# Ideas to encourage her to eat her food when its put down?



## Robh (Jul 28, 2010)

Hi All, although my 4 month V is not a fussy eater she is a picker. Does anyone have any ideas on how to encourage her to eat all her food when it’s put down for her? It’s not a big problem but the cats tend to help out and it also mean I end up leaving her food down on an evening to make sure she gets her full rations for the day. Thanks Robert


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## Ro-Ro (Aug 30, 2009)

We are having the same problem with our 4 month old. Although if she doesn't eat it in 30 minutes or so I pick it up. Her eating habits really crack us up - she gets an entire mouth full and then drops it on the tile so it will scatter - then eats one piece at a time. I have noticed that if i pick it up and later she decides she wants to eat she'll claw at her dish.


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

I guess my first question is, why not just leave the food down, and let them eat when they want too? 
If they don't have a weight problem, let them eat when they want to. with 4 of the 5 Vizslas I've owned food was always available to them, and they self fed.

With horses, and body weight, you have "easy keepers" and "hard keepers". Thoroughbreds are usually "hard keepers" and need "hay in front" 24/7 to maintain weight. Vizlsas are kind of like thoroughbred horses and may need " kibble in front" 24/7.
Gunnr has "kibble in front" 24/7 just too maintain her weight. Tika has a tendency to eat too much, and gets her food in the morning and at night.
Each dog is different.

Get a squirt bottle full of water and squirt the cats when they go near her bowl. they'll stop. Mine did. ;D,


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## Chestersmum (Jun 21, 2010)

I have noticed quite a lot of V owners have been really succesful feeding a raw meat diet. Our pup has always been fed on a BARF diet, is also 4 months old and has no problem eating. 

Suggest reading up on it (plenty of posts on here) and make a decision. It might not help and as Gunnr said you could just leave her kibble down but a suggestion


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## jp (Nov 24, 2009)

We have always had to just leave it down and Penny does a good job of self feeding as her weight has been great. The only frustration is that when she does start to get hungry (and it is obvious when that happens) she sometimes will spend time scavenging for people food or other things to eat first. This can lead to episodes of counter surfing or general orneriness.


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## Ro-Ro (Aug 30, 2009)

I guess we started picking her dish up so we could get a better sence of her bathroom needs. She is like clockwork after she eats.


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