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How To Deal with Picky Eaters

So you've been feeding your pet scraps from the table and now they refuse to eat their kibble without caviar? Finicky eaters are not often born, they are usually made. It all starts with a few table scraps, and maybe changing their diet a few times. Pretty soon your pet is turning up their nose at all meals and begging for the next table scrap to fall instead of eating their own nutritious food.

Not all starving dogs are just picky; a sudden loss of appetite is a symptom of many diseases. If you believe your dog may be ill, please visit your vet immediately.

How to Prevent Your Pet from Being a Finicky Eater:

Don't Change Food Often
Changing your pet's food too often can make your pet become a finicky eater. This puts your pet in control of their diet, which can be hazardous to their health. Keeping a steady routine and diet for your pet will help to stabilize their eating habits.
Don't Feed Pets Table Scraps
Constant changes in your pets' diets can lead your pet to crave changes and skip repetitive meals. Also, many types of human foods and vegetables that may seem healthy are actually toxic to animals. Before feeding your pet at the table again, read about cat food hazards and dog food hazards.
Give your pets treats made for them such as Joint Treats instead of table scraps to prevent them from acquiring a taste for human foods. However, too many treats will spoil your pets appetite.
Don't Overfeed Your Pet
Overfeeding mainly happens with dogs as pets. Owners often praise dogs while eating their food. Dogs are people pleasers and love to be praised, so for them eating is a simple way to be praised. Unfortunately this can lead them to overeating which can make them hesitant to eat. Stick to a schedule and think about the size of your pet before portioning out food.
Don't Let Your Pet Eat Elsewhere
Pets are animals. They will scavenge for food, even if that means stealing it right off your table. While you are training your pet to eat their own food, make sure that they aren't eating from the table, garbage can or your visitors!
Get your pet to eat out of their indicated bowls. Ourpet's Big Dog Feeder provides the optimum feeding height for your pet making it more comfortable for them to feed. It is almost as if you're feeding them out of your hand.
 

How to Get Your Finicky Eater to Eat:

Step1: Don't feed your pet HUMAN food or an excessive amount of TREATS. If you'd like them to eat their pet food, designed for their unique bodies, then start by cutting out the stuff not created for pet's regular consumption. Excessive treats can spoil a pet's appetite.
Step2: Buy a high quality food for your pet.
If you feel good about the food you'll be giving to your pet, you will be more likely to enforce a feeding schedule.

Step3: Check the bowls that your pet eats out of.
If you think your pet's starvation stems from a problem they have with their feeding methods, make sure to address it. Also recently washed dishes may contain scents from cleaning agents that may deter your pet from eating.

Step4: After you have successfully stopped feeding your pet treats and human food, fill up a bowl of dog food and leave it down for your pet. If they don't eat the food within one hour, pick it up and wait four hours before trying to feed again. Your pet will eat when they're hungry enough to eat their own food.
Stick to the schedule! This includes times when you're traveling with your pet. Outward Hound No Spill Port-A-Bowl makes it convenient to feed your pet on the road.

Step5: Be the pet owner!
If your pet does not want to eat their food, you must take it away. Your pet will eventually get the point that they need to eat what is given to them. It may sound like starvation but unless the animal is ill, it will eat when it needs to.

Step6: Create a feeding schedule so your pet knows when to expect food. They're more likely to eat the food if they know when it's coming out and that they won't be given more food until the next feeding time.Once you've got your pet to eat at regular intervals, the use of an automatic feeder like the PetMate Portion Control Lebistro will make feeding time more convenient.
Petmate's Portion Control Lebistro is an automatic feeder that your can program to automatically dispense food at the right portions.

Other Tips to Get Pets to Eat:

Use vegetable, beef or chicken stock on dry dog food to add some flavor and aroma

Use fish flakes, clam juice or tuna juice on cat food to encourage your pets to eat and get acquire a taste for their regular food.
Sprinkle Bonito Flakes over your cats food to make your cats regular food more appetizing.

If your pet has sensitive teeth use hot water to make food softer

Sprinkle your pet's regular food sparingly by crumbling their favorite treats such as Green Dog Nuggets and Wild Alaskan Salmon Treats. You can also top off the regular pet food with a product made from 100% natural ingredients like Real Food Toppers.