals as well. Her tummy issues are related to chicken, not to what I feed her now. But she is stuck at 4 1/2 cups, anything over and it comes right out.[/QUOTE

I started feeding mine TOTW at 15 weeks when i brought him home. No issues. I read the stuff on calcium and all that but in the end decided to go with it. I got sick of reading all these "expert" opinions on what they should or shouldn't eat. He's had no issues and again, loves the stuff. I was feeding him the Pacific Stream/Salmon for the first few months and have recently switched to the venison/bison. I stand by the stuff. ]

 

[Th0r]

"In dogs fed a low-calcium diet, absorption can increase to greater than 80 percent, and in dogs raised on a diet with excessive calcium content, calcium retention increases proportionally. Feeding within the limits of the calciumhosphorus ratio is not as important of a long-term influence on calcium absorption and retention as is the calcium content per se in the diet in young, rapidly growing dogs."

From here: http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/dvm/Veterinary+news/Developmental-orthopedic-disease-in-large-breed-pu/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/804547?contextCategoryId=49912

From every recent research article I have read, the ratio does not seem to matter as much as the calcium content itself. The consensus is to keep it at an optimum level and not going too high. As to what is too high, I found one article stating 3%.


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[kguitarchic18]

its weird because even with the topper sometimes she doesnt want it. she did tear apart her crate tray, so I am wondering if maybe her mouth was sore and she wasn't wanting to crunch this kibble? weird, everyway shes been eating her dinner sso if she doesnt want breakfast I will just pull it up. thanks!

 

[bugs]

We also topped our EM's dog food from the beginning to add more nutrients, apples to clean teeth, oranges for Vit C, etc. Wish we had not done that because now we don't know if she is picky or there is something wrong with her stomach. We tried tough love at one point and just offered dog food. She went 5 days without eating before we gave in. Since she is still young, not sure if you could try "tough love" (as our vet suggested) or above suggestions (which we also tried) and have them work for you, or if its already too late. Good luck!

 

[jersey girl]

Maybe look into feeding Raw. My girl was a picky eater at one time as well.....that is out the window now that she is fed Raw

 

[kguitarchic18]

I figured she has become slightly picky (my problem) but yesterday she ate all her breakfast, then i mixed wet food in with dinner, she didnt want it until i added the freeze dried topper. But the last two nights she has woken up around 4 am and thrown up slightly foamy bile (which I have heard can be hunger) so now I am not sure what to do, because i want to stand my ground and have her eat whatever I give her, but i dont want her getting so hungry shes throwing up stomach acid.... grrrrr....

 

[musicdeb]

IMO, continue to give her the freeze-dried topper so she will eat when you feed her. It's not good for her to throw up bile. So you have a dog that has to have topper, I can think of worse things. Go with your gut and go with what is best of you and her.

 

[kguitarchic18]

She has never thrown up before, but we usually feed her about 7-8 pm, and the last two nights she ate much earlier around 5-6.....I cant think of anything else that would make her throw up at 4 am.... if she ate something during the day I would think it would be that night.... the only other time this happened was when we gave her one of those everlasting treat balls for too long, she woke up in the middle of the night and threw up bile so we limited her time

 

[kguitarchic18]

I really don't think I have the time or energy to go raw with her right now.... unless someone has any great tricks?

 

[musicdeb]

She has never thrown up before, but we usually feed her about 7-8 pm, and the last two nights she ate much earlier around 5-6.....I cant think of anything else that would make her throw up at 4 am.... if she ate something during the day I would think it would be that night.... the only other time this happened was when we gave her one of those everlasting treat balls for too long, she woke up in the middle of the night and threw up bile so we limited her time

Aaaahhhh...that's why she threw up bile, you fed her about 1-2 hours earlier which means her stomach emptied sooner. I do not believe in feeding on schedule just so Titan will not throw up bile. I feed him within a 2 hour window about the same time everyday.

 

[kguitarchic18]

So I figured it out.... she may be a little picky, but really she was just sick of her food. I picked up some taste of the wild, and she gobbled it ALL up. Dry kibble, nothing added, and she even worked around her old kibble and only ate the totw. Hopefully she doesnt have too many tummy issues switching cold turkey, but i guess I will rotate a few brands from now on. Yay for an easy fix.

 

[musicdeb]

Be aware that a fast transition may cause cannon butt. It's best to do a slow transition. If he does ok with fast transition, that's great. You can try different flavors as long as it's the same brand of food without a slow transition.

Glad she ate without toppers!

 

[kguitarchic18]

There is sadly no way to do the slow transition as she wont eat the old kibble mixed in with the new kibble.... but she has been on totw before and didnt have any issues switching

 

[musicdeb]

Cool! Keep us posted on how she's doing. What we do for the picky babies!

 

[Th0r]

Btw what flavour of Acana were you feeding your pup?

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