# Anyone have a boy who goes off his feed



## selzer (May 7, 2005)

When bitches are in heat? 

Is there anything you can do. The boy has never been bred, he will be two in October. Heidi (who will be 10 in August) is in standing heat, and Oscar won't eat. All he wants to do is get to her obligingly flagging tail. And Quinn has been in heat for about a week, so, he will probably be as off his feed with her being in heat as well. 

I hate to neuter him before he is two just because he won't eat. And, no chance of letting him breed with anyone -- he is closely related to everyone who isn't geriatric. So he's out of luck. I have him in with Odessa, so he isn't ever allowed to graze. He gets so much time to eat, on his own, and then back in with her.


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## Julian G (Apr 4, 2016)

Everyone always tells me its better to get the bitch spayed than the male neutered. If not then you're left with either getting the male neutered or waiting until the bitch comes out of heat. 
You have a lot of dogs!


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## Dainerra (Nov 14, 2003)

getting neutered may not fix the eating issue. You can try the smell under the nose to try to mask the scent. 
If it's a female that you don't plan to breed this cycle, you can give her chlorophyll to help reduce her odor and make it easier for him. Other than that, I can't think of anything that might help him


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Thanks.


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

Russ about drove me nuts when the girls came in heat. He'd drop weight like crazy. He "might" eat 1 cup of food a day. Maybe. Probably not. I had to farm him out to his breeders house to save our sanity and to keep him from starving to death (okay, slight exaggeration). I finally just neutered him (at age 3).


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Did neutering him help? I really have no reason to keep this guy intact, though I would prefer to wait until he is two.


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

He's fine now. Eats. Put on weight. Doesn't act like an idiot anymore, well, he's still a doofus but that's just him, LOL. If you can stand a skinny boy, then wait it out till he's two. It was really annoying dealing with a dog that would barely eat, so I understand your frustration.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

dogfaeries said:


> He's fine now. Eats. Put on weight. Doesn't act like an idiot anymore, well, he's still a doofus but that's just him, LOL. If you can stand a skinny boy, then wait it out till he's two. It was really annoying dealing with a dog that would barely eat, so I understand your frustration.


 
You're giving me hope.


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## Cschmidt88 (Nov 24, 2010)

My neutered boy still throws a fit over girls in heat, but does not go off feed. However I can't say if he did that before being fixed because he was neutered at 9 weeks old. He also has much higher food drive, he's the kind of dog who has to be dying before he refuses any food where as my intact male isn't nearly as food motivate. My virgin intact male, also 2, went off feed for the peak days of my girl's heat. I honestly just went through it, I offered him some food and if he didn't take it within 10 minutes I just picked it up. He was fine. He would eat like every other day or so. But you could also try removing him from the property and feeding him elsewhere, like taking him for a walk.


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