From time to time, almost every dog owner encounters a worrying situation: your dog suddenly refuses to eat.

There are many possible reasons for a loss of appetite, ranging from something completely harmless to a problem that needs urgent veterinary attention. So before deciding that your dog is simply being fussy, it is worth going through a few basic checks.

The first thing to assess is your dog’s overall condition.

If refusing food is accompanied by vomiting, diarrhoea, reluctance to go for a walk, unusual lethargy or weakness, restlessness, inability to settle or lie down comfortably, or your dog is lying down and reluctant to get up, this is not the time to experiment with different foods. Contact your veterinarian promptly.

If your dog is bright, active and behaving normally, with no vomiting, diarrhoea or other obvious symptoms, there are a few other things worth checking.

Consider the temperature. During very hot weather, particularly above 30°C, many dogs naturally eat less as their activity and food intake decrease.

Next, have a good look inside your dog’s mouth. Check for loose or broken teeth, retained baby teeth, inflamed or damaged gums, injuries to the soft tissues and anything that may have become lodged between the teeth or across the roof of the mouth, such as a piece of stick or bone. Dental discomfort is an especially common reason for a dog to suddenly become reluctant to eat dry food while still showing interest in softer foods.

With puppies and very small dogs, refusing food deserves extra attention because they have much smaller energy reserves. Prolonged fasting can put them at risk of low blood glucose, particularly if they are very young, tiny or underweight. I like to keep an energy supplement such as Energel on hand for this reason. It can provide temporary support if a tiny dog has missed a meal, but it is not a treatment for unexplained loss of appetite. A weak, shaky, unusually sleepy or unresponsive dog needs veterinary attention.

And use the scales, not just your eyes.

I recommend weighing small dogs and puppies at least once a month. A puppy with a poor or inconsistent appetite is better weighed weekly. Weight is a much more useful indicator than our subjective impression that a dog “hardly eats anything”.

A growing puppy should be gaining weight, while an adult dog should maintain a reasonably stable healthy weight. If a puppy stops growing or starts losing weight, or an adult dog is losing weight without an obvious reason, it is time to speak to your veterinarian and investigate why.

But what if your dog apparently “eats nothing”, turns their nose up at the bowl and drives the entire family mad at every mealtime… while somehow maintaining their weight perfectly well?

Then it is time to ask a different question:

Where exactly is your dog eating?

Calories do not appear from nowhere. If a healthy dog is maintaining their weight, they are getting energy somewhere.

Treats throughout the day, food from several family members, sharing your own meals, chews and dental treats all count. For a tiny dog, what looks like a very small treat to us can represent a surprisingly significant proportion of their daily calorie intake.

Training treats count too. If you are actively training your dog, include those calories when calculating meals. At the same time, working and sporting dogs may have higher energy requirements, so both sides of the equation matter.

Look at everything your dog eats during the entire day, not just what disappeared from the food bowl.

If you have done all of this and your dog is healthy, maintaining a stable weight and simply isn’t interested in meals, then we are dealing with a different issue: a fussy eater who may need a little help developing better eating habits.

We’ve already covered how to deal with picky eaters, establish a feeding routine and stop turning every mealtime into a negotiation. You can read our guide here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HDaHNYZaX/?mibextid=wwXIfr 

Remember, the goal is not to force your dog to eat. It’s to help them develop a healthy, relaxed relationship with food