Why Your Dog Won’t Eat: Insights From Science
When your pet doesn’t want to eat, it can be a real cause of distress for the owner and the animal itself.
But what is actually going on inside your pup’s mind or body when this happens? What does science have to say on the matter?
It Could Be The Medications
Did you recently take your dog to the vet? Did they receive a course of medication?
If so, that could be the source of the problem. Some medications can make dogs feel queasy, putting them off their food.
Chemotherapy drugs, for instance, are notorious appetite suppressants.
Emotional Issues
It used to be taboo to claim that animals had emotions similar to people. But science is slowly revealing that they probably do have moods like us. And that can affect what they want to eat.
Emotional issues can come from all sorts of places. It often occurs when you re-home a dog, and they don’t feel like eating in their new abode. For whatever reason, it can feel too dangerous, or they are too stressed for hunger signals to work.
It Could Be Incorrect Food
Switching your dog’s diet can make their culinary lives more enjoyable. But it can also put them off their food. Burgess Pet Care talks about the importance of choosing the right food for your animal on its website. Owners need to carefully consider both the general characteristics of their dogs and their tastes and preferences when choosing what to feed them.
This process can sometimes take multiple attempts to get right. Dogs can be very fussy.
If you need to switch your pooch over to a new type of food for health reasons, do it gradually. Replace 10 percent of their regular chow with the new stuff and slowly increase the proportion over the following days.
It Could Be Your Absence
Dogs don’t get on well by themselves. Many feel stressed when they feel separated from the rest of the family. They need human company to feel complete.
When owners leave the house to go to work and don’t come back for ten hours, it is confusing for dogs. They don’t understand the concept of work. And they don’t know why their owners spend so much time away from home.
If dogs aren’t around others, they may not eat food while you’re out of the house. Feeding issues like these can lead to weight loss and prevent a dog from consuming enough to keep their energy levels up.
It Could Be The Time Of Day
Some humans wake up ravenously hungry, while others can’t eat any breakfast at all. The same goes for dogs. Science shows that there are different types of pooch body clocks, and they all determine different feeding patterns.
Some dogs want the bulk of their calories in the morning. Others try to get them at night.
These insights should hopefully help you determine why your pup isn’t eating. Usually, it is something you can solve by changing your current setup or taking your pet to the vet.
