I am not sure if this is the correct spot for this dilemma, so I apologize up front if it is incorrect.

I have never known any dog, ever, who did not devour her food the second it was placed in front of them.....

We put Annie in a sit (which usually results in her lying down) while we place her food in front of her just to prevent the lunging at the food dishes. After the bowls are placed, we release her from the sit and have her eat. Mind you, she is 2 feet from her bowls.

Here is the wierd thing....she just won't eat! When we release her, she stands up and then lays back down again. She just lays there staring at her dishes. If we hand feed her each and every kibble, she will eat.

We even completely leave the room and let her have bonding time with the dishes of food so she doesn't feel like we are hovering over her. Nothing.

After 20-30 minutes we come back and the bowls are still filled and she is just laying on the floor.

I am not sure what to make of this. Hubby says she will eat when she is hungry, but this is just plain ol wierd to me. After a day I thought for sure she would be starving and just jump right in, but no. It is Friday morning and she didn't eat breakfast, unless I handed her the kibble pieces one by one, which I won't do...sorry if that sounds mean, but I don't have time to hand feed her in the mornings. The last time she ate her meal was MONDAY NIGHT!!!

Seriously, I don't think it is a medical thing because, like I said, she will eat if we hand her the food. So, what is going on and what should we do?

Help/Suggestions/Advice is greatly appreciated!

Carrie

I've never known a lab that would starve itself to death. So, after 5 or 10 minutes take the food away and try again next meal time. She will eventually decide to eat.

I've got a foster dogs that has been here a week and she's eaten a total of 2 meals. She's a bit chunky anyway, so I'm not worried - she will eat when she's hungry.

However, when we get really skinny dogs in from the pound, I will go to extra efforts to get them to eat - mixing in canned food (icky!) or other good stuff.

Good luck with this!

Have you tried adding warm water to it? Sometimes that helps makes it smell better. With my older aussie, who is a way picky eater now, I have to add chicken broth to her food to get her to eat.

If Annie has always eaten her food quickly you might want to consider talking to your vet. I know somethings cause a loss of appetiate in dogs.

I hope this helps and that Annie eats soon! Good luck!

If Annie has always eaten her food quickly you might want to consider talking to your vet. I know somethings cause a loss of appetiate in dogs.

I agree. Even a sick dog will sometimes eat from your hand just to please you :(

Another thought - if this is new behavior - how did she do with the fireworks this week? Some dogs are especially sensitive to loud noises and this can really throw them off their schedules.

Sometimes dogs will develop an aversion to the food dish for unknown reasons - perhaps a wasp stung them while they were eating, or a loud noise startled them - who knows? In this case, try putting the food out on a cookie sheet or something similar.

However, if this is an ongoing issue, then there are a few things to try. Adding a little canned food or broth is a good place to start - or a small sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

What are you feeding her? What size bag of kibble do you buy? It's usually not realistic to expect a large size (30-40 lb) bag to stay fresh when feeding a single dog. In addition, sometimes individual bags can be rancid, so you might try a fresh bag.

Lena has never gobbled her food either. I give her a protion in the morning and she might nibble a little bit, but not much.

Ususally I put some of what she doesn't eat into a kong with a little bit of PB.

Then for dinner she might nibble on and off through out the evening.
She's healthy and isn't food agressive, isn't starving, and isnt' overweight...so leaveing it out for her to nibble isn't a problem for me. :) :)

Has Annie ever gobbled her food? Is she new to you?

Is this a new bag of food? We once had a bad bag that Calvin wouldn't touch - and his life revolves around his meals.

We have had Annie since early last fall. She has never been a gobbler of her food, but generally always had an interest in eating it.

The bag of food that she is currently eating is IAMS formula and that has always been the food she seemed to like. It is a relatively new bag; we opened it probably a couple weeks ago. She was eating it just fine up until this week.

As far as the theory of fireworks goes, I suppose it is a possibility. We have also had some very intense thunderstorms passing through here over the past couple of weeks too. We kind of live in the woods, so fireworks aren't too loud, especially with the ACs going.

I am just going to keep trying....we give her about 20-30 minutes every morning and night and then take the food away.

As my hubby told me, and as a few of you said, she won't starve herself. It just freaks me out a bit!

Thanks!