It can be extremely frustrating when your dog won’t eat their food, especially if they still accept treats. Is your pup just being picky? Are they sick? What can you do to get them to eat again?
Let’s go over some of the most common reasons your dog might stop eating their regular food, how to figure out what might be causing them to stop eating, and what you can try to get them to start eating again.
Possible Reasons Your Dog Won’t Eat
There are lots of reasons your dog might stop eating their regular food but still eat treats. Here are some of the most common reasons dogs stop eating.
Mouth Pain
If you’ve ever had a root canal or a tooth pulled, you’ll understand how hard it can be to eat when your mouth hurts. Many mouth problems could cause trouble eating, from gum disease to a cracked tooth.
Many dog treats are softer than kibble, so a dog experiencing mouth pain may be more likely to eat treats and reject their normal food.
They Don’t Like Their Kibble
Just like humans, dogs have different taste preferences. If you’ve recently switched your dog to a new food, they might not like the taste. If you’ve recently opened a new bag of your dog’s usual food and they won’t eat it, the recipe could have changed.
And if nothing about the food has changed but your dog has been eating it for a long time, it could just be that they’re tired of it and would appreciate a new flavor.
The Food Is Spoiled
While it doesn’t seem like those crunchy brown pebbles could go bad, they definitely can. If your dog stopped eating when you opened a new bag, check the expiration date. As much as employees at warehouses and stores are supposed to rotate products, it doesn’t always happen, so you could end up with expired food.
Always store dog food in a container that seals tightly. Even then, moisture, mold, or pests may still get in and cause the food to go bad. Fish flavors, in particular, tend to spoil with time, so you may need to buy smaller bags to feed your dog the whole thing before it goes bad.
If your dog’s food looks or smells different than usual, it may be spoiled and cause your dog to reject it.
Gastrointestinal Issues
How often do you pay attention to your dog’s poop? If you let your dog out without supervision, they could be having diarrhea, worms, or constipation, and you won’t notice until you pick up the yard, maybe on a different day.
If your dog’s behavior changes, especially if they stop eating, you should check your pup’s poop. You probably don’t eat as much when you have an upset stomach, and the same goes for your dog.
Check to see if their poop is squishy, runny, bloody, covered in mucus, has white pieces (tapeworms), or just otherwise doesn’t look normal.
Medical Problems
A wide variety of medical problems can cause a dog to stop eating. Here are just a few culprits that could cause your dog to refuse their regular food while still accepting treats:
Stress
Dogs are as susceptible to stress as humans are. Has there been a major change in your household lately? If you’ve added a new baby or roommate, or if a member of the household has left, it could upset your dog enough to stop eating. Even something as simple as moving the location of your dog’s food and water bowls could stress them enough to stop eating.
How to Figure Out Why Your Dog Won’t Eat
Before you can get your dog to eat again, you need to have a pretty good idea of why they stopped eating in the first place. Here are some ways that you can try to figure out why your dog stopped eating their regular food.
Look for Behavioral Changes
Dogs can’t tell us when they don’t feel good, so we have to look for changes in their behavior. Is your dog acting lethargic? Has anything else changed about their behavior apart from not eating? If you look at your dog’s overall behavior, you might get a clue about why they won’t eat.
Inspect Your Dog
If you check your whole dog, you might find a problem that could explain why they’ve stopped eating. Look inside their mouth to check their teeth and gums, check their ears for infection, inspect their skin to look for parasites like fleas or ticks, and feel their belly to see if it seems painful.
Check the Food
Your dog’s food could be expired, rancid, or moldy. Even if the food seems OK, try a small bag of a different flavor to see if your pup will eat that instead. If so, that’s a sure sign there’s a problem with the current food.
Think About Recent Changes
Has anything in your household changed recently? Have you moved to a new home? Has an adult child gone away to college? Has another of your fur kids recently passed away? Dogs love routine, and any changes to their routine can cause them to stop eating and show other signs of stress, depression, or anxiety.
Consider Your Own Behavior
Do you easily give in to those puppy eyes and give your dog a lot of treats? Do you worry so much about your pup not eating that you give lots of treats to make up for it? It could be that you’re feeding so many treats that your pup isn’t hungry for their regular food.
How to Get Your Dog to Eat
Once you have an idea of what might be causing your pup not to eat their regular food, here are a few things you can do to try to get them to eat again.
