Scenario: your dog is usually hyperactive at home, and sometimes even wolfs down food like there’s no tomorrow. However, when you send your pooch for boarding, the caretakers inform you that your dog isn’t eating. Or perhaps you’ve tried a gazillion dog food brands, but your dog simply refuses to eat any of the food? Generally, a dog has a hearty appetite; it’s usually harder to stop a dog from eating rather than trying to get him/her to eat. But just like humans, dogs may lose their appetite as well. Therefore, if you notice your dog “fasting”, you may want to take note of the below conditions, and find out why your dog has no appetite.
1) A New Environment
As devoted as you are to your dog, there may come a time where you have to send your dog away to others for boarding, whether at a pet hotel or your friends/family. It’s actually pretty common for them to tell you that your dog isn’t eating. The reason for this is pretty straightforward: your dog is feeling insecure and anxious over a new, strange environment. Coupled with the fact that you’re not there to calm him/her down, it’s no wonder that your dog will lose his/her appetite. To remedy this, you could try leaving some of your belongings such as old clothes with your dog, so that your dog will be comforted by your lingering scent.
2) The Food Itself
The quality, ingredients, and of course the expiry date of dog food play an important role in affecting your dog’s appetite. Put it this way: food of lower quality usually contain more preservatives and colouring more than anything, and it’s not that nutritious either. If your dog consumes low-quality food long term, it will negatively affect his/her digestive system. And obviously, if the food has expired, for God’s sake please throw it away. Eating expired food never helped anyone or anything.
3) Being Picky
What? Just because he/she’s a dog, doesn’t mean he/she will eat anything and everything. Dogs can be picky eaters too, and will gulp down their favourite food at lightning speed. However, when you present them with something they don’t quite like, they may consume very little of it over the course of the few days, or maybe even not touch it at all. Sometimes, dogs start to be picky because they’ve been eating the same food for too long a time. If you think that you’ve been feeding your dog with the same thing for a long time, you could try to switch it up by changing food brands, or introducing extra ingredients in his/her usual food.
4) Oral Issues
Be honest now. Do you take care of your dog’s oral hygiene regularly, or did you think that it wasn’t important? A dog’s oral hygiene is essential to its oral health, and if neglected, it could lead to a worst-case scenario of rotted teeth – which would seriously limit food intake. You could get dog toothpaste at pet shops to help maintain your dog’s basic oral hygiene!
5) Illnesses
Did you know that dogs could lose their appetites when they’re sick as well? Serious illnesses such as organ failure or cancer could take away their appetite completely, so you should definitely monitor your dog’s appetite carefully. Especially if you’ve tried various ways to coax your dog into eating and they still aren’t working, you should take your dog for a check up ASAP, just in case. It’s better to find out sooner than later if (touch wood) your dog has been inflicted with an illness!
Article sourced from OMGloh.
