9 month old refusing to eat kibble

You may be overfeeding him, some dogs self-regulate.

Yes, it's totally OK for him to decide to not eat. A healthy dog will not starve itself. Put the food down, wait 15 minutes, take the food up. Repeat at dinner. No peanut butter, no wet food, no coddling. He either eats, or not. He'll learn.

 

My sheltie does the same thing

Buddy did exactly the same thing at the same age. We really worked hard to find a kibble he would eat, but to no avail. We still have bags of just a few cups used out of them.

Finally I decided to feed him a wet food. I bought Nutro Ultra Puppy and he eats it well. I was concerned he would have diarrhea, but no. He has been just fine. One thing to be concerned about is his teeth and gum health. Just make sure he gets some type of teeth cleaning.

 

If dogs are healthy, they will eat. It's not uncommon for them to go off their food though.

If he had a tummy upset, he may associate that with his food, and may associate it forever.

That being said, it is rare for dogs to starve themselves. Eventually they will eat. It's just a question as to how long before you cave.

I won't got into transitioning to a new diet yet. I encourage you to give your current diet another day or so, and perhaps supplement with rice, pumpkin, boiled meant.

 

My half-Sheltie Boo-Boo would gladly eat anything, so long as it didn't come from a package marked "dog food." He would, however, eventually eat the kibble; usually at the end of the day, when the prospects for anything better were exhausted.

 

My Belgian is a dog that will go off food. At first we thought she was being picky but it turns out that if she is stressed she ends up with an acidic tummy and can't eat. We have to put her on Metronidazole for a day or two to settle it down and then she will resume eating. It started when she was teething and has been an ongoing thing - she's 12 in July. Otherwise she is pretty healthy, never has a problem with food or water changes, good energy but she has gone a week without being able to eat anything, including roast beef, before we were able to resolve what her problem was. Her vet kept telling me she would eat and then had to eat her own words.

 

Is he neutered?

 

Honey went off kibble about the same age, it was right as we were moving a lot while our house was finished up. in addition we got several bags of food that went through recalls. Eventually we got some good stuff, but she seemed afaid to eat for a long time. (Even yogurt, since we usually gave her a spoonful with the kibble.)


I finally got frustrated with buying bags of stuff that went to waste and picked up some fresh pet. Two weeks eating that and she was no longer scared of food. Got back up to the right weight, started taking treats again, and will happily eat whatever kibble I buy her. (And if she can manage to steal it, the cats as well)

 

Darla has started doing this since we cut out the not so good tinned food. The first few days she seemed happy with just kibble, but today she didn't eat her dinner. I removed it after half an hour and she has gone hungry.

She did mooch around the kitchen hoovering up crumbs though, so I don't think there is anything wrong with her. She was just holding out for more than just kibble. After a day or two she will chow down on her kibble again so just keep up with the tough love approach. Or they learn that they get extras if they get fussy with their food!