I'm super frustrated with my Chi. We got him when he was ten years old. His original owner didn't feed him well. She spoiled him with junk food and he was overweight and half-toothless when he left her care. He was also allergic to whatever she was giving him (I know he ate a lot of ice cream, Alpo, and other garbage)....his skin was all red under his fur and his ears were hot.
Anyway....fast forward three years. I made his food for him for about two years. Chicken, brown rice, random veggies, supplements. He was never very enthusiastic about it, but he ate it. He slimmed down nicely and looked like a normal Chihuahua. His skin cleared up. The mouth disease has improved.
As he gets older, he's getting more and more finicky. I finally gave up cooking for him because I was throwing food away and he was losing weight. (No, raw food isn't an option, as he has only four teeth left and raw meat/bone is impossible for him to chew.)
We've had him on several quality canned foods over the past year, and he always starts out eating it and then just begins refusing after several weeks. I wind up trying to bribe him to eat with all sorts of garnishes, which I know is just fueling his desire for table scraps. Most people say to just offer food and he'll eat when he gets hungry. That's not really the case. He will go without several meals and then start to throw up bile. I guess he gets nauseous when his blood sugar gets too low. Sometimes he'll indulge in the cat's kibble, but he can't eat much of it because of the chewing action needed.
Anyway, he's at a good weight right now and he's obviously not starving, but I'm very annoyed at these games he's playing and don't know how to stop them. He seems to be getting weird and confused in other ways, too, so I tend to think he is just becoming a difficult senior citizen, and I want to be gentle.
Anyway....fast forward three years. I made his food for him for about two years. Chicken, brown rice, random veggies, supplements. He was never very enthusiastic about it, but he ate it. He slimmed down nicely and looked like a normal Chihuahua. His skin cleared up. The mouth disease has improved.
As he gets older, he's getting more and more finicky. I finally gave up cooking for him because I was throwing food away and he was losing weight. (No, raw food isn't an option, as he has only four teeth left and raw meat/bone is impossible for him to chew.)
We've had him on several quality canned foods over the past year, and he always starts out eating it and then just begins refusing after several weeks. I wind up trying to bribe him to eat with all sorts of garnishes, which I know is just fueling his desire for table scraps. Most people say to just offer food and he'll eat when he gets hungry. That's not really the case. He will go without several meals and then start to throw up bile. I guess he gets nauseous when his blood sugar gets too low. Sometimes he'll indulge in the cat's kibble, but he can't eat much of it because of the chewing action needed.
Anyway, he's at a good weight right now and he's obviously not starving, but I'm very annoyed at these games he's playing and don't know how to stop them. He seems to be getting weird and confused in other ways, too, so I tend to think he is just becoming a difficult senior citizen, and I want to be gentle.