Try New Food
One of the easiest things to try first is to buy a small bag of a different food. The best thing is to try a different flavor of your dog’s current brand. If you usually feed your dog chicken, try a beef flavor, for example. Some brands are specially designed for rotation feeding, so you can switch between flavors without upsetting your dog’s digestive system too much.
Still, you should always try to add new food to your dog’s diet gradually. Mix ¼ of the new food with ¾ of your dog’s old food for a few days and gradually increase the amount of new food over the next week or two.
If your dog goes through and picks out only the new food, you’ll know for sure the problem is the food.
Limit Treats
As hard as it is to resist those begging eyes, cut down on the number of treats you give your dog. You might even stop them completely for a couple of days to see if that encourages your pup to eat their regular food.
It’s always a good idea to only give your dog treats to reward them for good behavior rather than just because you feel like it or they’re acting cute.
Stick to a Feeding Schedule
It’s best to feed your dog at least twice a day and pick up the bowl between meals rather than letting them graze all day. Why?
To start with, it’s easier to keep track of how much your dog is eating. But in this case, it also shows your dog that they must eat their food when you put it down; they can’t just wait until they feel like eating.
If you feed your dog at the same times every day, they will know when it’s time to eat and that they must eat everything in one sitting. That can help prevent them from picking at their food and waiting for treats instead.
Go to the Vet
If nothing helps, or if you notice other symptoms, take your dog to the vet. Many health conditions, ranging from relatively mild to life-threatening, could cause your dog to stop eating, so taking them to the vet will never be the wrong answer.
Even if they don’t find anything wrong with your dog, it could help give you peace of mind to know there’s nothing seriously wrong and that you may just be dealing with a picky pup.
Tips for Changing Your Dog’s Food
If you think your dog isn’t eating because they don’t like their food, it might be time to change it up. As long as you’re changing the flavor anyway, it might be a good time to check the quality of your usual dog food brand, too. Here are some tips to help you choose a high-quality dog food and how to transition them to the new food without upsetting their stomach.
Ingredients to Look for
Here are some of the high-quality ingredients you DO want to see in your dog’s food.
Whole Meat
While chicken, turkey, beef, or lamb meal is acceptable (as is meal from other named animals - avoid “meat meal”), whole meat is best, especially as the first ingredient.
Essential Fatty Acids
If your dog has a dry skin or coat, check how much omega-3 is in your dog’s food. While dog food naturally has high levels of omega-6, it’s important to have a lot of omega-3, also. Make sure your dog’s food contains these essential fatty acids for a healthy skin and coat.
Fruits and Vegetables
Dog food is required to have a certain amount of vitamins and minerals - but don’t you think it’s better to have those come from fruits and vegetables rather than artificially added later?
Probiotics and Prebiotics
Prebiotics and probiotics are great for your dog’s digestion and can help your dog have better poop and less gas.
Glucosamine and Chondroitin
Excellent for bone and joint health, glucosamine and chondroitin are especially important for large breed dogs. Dog food isn’t required to have any, so check the ingredient label to see if these important nutrients are included.
Ingredients to Avoid
These ingredients are signs of low-quality food and should be avoided as much as possible.
By-Products
By-products are what’s left over after the intended product has been made (usually food for human consumption). By-products can include things like feet, heads, roadkill, dead zoo animals, cellulose (sawdust), bran, husks, and other ingredients that may or may not have any nutritional value.
While not all by-products are “bad,” they ARE an indication that a pet food company is using the cheapest ingredients possible, resulting in a lower-quality food that’s overall less nutritious for your dog.
Fillers
Fillers are ingredients with little nutritional value that are added to bulk up a dog food with cheap ingredients. Corn, soy, and wheat are common filler ingredients that don’t add much in the way of vitamins, minerals, or other necessary nutrients for dogs - they’ll just make your dog poop more.
Artificial Colors, Flavors, or Preservatives
Your dog doesn’t care what color their food is, and food with high-quality ingredients should be tasty enough without adding fake flavors. Avoid artificial ingredients as much as possible.
How to Transition Your Dog to a New Food
If your dog absolutely refuses to eat their old food, it may not be possible, but you should always try to transition your dog to a new food gradually. Start by having each meal be ¼ new food and ¾ old food. Feed that for a few days, then move to ½ old food and ½ new food. After a few days of that, you can go to ¼ old food and ¾ new food.
The whole transition process should take 1-2 weeks, depending on your dog’s sensitivity level. If your pup starts having diarrhea or other intestinal problems, slow down the process and add the new food more gradually to see if that helps.
