WHAT DO I FEED MY PUPPY?

[Pitters01]

HELP. I have a 11 week old puppy who refuses to eat puppy kibble. I bought the same food that the breeder had fed her, but she will not eat it unless I put puppy milk or meat with it. She CAN eat kibble as when I visited a friend, she managed to eat their dog's food - adult kibble - with no problem.  I have followed the vet's advice of putting her food down at meal times, then leaving it for no more than an hour, and if she doesn't eat it, taking it away until the next mealtime.  I did this for almost 2 days, and she still would not eat. She only weighs 2.85 kilos so I don't want her to lose weight. I caved in and gave her 2 Weetabix - I know, bad move, but her tummy was rumbling and she was very lethargic.
I am finding this very upsetting as I have had dogs for the past 30 years and never encountered this problem before.

[LS25Lee]

Hi Pitters

I totally understand your problem as have been through the same with my now 8 month old miniature schnauzer.

When we got him he was being raw fed but we're unable to maintain this diet as it just wasn't practical.

We initially moved him onto natures menu junior tinned which is gently steamed. He loved this so we left him on this for sometime. We did try to move him onto kibble without success if I'm honest.

We tried all of the same things you did. He would eat it but not consistently. One minute we thought we'd cracked it and then after a few days he just refused it.

He did definitely prefer it with some hot water on and left to cool a little. We bought a treat ball from home bargains and put his food into that which worked really well but wasn't practical.

My work colleagues would say just leave it down he won't starve. I just couldn't do it! I was worried about him and didn't want him to lose weight.

So I gave in and moved him back onto natures menu tinned. He barks and howls for it which works for me.

You could try soaking it in hot water. Have you tried feeding it on the floor? May sound strange but my puppy preferred to eat it from the floor rather than from his bowl. One trick I almost tried was to mix in a spoon of tinned pumpkin to it. I watched a YouTube video where that seemed to work.

Good luck with it all. I hope you have some luck with it going forward