Picking at dog food

Autumn has always had a huge appetite. She would eat anything (*sigh* food and non food items). She is currently on Orijen Adult dog food. She has always been a very fast eater wolfing her breakfast/dinner down in under 2 minutes. The last couple weeks she has slowed right down, eating one piece of kibble at a time. Blaze even gets done eating before her. What she does is take 4-5 pieces of kibble in her mouth, walks across the room, drops them out, sniffs them, eat one piece at a time, then walk back to her bowl for more and repeat the process. So now she goes from eating in about 2 minutes to taking about 15-20 minutes to eat.

I opened her mouth had a look around, thinking maybe a tooth was bothering her or something up with her gums, but everything looks ok. If there are treats, pig ears, or bull stick this is a different story. She's very interested in those. Soo I figured maybe she's getting tired of her food and needs a change so I go to the store and they give me a bunch of small sample bags of about 6 different foods. So for the past few meals I've been opening each sample bag and dumping some into her Orijen food. She goes through the whole process of putting 4-5 pieces of the new kibble in her mouth, walks across the room, drops them on the floor, then walks back to her bowl and picks at her Orijen food. I did find one sample bag this morning (Go! Now Turkey and Duck) that she seemed mildly interested in. She ate about 3/4 of what I put in her bowl.

Soo my question, is this a vet issue or do dogs just generally get tired of their food, get picky, etc. I'm not sure what to do with her. I have no problem picking a bag of different food for her but at this point I'm not sure if she'd eat it. I don't even know what to pick up for her. Stupid dog.

There is no weight loss, in fact I think her body condition is the best its ever been. If I soak the kibble she will totally turn her nose up at it, walk into the living room and go lay down on her pillow. Otherwise she appears very healthy. Great skin and coat, good water intake, good poops.

She is 1-1/2 years old today!! I'm wondering if maybe with getting older, her appetite is slowing down?

I have to take Blaze to the vet this morning for her Cartrophen injection. I think I'll drag Autumn along and ask him. Can't hurt.

Lukka has always carried a few kibbles from her bowl to the living room and eats each piece from there. Since having a bout of Masticatory Myositis I have put warm water on her kibble to make a gravy, she gobbles it right up and doesn't have the desire to carry each piece to another area, which is great because now she has a torn ligament in her knee and activity is at an all time low.
She also eats Orijen.

There is no weight loss, in fact I think her body condition is the best its ever been.

For sure ! Because she's taking her time to eat. :thumbs up IMO , I wouldn't change her food , don't want to reinforce her "pickyness" :shrug:

Since you're going to the vet with Blaze today it wouldn't hurt to get her checked out. Maybe she has just finished a growth spurt and her metabolism is slowing down a little. :shrug: Don't let them talk you into the vet food though. :D

Keep us posted. :goodvibes:

Just got back from the vet. He checked her over said all looks well. His opinion was that she was going through a huge growth spurt (she's gained 14 pounds in 2 months! Miss Thing is now 128 pounds) and now she is slowing down and getting finicky. His suggestion was to change foods, come back in about 2-3 weeks to re-weigh her and see how she is. If she is still picking at her food or starts to lose weight then book her in for a full exam with bloodwork.

Just got back from the vet. He checked her over said all looks well. His opinion was that she was going through a huge growth spurt (she's gained 14 pounds in 2 months! Miss Thing is now 128 pounds) and now she is slowing down and getting finicky. His suggestion was to change foods, come back in about 2-3 weeks to re-weigh her and see how she is. If she is still picking at her food or starts to lose weight then book her in for a full exam with bloodwork.

Holy smokes, 128lbs. Now she's a lot of dog. :laughing:

I'm not sure that changing foods would be the answer, but cutting down on the treats so that she is more willing to eat her food would help too. Funny how they always have an appetite for treats and not dinner. :laughing:

I would leave her on the Orijen. Try adding a couple of sardines (the ones packed in water) to her kibble. Do you give her yogurt? A couple of spoons of plain organic yogurt can be added as well.

KimandAutumn have you tried the Orijen Fish Formula..My boy would never eat any fish based foods until Orijen! and boy he loves it! Maybe you could try that as a change so it wont affect her too much!

Cindy

Thanks for all the ideas. Last night I picked up a couple tins of Merrick canned food and mixed a little of that with her kibble and she had more interest this morning. Still took awhile for her to finish breakfast but she finished and she didn't pick out kibbles and drop them all over the kitchen floor.

In addition to her kibble, I normally give her a tbsp full of plain, pro-biotic yogurt and a capful of a liquid glucosamine/chodrotin supplement on top of her kibble.

Maybe she doesnt like the taste of the supplement?

Actually she loves it. She drank 1/4 of a bottle once in addition to eating a jar of Vicks vapour rub. :loser:

She's such a weirdo.

Thats too! funny!!

:thumbs up

:laughing: That's too funny ...... but Vicks Vapour Rub??? :yuck: