Will dogs starve themselves to death?

You may remember I had a sick dog a few months ago. The vet got him eating again but to keep him eating I had to hand feed him for a while and of course his mom, the ****, well she got what he got. They will no longer eat dry dog foor, they will no longer eat canned dog food. Now they are becoming more picky than any 6yo I have ever seen. Last night I baked some chicken livers, they will usually eat them but I mixed in a little left over rice and added two cups of some toy breed dry dog food I bought. They let it sit, they let it sit. They will not eat the toy breed dog foor that was 12 bucks for a small bag, (from the pet store). I got some flavoring sauce, the flies love it but they will not touch it. I tried some plain bread, they always liked that... no more. I bought a pack of chicken breasts and baked all five. They are three of them if I cut them in pieces then I made some fresh rice with half water and half chicken broth and cut up the last two pieces of chicken and made two plates. They or something ate about half of one and then it sat there. They will no longer eat milk bones. They will eat steak, pizza if I hand feed it to them, or they will eat fried chicken and ... I am sick of it. For the last couple of days that stuff they didn't eat, I threw out and have left two kinds of dry food out in the pen... I am beginning to wonder if they will just starve with food in front of them.
Wifey is going to bring home a couple of cans of loaf style Alpo or Pedigree and if they won't eat that I am just going to stick to the dry food until they eat or die... I don't know what else to do. I just refuse to feed them better food than I get.

Do you think that they will get the message and eat if they get hungry enough? They are (I think) 16 and 17 years old. Maybe 17 and 18. The older one gets around fine but the younger has that thing where the back legs stop working. He gets around but not too well and if he stands his back end gets lower and lower. Anyway, I am at a loss as to what to do.

Thanks for any help and does anyone want to buy a dog?

J

That is a tough call Julien. I suspect all species know when their time is up even if their bodies only eat off the 'fat of land' to prolong the end.

I bet they would eat a pound of BECAN every day. One a buy one get one free I could feed them for 5 bucks a day. Perhaps two double cheese burgers each from BK. They are 125 each, still 5 bucks a day. I bought the chicken breasts on sale for 179.00 a pound so that was not too bad. I also tried the hamburger meat in a 5# tube from Walmart, the 80/20 mix... they wont eat it cooked or raw. They did eat it cooked in a Beef Stroganoff HB Helper meal... but that adds another 1.80 to the mix. The tube is 13 bucks for five pounds, I cut it into five 1# portions, so that is about 1.35 per pound then the HB Helper makes it around 3.00 a day which isn't too bad. That isn't too much more than canned dog food... in fact I saw some 1# cans of dog food at the pet store that were just under 4 bucks a can... I was thinking about the large cans that are about 1.25 a can... No way I am buying 4 dollar a can dog food.

Oh well, I will try the regular dog food,they may be hungry enough by now to eat it. The chicken livers are less than 2 doallars a pound so I can always stay with that, buy a weeks worth and cook them up all at once... but dang it.. I want them to eat dog food.

I'll let yo know what happens. There should be a song in here somewhere.

J

Good luck, Julien.  

I split a can of Pedigree beef dog food and the sick one ate a bite or two after a while, I am not sure if the other one ate anything at all.
I wonder it dogs can get dementia. he older one is acting strange like she is not comfortable with me getting near her or touching her. She has always been skittish, I got her used and I don't know what she went through before I got her. I think they may be eating just a little of the dry food they have eaten for years but not much. I will give it till sometime next week and if it does not improve I'll do what I have to do.

Thanks,

Julien