Being a food company you can easily imagine we hear lots about finicky pets. The range of causes, that we’ve seen, spans from the protein, to quantity of liver, size of the grind, gravy/wet or dry, cooked or raw, and more. We’ve spent years figuring out how to entice the most selective dogs and cats to eat and gotten pretty good at it (don’t tell the cats or they’ll refuse to eat in spite of us!).
Skipping food for a day or two is not that unusual or harmful. But not eating really worries pet owners since it’s one of the most common reasons for vet visits.
There are a number of reasons skipping a meal or four can happen. Events like a trip to the groomer, a new family member, change in routines (most dogs and cats do not appreciate routine change like the COVID-19 has caused to homelife), separation anxiety and the like, to also including health issues that make them feel poorly.
When pets don’t feel well or are sick they’ll sometimes pass on a meal or pick at it. If they skip food for more than 48hrs your pet will lose weight, but it can become a real issue for cats. When an animal stops eating, its body relies on mobilizing fat reserves through the liver to provide needed calories. However, cats can’t do this very well. When a cat eats less than half of what it normally does for a two week period, it may develop hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease), so be watchful.
Health issues can range from worms to dental problems, infections, and lack of liver or pancreatic enzymes can be just a few conditions that will sap your fur baby’s appetite. Some pets eat better in the morning or by themselves. Some have more of an appetite in the evening or when you’re home. The trick is to have the best food possible that tastes great like Only Dog or Just Cat, then find ways to maximize their appetite by experimenting with different feeding conditions and times. Here are some tips and tricks you can use.
Sam, our cat (the spotted cat in the brochure) has always been finicky but last month put our skills to the test. The first Sunday of Daylight savings time Sam decided to stop eating. Since he can’t tell time, he didn’t like getting his food an hour early. Rex and Rosie were happy to eat early. We’re on a fairly strict 7am/6:30pm 2x/day feeding schedule. What we didn’t figure out until the next day is that I left their venison jerky treats out (we make these if you’re interested) where Sam could help himself to as many as he wanted. He wanted about half a bag. He refused all food for the next two days.
We tried every protein combination. All of his favorites. Nothing worked. At the start of day three we started to get worried. In an act of desperation I tried lamb. Sam thinks lamb is disgusting. If any lamb even touches his bowl he will won’t eat anything in the bowl. Not that day. He gobbled it down like it was his favorite. Lamb was on the menu for the next few days. I introduced his other usual proteins and he gradually ate them. After two weeks Sam was back to normal. Plus he now eats lamb!
Rex and Rosie are really easy to feed. Rex, a 100lb male Rhodesian Ridgeback and Rosie a 65lb ridgeback love to eat. There are only a few things they won’t eat, and they’re unusual things. For example chicken feet gross Rosie out, from back when we were experimenting with all kinds of different food ideas.
There was a brief time I wasn’t watching carefully enough how much I was feeding the ridgebacks. I was overfeeding them. After a couple of weeks they got picky. Leaving food in the bowl, turning away food, getting selective. I’ve seen this same behavior in Sam when I over feed him. It’s good to feed just enough, not too much or they’ll get selective. The easiest way to tell if you’re feeding too much or little is to watch their weight. Most of the picky animals we see are over-fed.
Knowing what we know, we take care to manage our pets’ health always paying attention to how much we feed. We also feed the best, since our fur babies only eat Fetching Foods, avoiding the things they don’t like. As a result we have very few feeding issues. That is until we forget and leave the jerky treats out.
