# 10 1/2 month old female now picks at her food and won't finish eating.



## cmullins (Apr 10, 2012)

We just adopted a 10 month old golden retriever on 2-25-12. The breeder said that she was an aggressive eater, and for the first 2 weeks, she literally woofed her food down so fast that we had to get her a slow-down bowl, something which the breeder said she used too. However, when we tried to slowly change her kibble from puppy chow to another quality large breed puppy food, she started refusing to fully eat her meals (2 cups, twice a day). Now she's really gotten picky. We've tried mixing some quality puppy canned food with the dry and she eats a little, but not all of it (mostly the canned food). We occasionally give her small treats (milk bones), which she will eat all she can get, so her appetite is there; however, my husband has given her a couple of bites of steak, hamberger and veggies over the last month. We just had her spayed a week ago and she did excellent. The vet run all kinds of blood work and she is healthy. She doesn't look skinny and is at the right weight. She runs and plays and has energy...but she just won't eat much. Help! It's really worrying us. Could she be holding out because of the few bites of people food that she has now tasted a few times over the last month? If so, what do we do to get her back to dog food?


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## sfalan (Apr 10, 2012)

2 cups, twice a day? Is that 4 cups total? I only feed my Golden 2 cups total per day since she went on adult food over three years ago.

What brand food are you using?


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## Sammy&Cooper (Dec 28, 2011)

maybe the spay has somethig to do with the lack of appetite. also 4 cups seems like a lot of food, I currently feed my goldens 2 cups a day total. also she is old enough to be switched to an adult food which I found helped with my female just because generally I find food brands carry a wide variety of flavours in adult formulas.


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## Faith82 (Aug 25, 2011)

I am having the same problems with my 11 moth old male. He used to eat all his food in less than a minute so we had to slowly pour it into his bowl to slow him down. Now we are having a hard time getting him to finish 1 cup in the mornings. Our vet recommended feeding him 4 cups a day, 2 in the morning and 2 at night. We are lucky now if we can get 2 whole cups in him a day. He isn't sick, we've taken him to the vet. He still has a lot of energy and gets a lot of exercise. He's not losing weight either so I guess he should be ok.


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## Deber (Aug 23, 2011)

I think it is a stage they are going through. Our female at 10 mo almost quit eatting too. She also was more low strung. I took her in, had CBC done, teeth/gums checked and all came back fine. We dropped from the 1 1/2 cu X 2 to picking up whatever she didn't eat in 10 min. Within a month she decided she needed to eat again and we are back to normal. Both my dogs are fed 1 1/2 X 2 = 3 cu daily. If we have a really lengthly and physically challenging day I up the feed in the morning just a bit, but honestly they both still leave a bit in the mornings. Afternoons they eat it all. 

I think they just go through moods where they want much more food, then less food. Seems to average out right in the end as they continue to grow and fill out!


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

That's a common age for the appetite to drop off a bit. Coaxing a dog to eat can simply make a pickiness problem worse, particularly if you're coaxing with special treats like wet food or steak and then expecting the dog to eat plain kibble the rest of the time.

A healthy dog won't starve himself, so if your dog is at a good weight and simply eating less, don't sweat it. That's quite a normal thing to have happen once the big growth spurts are over.

Edited to add: my dogs eat about 4 cups of food a day when we're very active (running or hiking 12+ miles a week), and that's extremely high for a typical GR's needs. Plus, different foods can have very different calorie density, so our 4 cups might be significantly more or fewer calories than a different food.


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## newport (Aug 8, 2011)

sfalan said:


> 2 cups, twice a day? Is that 4 cups total? I only feed my Golden 2 cups total per day since she went on adult food over three years ago.
> 
> What brand food are you using?


I adopted Lola at 11 months and she only received one cup of dry split between two meals.... with ground vegies and supplements included. What you are feeding seems like a lot of food. Lola is NOT on the thin side.... she just does not require a lot of calories. If it were up to HER though--- she would want the 4 cups LOL!


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## Sally's Mom (Sep 20, 2010)

My dogs are not active and eat one cup twice daily...


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## Phoebe's mom (Jan 17, 2012)

sfalan said:


> 2 cups, twice a day? Is that 4 cups total? I only feed my Golden 2 cups total per day since she went on adult food over three years ago.
> 
> What brand food are you using?


2 cups total, that seems very low. I feed my dogs Innova large breed adult and my 1 year old goldendoodle eats 4 cups a day and my 6 month old golden eats 3 1/4 cups a day and they are still quite lean. I couldn't imagine cutting that in half!!!!


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## bowdense (Feb 22, 2011)

My pup is 10 months old and about 58-60 lbs. He eats between 3-3 1/2 cups of food (Canidae ALS 468 cal/cup) a day depending on his activity level...minimum of 2 30 minute walks per day. He is lean. I have never had a problem with his appetite...I would be worried, too, if he stopped eating. Good luck to you.


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## Brandiann (Jul 24, 2011)

My Lola just went through this (She's 10.5 months).. She had went into heat a few days before her scheduled spay.. So that might have had something to do with it.. Or it might just be a stage. Before she would get VERY excited about food, and never took her more than a minute or two to finish a meal. She went into heat and pretty much didn't even want to look at food. (Vet checked & she was healthy) Now 3 weeks later she's back to eating like a pig and gets excited about food again. For what it's worth shes 70 lbs, active and eats 1-1&1/3 cup of Purina pro plan large breed 3x a day.


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