Picky Eaters: The Gig is Up
I’m going to preface this with talk to your vet if you’re having feeding issues with your dog and hear them out. There may be something medically wrong and that ain’t my wheelhouse. Now onto what I do know: dog manipulation.
I never understood dogs who are picky eaters…like what are they doing? I give you food and you eat it. Bingo bango. That was until we brought Enzo home and he put me through the psychological wringer.
The lady who I bought Enzo from gave us a Ziploc bag of less-than-ideal dog food that she had the puppies on so when we got back to town, first stop was the pet store to grab him some puppy food.
It was between chicken and lamb and my intuition said “buy the lamb” and the sales person said “chicken allergies are rare so start with that.” Lesson number 400 for me to always listen to my intuition.
Enzo LOVED the new food. My intention was to slowly switch him over so I put a few kibbles in with his old food but he would vacuum up the new and leave the old all of the time.
Once he was on this new food 100%, I noticed he would have a hard time with these kibbles. He was a 5lb mini poodle eating triangles bigger than his nose so I broke some of them up to see if that helped him. He still seemed a little unenthused.
At his first checkup at our vet, she says he’s underweight (you wanna know the fast track to offending me? Apparently tell me that.) I tell her that he has access to food all day but he doesn’t seem like a big eater. She asks if I’ve had a poodle before and I tell her he’s our first and she gives me this sympathetic smize with her eyes and says “Well….you may just have a picky poodle.”
Wtf?
She then explains how majority of her poodle clients have food issues and I laugh and say “ah yes, but if we look at the TYPE of person who typically owns a poodle…I can see how that can be a theme...” (Those who have poodles are not laughing at this line, but I guarantee their friends are.)
She suggests I change his food to a smaller kibble and buy some wet food to mix with it to make a gravy. Back to the pet store I go and search for a salmon-and-whatever blend that’s small breed and get a can of wet.
Of course, Prince Enzo is thrilled by all these changes as only commoners eat chicken kibble!
Until he wasn’t.
You read that right. Eventually that wasn’t good enough for him either.
I ran a series of experiments where I would give him a piece of chicken kibble and he’d walk away and ditch it in the living room so I’d offer him a salmon kibble and he wouldn’t care either.
Every morning he would do two flips and a fart for his wet to be put on top of his kibble and then he didn’t care about that either.
100% wet food? Best thing ever for about 3 days then he wouldn’t eat it.
New wet food? Amazing! But then he’d leave it and pick the ORIGINAL CHICKEN TRIANGLES and pass on the wet or salmon kibble.
It seemed like what once excited him became blah when the newness was over. This little bastard was turning into a spoiled brat and I needed a new plan.
I channeled my inner Dr. Phil and “commando parented” him. Pulled the food so it wasn’t readily available and by doing so, it increased its value. I also wouldn’t offer him breakfast until he put in a serious effort with exercise and he actually felt hungry.
He finally was enthused about his food but I also noticed he was sooo itchy. Thanks to the power of social media, I got a great recommendation for a high-quality dog food where the only protein was fish so we switched him to that and that’s really improved.
I can now totally see how us humans get sucked into this bullshit. I was even trying to feed him in different bowls or plates just to get some participation – it was ridiculous.
Enzo still likes his food to “air out” a little before diving in but he’s eating kibble no problem.
It’s one thing to try a couple types of foods to see what your dog prefers if there’s a real aversion to what you’re offering; but if your dog is the type to be enthused about a particular food, it fizzles out then they hunger strike until you present something new (and you play this game with them) there’s a possibility they’re just screwing you around.