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Small Dogs and Food

Small dogs can be some of the fussiest eaters on the planet and it can be so frustrating at times when whatever you put down for them they just look up at you as if to say,

"...and this is?"

It doesn't matter if yesterday it was the tastiest gourmet meal they ever experienced. Today it's more like pigswill and what goes through their happy little minds is akin to,

"...and you expect me to eat that?"

Then they go off to see what unspeakably gross morsel they can find to eat in the garden…

Fussy Eaters

Small dogs tend, generally speaking, to be fussier eaters than their larger counterparts.

My German shepherd (Chelsea) tended to eat whatever I put in front of her. It could be a meal I'd cooked just for her (she often dined on a meat and veggie stew that I made from whatever I had available on the day), leftovers from my own meal (if that was what I'd planned I always made enough for us both), or if I was feeling lazy, she'd get the contents of a can of pilchards or sardines, which she loved.

Most of the time I tried to make sure her food was made at home from natural whole ingredients rather than feed her the additive-laden gunge that came out of cans of dog-food. She always seemed pretty healthy and full of energy, so I guess I was doing something right.

On the flip side, these little terrier size dogs were far less tolerant of my chef-created masterpieces. They actually preferred to eat canned cat food than the smellier and less appetizing canned dog food that was on sale in local supermarkets.

That at least was on a good day. On a bad day, they were capable of turning their cute little noses up at the exact same thing they enjoyed heartily the day before.

And that doesn't cover the times when they have to be given health supplements or worming pills. Good luck trying to trick them into swallowing anything like that!

Each to their own.

Dogs Want What's on My Plate

Of course, they much prefer to eat whatever you're eating in preference to their own food.

It amazes me that they'll bite you hand off to get a piece of carrot peel or fight each other almost to the death for a fallen piece of onion on the kitchen floor rather than eat their own food.

Today was just one of those fun days. Ronnie had eaten all his food this morning but Daisy is infinitely fussier. Well she looked down at her bowl, then up at me as if I was serving her up a pile of rocks!

Needless to say, her body language seemed to be giving me the big finger as she turned and sauntered off to sunbathe on the balcony.

I make it my mission to not give in to that behaviour either. So her bowl with it's food went into the refrigerator for later. This evening she decided she was hungry so I got her untouched breakfast out and put it down for her.

Of course, as they both share what comes out of the tin and I wasn't opening another one just for Ronnie, he got a bowl of dry food with a little of my leftover tomato soup on top.

Well that did it.

Daisy deliberately knocked her bowl over and scattered its contents over the floor then tried to push Ronnie away from his bowl so she could eat his. As he's a wimp and will simply let her do what she wants for a quiet life I had to intervene.

I picked her up and took her into the other room and closed the door on her, where she simply stamped her foot, had a hissy fit and yapped her little head off!

Ronnie gobbled his food up while the coast was clear then went out to the balcony to keep away from his angry step-sister!

I ended up scraping up all the food off the kitchen floor and put it back in Daisy's bowl. I let her out of the room where she just trotted merrily into the kitchen, flicked her hair at me as if to say "bite me" and proceeded to eat her meal!

Don't you just love 'em!


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Posted on 4 Dec 2007 in Dog Behaviour | 4 Comments
Last Updated on 18 Sep 2024