I have a 1.5 year old chihuahua and a 5 year old pitbull. My chihuahua will not stop eating out of the pitbull's bowl. I feed them the same food. Their bowls were next to each other and the chihuahua's food would not ever be touched unless the pitbulls food was gone. I tried feeding them in different rooms and the chihuahua would still eat out of the pitbulls bowl. Neither of them growl at each other but my boyfriend buys the food for the pitbull and he is getting very upset with me about my dog. I have even tried putting some wet food in the chihuahua's bowl to get him to eat his food and then the pitbull would come eat all of it unless i am standing right there yelling at him. How can I get the chihuahua to stop eating out of the pitbulls bowl?
Crate them at meal times, and remove any unfinished food when you let them out.
Feed them in separate rooms. Put the pit bull in the kitchen and the chihuahua in the bathroom.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist for this. Put them in separate rooms when you feed them. When they are done eating let them out.
put him on leash
If one dog walks a way from the food, pull that bowl up and put it away until the next feeding. You should be supervising the feedings and correct any dog that tries to eat out of another dog's bowl. The chihuahua should have a touch correction or be asked to move away from the other bowl when another dog is eating and not allowed to get the food. Once everyone is done, bowls are pulled up. A touch to the side of the chihuahua is all that it should take to let him know that you don ' t approve of him taking from the other bowl.
I can only wonder why in the first place you put their bowls together and expected the dogs to know which bowl belonged to whom and they must not share. The dogs have developed a mutual understanding to share their meals (like pack dogs/families do) and you have encouraged this behaviour. Perhaps get rid of the boyfriend and stop shouting at your dogs; it really makes no sense to them - Do you really expect them to understand your behaviour ? If your boyfriend is that upset I would suggest feeding the pitbull in a room separate from the chihuahua until it has finished. Would he have preferred the dogs fought at mealtimes? Likewise feed the chihuahua in a separate room. Usually bigger dogs eat their food quickly and the smaller breeds tend to graze, so the bigger dogs in your situation would usually be very well fed! One wonders at what sort of appetite your chihuahua must have if he is making a dent in the pitbulls food to worry out though; it makes for amusing reading! We had exactly the opposite problem with a jack russell and red cattle dog, as the cattle dog tended to wolf his down and then take on the jack russells; result being he was getting overweight. We fed them separately, one inside one out, but the jack russell could never eat all its food at once, a snacker, and would always leave some behind. They never growled at each other either, an assumed pecking list. Of course as soon as we put them together again the cattle dog was on a missile course for the terriers bowl, so we would have to remove it first.
Try this first:
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
Buy your dog food from a pet store, rather than the supermarket. Ask for a dry kibble designed for a LARGE breed dog. The nuggets should be too large and hard for your small dog to eat. Do not add canned food to soften it, as this will not only defeat the purpose, plus the hard dry food will help keep his teeth clean and keep down the amount of poop. Feed your little dog a food designed for only small dogs. (also at the pet store) You still should feed them in separate rooms.
If the little dog refuses to eat at first, remove his dish after about 15 minutes and refrigerate until the next time he is to be fed. Don't worry, dogs will not starve themselves. After a few times, he will wise up and realise that if he doesn't eat his own food, he will go hungry. Good Luck!
