[golden dexter]

My wife and i adopted a 7 month old golden about 3 months ago. Why wife has been around dogs her whole life, while I am somewhat new to them. I have always assumed that dogs are very food motivated, and enjoy eating their meals. When we adopted our pup, he was way underweight. You could see his ribs, and his rear was very bony. He wasn't necessarily unhealthy or abused by his previous owners, he was just a little under fed. When we adopted him we started feeding him 2 cups of dry food twice a day. He struggled eating that much at first. We then added some wet food to his 2 cup meal hoping this would get him more excited about eating. He has gained weight, and is now at 65 lbs. The problem is that he is still not eating all of his meals. He does not seem as excited for food as I think he should be. What should we do? Thank you in advance.

 

[jwemt81]

Is he getting 2 cups all at once and just not finishing all of it? I would recommend splitting the feedings up so that he is getting 1 cup twice a day. Two cups is a lot for any dog to eat all at once and can actually cause bloat if they eat that much all at once. Generally at 7 months, they start eating a little less than they were when they were younger since their nutritional needs are changing. It sounds like he is at a pretty good weight now, so I would probably cut out the wet food and just stick with dry and split the feedings up to 1 cup in the morning and 1 cup in the evening. If he doesn't eat his meal, pick up the bowl and offer it to him again later. He will soon learn to eat when food is offered to him.

 

[golden dexter]

Thanks for the advice. We decided to give him 2 cups twice a day due to his low weight. He was finishing his meals when we first got him, but is not now. He will eat about 1 cup of the 2 cup meal, and then not be interested. So it sounds like we are feeding him too much. Thank you.

 

[jwemt81]

It sounds like you were doing the right thing by giving him 4 cups a day since he was so underweight, but now that he has put some weight on and is where he needs to be, he should do perfectly fine on just 2 cups a day! :bowl:

 

[Goldenmomma]

I feed twice a day. They get one cup in the morning and another at night. Sometimes they get a little more later on in the evening. Okay, Scotty the baby gets a little more each meal, but he is still puppy. Sully, however, has been a casual eater. She can take it or leave it. She eats when she is hungry. Her weight is 65 lbs so I'm not worried about that. It's just frustrating because then I worry "is something wrong?" She is better when we love on her first and then she eats. They also get a teaspoon/tablespoon of plain lowfat yogurt with their breakfast (okay'd by vet). Some dogs just eat when hungry.

 

[laprincessa]

Max has always been like that - he would eat what he wanted and be done. I only worry now if he doesn't eat at all - and that rarely happens. I put out a cup and a half of dry kibble in the morning and if it's still there at supper time, I add more, some wet, and an egg sometimes and he'll eat all of it. Most of the time.

 

[GoldenSail]

Scout was like that as a puppy, she ate like a little mouse. I recently switched her food to Purina Pro Plan, and my goodness, she acts like I've been starving her the last several months. I think with my puppy she didn't care for the other food.

Don't worry if he doesn't eat given he is no longer underweight. Lean is healthier anyway.

 

[Our3dogs]

One of our first Golden's would just eat until he was full and then walk away. It never bothered me if he didn't finish it. The 2 we have now I think would just eat until they exploded if given the chance. I think your Golden is just telling you it's too much in his bowl to finish.