Is my dog really hungry, or just a little piggy?
K..this is kind of long, sorry. We take good care of Shadow(he’s about 5). We have a huge backyard for him to play in(I usually play with him in the afternoons), and on occasion we let him play around in the front yard. The Vet put him on a special diet and showed us how much food to give him daily. I give him snacks in the morning, and feed him his dinner in the afternoon. The Vet says that it’s enough, but Shadow acts like he’s still hungry. He’ll go around the yard trying to eat out of our other dogs’ bowls. He doesn’t have worms, because we give him medicine to keep those away. He also gets his shots on time and everything. Sometimes I feel bad for him because he just acts like he’s SO hungry even after eating dinner. He even eats rocks and grass from the backyard(when I see him doing this I can’t help but give him snacks, he’s already missing his front bottom teeth from eating the rocks). Any ideas?
5 Responses
blk_sheep_fl
06 Mar 2010
Megan M
06 Mar 2010
Unless he is fat and needs to be put on a diet i would think that it would be okay to feed him when he looks hungry. if he is outside all day running around and playing he may be burning all his food off. or you could feed him more times a day but cut back on the amount. that way he gets every couple hours or so.
crazysxyjoker
06 Mar 2010
talk to your vet and see if there is any other diet to put him on. With my dogs they get fed in the morning a snack for lunch and then another meal at dinner. None are fat except one and my vet says its because she never lost her baby fat (she had puppies). If he’s hungry you can’t starve him and it would be easier on his teeth that he doesnt eat rock.
Consult your vet, let them know his behaviour and see what they suggest. Maybe they can give advice on different brands of food. Or maybe you should mix canned with dry food to fill him up more.
Good luck!
Emily A
06 Mar 2010
I’d say to go back to the vet and ask. I know my dogs only try eating things when they’re hungry (or when nobody’s watching), but every dog is different.
billie c
06 Mar 2010
check the food to make sure its doesnt have a bunch of fillers in it. this will digest fast and cause your dog to get hungry faster. I recommend Nutro or Science Diet. If you dont think this is it then it may be because a dog will eat very fast and appear that it is starved when he eats because at an early age, especially if he came from a large litter, then he feels the need to gobble up as much food and as fast as he can so he will get the food. So dont feel bad for Shadow. It could just be animal instinct
my overweight bichon (he was too fat before i got him) did the same thing. He really needed to lose weight to be healthy, but when we reduced his food he acted like he was starving. Three things made all the difference for him.
first..every day we measure out the TOTAL amount of food he gets for the day. Treats have WAY more calories than dog food, so we got special treats for overweight dogs, and figured that in.
then we divided that in half. He gets half the food and treats in the morning. (not at the same time), and half in the evening. Studies show that smaller meals help them not feel so hungry.
but…the amount of food he was getting seemed pathetically small even to me. So we did some research and added frozen green beans to his food. We toss a bag into the fridge, let them thaw, and toss a cup of them into his food bowl with is kibble. They have no calories, and won’t hurt him. And they make him feel full.
he lost the weight he needed to lose easily, and even now he gets green beans along with his regular meals so he feels like he’s getting more to eat.