Our 6 year old weimaraner Gucci is generally a voracious eater but when we opened a new bag of his usual food, he and our two labs turned their noses up at it. We immediately changed to another food that they all ate just fine. Surprisingly with no stomach or gas issues. After a day of eating fine, Gucci decided not to eat this new food as well. After watching him carefully for a couple of days (and seeing him beg for people food and treats) we tried putting a splash of chicken broth on his food. Amazingly he ate for nearly 48 hours.

After that he's decided again that he doesn't want to eat dog food (even with chicken broth on it) and had gone another couple of days without eating. His drinking and backyard potty breaks remained normal although he's lost quite a bit of weight.

In an act of desperation, I've put him back on the food his original owners had him on which he also now refuses to eat. I've had to mix that food with the dog food in a tube (all natural, semi moist). He's eating it but I'm worried at the amount of weight that he's lost and honestly he doesn't look like he feels good. His original owners told us that he went on hunger strikes from time to time and that he eventually eats once he knows he's not going to get people food. Nothing at all wrong with him - just Gucci being stubborn. This however seems above and beyond his normal hunger strike history.

I'm planning on taking him to the vet for a check up when they open back up but am looking for some thoughts in the interim.

Thanks in advance.

tammytrue

By the way... he very rarely gets table food.

shazamataz

Nice name, I have a poodle named Prada

Firstly I would have to say he needs to be seen to by a vet just to rule out any medical problems he may have.

However, mine do that quite often, usually it is when they have eaten the same food for more than a week.

Just like people some dogs can get sick of eating the same old thing day in, day out.

What I do is to make sure I always feed the same base food and then add a "flavour" to it every 2-3 days.
Either by mixing in half a can of moist food in different flavors or adding some sardines or even beef or chicken mince to the base ingredient.

Mine also flat out refuse to eat plain dry food unless I mix a little canned in with it just to make it a bit more tempting.

Catsmine

That sounds like parasites. How's his coat? Is it drying out? When you get to the vet a stool check is definitely in order.

Edit: Check your food storage area as well. It sounds like this started with some contaminated food.

tammytrue

His coat is fine and the other two dogs that were on identical diets are eating just fine. Yesterday I put him back on the food his prior owner had him on. He hasn't been anywhere they haven't been, the food is brand new in the bag and has been checked for mold and anything else that shouldn't be in there. He begs for table scraps and will eat treats ravenously but refuses his own food. The prior owner let me know that he went through these 'hunger strikes' in the past but that they never went beyond 3 days. Seems he refused to eat his own food in hopes that his people would give him theirs out of panic. We stayed firm for the first three days, now we're worried. I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow but was hoping that someone else would have some ideas on how to get a very smart and notoriously manipulative weimaraner to eat his food without issue.

danielnoahsmommy

he is smart dog and has figured you out! he is getting what he wants.....human food!

Catsmine

Worm check wouldn't hurt, anyway. If he's simply on strike, he can eat it or grass. Let him choose.

tammytrue

Actually he's not getting human food at all. He's still getting dog food, I'm just mixing it with semi wet dog food or a tablespoon of chicken broth as a gravy praying he'll eat. I agree that he's a smart dog up until the point that it looks like he's willing to literally starve for whatever he thinks he's going to get.

tammytrue

We'll see what the vet says tomorrow. He's pretty pathetic right now.

shazamataz

Let us know how he goes at the vet.

If all is well medically then you can move onto adding to his diet.

Like I said, things like sardines are excellent, not only do they absolutely stink (heaven to a dog) but they are good for their skin and coat.
Raw mince, usually works for me as well.

You can also buy a paste from your vet that would be good to ask about, it stimulates their appetite. You just add a small amount to their food.