Doodle Eating Habits

[Jacquie Yorke (DRC)]

I'm curious...Does anyone else have doodles that are a bad eaters?.....Blake will leave his food in his bowl the entire day, sticking his nose up at it no matter what it is....Even chicken!...Then I will either hear his collar hitting the bowl at about 2 or 3 in the morning or I will wake up and the food will be gone.....

[Helen]

Chester is not a big eater either. I guess the poodle (3/4) part has over-ridden the lab (1/4) glutteney, that I had experienced with my Black Lab. He is still a chewer so he is crated when I am not home, but he still does not rush to his food bowl, he would rather spend time with us and then go eat when everyone is watching tv.

[Jacquie Yorke (DRC)]

Hi Helen...Chester is a cutie!.....Yes I know what you mean.....Same experience on my end.....Blake will forgo any food in favor of hanging with people......He will also be distracted from pooping for the same reason....

[Tamara & Giada]

Yup........guilty as charged! Giada will nearly starve herself! We finally decided to leave it out ALL the time, and that worked for a couple months.........now she's back not eating. She can go weeks with only eating a C. a day. My vet was very concerned which made me concerned, now I try not to let it bother me. I keep telling myself she will not starve (hopefully)! I am not used to this, ALL my other dogs I have ever had are/were pigs!!!

[Jacquie Yorke (DRC)]

My vet wasn't concerned in the least.....Maybe I need to get a new vet.....

[Tamara & Giada]

Maybe your dog is a good weight. Ours at the time it was suggested was underweight quite a bit:(

[Tammy]

Well Zoe loves to eat and has never not finished a meal immediately.

[Jacquie Yorke (DRC)]

He does look like Blake!.....Same here....pick pick pick....HOWEVER, I must mention that if there is another dog around, Blake WILL eat every last morsel in a matter of seconds....For a while I was borrowing my neighbors dog at mealtime as an incentive.....

[Jacquie Yorke (DRC)]

That is a great suggestion Amanda!.....

[Jacquie Yorke (DRC)]

Hi Jenel...Sidigi is sooo cute!.....I too have tried all of these strategies that you speak of...Yes my neighbor is gracious enough to let me borrow his white shepard if I need to. By the way, Blake too loves to eat insects and rabbit poop!...Yuck!....Just this morning he consumed about a pound of rabbit doody!...I don't see the appeal but he loves it...My vet said that his heartworm meds will keep him from contacting any other worms so he's not concerned....Speaking of worms, Blake will also eat worms he finds on the sidewalk and in puddles...

He's also always interested in whatever I happen to be eating....He'll turn his nose up at real chicken yet he'll insist on sharing my whole grain pasta!..He's a quirky little dood...That's for sure

[Tamara & Giada]

No, ours started right away. We NEVER left food out, until she had a problem!! The vet was the one that said we NEEDED to leave the food out. I do not believe that!

[Jacquie Yorke (DRC)]

Tried that.......the result was 1 to two days of no eating and no pooping eventually leading to ravenous glutony on the third day followed by another 1 to 2 days with no eating...If I leave it out, he eventually eats it...Usually in the middle of the night.....

[Leslie and Halas]

Halas does most of his eating at night, usually 8:30 - 9:30pm, but most of the time he doesn't eat everything in the bowl. If he's busy playing and doesn't eat at night, he'll eat first thing the next morning, and then he does clean out the bowl. Once in awhile, if we get up in the middle of the night to go outside, he'll take a couple of bites when he comes in, but I discourage that, because I don't want him to start doing that all the time. Overall, I'd say he's not a big eater, but he is very motivated by treats or bits of his food when we're training. Strange.