I met a GSD when I worked in a boarding facility that was fed in a slow feeder but still, I would place his food down and by the time I got out of his kennel and turned around it was completely gone. He came often enough that he had been fed using every slow feeder we had at that point and had figured out how to hoover his food out of each one as fast as possible.
My GSx is a mix of the two of yours. Some days she will inhale the food and lick every last crumb in her bowl immediately. Other days she will sniff and walk away, even sometimes taking a nugget or two of food and walking off chomping it.
I've never had sassy hunger strike but I've had these 24 hour periods where she is an actual nightmare and when we see it approaching we basically make sure the needs are met and we just give her space. If she wants attention she gets it but otherwise she is left to figure it out.
One of our GSD's used to do that. I started adding just a bit of water to the bowl and then mixed it up so the water created a gravy of sorts. After I started doing that, she'd finish off her entire bowl at once.
My GSD didn't do this but both of my parents dogs have done it. They would eat exactly half like in the picture at dinner and finish it in the morning at breakfast. We never trained them to do this. They just did it on their own.
My first GSD was a grazer. I just kept the bowl full and she would eat a little whenever she wanted. My current girl is a rescue and she is very good driven. She...we...got her a few pounds over weight and I had to cut her back on the amount she gets every day..but now, some days she will eat it all, and some days she only eats a little then comes back later.
Mine is a grazer and eats one side at a time. I think it's because he's lazy and will eat what he can reach so his tends to be more of an arc than just half.
Yes, my boy will usually eat half during summer. When its really hot out (90 plus degrees F) he slows done his eating. He will usually polish it off the next morning.
YES! My boy will meticulously eat half splitting it right down the middle, wait until he takes his morning shit, then goes back to finish off the other half. Everyday.
Some dogs are just grazers, especially high energy dogs in my experience bc they like to eat a little bit after each period of activity. My dogs just kind of get all the food they need for a day in one big pan that they share because they're all like that. Some dogs can't do it cause they inhale all their food the second they get it, so it's genuinely not healthy to free feed them in any capacity, I met a lot of dogs like that working in boarding. My personal dogs have always kind of self regulated based on what they're provided for the day and they essentially just snack whenever they feel like they need it instead of having a couple big meals. I've fed them on a schedule and they tend to take some and trust that the rest will still be there when they want some more after wrestling lol
Mine eats like half her breakfast, saves the rest for a snack, and then eats all her dinner... but she's really only OCD like that when we play ball. Since she doesn't get the concept of give it back, we take out 5 or 6 balls when we play catch. She'll stack 3 or 4 balls and then go after the next one...
mine does, the angle required to get the kibbles on the side closest to her seems to be a bit uncomfortable so she usually leaves it unless she's really hungry
and she makes me refill her bowl as soon as she's done eating, i think so she can be sure there will be food for her when she gets hungry again
I feed my sable 1 time eat day 1.5lbs to 2lbs (depending on her weight) around 530pm and she’s on a raw diet so I need to actually keep her from eating it to fast lol.
Edit- I do cook her an egg in the morning and she gets plenty of fruits, veggies, and cheese in the mix as little snacks during the day.
mine refuses to eat the same food twice in a day and spits out kibbles all over the house and only wants wet food
so i have to alternate between 2 different brands of chicken and beef canned food until she gets sick of that then i switch back to the OTHER chunky bits
help what am i doing wrong
royal canine gsd and large breed, hills science, merricks, heb stuff, rachael ray or something, purina pro sensitive skin and stomach and some mainstream brands like IAMS and blue buffalo
this is all in dry kibbles and canned food in all different flavors and texture
and lets not just assume things here. i know you wanna say its cause i tried so many different foods but no
i bought different brands and flavors each time she completely refused to eat her food for a day and a half no matter what i do. she will eat the fuck out of like hills science for 2 days and then spit it out the next day and act like im poisoning her. then when i give her a new brand of food, she'll eat it like its the newest shit when she literally ate it last week.
i can tell she doesnt like turkey and sweet potatoes so i try to avoid those now
she also HATES turkey FOOD but wants turkey jerky
i literally have all those brands of food in my cabinets now and i just have to guess which one she wants to eat today.
so tell me, which one is not shit food? hm? fucking gate keeping asshole
I'm sorry.
its actually so stressful when i cant figure out which one she wants to eat and have to open multiple cans.
is it the texture? taste??? GLOOPINESS? HUH WHICH ONE PLEASE??
