My boy prefers eating his dog food off the ground not in his bowl..... confused....

[r0b1]

sorry if something like this has been posted i did a search and couldn't find anything similar to my question...I hope I managed to find the right place to ask this question... hopefully this is the right spot...

anyway...

My pugsley is a strange strange puppy (feel free to get a look at him in the meet and greet section where i have a pic of him).... It appears as if he does not like eating food from his bowl but instead eating his food off the ground or eating food from someones hand (which of course is natural)....

Its kind of scary because he went from eating like a typical pug (scarfing down food like its nobody's business) to barely eating food unless its hand fed to him (which is a habit i will not want to start at all) or unless its scattered on the ground....

in case you are wondering he is eating Iams proactive health smart puppy original and pugsley is now 11 weeks old...when i first got him he was specifically on a canned food diet and i slowly weened him into a dry food diet (by decreasing 25% canned food and increasing 25% dry food each week) even though from time to time i give him some canned food to eat as well.

Other factors I guess to consider why he would prefer eating from the floor or from the hand is when he is not in his X-pen he spends a lot of time with us in the kitchen supervised (thats the place where we usually spend a lot of time) granted he will roam around looking for food left on the ground (there isn't very much as we maticulously sweep the floors well). Also I have a niece who is absolutely in love with pugsley who i've been told does feed him by hand....

I figure these factors may contribute to him not wanting to eat of his bowl... and i ask from you guys if there are any other reasons you can think of a dog not wanting to eat from his bowl and what I can do to possibly correct this....

I want my boy to eat and i think its completely ridiculous to see him eating his dog food off the ground and not in a bowl...

thanks in advance for your help guys...


rob

[pugaddiction]

I had a dalmation who did this also. He had a metal bowl with a rubber ring on the bottom, but the rubber ring finally gave in. He ended up getting a shock from his bowl and would not eat out of it anymore, so we would put it on the floor. I finally got tired of this and got him ceramic bowls that were raised off the ground. He still wouldn't eat out of them, so I enticed him with some yummy soft food mixed with his kibble and he started eating out of his bowl again. Could there be something that is scaring him around his bowl or maybe he got zapped also, what kind of bowl do you use?

[Pugs-R-MandyBait]

At 11 weeks. I'd still be feeding a mix of the wet and dry. The kibble may be jusssst a bit much for his baby teeth and crunching it up sort of ouchy.
Feeding by hand or scattered on the floor, he is getting less per bite and more comfortable. I am not a huge Iam's fan ... I think it is highly overpriced for the nutrition and digestibility it offers. 6BeautifulPugs is here somewhere and has a link for a great site that ranks food.

[shaynapug]

Some of my pups do the same thing!!!! Keep putting it in his bowl.....and a bit on the floor. Dump the dish onto the floor if he doesn't eat. He'll go back to his dish! It's weird!

[Wally 'n' Leto]

Wally stopped eating out of his bowl at one point, and we figured out that he didn't like metal. We switched to ceramic, and he was fine.

[dani]

I add water to Ernie's food to soften it a bit, he's fifteen weeks. But he still likes to pull out pieces and drop them on the floor or stand about two feet away from his bowl while he chews. He got startled by a bowl his first night here so that may have something to do with it.

[ayleash]

I know an elderly pug who demanded this for a few months before developing back pain... I actually think she was in pain and going into the bowl stressed her as it might have been an "up and over" the edge of the bowl thing, but to eat of the floor she could bend at her "elbows"?? This is all guessing because once the pain showed up, the doc suggested a big elevated bowl (so it's not "tight" around her failing eyes, AND she doesn't have to lean in any way pulling at her lower back).

(I have a pug of my own who prefers to pull the food out of the bowl and over into the room where the oriental carpet is! But add 3 more dogs who won't let her un-guarded bowl stand "full" and that habit disappeared!)

[r0b1]

Hey guys thanks for the info so far! I'm in the process of switching from a metal bowl to a ceramic bowl hopefully this might help him... I've noticed that the food in his bowl will eventually be gone by the time I get back from work (a positive thing is now I don't have to go home for lunch to feed him again ...although I'd rather see an empty bowl when I come home from lunch rather than a Half full one).
I guess a good idea would be to keep up again with the canned food i suppose that would be a good idea and I have noticed that he is biting a little more often and it's probably due to his teeth coming up.... Hopefully I can figure this out regardless thanks for all the help so far guys I'll keep ya posted and if you go any other ideas keep em coming

Later
R0b