Contents
We all know dogs love to eat. But, let’s talk about something we’ve all wondered: Can dogs actually get bored of eating the same food over and over?
The answer is no, most dogs do not get tired of eating the same thing. Dogs are creatures of habit and they love routine, including their diet.
Also, dogs have only 1700 taste buds compared to humans at 9000, so they don’t have the craving for variety like we do.
This is why when it’s meal time, they are ever so happy to consume what they might have just eaten hours ago!
Should I change my dog’s food if they aren’t eating it?
Before changing their diet, it is good to rule out certain factors such as
- Feeding them too many treats between meals
- Some dogs learn to hold out for “something better”
- Temporary stomach ache
- Stress or anxiety
- More serious health conditions such as cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases
Our dog learned to “hold out”
We had a French bulldog that stopped eating his favorite dry kibble after tasting some canned wet food samples we got from a store.
He would hold out and would wait for the wet food even though he was starving.
To fix this, we mixed a bit of his wet dry food thoroughly with his dry kibble ( if we didn’t mix it, he would pick out the wet food only ) and he started to eat all of his food once again.
We gradually weaned off the wet food mix and he was happy eating his old kibble once again!
What to do if you are switching to a new food
Sudden shifts in your dog’s menu might cause tummy troubles like throwing up or loose stools.
So it’s best to make a gradual switch from the old to new.
Introduce new food to your dog slowly by giving them smaller meals with more frequency. Watch your dog closely for any sign of trouble such as diarrhea and lethargy.
Once you are sure they have no issues with the new food, go back to feeding them to the previous schedule with a mix of the old and new food.
Our vet recommended to gradually change the ratio of their food over a 10 day period
- Day1 : 10% new food with 90% old
- Day1 : 20% new food with 80% old
- Day1 : 30% new food with 70% old
- Day1 : 40% new food with 60% old
- Day1 : 50% new food with 50% old
- Day1 : 60% new food with 40% old
- Day1 : 70% new food with 30% old
- Day1 : 80% new food with 20% old
- Day1 : 90% new food with 10% old
- Day1 : 100% new food
Thank you for reading!
