I have a 1.5 year old male pug that won’t eat his food.
Now, no cause for medical alarm - it’s not a twisted stomach or anything, because he’s a) hungry, b) does eat a little bit and c) will eat all of the treats I offer him. He’s obviously in good spirits and doesn’t seem under the weather at all. However, a former voracious eater now turns his nose up at his kibble.
I switched brands to the Costco house brand food after reading some reviews. We got through a whole bag of the puppy stuff, and by then he was well over 1 year old (takes a long time to eat through those big bags!), so we switched to the regular. He was fine on it for about 6 weeks, then gradually became less and less interested in it. I figured maybe it was stale or overly dry, so I tried adding water or a little low-sodium chicken stock. This got him to eat a bit more, but generally didn’t work. The adult bag is bigger than the puppy bag so I didn’t think amiss.
So after about a week of this, I bought him new food (a different brand, the one we used before Costco mega-bags) yesterday, which he still won’t eat. He keeps looking in his bowl again and again, or he’ll pick a kibble up, sort of roll it around in his mouth, then spit it out. Late last night, he did this with about half of his food and didn’t really eat anything.
I’ve tried a few remedies, to no avail:
I crushed up the kibbles to smaller size, thinking maybe he was having trouble chewing or something (since he rolls them around in his mouth, then spits them out). Nope
Crushed up a treat in the bowl. He picks out the treat and leaves the kibble.
Changed the bowls in case there was something about the old one
Left the food in his crate so he had time to think about it. Now his crate is filled with sampled, rejected kibble.
Put a little juice from a rotisserie chicken in there. He moved the kibble out of the way to lick the bottom of the bowl.
He keeps attempting to eat it and spitting it out. What the heck?! I’m wondering about the new food, though - usually the cat is all about getting dog food if he can manage it, and he won’t eat the new stuff (Pedigree) either. So maybe it’s just two bad bags, but I’m wondering. I was going to try a new bag again after work but is there anything else I should try?
It sounds like that big bag of regular food got stale – for a small dog like a pug, I would buy the food in smaller bags if you can, so it tastes better. You then changed to a different brand, which can take time to get used to. Not just in terms of whether they would rather eat the old food, but also in terms of their digestion – some people recommend easing dogs into a new food by mixing the old and new in steadily increasing concentrations.
However, I also know that pugs are both smart and stubborn (multiple family members own them), so I’m guessing that the not eating is only partly about not liking the new brands of food. In other words, if he were in a controlled environment with no human feedback, he’d give up and eat the new stuff a lot quicker than when he has you to try to manipulate into getting something better.
Maybe try laying off the treats altogether for a little while, and feeding him at the same time(s) each day. Give him say 10 minutes to eat and then take the bowl away. Don’t fuss over him or try to encourage him to eat it, just ignore him once you’ve put the food down. If he eats the full portion, you can praise him but I still wouldn’t treat him at first.
If he’s like every other pug I’ve ever met, he’ll do his best to make you think you’re ruining his life – smart dogs know how to manipulate our emotions. You’re not, you’re just being the boss of the pack. Pack members eat what they’re given or not at all.
^^^Good advice, particularly about the treats. Sounds a lot to me like he really just wants you to feed him nothing but treats and considers all other food to be sub par. And knock it off with the chicken stock and rotisserie chicken juice. You haven’t been feeding him people food at the table by any chance, have you?
If the advice above doesn’t work after a couple days, you may have to find him yet another regular food he does eat, but once you do, stick with that and don’t give him anything else.
It’s *possible *that your dog has an infection in his mouth - teeth and/or gums. That would make hard, crunchy kibble painful or difficult to eat and leave the dog slurping up anything liquid, like broth. Wouldn’t hurt to rule that out, although it would be more likely in an older dog.
Concur that it’s probably stale and/or rancid. (Dog food contains fats, after all.) I buy our cats smallish bags of their kibble and they’re still noticeably more interested in the food from a freshly-opened bag than the last scoopful of “old” food.
I’m starting to think that pugs just don’t like kibble. Back when we fed our pug Kibbles ‘n’ Bits, she’d pick out the bits and leave all the kibble. Apparently those lips are both floppy and nimble.
Eventually, we just went to wet food. The pugbeast currently gets a can of Science Diet a day, and is still a chunky bugger. She loves the Science Diet so much that she tap-dances, runs in circles, and whines when you look like you’re going to feed her, and that’s quite a feat for a nine-year-old pug. Science Diet dry food, though? Won’t touch it. If we mix dry in with the wet stuff, she’ll throw it up.
Sounds like a good plan. This is the same guy who was a beast to potty train, so I’d give him treats… so he’d pretend to pee, over and over, 18 times a night. Manipulative little blighter. It’s hard to watch him go hungry though!
He has no trouble with chicken jerky. He also just had a checkup a month ago and the vet actually commented that his teeth look great. So, pretty unlikely, but good advice!
