If your dog regularly picks at his food and leaves food behind then this means that she is eating as much as she wants rather than as much as she needs. How can I be overfeeding, my dog only eats what she needs and leaves the rest? After the first few days if you have to offer extras to encourage your dog to eat then you are probably overfeeding. Experiment with quantities until you ensure that your dog is READY for its meal each day, consumes the whole amount and would even eat a little more if it were available.
At the next meal offer slightly less than the amount eaten the day before. Any food not consumed within 10-15 minutes should be taken up and no more food offered until the same mealtime the next day.if the dog weighs 20kg offer 5-6 ounces (125-150g) rather than 8 ounces (200g). Offer less than the recommended amount for the dog’s weight, e.g.Feed once daily usually between 5 and 7pm.By providing stimulation of play or by taking her for a walk. The best way to please a dog is to give the dog, not food, but time. The owner does not seem to realise that the dog is simply not hungry.
The pet parent then seeks out something else in order to stimulate the dog’s jaded appetite. The dog will eat the tastier food until she tires of that.
The main reason why a dog refuses food is she isn’t hungry! However pet parents often concludes their dog no longer likes the food and decides to try something else (usually tastier) to get her dog to eat. Many pet parents seem determined to make their dogs eat come what may. So much so that our founder and Veterinary Surgeon John Burns put together a handy guide (below) for fussy eating in dogs to help with this common problem. It’s truly remarkable how many pet owners have dogs that are fussy.