My husband and I are dog lovers. We have three dogs that are like our children. One of which is a timid Italian Greyhound. None of the dogs have seemed to have a normal appetite lately. And the greyhound won’t even eat! I thought it might be because of the heat and the time they spend outside. We both work long days and they stay in the backyard. I take lunches and come home and feed them a second time for the day and make sure they have plenty of water but they still don’t seem to be interested in food at all. I am more concerned with the greyhound as like I mentioned he won’t eat. I put food right in front of him and he won’t even look at it…he just curls up and goes to sleep. I have to trick him into eating by hiding treats in his food and everything. He has always been underweight according to the vet. What can I try to get him to start eat a healthy amount?

Attached is a piture of my skinny little baby.
Attachment 3675

Do they have shelter outside. Maybe they ate something? Contact a vet.

It seems to me you already have contacted a vet. How concerned is the vet? Is this more a summer problem? I do hope they have shade. You could try adding a wading pool to cool off in. Actually I don't think he looks that bad. I am not going to repeat what is in the sticky at https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/i...tml#post254171 Some dogs insist on having their ribs show a little. That is much better for them than the overweight ones.

Some of you have asked about shade and seeing a vet. The dogs have plenty of shade outside, the back corner of the yard is tree covered and gets almost no sun at all and they also have a doghouse butted up under an oning that provides a cool place for them to rest. However most of the time I find all three of them curled up in one of the patio chairs. I have called the usual vet that sees him and he does not seem too concered. I have also changed their dog food. (I did this gradually by mixing half and half with their old food and so on)

Have you changed their diet? It this the same food they always eat? If so and you have already contacted the vet, provide food, make it available, and insure they know where it is. No dog will starve themselves to death when there is a readily available source of food. i.e.. After 2 or 3 days they will break down and eat it.. if you are hiding treats etc in there food you may be incoraging the behaviour of not eating the food plain.. Dog do not need encouragement to eat, unless there is an underlying medical cause which your vet should be able to determine.. when they are hungry they will eat.. One of the main causes of canine obesity is that people overfeed, or ecourage there dog to eat.. regardless of whether the dog is actually hungry... we provide dry food they eat, and reach a non hungry state, we provide dry food again and they are still not hungry so we assume that we need to intice them to eat so we put a treat in their food and they eat, we provide food with a treat and they are still full from the last meal, so we feel something is wrong and add chicken broth to the food etc... etc.. etc.. We have conditioned them away from eating dry food, and are well on the way to an obese pet that will have a shorter, lower quality of life.. 95% of the time we are encouraging them to eat for us not for them..

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