Yes deep down I think this is causing a lot of problems. I do find myself getting worked up and him being a sensitive chap he'll definitely be picking up on it. I've tried my hardest to put it down and ignore him, but I can't help but meddle and try to encourage him!

Would you give the same thing at his next meal, or something different like what would be his next meal as planned?

I'd upped his food recently, about 6 months ago, as he was quite skinny and not gaining any weight. I've dropped his meals back down as I thought part of the problem might just be that he wasn't hungry.

Yes I think I'll just have to leave him be, what I don't get is why he'll eat it sometimes and not others? Perhaps I'm more relaxed sometimes than others??? Who knows!

Should I remove Isla from the room as she tends to stand near him staring at his food, she's always done this though.

I like my dogs to be relaxed around food so I do not feed my dogs together, they are fed separately so that mealtimes do not become a competitive event.

GD/GDV is my main concern.

With an anxious dog I would want to remove all potential stressors which would include me and other dogs.

I am not sure what you feed but if you normally feed different things, I might go back to one type of meal all the time, rather than changing it.

He gets Brand X or nothing.

But I am of course, slightly to the right of Attila the Hun in my animal husbandry techniques.

Ok, so I'll feed Isla in the living room (good job I'm about to put laminate down and don't give a crap about the carpet anymore! ).

By brand are you referring to dry food? Mine are raw fed so get different things each meal time. I'm not sure if I should offer him something new each mealtime (as he would get if he was eating normally) or just keep offering him the same thing until he eats it?

Oh I forgot he was raw fed, well the problem with this is of course it does go off, so you can indavertently train him to be fussy....... tricky.

What I normally do is defrost it slightly, if he doesn't eat it then it goes back in the freezer and then given at the next meal. I know people that do re freeze in this way and have no problems and I haven't had any either. What concerns me is I can't do this indefinitely as I'm 99% sure it would make him ill! Now if I do give him a different meal as per his meal plan and it happens to be one that he does like, minced lamb for example, then I've still got a fussy dog who is basically being taught he can pick and choose what he eats! He'll soon realise that if he refuses turkey for long enough he'll get lamb instead!

I wonder if I should re freeze once and if he doesn't eat it chuck it and get a fresh bit out of the same meat source to reinforce the fact he can't pick and choose what he wants to eat?

Arrghhhh..........

Get him going again on dried food then gradullay reintroduce the raw.

rune

I might end up doing this, but only as a last resort. I'm going to try leaving him alone first etc, as I think the issue is more psychological than diet related.

Until I had Stumpy I would definitely have agreed that he is just being fussy and that you should stick with the way you wanted to feed him and if he didn't eat it, tough.

Stumpy was the same as Oscar, some days she would eat whatever I put in front of her, some days she wouldn't and like you, I would spend ages trying to coax her to eat.

But where I'm not sure if they are the same is that Stumpy used to suffer from bouts of colitis.

In the end I decided to forget trying to give her a balanced diet and stuck to what she ate most readily - cooked minced beef. The change was so gradual that I didn't really notice when it happened, but these days she rarely refuses her food and if she does, I just take it up because I know her stomach isn't quite right and encouraging her to eat it will just make things worse. She does now get various different meals, but minced beef probably still accounts for about 70%.

I'm not saying that Oscar is definitely the same, but I think in Stumpy's case her decision not to eat was probably based on a 'queezy' tummy. When she felt like that she would still eat something that really, really tempted her (probably like a human 'I know I shouldn't, but can't resist) but would turn her nose up at anything else.

She may not have a very well balanced diet, but she is happy and healthy and now eats well - whatever is put in front of her (in fact so much so that she's now slightly overweight and I'm having to cut back on her food!).

I had a very similar problem with my Beardie x Border. Some days fine other days not interested. First thing I did was to take him to vet for a check up and then girded my loins and toughed it out.

He was on dry food which made it a bit easier I cut portion put it down for 15 mins if he ate fine if not taken up. Titbits at a minimum nothing between meals. He did improve but he was the kind of dog that was too busy to eat some days.

As for problem of reusing raw could other dog not get that lot at next meal so it never gets too stale?

Good luck!!!

Just a thought and may not be relevant, but have you taken note of where your cat is when he eats? Does he refuse more when the cat is in the immediate area, but eats OK when the cat is out of the room?

It was just something that caught my eye so may not be relevant