YORKIE NOT EATING

Question
My Yorkshire Terrier is currently 11 months. I have "shared custody" of the dog with my girlfriend and she recently left for Costa Rica and the dog is now at my place. The problem is, the Yorkie refuses to eat his normal food. It is a mixture of dog food/boiled chicken and he usually devours it. He ate it on the first day but hasn't eaten since last night and this morning. What should I do? I think he may be going through separation anxiety.

Answer
Hi,
I have two Yorkies and a shih-tzu and have had some eating fussiness with the Yorkies. I hope I can help.

What flies off the page to me is the 'shared custody' as related to the eating problems you are having. What I suspect MAY be happening is that her other Mommy is either feeding her too much table food, thereby ruining her taste for normal food, feeding her too much or giving her too many treats at the other home. I may be wrong but this is a guess.

Here is what I would do. Cut out all treats..and I mean ALL. Find out SPECIFICALLY AND TRUTHFULLY what he is/was being fed in her other home. It really sounds to me that if he usually 'devours' the mix you stated, that he is just not hungry. AFter a day or two with you, without treats, plenty of exercise and high interest, healthy foods you should be ok. This really sounds like a case of "something being fed in the other home that you are not aware of" or she is getting too much food before you got her.

Yes, he may have a bit of separation anxiety too but you can handle this with tons of attention and play time and exercise. How often do you get 'custody"? I am not a fan of this type of situation with a dog such as a Yorkie. They are very sensitive and become really bonded to one person..it's their nature. You are going to have to be patient with him. If it is separation anxiety then just wait him out a day or so and feed only HIGH INTEREST FOOD TO GET STARTED. Skip the dog part of the mixture when he shows interest in eating and slowly incorporate it back into the chicken. This may whet his appetite. If this goes on for too long then you need to see a vet but I don't think it will get to this.  

How often do you get this pooch? Is the time divided equally between the two homes? If he spends MOST OF HIS LIFE with the other gal then you may, indeed, be dealiing with separation anxiety but I haven't seen this with my dogs when I leave town for weeks and my housekeeper takes care of them. This doesn't mean that your pooch doesn't have a touch of this...not life threatening at all. He will eat when he is hungry enough is the way I am looking at this...FOR NOW. Please let me know if things are improving....I feel bad for the little guy. Sue