my chihuahua doesnt like dog food most times and is very fussy :( !! any advice please

truewraith121

hi,

our chihuahua is 2 years old now and shes been fussy with dog food ever since she was born and very protective over it towards our 2 cats and our other dog even though she very rarely eats it and when she does it mostly hours if not days before she will eat dog food so most times we have no choice but to give her some of food or she just wont eat anything.

tried all dog brands i think and at the moment we are on ceasr. we have dog biscuits for our other adult  dog which she will eat once in a blue moon though.

any advice or things i can try would be great please?

sheramber

She has you well trained.
Would you eat mince if you could get steak?
As long as you give something better then she will refuse the dog food.
No healthy dog will starve when food is available.
First a vet check to confirm there is no medical reason for her not to eat dog food.
As she is protective of food then feed her away from the other animals. 
Out the food down and leave her for 10 minutes . If she doesn't eat it lift it up and  give nothing else until the next feed time.
Again separate her from the others, put her food down and leave her. After 10 minutes if she has not eaten it  lift it up and give nothing else- no alternative, no treats or biscuits- until the next mealtime.
Rinse  and repeat.
if you are not  prepared to be "cruel to be kind" then continue to pander to her whims.

tacticalbanjo

Assuming there are no medical problems then I second the advice above. Your dog will not starve herself once you've been firm that there are no alternatives to what is on offer. If you keep offering better and better stuff she will keep turning her nose up until she is on steak and caviar. 
Don't give treats until she has started eating all her food. Put the food down and pick it up after 10-15 mins. Offer nothing until the next meal. It won't harm her to go hungry for a little while. 
I'm surprised that she does this if you have another dog - usually the presence of another dog is a prompt to eat before the other dog eats it.

ElmTree0512

We have a GSD who got to be quite fussy when he was really young. We followed the ‘put food down for 10 minutes and then take it away’ rule that @tacticalbanjo suggests which worked to a degree. He was on a raw diet for a while but it just wasn’t feasible when the weather was hot as his appetite wanes a lot (it’s warm today and he’s barely eaten).

We tried several brands and in the end we actually found that free-feeding works best for us all. He’s really not food driven (unless you get chicken out) so we opted for high quality kibble and a mix of wet food. We’ve had him on Tails for close to a year now and it’s the first time EVER that he has actually whined a little bit to let us know he wants his food! The kibble is great and we leave that out for him to eat as he pleases in the day (I work from home but we do the same if he’s left too) and then we save his wet packets for evening only. Can’t fault Tails, it’s not the cheapest but it suits us and him down to the ground and nothing gets wasted! Has great treats too