They won't eat their food!

[amie]

I had concerns about my boys picking out the bits they like from the Xtra Vital food I give them, but over the last week, they simply stopped eating it. They pick out a couple of their favourite bits, but practically leave the whole bowl of food. I've been taking away the almost full bowl and replacing with new food after a day or so, but they just do the same. I'm at a loss as to what to do. Should I be strict and leave the food in there until it's gone? I'm worried about them starving if I do that, but surely they'd eat it when they get hungry enough? I've stopped giving them any treats because of this as I don't want them waiting until I give them treats and ignoring their other food. They seem to be just filing up on hay and drinking a lot.

I'm very concerned about this now - naughty little things

[nickymills30]

i;m sure that hay makes up a very large amount, of a goo;s daily intake. If i;m wrong someone will put me straight lol

My first trio of boys, eat loads of nuggets, but not as much hay. My other trio, eat loads of hay, and not so much nuggets, and the babies just eat everything in site!

[Whizz]

Nicky is correct, hay makes up 3/4 of their diet, they generally only eat a tea spoon of hard food.

I also feed mine on Xtra Vital, but they hate the dark/light blobs, but like everything else. They don't mind the brown sticks, but will only eat them if the rest is gone. I usually put the food they haven't eaten back in the tub and then give it to them later.

EDIT: somehow, I went to edit it but quoted myself instead XD

[noshalot]

I'm having a similar problem. When I got my 3 boys from P@H they were being feed P@H nuggets and I bought a bag home with me. As I dont have access to a P@H where I live and the postage cost to Western Isles was extortionate, I bought XtraVital at local petshop. I mixed it in with some of the nuggets. They loved the Xtravital and left the nuggets. Now they just select feed on the Xtravital and leave the P@H nuggets and the lightbrown sticks. I've tried leaving the food in for a few days and not topping it up in they hope that they would eventually eat all of it.

But the little "darlings" have got wise to that and now dig all the food out of the bowls and then kick it out of cage so that I have to refill their bowls. They're not stupid!!

So how can I ensure they are getting a balanced diet, if they are select feeding. They have constant access to Timothy hay (in a hay rack and in pressed cookies), but I've yet to see them eat any.

[smux]

Got to be cruel to be kind...My Dante kicks out the food he doesn't like, but I pick out all the bits kicked out of his bowl and feed it to him. Of course, some people haven't got the time like me, but the only other option is to take the bowl out and let the little sods forage through the hay for the food they kicked out.

If they're eating select bits and leaving the rest and NOT kicking it out, just leave in what they leave in and fill it up to the usual level with food (I tend to fill up bowls to the top and refill it daily, many people go by strict levels and are worried about overfeeding their degu...worry when they get fat, not before...there's a good chance it won't happen :-)) and eventually you'll find they have no space left for you to fill the bowl and if they want more food they have to eat the stuff they don't like as much :-)

Alternatively, you know what they leave, so pick out the stuff they eat from their food and put it in a bowl or something, and feed them only the stuff they don't like. If they eat a little bit of the food you've given them, offer them the good food as a treat. They should associate the good with the bad over time and learn to eat it all.

However, when they're hungry they WILL eat the stuff they normally leave so don't worry about starving them...although they can go a long time without food if they wanted to

[Jaiye]

I can see a battle of wills emerging over this one! Who will break first..... The owner who is watching the goos not eating, or the goos who are stubbornly refusing to eat food they are not so keen on.....

XP

Hope you win!

[noshalot]

Thanks for the reply Smux, I totally agree with what you say and would do that except for the fact my my little devils kick the bits they don't like out of the cage, so I have to refill their bowls. They are so cunning. I will have to think of a way round this.

I guess I could put their food bowls down to the bottom of the cage, where I have a strips of perspex on the outside of the cage to prevent the sawdust being kicked out all over the the living room carpet. Also as there wouldn't be a shelf unnder the bowl, the food would fall into the sawdust and they could then forage for it like you suggest.

Right I'm going to try that.

Thanks

and jaiye, I think the goos will win the battle of wills

[amie]

I seem to have had some progress with mine. Not with the Xtra Vital though, lol! I took out all of the nice bits that they like and only gave them the bits of food they weren't eating. I refused to give them any other treats except for the nice bits out of the Xtra Vital. Well, they just kept taking the nice bits of food, burying them and eating those when they were hungry, lol. So, I thought I'd try Gerty Guinea Pig food as my Piggie eats that. THEY EAT THAT! Grr. I've just spent £5 on a couple of bags of Xtra vital for them and they pig out on te Guinea Pig food instead and leave the Degu food

I'm thinking I might just have two bowls of food in there at all times. One Xtra Vital if they fancy it and one Gerty Guinea Pig. I'll hand feed them the Supreme Scienece everyday so theysee it as a treat (that's good for them!). That should help with hand training too (I always have the bowls full and I don't worry about over feeding as I weight them quite a lot).

If anyone thinks differently to my feeding method above, please say! lol

Thanks for all the replies and advice