Feeding

[Emilee]

My 2 1/2 year old Beardie, Merlin, drives me crazy when it comes to feeding time. I have him on a good dog food and he will sometimes go a couple days without eating! I have tried scheduled feeding times and taking the food up when he doesn't eat and he just doesn't seem to care. Our vet said everything else about him is excellent and recommended going back to puppy food and that was doing great for about three weeks now he is doing the same thing.

I know some of the books I read say that Beardies pretty much live on air until they are 2-3 years old, but it is really worrying me because he is so thin.

I didn't know if anybody on here had ever experienced this with their Beardies and if you did can you share what worked out for you?

Any help would be awesome!!

[Karen Norteman]

I had a Beardie (also named Merlin) who "lived on air", too. The best way to fix this problem is to... get a second Beardie! Merlin was an "only dog," but when I had two Beardies together, they both cleaned their dishes at every mealtime.

You could try to tempt him with some treats, but don't worry -- he'll grow out of it eventually. He won't starve himself to death. Have you considered getting another Beardie? :-)

[Emilee]

Thank you for the advice Karen. We actually do have a second Beardie, Bauer. In my profile pic that is Merlin the lighter one and Bauer the darker one. We have had Bauer just over a year now. We used to be able to free feed Merlin but Bauer has no problem fininishing off his food in a matter of what seems like seconds and then tries to go in to finish his big brothers :) We have also tried to add treats, rice, and hamburger to his food but then he outsmarts us and decides he will not eat unless there is a special treat in there for him.

Like you said hopefully he will just grow out of it. I just thought if anybody was going through the same thing it would make me feel better. I always feel so bad when people pet him and ask why he is so thin :(

Thanks for your advice and by the way your Beardies are soooo cute!!

Emilee

[Rachel Funez]

Wow. I had no idea this was such a common trait in Beardies. I just thought my Cooper was kind of a "weird" dog. (Growing up we had labs... they'll eat anything). It's nice to know it's just another part of owning a wonderful Beardie.

We kind of do what someone else said. We leave the food out. If he doesn't eat it one day, fine. If he eats it all, I add more. He seems to self-regulate pretty well and stays right around 45lbs.

It's harder when you have more than one dog though. We dog sit sometimes and I can't leave Cooper's food out because the other dog will eat it all. So I usually feed him at night (which is when he normally eats on his own) and add a little shredded cheese mixed in to get him to actually eat it. When he stops eating, I just pick it up.

It seems like one thing that has helped him is routine. He likes to eat at the same time every day, and only when his family is home. I think he has to feel calm and secure to really want to eat his food. (He's a rescue too, so that might be part of it.) Since our schedule isn't always the same, he has taken to eating late at night, sometimes after we go to bed. It seems to work for him, and it works nicely with our morning walk schedule too, since that's when he's ready to go poo. :-)

We feed him Benniful by the way. We used to feed Canidae, which was a "nicer" brand, but he didn't like it as much and wasn't as regular. He likes the Beniful a lot.

[Patti Waddell]

... I've got two boyz myself and both went through a phase where food was regarded with little interest -- usually between 2-3yrs. For Bryce it lingers occasionally, much to do with hormones... If he's been around the "ladies in season" he seems to lose his appetite and can go without food for a day or so...I offer him less at a the next meal when this happens to gradually build him back up to his regular meal over the course of a few days.

We've also found around here that a good romp with some training an hour or so before they eat the evening meal helps to build the appetite :-).

Good luck, and if I might offer a tad bit of advice... try not to worry or cater to this, if you can help it, because it can sometimes exacerabate the problem... (let me know if you want to see the pictures of my son sitting on the floor handfeeding RAW food to Mick at that age as he was SURE he was going to starve :-).

Take care,
Patti and the boyz

[Emilee]

Thanks for the post. It really makes me feel better to know that others experienced the same thing. I actually did find that when I added new things or tried to bribe him to eat it really did make the problem worse. By the way Patti your boys are very handsome!!

By the way what kind of food does everybody feed? I am trying to get my dogs on a good stable food and was just curious what everybody is feeding their Beardies.

[Wendy Banks]

I also have a Merlin and he is going through the same thing at the moment. He has never had a huge appetite. Merlin is aroung 20 months. I have tried the usual with taking the food away, changing types of food and of course increasing his exercise. None of it has made a big difference. He is a beautiful and healthy dog in every way so I figure he is eating enough to keep him going. I think they know how much is enough.

[Karen Norteman]

There must be something about the name Merlin and picky eating --!! :-)

[Tina Leonciuk]

I had same problem with my Charlie. Puppyfood was only alternative for him to eat, but he still don´t eat enough. I got some advice from a breeder about toncills and we go to vet and toncills was infected. And when I think he actually eat when he was medicated because hes earinfection.

Today he eat and we hope he got his weight back soon, he is 2 1/2 yeas old (soon).

And about food, they eat Royal Canin, but some month ago I change food, "Olivers pet food"

Good luck with your Merlin

I hope you could understand my bad English:)

/Tina

[Emilee]

Maybe it just is the name Merlin, hey it might be easier to just change his name instead of food :) We tried puppy food for a while and that seemed to help a little bit. I am looking for a good quality puppy food that is high in calories for him. I have never heard of Oliver's pet food, does anybody recommend anything else?

[Priscilla Potter]

Beardies can be finicky eaters -- one of mine was like that until she was about 3 -- I feed Innova dry food (U.S.) -- and leave the food down should one of them choose to be picky so I know food is there if they get really hungry. This seems to be a common trait with beards.

[cj]

My old boy, now sadly departed, was like this virtually all his life. Sometimes he would go 2 or 3 days without eating a single mouthful! The only thing I found worked was, not to worry too much when he wasn't eating - don't think you get many anorexic dogs - but when he was in eating mode, let him eat as much as he wanted. If he cleaned a bowl out, I put more until he had had enough. He self-regulated his whole life and his weight never wavered - it was 24.5 kilos his whole adult life! So it worked for him. But his breedeer had warned that beardies often appear to "live on air".

Now I have a 14 month old boy and until recently he has been the greediest dog I have ever known! But in the last month, he too has become a very finicky eater - including turning his nose up at titbits (makes training a challenge!) But his weight is stable and he too seems to "eat when he's hungry". He is healthy and full of energy and on a premium diet.

The food I feed is Wafcol Salmon and Potato - a premium food with very few additives - as he is gluten intolerant. He has been on this for8 months since his intolerance was diagnosed and seems both to like it and thrive on it - if somewhat erratically at the moment. But I have no intention of worrying unless he becomes thin or lethargic.

I think it is a beardie thing!

[kirsty]

i whatched the dog whisper the other nite and there was a ladie with the same problem she cooked her dog everything to see if he would eat but the dog man said that he needed to earn his food so he worked the dog by takeing him on energy zapen walks and had a dog rucksack on so he would go in to working mode and it worked on that dog. worth a try