Corgi will eat, but doesn’t want to?

Ein is 4 years old, in perfect health and weight, and suddenly has to be told to eat his food. We have always feed him breakfast at 7am and dinner at 9-10 after we have eaten. I went out one night to meet a friend at the pub and when I got back at 9:30 my husband informed me that Ein was
refusing to eat. He has never turned up his nose at food and will usually gulp
it down like a vacuum. We let it sit for an hour before I tried coxing him to
eat his food and he refused to even go into the kitchen, like he was scared. When
I took his bowl to the living room he would eat. He refused to eat in the
kitchen for a few days acting scared of the kitchen unless I stood there
pointed at the food bowl and said “eat your food.” Otherwise he would try to
take it piece by piece to the living room to eat, or not eat at all. He also
kept refusing to drink from the kitchen bowl and would only use the bedroom
bowl. I got him to eat and drink in the kitchen again, but I still have to tell
him to eat his food. He used to be so excited about meal time. This change in behavior
was so sudden and weird that I don’t know if I should be worried or if corgis
are known for suddenly changing their eating habits. Also I got him new bowls
and food after the change and it didn’t help.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on October 14, 2010 at 7:41am

As long as your vet says his health is good just put the food down for 20-30 minutes and pick it up. It could be a problem with his teeth or something more serious so an adult that stops eating should be checked. If healthy, you could be teaching him to be picky by catering to him. They are smart enough to be curious about "what interesting thing" are you going to do next at meal time? Lol

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Permalink Reply by Lindsey Corkern on October 14, 2010 at 8:25am

My dog had a similar issue (read any of my other posts and it will sound like she has every issue in the book! hahaha). She is still a puppy though. I had her food and water stationed next to the fireplace in the living room. This location was fairly private and away from major entrances. Then Leia did the same thing Ein did about the kitchen. She acted like she was scared to go near her bowls or even the fireplace. Turned out that the wind whistles through it and makes weird noises that Leia does not like. Moved her food into the dining room and this fixed everything.

Have you considered starting a new mealtime routine that will keep his mind occupied up until time to actually eat the food? Maybe he just needs some sort of distraction. Does he have a fave toy you could play with for a few min before feeding him?

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Permalink Reply by Sarah C. on October 14, 2010 at 9:47am

Sounds like the kitchen is the problem. Is it possible there's a noise there he doesn't like or something?

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Permalink Reply by Jane on October 14, 2010 at 12:16pm

It does sound like maybe there's something in the kitchen that is spooking him. Any chance there's a smoke alarm beeping or something like that?

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Permalink Reply by KyraMoonUnique on October 14, 2010 at 2:06pm

We live in an apartment with the worlds smallest kitchen. His bowls are on the wall between the sink and fridge. I checked the floor, made sure it was clean and checked the fridge for any smells or sounds and found nothing. The smoke alarm is in the hallway and has never bothered him when it's gone off. He'll go in now to drink, but he still acts kinda funny with his food. I thought it might be his teeth, but he eats his rawhide stick just fine. He gets 1-2 of those a day. Just wondering if anyone else has had the same prob.