# Breakfast?



## nala-goldengirl (Jun 24, 2015)

Nala is about 20 months and has decided she really doesn't like eating breakfast anymore. We had been feeding her about 2 1/2 cups a day, 1 cup in the morning and the rest for dinner. But lately she is refusing to eat in the morning, she reluctantly eats about a 1/2 cup if i leave it out for her. But doesn't seem all that interested. No problem on the dinner tho, she licks the bowl clean. I do mix in some fresh food on both meals as a topper.

Shes about 60 lbs and smallish for a golden. We have her on the Acana ranchlands kibble at the moment, but also debating changing to see if she could be bored with it?

Is this worth a vet visit to see if anything is wrong or just normal as she gets closer to the 2year old mark? Everything else seems fine, normal energy level and normal poops.


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## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

Dogs sometimes get picky about their food. I don't change dog foods if something is working (normal poops, energy, good skin/coat/ears). Changing foods can create picky eaters in dogs. She just might not be as hungry, or is turning her nose up perhaps because she prefers the fresh food on top (is she eating that in the morning?), and by evening she is hungry enough to eat both. If she's of normal weight (meaning you can't see her ribs/hip bones prominently, but can fee her ribs), then its OK if she skips a few meals. 

What I usually do in this situation is put food down for 15 minutes, and if she doesn't eat, I put it back up and thats it, no more food until the next meal. The problem usually rights itself within a week or so, and she'll be back to happily chowing down on her breakfast. There are a lot of threads about similar issues if you search this forum. 

Its up to you whether you want to change foods or not. I personally don't think its necessary and can make pickiness worse. 

The other thing I would say is that Acana/Orijen type foods are excellent, but they are pretty rich. I've found that often dogs, especially goldens, require even less food than they state as their recommended feeding guide. If your dog is getting 2 1/2 cups of acana PLUS whatever calories from the fresh food, she just might not be hungry enough. If she's of normal weight or over, you could calculate how much calories she's getting from the fresh, and reduce the acana accordingly (or ballpark by going to 3/4 cups twice daily Acana). 

Also, just to reassure you, 60lbs is not necessarily smallish for a female golden!! The breed standard for our girls is 55-65lbs, with height 21.5-22.5 inches. She's well within the breed standard. I think people forget, but Goldens are actually more medium-sized dogs. We treat them like large sized dogs because of their orthopedic issues, and there are a lot of Goldens out there that are larger than the breed standard.


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