My chihuahua is a picky eater, what do I feed her?
I just got a chihuahua and I have no history on this dog. my concern is that she is a picky eater and am not sure what to feed her with. The past family was giving her table food because they could not afford dog food. I brought her Alpo dog food and she is not eating it. I gave her some homemade chicken and she just barely eats a little. She is sniffing around the house so I feel she is hungry. This moring I gave her some brown rice, she just ate a few grains. What do I do? Is it natural for this size dog to only eat a teaspoon full of food. Help. What is the best vitamin to purchase for her.
It does sound like you have a picky eater! The good news is that I have never known a dog to starve herself willingly, so don’t worry. If you leave food out for her, she will eat it eventually, I promise. I know it’s agony to see your dog not eat, but it’s the only way to break her out of this bad habit and get her onto a healthy diet. Alpo is not the best food you can feed your dog. It has a lot of preservatives and the protein and fat contain meat by-products. Meat-by-products are composed of chicken beak, bone, cartilage, things that are not easily digestible and have lower nutritional value than real meat. A good brand of dog food is expensive, but a bag will last you a long time because chihuahuas are so small. They do eat more than a teaspoon though. To give you a frame of reference, my 7 lb chihuahua eats twice a day, 1/4 cup of dog food each time. I have another chihuahua that weighs 8 lbs and she also eats twice a day, 1/3 cup each time. They are not that different in size, but they have different appetites.
I would get several good brands of dry dog food, and let her try them out over several days. When she is hungry, she will eat it. A good brand to try is
Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit (Small Breed) Dry Dog Food.
The kibbles are perfectly small for a chihuahua mouth and many chis I know love the food. Buy the smallest bag to keep the food as fresh as possible. Another brand I recently discovered is Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul Puppy Dry Food.
I have 3 chis, two of them are extremely picky eaters, and all 3 of them ate every kibble within 5 mins. If you want, you can add a very yummy treat on top to lure your dog to the food. I can’t believe she’s refusing homemade chicken. Maybe some cottage cheese or some liver treats? I use those as “bait” sometimes for picky eaters. Once I lure them to the food bowl, they eat the yummy treat which gets them even hungrier and they end up finishing the rest of the food.
As for vitamins, I highly recommend
Missing Link Canine Formula.
The ingredients are human-grade and all natural. It fills the gap between what’s provided in nature to what’s available in commercial pet food. Just sprinkle a little over their food and mix in.
It’s frustrating when your baby doesn’t want to eat, but you are doing the right thing by giving her the best nutrition possible. Table scraps is the worst thing you can give your chihuahua. I see overweight chis with rotten teeth all the time that are fed table scraps. Let me know how it works out.
Tags: Food, Health, Nutrition
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3 Comments »
August 13, 2008
Joann :
I have two Chihuahua’s one will eat anything and very quickly and the other is so picky and slow eating, the difference is amazing. I do leave dryfood out for them to eat whenever they want, and I give them each 1/4 - 1/3 of the small can of wet for dinner. I finally found something she likes, it is called WELLNESS from Petco. She loves the Whitefish,
It is natural with fruits and veggies added. She eats the dry (which is a first) and will eat most of the time the wet.
She is almost a year old and I have tried every kind of food, from raw to dry to canned.
Good Luck and try not to worry, like Cindy said, she will eat.
September 23, 2008
Abraham :
I have a chihuahua that one day eats chicken perfectly and the next day he just smells the food without eating it, he is so picky. I have tried different foods from table foods to dog food and he is always doing the same thing, but when we are eating he is always around trying to get what it is in our table, when we give him the food he does not eat and we are worried about him, because we think that he is losing weight.Help what should we do?
October 7, 2008
Cindy :
Hi Abraham, you have to stop catering to your chihuahua. Pick one brand of high quality dog food and stick to it. Give it to him day after day, meal after meal. He might not eat at first, and he might put up a hunger strike for a few days, but I’ve never known an animal to starve itself to death willingly. I know a cat that put up a fight for 14 days straight, but even that cat gave up eventually and ate the cat food. You must not give in to him, for his health’s sake. To get him to start eating the dog food, you might want to put a little something super yummy on top to lure him to the food. A super yummy “starter” could be a small piece of plain chicken, a piece of veggie, a small dallop of yogurt, something like that. But it should not be his whole meal, just a bite to get the appetite going. Be strong and don’t give in! He will eat, I promise!