won't eat breakfast

Oh dear - not sure if I have caused this myself & don't know what to do.
Some of you know how I've worked on Tilly's food guarding since we have had her & all is well. But over the last couple of weeks she won't eat her breakfast unless I sit & hand feed it to her. She has kibble in the morning & at first I just thought she doesn't want it & removed it after a while when she hadn't eaten it - but then she scratches at the cupboard all day long. So I tried to coax her by sitting with her & giving her handfuls - she eats it fine then. So it's like it's gone from 1 extreme to the other!
I told them at her training class & was told this her wrapping me round her finger & I was spoiling her & if she was hungry she would eat it.
I've even tried changing her kibble to dry chappie & mixing them.
In the evening she has 1/2 tin of chappie tinned & demolishes it so I've even tried adding the tinned in the morning - but no change.
Not sure what to do?

Can't really help but had a similar thing with our Jake. He wouldn't eat when we first got him, (he was never food aggressive or anything) just wouldn't eat, so OH used to sit on the floor and hand feed him. Got to a similar position your in where he wouldn't eat unless hand fed. We left him in the end and he got hungrier and hungrier, killed me doing it,but it worked for him.
Took about 2 days.

The only thing I can think of is to change the time and position of her breakfast meal, that way she wont assciate the meal with hand feeding dunno, worth a shot.

I'm sure someone will have had a similar experience to you and come up with a solution for you.

Elaine xxx

Thanks Elaine - yes I guess I could try that & try & change the routine.

I was going to suggest the same as Elaine, about making breakfast a bit later perhaps? I had this with Zena some mornings, she just didn't seem interested in breakfast, and if it happens now, I just pick out some of the "nice" in the kibble, put it on the floor in front of her, maybe do that twice, just so she gets the taste of what's actually IN that bowl sitting in front of her, then I turn around and ignore her, and 9 times out of 10 she's got stuck in and demolished the lot! Sometimes, like you I had to feed the whole lot to her, but the way I stopped it was by just putting a bit in front of her like I've just suggested. Hope it works for you, it's worth a try, but then maybe you're already doing that

Alternatively, skip breakfast altogether if she's not interested, and up the next feeds, or give her lunch if you don't already, just make sure she gets the same amount but at a different feed maybe? Good luck, I know this can turn into a worry for us owners when they're not interesting in that breakfast!

Hi,

I'd suggest the same oto.

Try feeding her by using a different bowl, maing it earlier ro later and palcing her bowl in a different place. Again, it wil be different to her normal breakfast so it may encourage her to eat.

How old is she? Yiannis, as with Helena's Zena, is starting (it seems) to go off breakfast. Zane and Ellie sometimes turn their nose up at it but they knwo if they do, it's taken away and there's nothing til the afternoon. Yiannis at the moment can be easily encouraged to eat his if he thinks I'm going to eat it so maybe you could take some of her kibble from her bowl and pretend to eat it. Yiannis invariably jumps into his breakfast with vigour - literall. It goes everywhere!

Laura xx

She's 7 months Laura.
I only stopped giving her lunch about a month ago, I know some dogs have just 1 meal a day but maybe she's a bit young yet?
I will try & give it later - if only she would stop scratching at the dog food cupboard door from 7am!!

I'm still on 4 meals a day, just because mine are large breeds and I don't like to overload them with food at any one time, and because the vet agreed with me doing this. I tried cutting down to 3 feeds a day because it was getting awkward with the exercise regime with Zena to be fed 4 times, but she seemed so very hungry and I didn't like the amount of food split into 3 meals, so I went back to 4. However, I thought we were supposed to go from 4 down to 3 until one year old??? I could be wrong though??? In which case why have you gone to 2 meals a day if Tilly is 7 months? Just wondering that's all, I'm not accusing or anything lol! I'm now wondering whether that big breakfast (because it must be quite big if you're doing 2 meals a day), might look a bit daunting for her at that time of day, whereas at the end of the day, after an exhausting day, she's more than ready for it? Maybe you COULD try doing lunch, which would mean her breakfast would be smaller and not look so daunting to her? Just a thought If you want to stick with 2 meals a day then just give her a bonio or something for breakfast and give the breakfast at lunchtime and I feel sure she'll eat it up no probs! Good luck again.

ooh well I really don't know now! - but I thought it was ok to cut from 3 meals a day to 2 meals a day at 6 months old.(I'm sure I saw it on here somewhere)
It was lunch that she was losing interest in so I cut it out - I split the extra at breakfast & dinner but she would often leave at least some of the breakfast.
But if I give her a dental stick at breakfast she will gobble that up quick smart - maybe she's just getting fussy.
Another thing I have noticed is that when she finishes her dinner in the evening she looks at me as if to say "Is that it" (if there is such a look) I reckon she would eat it al over again! She does sometimes get some of our dinner left overs later on & I think the kids are always giving her a bit of their sandwich/crisps or whatever they are eating during the day if they are in even though I tell them not to!


I think I'm convincing myself now that she's getting fussy over the kibble & the massive sack of dry chappie I bought she's not interested in!

Larger dogs will do fine on one meal a day. Try cutting out breakfast.

My mini dog stopped eating breakfast several months ago - she's just over a year old now. As she's so small, I need to feed her more than once a day, so she eats at about 1pm and then again about 6.

I have to admit, I would find it a lot more convenient if she would eat in the morning, but I've finally stopped trying to coax her to eat meals she doesn't want!