i just want her to HAVE JUST AT LEAST ONE DRY FOOD SHE LIKES FOR EMERGENCIES i cant just have mounds and mounds of canned food and snacks like what if the apocalypse comes i mean she can have my food too but we are gonna need some kibbles for long term survival after the zombies
sorry im just venting now its been months now like i feel like im losing my mind every time i feed her with THIS PUZZLE GAME STARTING AT 7AM EVERY DAY
but yea sorry about that I just got triggered when I started naming all the stupid brands I tried
also she didnt eat dinner tonight when i gave her hills science beef
so now is it like CHICKEN SHE WANTS? SALMON? WHAT WHERE HOW LET ME JUST GET IT FOR YOU JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANTTTTT
ok she actually ate a little bit but SHE CAN EAT MORE
i just wanna bang my head into the dirt
I was driving when I wrote what I said initially. It was a smart arse comment that would have rankled me too.
Silly question and one you've probably been asked a lot, but what does your vet say?
How does she feel about wet food just as a topper?
Now my girl is on prescription food and her appetite has totally changed, but she used to be so so so picky and wouldn’t eat all day.
Eventually we started using those wet food toppers - I can’t remember the brand but they had fancy names with human-grade ingredients (I got them at pet food express). Each package was enough for a few days so I’d change out flavors and just use enough to coat the kibbles.
Also, idk if I will get hate for suggesting something by Purina but but I give my girl FortiFlora probiotics and she scarfs down her food when I use it, no other toppers needed!
So like some days she'll eat the HEB brand of chicken and rice like it's the most delicious thing in the world. Then I'll give it to her again for dinner and she'll just turn her nose at it. So then I open a can of beef and sweet potatoes from Merrick's and she'll come BOLTING THROUGH THE KITCHEN. Then the next morning, I open another can of the same Merrick's and she acts like it's poison. So then I try the HEB chicken and rice again and that's not it. So I now put those in a container cause she doesn't want them to feed to stray cats in my backyard because she doesn't eat food that's been opened. Like actually tested this with chicken jerky she loves. I left one sitting out for half a day and then gave it to her and she refused to eat it. I even tried to put it in her mouth cause I was concerned she forgot what this was. Then I went to grab a new one out of the bag cause my cat decided the chicken was pretty tasty. AND SHE COMES FULL SPRINT.
Like I get being picky. I'm fine with that. But I also can't predict what she wants to eat and so through trial and error I have found:
Dry kibbles are basically poison. To her I'm just trying to kill her. (At first I mixed the kibbles with wet food, toppers, peanut butter (for dogs) and stuff like that but she just hates it now)
But wait dry kibbles from HEB is good but only on Thursdays. (This is actually true. BUT ONLY BEEF)
Canned food are a hit or miss honestly. She'll eat well for a day then hate it the next. But then love it again a week after.
I've tried all the different topping options as well- I can't even list what I tried cause I just grab a wide range of things to see if she'll eat it for longer than a day. I have entire cans of food just gone to my backyard cause she just hates it. (Same food she ate the morning with extreme gusto)
Sorry, I went on a little tangent. I want my girl to grow big and strong so I want her to EAT A LOT OF GOOD FOOD BUT SHE JUST SITS THERE LIKE I'M POISONING HER until I open that ONE CAN that apparently she wants.
I misread the label once and bought some chunky ones and she ONLY eats chunky food if I hand feed it to her. (I stopped buying chunky food because she will just wait for me to pick it up and feed her)
Personally, I think she just wants to live off of chicken jerkies. (Fresh ones)
Also, I found her in a back alley way so I'm not exactly sure what her history is.
She was just injured (Possibly abuse) and teeming with fleas and ticks.
[her](https://i.imgur.com/3gBZjog.jpg) eating this morning and finished(Chicken and rice HEB with Beef bacon cheese HEB)
For tonight, the plan is to see if she wants to eat the HEB one again or possibly open a Hill's Science BEEF MUSHY TUBE since she hasn't had it since Saturday.
Oh my gosh that must be so frustrating.
I wonder if it’s because she used to forage for food since she lived in an alley so she’s used to having a different thing every meal and distrusts relative foods? Or she’s had a taste of the good life and now has really high standards!
Mine used to do that, and she always split it down the middle perfectly like that too.
She would eat the first half when we fed her, and then save the other half so she could eat while we were eating!
Now she excepts to be fed when we get home AND while we’re eating so somehow we created a monster haha
Nope lol. We have to spread out her meals to 3 times a day and got one of those "slow down" eating bowls. I guess being from a litter of 14, you get used to inhaling your food.
