# Rescued Dog Not Eating



## CurtisKatyMiloOzzy (Jul 13, 2008)

Hello,

I wasn't sure if this should go under the Food forum or not, so I stuck it here. My wife and I rescued a 2 yo, m, Australian Shepperd from out local shelter this weekend. He is a great dog and everything is going extremely well, except for one thing. He doesn't seem to be eating. I brought him home early Saturday afternoon and I haven't seen him eat anything since (with the exception of a dentabone and a treat or two we gave him). His mood is good as well as his activity level. Being an active breed I've taken him on a 2 mile run each morning since we brought him home and to the dog park every other evening, all going very well. This is the first dog I've rescued, and has joined our pack with our other dog a 18 month old Jack Russell Terrier. As I said everything is going well except the eating. The shelter gave us a 5lb bag of the food they were feeding him (science diet) which happens to be what our JRT eats. He was only in the shelter about 3 days before we rescued him. With all that said I'm not sure if his not eating is more likely stress due to a new environment, he never ate SD to begin with so he's not used to it yet, some unknown reason, or a combination of things. I thought I would reach out on here to see if anyone who has a lot of experience with rescued dogs knows this to be a common issue the first few days, or what not. I'm hoping its stress, but if he's not eating by Wednesday morning, I think I'll take him to be seen. Thanks in advance.


----------



## BoxerMommie (Jun 26, 2008)

It is not uncommon for dogs to not eat the first few days of being in a new place. I pet sit and 99% of the time dogs that come to my home go 2-3 days without eating a bite. You can add a little bit of 100% meat baby food to his food and see if that entices him or a little canned food. But truthfully I would recommend a food change. Science Diet is one of the worst lowest grade unhealthy foods you can feed and a rescue (who usually haven't had the best lives to begin with) definitely don't need that kind of food to compound any other issues. I would recommend you check out www.dogfoodanalysis.com to choose a higher grade food for both fo your dogs. Ideally you want to be feeding at least a 4 star food preferably a 5 or 6 star food. Ones such as Avoderm, Blue Buffalo, Innova, California Natural, Solid Gold, Wellness, Natural Balance, to name a few.

At this point, since it's only been 2 days I wouldn't worry yet. He should come around in another day or two and settle in.

Good luck and congrats on your new baby.


----------



## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

BoxerMommie said:


> But truthfully I would recommend a food change. Science Diet is one of the worst lowest grade unhealthy foods you can feed and a rescue (who usually haven't had the best lives to begin with) definitely don't need that kind of food to compound any other issues. I would recommend you check out www.dogfoodanalysis.com to choose a higher grade food for both fo your dogs. Ideally you want to be feeding at least a 4 star food preferably a 5 or 6 star food. Ones such as Avoderm, Blue Buffalo, Innova, California Natural, Solid Gold, Wellness, Natural Balance, to name a few.


Please listen to her! And check it out yourself. Unless you're feeding the Lamb and Rice SD or the Nature's best, my guess is that the first few ingredients are Whole Grain/Ground Corn, chicken by-product meal, soybean mill run, powdered cellulose, etc. etc. Really you should stop at the first two and run away screaming. Check out that website she gave you for definitions of those ingredients too. 

That being said, if you stick with the above mentioned brands, I can guarantee you they don't contain any of those ingredients, and your dogs will be much healthier. 

Good luck!


----------



## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

CurtisKatyMiloOzzy said:


> I'm hoping its stress, but if he's not eating by Wednesday morning, I think I'll take him to be seen.


I would give him some more time. He's been through a lot lately. However, I always take my new dogs to a vet almost immediately just for a good check up.


----------

