How To Get A Fussy Diabetic Dog To Eat

My dog is a picky eater and has diabetes

by | Sep 20, 2010 | Insulin |

Thankfully Bender is not a picky eater. He eats all his food at every meal. But what happens if he didn't? Our other dog Luna will eat any from a 1/4th of her food to all of her food every meal. Its never the same.

Imagining Luna on diabetes, I would think she would be difficult to regulate with an eating habit like that. So what could you do?

Testing after every meal would be a pain, stressful for the dog, and would cause major micro adjusting for the dosages. Some thing I don't recommend.

The easiest thing would be to switch to a food that your dog loves and will eat all of it up. But what happens if that doesn't work?

Coming up with a sliding dosage scale might work based on food consumption. Some thing like this.

Ate all the food – Full shot
Ate 3/4th of the food – Subtract 1-2 units
Ate 1/2 of the food – Subtract 2-4 units
Etc.

In theory this seems like it would work. Of course the amount of insulin units subtracted would be based on your dog and how much insulin they get. It would be different for each dog. And also going on the assumption that the dog is being fed the same amount at ever meal (like you should be doing for your diabetic dog).

Its an interesting thought and some thing to ask my vet about. What are your thoughts?