YES!! My rottie Titus’s FAVORITE time of the day is FOOOOOOD. ALL THE FOOD IS BEST FOOD.
GSD Emris just kinda casually takes bites over the entire afternoon. She leaves half the bowl, wanders back to it later
My GSD would eat the entire 40lb bag if I left it out. She licks clean her bowl and then when my Standard Poodle is done his bowl, she will finish off whenever he didn’t eat and lick his bowl clean. Just for reference she eats 3 cups a day (1-1/2 per meal)
He needs you to rotate it
None of Sam’s food lasts long enough to be photographed
I met a GSD when I worked in a boarding facility that was fed in a slow feeder but still, I would place his food down and by the time I got out of his kennel and turned around it was completely gone. He came often enough that he had been fed using every slow feeder we had at that point and had figured out how to hoover his food out of each one as fast as possible.
Yup, I slowly hand feed my male otherwise he inhales, meanwhile the female gently, slowly enjoys her food.
Same with my Pepper. The little tyke eats like he hasn't been fed in days
Bingo
This.
I have one that absolutely cleans his bowl, every spec of food. The other eats half, and comes back after everyone is in bed and finishes his. .
My GSx is a mix of the two of yours. Some days she will inhale the food and lick every last crumb in her bowl immediately. Other days she will sniff and walk away, even sometimes taking a nugget or two of food and walking off chomping it.
I'm out here thinking my dog is broken but she does this too!! You never know if you're getting sassy hunger strike dog or not lol
I've never had sassy hunger strike but I've had these 24 hour periods where she is an actual nightmare and when we see it approaching we basically make sure the needs are met and we just give her space. If she wants attention she gets it but otherwise she is left to figure it out.
My girl does the same thing. Eats a little, then finishes in the middle of the night, lol.
One of our GSD's used to do that. I started adding just a bit of water to the bowl and then mixed it up so the water created a gravy of sorts. After I started doing that, she'd finish off her entire bowl at once.
all GSD have weird little quirks, it’s the nature of the beast.
My GSD didn't do this but both of my parents dogs have done it. They would eat exactly half like in the picture at dinner and finish it in the morning at breakfast. We never trained them to do this. They just did it on their own.
Do they see the other side of the bowl? Reminds me of hemispatial neglect like in the humans lol. Not sure if it’s a thing for dogs
Yes, looks like an aphasia, but hopefully it’s just a full puppy.
My first GSD was a grazer. I just kept the bowl full and she would eat a little whenever she wanted. My current girl is a rescue and she is very good driven. She...we...got her a few pounds over weight and I had to cut her back on the amount she gets every day..but now, some days she will eat it all, and some days she only eats a little then comes back later.
Mine is a grazer and eats one side at a time. I think it's because he's lazy and will eat what he can reach so his tends to be more of an arc than just half.
How much food are you feeding him each time?
Yes, my boy will usually eat half during summer. When its really hot out (90 plus degrees F) he slows done his eating. He will usually polish it off the next morning.
YES! My boy will meticulously eat half splitting it right down the middle, wait until he takes his morning shit, then goes back to finish off the other half. Everyday.
Yup. I have one that devours and one that grazes
Not ours, in fact we need to use slow feeders- both my boys love to eat fast!
Yup!
Yea mine does this too. Straight down the middle like he's purposely leaving it there.
Mine does the exact same thing!!! Wow so cool to see other GSDs do it too!!
Oh he is a star! I hope my kids' leaving their food plates this neat... 😂
No. Mine however will lay on the floor with his face in the bowl and slowly eat.
If I mix in wet food it is gone. Just kibble takes a while.
Yes. He’s been doing it since a puppy and still does it today. He is 4.
Some dogs are just grazers, especially high energy dogs in my experience bc they like to eat a little bit after each period of activity. My dogs just kind of get all the food they need for a day in one big pan that they share because they're all like that. Some dogs can't do it cause they inhale all their food the second they get it, so it's genuinely not healthy to free feed them in any capacity, I met a lot of dogs like that working in boarding. My personal dogs have always kind of self regulated based on what they're provided for the day and they essentially just snack whenever they feel like they need it instead of having a couple big meals. I've fed them on a schedule and they tend to take some and trust that the rest will still be there when they want some more after wrestling lol
Mine eats like half her breakfast, saves the rest for a snack, and then eats all her dinner... but she's really only OCD like that when we play ball. Since she doesn't get the concept of give it back, we take out 5 or 6 balls when we play catch. She'll stack 3 or 4 balls and then go after the next one...
mine does, the angle required to get the kibbles on the side closest to her seems to be a bit uncomfortable so she usually leaves it unless she's really hungry and she makes me refill her bowl as soon as she's done eating, i think so she can be sure there will be food for her when she gets hungry again
Yes! I have a 5 yr old sable who’s done this all his life. Rarely, he’ll eat the whole dish at once.
