Won't eat when boarded

[CuervoMom]

Axel will be six months old next week and has been going to a doggy daycare/boarding facility for two months. He's been there for daycare about 5 times and has never eaten his lunch while there. I didn't love it, but wasn't too worried because it's just one meal.

Yesterday, I took him in the morning and he stayed overnight and was picked up at noon today. He apparently ate nothing yesterday (no lunch or dinner) and ate only a small part of his breakfast. Even though it was only a day, he was definitely skinnier when he came home.

I have to go out of town next week and he will be staying there for two nights. I love the place (and Axel does too) but I'm concerned about him not eating. Does anybody have any ideas or experiences on dealing with this? I've been thinking about getting some canned food, but he's never had it before and I'm not sure how he his tummy would react to it. If it's the same brand/formula in a wet that he gets in a dry, would he need any transition time?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

 

[whiskers]

You shouldn't need to do any transitioning to canned food, assuming you'd just be using a small amount as a topper to coax him to eat.

When I was a kennel assistant at a clinic, for dogs that wouldn't eat we'd stir in a little bit of meat baby food with their kibble. That did the trick for most of them

Maybe ask the facility what they usually do with dogs that aren't eating?

 

[rjkline]

One of the main reasons I started Bentley on fish oil was because when he was younger he wouldn't eat... just didn't care to eat much at all. And he wouldn't eat when we would leave him with family. So I started piercing fish oil softgels with a needle and squirting it on his food and he went crazy for it. Hasn't missed a meal since. And the fish oil is so good for him, it's a win/win. Though, you have to make sure you get the pills that aren't lemon flavored.... lots of fish oil pills come flavored to cover up the fish oil taste.

 

[CuervoMom]

Just to follow up: Axel spent two nights at the boarding place and came home today. As suggested, I spoke with the owner when I dropped him off on Thursday and, sure enough, she assured me that they had some tricks of the trade to get dogs to eat. She said they started with a little fish oil spray, then moved to pumpkin, and if nothing else worked, canned food.

When he was picked up today, the staff said that they used the fish oil spray and he ate and good portion of every meal. He had some food left over, but not all that much really. And, he looks less skinny today than he did when I picked him up after just that one night last week.

Thanks for the responses and for suggesting the obvious of talking to the facility. Sometimes the easiest solutions are the last ones I think of.