FYI: If you make a purchase via a link on this site, I may receive a commission from various affiliate programs, and as an Amazon Associate and Chewy affiliate I also earn commissions from qualifying purchases—at NO extra cost to you. See the Disclosure page for more information. Thank you!

Guide To Australian Shepherd Training & Care

Home

Extremely Picky Blue Merle Mini Aussie

by Jen
(Littleton, CO)

I have and extremely picky blue merle Mini Aussie. She will not eat hardly anything but turkey jerky and bully sticks. I have tried taking them away for as long as three days to a week. I have tried wet dog food; every brand and almost every flavor. I have tried the refrigerated foods as well. I have tried about 4 different types of dry food and to no avail.

We also started feeding her boiled chicken and rice. She ate that for about two weeks and now won't eat it any more. She wont eat hot dogs either. I am at a loss as to what to feed her. She is 12 months and is so extremely picky.

I have tried to just giving her food and leaving it as well. She would rather not eat than to eat what is given to her. I have tried everything as long as one to almost two weeks.

Any ideas would be great! Thank you for your help in advance.

Comments for Extremely Picky Blue Merle Mini Aussie

Click here to add your own comments

food
by: Anonymous

Your smart Aussie will not starve herself to death. Keep that in mind. Feed her high quality food, this could be raw meals or meals you cook yourself or high rated commercial food, preferably not dry kibble. Don't give her any other foods and she will eat this. You could feed her three times a day. Put the food in front of her and if she hasn't started eating in 15 minutes, the food goes away. Next meal do the same. And the next meal ... and however many meals it takes until she eats. She will eventually eat the good food you are offering her as long as she gets NOTHING AT ALL to eat between the times you are offering her the food. If you are absolutely consistent with this, and are willing to out-wait her, she will eat. She's not going to starve herself to death :-)

Food rejection
by: Anonymous

Gosh, my two yr old mini would eat anything and everything. Sounds like your picky miss is costing you a lot of money! Have you had her checked out by a reputable vet? Maybe she has gastric issues of some kind that make it uncomfortable for her to eat anything.

I have the same problem...
by: Anonymous

I rescued a six year old Australian Shepherd who, apparently all his life, has been severely underweight. I have no idea what has happened to him in the past, but he does the same thing. We tried a lot of different things because he’s already skin and bones, sharp hips. He’s been to the vet a total of 5 times since we got him in October, so we know it isn’t health related. It’s insane. I know they say your dog won’t starve himself to death, but this guy sure is trying.

Update
by: Jen

So an update on our little miss picky. We have, been feeding her chicken, rice, pork, and beef that we make for dinner. We put just a small but on top of her dry food and she is starting to eat the dry food better. She is now 1.5 years old and has not started some behavior issues which is something all new and is for another thread question lol.

We had her spayed in November and gain 5 pounds or more. So her dry food is weight management food but does not seem to help. Anyone else have this issue? We ask the vet which is why we are on the special food and transitioning her to dry food. She is on vitamins as well.

I FEEL YOUR PAIN
by: E

I have an 8 month old blue mini aussie. She is impossible to get to eat. We have similarly tried everything, from different food to different meal toppers. We cant keep feeding her rice and beef because that causes plaque to build up on their teeth. After we got her spayed a couple weeks ago she had an appetite from about 10 days and then went back to her refusing to eat.

Food
by: Anonymous

We have a 3 month puppy who is doing the same thing with food. He will eat some, but not like he should. What is bothering is is he acts depressed, weird for a few days and then fine for a couple days and then repeat. Is there anything we can do to solve that? Or does it come with him being hungry?

My 20lb Mini Aussie is also picky but here is what helped
by: Dominyka

Draco is almost 9 months now but has been super picky about his food since we brought him home. My partner and I are essentially like dog granola moms. Spending a lot of time doing research on what’s healthy and how much. We had to spice it up from the jump and always mix a little wet food or broth to soften the dry up for his little baby teeth or he wouldn’t even come near the bowl. And then one day…. He was like I’m good. Didn’t eat for like 3 days. We only do treats for training or like potty outside type of deal so he did get little tendon here and there but otherwise was practically starving himself. We aren’t too happy with many of the ingredients in pet foods like the little stews they have that practically look like human food some even have pastas and such but we picked it up and tried it along with other stuff out of panic and Draco seemed to be really into the texture. So ofc I’m not about to spend 2-4 dollars on every meal with him so I did some research and simply got fresh vegetables and a whole chicken (I’m a vegetarian it’s been traumatic lol for me) plain and simple boiled rice you could do barley or another grains also there are a few spices that are also good for dogs like turmeric so you can essentially spice it up if your dogs stomach can handle that and I make a doggy stew. Each week a little different vegetables I’ve been sticking to chicken so far. He’s been much better now. I started throwing in his dry food and mix it up now as well and he still seems to be doing fine. He loves it so much he doesn’t even notice medicine in the food.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Australian Shepherd Q & A.

Have Dog Training Questions?

Check out these introductory dog training videos...

I want my dog to stop being aggressive.

I want some help training my new puppy.

I want my dog to stop barking at everything.

I want my dog to walk nicely and calmly on the leash.

I want my dog to listen and come every time I call!

Back to Home

⌃ TOP ⌃

All Content Copyright © 2006-2024 by Anton Hout,
Australian-Shepherd-Lovers.com. All rights reserved.

Disclosure: If you make a purchase via a link on this site, I may receive a commission from various affiliate programs, and as an Amazon Associate and Chewy affiliate I also earn commissions from qualifying purchases—at NO extra cost to you. See the Disclosure page for more information. Thank you!

As stated in our Privacy Policy, Australian-Shepherd-Lovers.com
does not sell your personal information.