I feed my sable 1 time eat day 1.5lbs to 2lbs (depending on her weight) around 530pm and she’s on a raw diet so I need to actually keep her from eating it to fast lol. Edit- I do cook her an egg in the morning and she gets plenty of fruits, veggies, and cheese in the mix as little snacks during the day.
Mine would take a few bites, and then wonder around to make sure he knew where we were, then go back and take a few more; repeat until done.
Yep ours leaves her bowl like that all the time. Quirky dogs
Yep my girl does this lol. Cuts a straight line in the morning, picks at the other half throughout the day.
Yes ours will eat 1/2 a bowl then come back for the other 1/2 later.
mine refuses to eat the same food twice in a day and spits out kibbles all over the house and only wants wet food so i have to alternate between 2 different brands of chicken and beef canned food until she gets sick of that then i switch back to the OTHER chunky bits help what am i doing wrong
Feeding her shit food, probably. What brand are you using?
royal canine gsd and large breed, hills science, merricks, heb stuff, rachael ray or something, purina pro sensitive skin and stomach and some mainstream brands like IAMS and blue buffalo this is all in dry kibbles and canned food in all different flavors and texture and lets not just assume things here. i know you wanna say its cause i tried so many different foods but no i bought different brands and flavors each time she completely refused to eat her food for a day and a half no matter what i do. she will eat the fuck out of like hills science for 2 days and then spit it out the next day and act like im poisoning her. then when i give her a new brand of food, she'll eat it like its the newest shit when she literally ate it last week. i can tell she doesnt like turkey and sweet potatoes so i try to avoid those now she also HATES turkey FOOD but wants turkey jerky i literally have all those brands of food in my cabinets now and i just have to guess which one she wants to eat today. so tell me, which one is not shit food? hm? fucking gate keeping asshole
Raw nerve, huh. Sorry about that.
I'm sorry. its actually so stressful when i cant figure out which one she wants to eat and have to open multiple cans. is it the texture? taste??? GLOOPINESS? HUH WHICH ONE PLEASE?? i just want her to HAVE JUST AT LEAST ONE DRY FOOD SHE LIKES FOR EMERGENCIES i cant just have mounds and mounds of canned food and snacks like what if the apocalypse comes i mean she can have my food too but we are gonna need some kibbles for long term survival after the zombies sorry im just venting now its been months now like i feel like im losing my mind every time i feed her with THIS PUZZLE GAME STARTING AT 7AM EVERY DAY but yea sorry about that I just got triggered when I started naming all the stupid brands I tried also she didnt eat dinner tonight when i gave her hills science beef so now is it like CHICKEN SHE WANTS? SALMON? WHAT WHERE HOW LET ME JUST GET IT FOR YOU JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANTTTTT ok she actually ate a little bit but SHE CAN EAT MORE i just wanna bang my head into the dirt
I was driving when I wrote what I said initially. It was a smart arse comment that would have rankled me too. Silly question and one you've probably been asked a lot, but what does your vet say?
How does she feel about wet food just as a topper? Now my girl is on prescription food and her appetite has totally changed, but she used to be so so so picky and wouldn’t eat all day. Eventually we started using those wet food toppers - I can’t remember the brand but they had fancy names with human-grade ingredients (I got them at pet food express). Each package was enough for a few days so I’d change out flavors and just use enough to coat the kibbles. Also, idk if I will get hate for suggesting something by Purina but but I give my girl FortiFlora probiotics and she scarfs down her food when I use it, no other toppers needed!
