If dogs do not eat dry food, this may indicate an existing toothache or unsuitable food. Under certain circumstances, it can also be due to training errors, abdominal pain, dehydration or problems in the mouth.
If your dog still eats wet food and treats and only refuses dry food, then that is generally a good sign. Not eating at all is more worrying.
To find out the cause, the exclusion process has proven useful here. For this reason, below you will learn about both the causes and the symptoms.
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#1 Toothache
When dogs have problems with their teeth, chewing often becomes painful. The most common causes include:
- Dental caries
- Change of teeth
- Inflammation of the neck of the tooth
- Broken tooth
- hole in the tooth [1]
You shouldn't assume that your dog will draw your attention to this on its own. The four-legged friends inherited this behavior from wolves.
Instead, it is important to pay attention to the dog's behavior. What is typical here is that he no longer eats dry food, but eats wet food. Other symptoms include:
- Visible redness in the mouth
- Strong bad breath
- One-sided chewing
- Constant whining
- Dog is sensitive to touch
- swelling or blood in the mouth
- Sudden drooling [2]
Affected dogs often react aggressively when you grab their snouts. Here I recommend visiting the vet and soaking the food in warm water.
When dogs struggle with toothache, they often don't eat their dry food because of the pain. You can usually recognize it when the dog suddenly develops bad breath, drools heavily and is sensitive to touch.
#2 Unsuitable food
Many dog owners paradoxically assume that dogs are always happy eating the same food. And this despite the fact that they themselves need much more variety.
In addition, not only the tastes of people, but also those of every dog are very different. Typical reasons for refusal are:
- Mold in the food
- Lack of variety
- Food intolerances
- Food has gone bad
- Poor quality dog food
- Food allergies [3]
What is typical here is that the dog refuses dry food but eats treats. The following tips have proven useful in practice:
- Mix bone broth into the food
- Change the brand of food
- Stir a raw egg into the food
- Mix new food into the old
At this point I strongly recommend a free food check. Not only will you receive individual food recommendations, but you will also receive free food samples.
Dogs often just stop eating their dry food because they get the same thing in their bowl day in and day out. In individual cases it can also be because the food has gone bad, there is mold in it or he is even allergic to it.
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#3 Stomach pain
According to research, humans have been omnivores for around 2.6 million years. Dogs, on the other hand, were pure carnivores around 30,000 years ago. [4]
It was only through domestication that dogs became more and more omnivores. Your digestive system is therefore much more primitive and susceptible to the following things:
- Foods rich in fiber
- Viral infections
- Parasites in the digestive tract
- Human food leftovers
- Eating feces and grass
- Eating too quickly [5]
If they have stomach pain, they often stop eating their dry food, but their greed still leads them to eat wet food. Other symptoms include:
- Restless walking around
- Profuse salivation
- Nausea and vomiting
- Gurgling in the stomach
- Constant licking of lips
- Sudden diarrhea
- Lack of motivation [6]
In the case of a normal stomach upset, the symptoms go away on their own after a short period of fasting. In more severe cases, I recommend visiting the vet.
When dogs struggle with stomach pain, this usually shows in their eating habits. What is typical here is that affected four-legged friends drool heavily, appear listless, refuse dry food and their stomachs make strange noises.
#4 Training mistakes
In many cases, the “spoiledness” is also trained – but not on purpose. The most common unintentional training mistakes are:
- If the dog doesn't eat, he gets better food.
- The four-legged friend gets food from the table while begging.
- The dog gets too many treats in everyday life. [7]
The problem? If you reward your dog for not eating his dry food, he will continue this behavior in the future.
The solution? Set clear boundaries by establishing firm rules. Dog professionals recommend that you first avoid all treats in everyday life.
You can also only provide your dog with the bowl for a certain time a day. This automatically teaches him that he should appreciate the food.
For more in-depth tips, I can also recommend Johanna Esser’s online dog school. There you will find, among other things, a module that deals with exactly this topic.
Sometimes dogs refuse their dry food only because they were unintentionally trained to eat it. In this case, the training error needs to be reversed. The easiest way to do this is to not provide your dog with any other alternatives.
#5 Dehydration
If dogs don't eat or drink, that's usually not a good sign. Because without water, serious consequences occur after just 1-2 days.
Healthy dogs can last a whole week without food, even if necessary. Incidentally, dehydration is usually due to illness. Typical examples of these are:
- Frequent vomiting
- Heat stroke
- Kidney disease
- diabetes
- Chronic diarrhea
- Fever [8]
So it's no wonder that dehydrated dogs often don't eat dry food. There are also usually other signs here. Typical here are:
- Increased pulse
- Dry gums
- Low amount of urine
- Dog urine stinks
- Sudden stagger
- Dark yellow urine
- fatigue [9]
If your dog doesn't drink anything for more than 12 hours, then I recommend taking action. Because this can indicate serious illnesses.
If dogs are struggling with a lack of water, they usually don't eat dry food. This can often be recognized by the fact that the four-legged friend has a higher pulse and the urine is dark. Dry gums are also typical here.
#6 Mouth problems
In addition to toothache, other problems in the mouth can also affect the dog's eating and drinking behavior. Typical triggers here are:
- Splinters in the gums
- Warts in the mouth
- Infection of the gums
- Cancer disease
- Open wounds [10]
In most cases it is caused by dogs chewing on wood or bones and there is a splinter in their gums. You can usually remove this yourself.
Chewing often becomes torture, which is why dogs don't eat their dry food, but eat wet food. Other typical signs include:
- swelling in the mouth
- Unusual redness
- Sudden bad breath
- Drink less
- Profuse salivation [11]
If you see anything unusual in your mouth, I recommend seeing a vet for precautionary measures. Early treatment can often prevent many things.
If dogs have problems with their gums, tongue or other parts of the mouth, this is usually visible to the eye. Among other things, it can be recognized by sudden redness, swelling or even excessive salivation.
Further tips
To encourage your dog to eat, the following tips have proven useful in practice:
- Change of taste: Mix some bone broth, natural yogurt, chicken broth or even eggs into the dog's food.
- Bowl cleaning: If there are old and bad food leftovers in the bowl, dogs often avoid their food.
- Mixture: If your dog doesn't like a certain brand of food, mix it with other food until the package is empty.
- Persuasion: Sit next to your dog and eat something from a separate bowl. Many people then automatically start eating.
- Heat food: If your dog won't eat the dry food, warm it slightly to intensify the smell of it.
- Wet food: Most four-legged friends prefer wet food and biologically species-appropriate raw feeding (BARF) over the dry version.
- Add fun factor: Combine eating with fun, for example by packing the food in a food ball like this.
- Hand feeding: Whatever comes from the owner's hand is almost always eaten. However, some four-legged friends are stubborn here too.
- Quantity control: Most dog food manufacturers clearly indicate excessive amounts of food on the packaging. Are you perhaps giving your four-legged friend too much?
Other causes
If your dog doesn't eat dry food or anything else, this could also be due to other illnesses. Typical examples are here:
- Poisonings
- Liver problems
- Medication
- Tonsillitis
- Laryngeal paralysis
- Kidney problems
- Pancreatitis
- Gastrointestinal problems
- depression [12]
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