It might be the Costco food in particular. We got a bag that our dog really didn’t care for, while she normally ate it fine. They may have switched suppliers or gotten a bad batch.
My pug masters both eat Wellness Kibble, and they seem fine with it. Sure, they get some people food and doggy treats, but not a huge amount of either, but they still eat their kibble just fine.
fluiddruid: is he really hungry? Is he losing weight or otherwise showing signs of not eating? Pugs don’t eat a whole lot, at least mine don’t. Maybe he’s chowing when you’re not looking?
Sounds like he’s training you to give him treats instead of kibble. Stop the treats entirely for a while and ensure you praise him when he does eat. Introduce the treats again as a reward for eating his dinner.
Man, that makes me laugh. No wonder people like pugs, with the amount of personality they have.
My dog is very picky about dry dog food also. I have found that she is more likely to eat it if I moisten with regular water, so you could try that too.
While your puglet may have a healthy mouth and teeth, he’s still a pug. They’re not built right (no offense), and their faces are a mess. His bite could be off enough that certain sizes of kibble give him a problem. Is the adult kibble bigger than the puppy kibble? Just a thought. It’s possible he wasn’t really chewing the puppy kibble, and with the larger adult kibble he’s having some discomfort trying to masticate and decided after a few weeks he’s done with trying.
Maybe a small-breed style kibble would suit him better, or switching to canned.
Re-introducing the food for brief periods seems to have helped, and not indulging him by trying to tempt him to eat. I offered him some kibble at dinnertime, he refused it, so I took it away. We went out for a few hours together and he got plenty of exercise, and when we got home, he started sniffing around his food spot. He ate the kibble I offered (the same stuff he refused earlier). He scarfed it down easily, without making the big show of chewing it and coughing it up, or spitting out pieces. The kibbles are bigger than the puppy food definitely, but he can crunch 'em up easily if he sets his mind to it, apparently. Then he went back to his crate to search for errant kibbles from earlier. Thanks for all the suggestions!
I think you all were right - he was trying to train me. Lousy manipulative dog! He likes to have his way about things. For example, if he gets on the couch and there isn’t a pillow in a good position for him to lay on it, he’ll just pace and stare at me. He can’t just sleep on the floor of course, and even the couch - oh no. A pillow on the couch is required. Or a blanket on the couch in a pinch, but he will huffily adjust it for like 15 minutes.
They really do. My sister has one too. They’re very different but they both definitely have the characteristic pugsonality. They can be stubborn, but they are mischevous about it.
In hindsight, he’s done a lot of things to work me over. This is the dog that you’ll tell to go inside, and he cocks his head like he doesn’t understand. Repeat it, and he cocks it more. He listens the third or fourth time. He knows exactly what you mean but he’s gotta make sure you really mean it. He’ll do the same for most commands (other than high-five, which he LOVES - I use it as a reward, actually). Of course, mention “kibble”, “treat”, “cookie”, “car ride”, “walkies”, “dog park” or my sisters’ dogs’ names, and he understands those the first time, every time! I make him sound really high maintenance but he generally isn’t - he just loves creature comforts.
I don’t usually leave food out because the cat usually steals it, so I don’t think he’s eating on his own, but he hasn’t lost weight or anything. He must just not be as hungry lately.
There are only two choices I think: either you let him go hungry (for a reasonable, non-harmful amount of time) until he eats his plain kibble and likes it - he almost certainly will if you put your foot down, sounds like he just doesn’t like the taste and has enough options that he doesn’t need to eat it to live. Or, you give him different food, which he will almost certainly eat with gusto.
I don’t feed my pets any processed pet foods, so you know where my sympathies lie. Have you ever tasted kibble? It’s tough to have to eat that nasty crap your whole life. Can’t blame a dog for doing everything they can to get something better.
'round here, this behavior is referred to as “pug mind control.” And, like in your house, it usually works. I’d write more, but I have to go pile some more blankets on my dog’s bed right now.
Could it be related to a change in weather? Our girls (not pugs, pit bulls) started leaving their kibble untouched as soon as it got hot. The air conditioning is not activated yet (chilled water will be supplied to all the condos at a future date) so it’s sometimes 84 degrees in our place at night, and the dogs seem to have lost a lot of their appetite.
If it’s not that, one way to increase a dog’s appetite is by increasing his exercise. Pugs aren’t especially athletic, and I don’t know what your habits are, but if you can get him to run around more you may find his appetite coming back.
He’ll do the same for most commands (other than high-five, which he LOVES - I use it as a reward, actually). Of course, mention “kibble”, “treat”, “cookie”, “car ride”, “walkies”, “dog park” or my sisters’ dogs’ names, and he understands those the first time, every time! I make him sound really high maintenance but he generally isn’t - he just loves creature comforts.