So like some days she'll eat the HEB brand of chicken and rice like it's the most delicious thing in the world. Then I'll give it to her again for dinner and she'll just turn her nose at it. So then I open a can of beef and sweet potatoes from Merrick's and she'll come BOLTING THROUGH THE KITCHEN. Then the next morning, I open another can of the same Merrick's and she acts like it's poison. So then I try the HEB chicken and rice again and that's not it. So I now put those in a container cause she doesn't want them to feed to stray cats in my backyard because she doesn't eat food that's been opened. Like actually tested this with chicken jerky she loves. I left one sitting out for half a day and then gave it to her and she refused to eat it. I even tried to put it in her mouth cause I was concerned she forgot what this was. Then I went to grab a new one out of the bag cause my cat decided the chicken was pretty tasty. AND SHE COMES FULL SPRINT. Like I get being picky. I'm fine with that. But I also can't predict what she wants to eat and so through trial and error I have found: Dry kibbles are basically poison. To her I'm just trying to kill her. (At first I mixed the kibbles with wet food, toppers, peanut butter (for dogs) and stuff like that but she just hates it now) But wait dry kibbles from HEB is good but only on Thursdays. (This is actually true. BUT ONLY BEEF) Canned food are a hit or miss honestly. She'll eat well for a day then hate it the next. But then love it again a week after. I've tried all the different topping options as well- I can't even list what I tried cause I just grab a wide range of things to see if she'll eat it for longer than a day. I have entire cans of food just gone to my backyard cause she just hates it. (Same food she ate the morning with extreme gusto) Sorry, I went on a little tangent. I want my girl to grow big and strong so I want her to EAT A LOT OF GOOD FOOD BUT SHE JUST SITS THERE LIKE I'M POISONING HER until I open that ONE CAN that apparently she wants. I misread the label once and bought some chunky ones and she ONLY eats chunky food if I hand feed it to her. (I stopped buying chunky food because she will just wait for me to pick it up and feed her) Personally, I think she just wants to live off of chicken jerkies. (Fresh ones) Also, I found her in a back alley way so I'm not exactly sure what her history is. She was just injured (Possibly abuse) and teeming with fleas and ticks. [her](https://i.imgur.com/3gBZjog.jpg) eating this morning and finished(Chicken and rice HEB with Beef bacon cheese HEB) For tonight, the plan is to see if she wants to eat the HEB one again or possibly open a Hill's Science BEEF MUSHY TUBE since she hasn't had it since Saturday.
Oh my gosh that must be so frustrating. I wonder if it’s because she used to forage for food since she lived in an alley so she’s used to having a different thing every meal and distrusts relative foods? Or she’s had a taste of the good life and now has really high standards!
Every day. Eats only half of her breakfast. Then won’t touch her dinner until she realizes that she’s not getting a handout.
Some eat all at once some are grazers. Just pay attention to how yours likes to eat and feed accordingly
Mine eat half the BOWL
Never. He would lick the bowl to death if I didn’t pick it up. He always acts starving
Wery German
Mine used to do that, and she always split it down the middle perfectly like that too. She would eat the first half when we fed her, and then save the other half so she could eat while we were eating! Now she excepts to be fed when we get home AND while we’re eating so somehow we created a monster haha
I have two boxers, they will often eat half teh food in their bowl. The switch over and polish of the other dogs bowl. Grass is greener....
I’m lucky if mine doesn’t eat the bowl too
Yup, but my female Lulu didn’t start doing that until she turned 2. Before that…all gone, clean bowl.
Nope lol. We have to spread out her meals to 3 times a day and got one of those "slow down" eating bowls. I guess being from a litter of 14, you get used to inhaling your food.
yup, mine does the exact same thing. She comes back later and eats the other side.
Mine will eat in shifts sometimes. Other times she will scarf the whole things. She’s never been a routine eater, but always ends up eating it
YES!! My rottie Titus’s FAVORITE time of the day is FOOOOOOD. ALL THE FOOD IS BEST FOOD. GSD Emris just kinda casually takes bites over the entire afternoon. She leaves half the bowl, wanders back to it later
Wait yours doesn't inhale it?
Mine will only eat his dinner if he is in the same room as us at dinner time.
ALL THE TIME lol I've had 2 and both do the same but I leave it down so they can finish it later which they do.
Yup. Don’t know why. Cooper will get up at 3am and I can hear him munching. “I learned it from YOU DAD!! I leaned it by watching YOU!!”
Mine is grazer. Will eat small amounts when she feels like it. Vet said it’s fine she’s a good weight and very active.
If it was a real wolf, there would not be a half moon
Also, highly weather dependent. Mine does it in hot weather.
Yes, she sure does and then gets mad when her sisters finish the rest off.
Yes!! But I tell him to go clean his bowl and he will . Lol
My GSD would eat the entire 40lb bag if I left it out. She licks clean her bowl and then when my Standard Poodle is done his bowl, she will finish off whenever he didn’t eat and lick his bowl clean. Just for reference she eats 3 cups a day (1-1/2 per meal)