Feeding Problems

Question
my mum's yorkie is 4 years old and recently mum has been experencing problems getting her yorkie to eat - she refuses to eat from her bowl and will only eat food if it it fed to her by hand or place directly on the floor, if her food is put in a bowl she appears to be frightened of it, she will not drink water from a bowl either but has drunk from a flower pot in the garden but when the pot was brought inside she refuses to drink from it, at the moment my mum is putting the food directly on the floor as she is concerned that her yorkie should not go too long without food - she resorted to this after her yorkie had been refusing to eat from her bowl for two days, and the only way she can get her yorkie to take any water is to cup her hands with some water and then her yorkie will drink from her palm. Please help as my mum is so worried that her yorkie is too tiny to survive without drinking or eating for very long and therefore has resorted to hand feeding and drinking - i hope you can help us as my mum is due to go into hospital soon and i will be looking after her yorkie

Answer
Amanda,

My mother had the same problem with one of her Yorkies. Her Yorkie wouldn't eat from a bowl and she wouldn't drink water from a bowl unless it was fresh.  My mother had to constantly keep putting fresh water in the bowl to get her Yorkie to drink from it. Her Yorkie also acted scared of the bowl. What she ended up having to do was use a small plate to put the food on.  Since your mother's dog is refusing to eat or drink from a bowl I think you are going to have to experiment with different bowls, plates, saucers etc. until you find the right one.  You didn't say what kind of food your mom was feeding her Yorkie but I am going to assume it is not canned dog food because she is putting it on the floor. Have your mom take the different bowls, plates, and saucers and put food in all of them.  Have her put them in different places and see if her dog will eat from any of them.

If that doesn't work then have your mom purchase a box of Gerber Rice baby cereal.  Then have her mix it with some warm water until it is the consistency of soup.  Then take several small plates and put them (saucers) on the floor and put dog food, water, and the baby cereal on separate plates.  Then see if she will eat or drink any of them.  The reason for the baby cereal is because most dogs will eat it and by mixing it with water she will be getting nutrition and water at the same time.

If she does eat the baby cereal you can gradually increase the amount of cereal making it thicker and thicker.  Then start adding dog food to the mix by putting the dog food in hot water until it is soaked up and the dog food is the consistency of the baby cereal.  Gradually decrease the baby cereal until you have arrived back at hard dog food.

Keep in mind that if the Gerber baby cereal doesn't work that she could also try putting down something like chicken that she knows her dog cannot resist.  If her dog will eat the chicken from a bowl or plate then the problem is a spoiled dog and not something else.  Your moms dog will not starve to death.  Even if she goes a few days without eating eventually she will eat. However, in order to make your mom feel better you can try these different methods.  If she is still having problems after trying the things I have suggested you may want to take her to the vet just to rule out anything that could be medically wrong with her.  Good Luck and if you can let me know how it turns out.