My Puppy just doesn't care for food - help!

[coripc33]

I have a 4 months old Westie that is very hard to feed (I posted about this before, thank you all for your answers). She has been fed Royal Canin for the past month or so, and she had been doing fine on it. However, she is becoming harder and harder to get to eat something. I tried moistening it with water, mixing it with different kind of soft food, mixing it with cottage cheese - that just means nothing to the princess! LOL She will go sniff it a bit, then just walks away! It's funny that she will eat anything that she can get in her mouth outside - leaves, grass, dirt - whatever! You should see me trying to get her to eat, following her around with the bowl in my hand - pathetic! I already gave up on her eating in the morning, since that's when she is genuinely uninterested in any food, thinking that, lunch time she will be starving. Not so - she still doesn't care to eat anything. She eats if I feed it to her with my hand - now she eats out of a fork, 'cause I didn't want my hands to be in her food, so it's not like she's not hungry (or maybe she just eats to get me off her back, who knows... ) The thing is that I don't have a lot of time at lunch to try to persuade her to eat, since I can only be home for 1 hour, so I don't know what to do anymore.

Now... is it too early for her to start eating some raw food? I have a feeling that she would love some raw meat, or maybe a nice bone (if yes, what kind should I look for), or some eggs with pasta or rice - I just don't know if she's old enough.

...or should I just not feed her if she refuses to eat, and at some point she will have to because she's hungry? I am seriously considering just not trying to hand feed her once or twice so she'll get hungry and eat.

Any feedback and suggestions are greatly appreciated - thank you in advance.

 

[Gempress]

LoL, what a little diva! I can just see her eating out of a fork.

I think she's learned that if she turns up her nose at the food bowl, you'll put something better in it. My rott/husky pup and my golden retreiver both went through that same phase. You may have to exercise tough love, and just let her get hungry. That's what we had to do. And if it takes her a day or two before she caves, don't worry. I've never seen a healthy puppy intentionally starve themselves. She'll get the idea.

If you want to switch her to raw, be sure to do a lot of reading on it first. There's more to it then just feeding raw meat and bones.

 

[Wings]

i would leave her the usual food at the usual time, walk away and leave the food for 20-30 mins, if she dun eat, keep the food and you go on and do what you need to do. Then feed her again at dinner, usual time you feed her, do the same.
She will get the idea, if she dun eat, no more food till next meal and no pampering with extra goodies. She will cave in a couple of days.

 

[Mordy]

i agree with wings 100%. your dog has you trained very well.

offer food twice a day at regular times and take it away 20 minutes later if she's not eating. don't try to entice her with any more goodies for now. no extras until she has the idea down that either she can eat what you offer her, or go hungry until the next meal.

you also need to be confident yourself. put the food down and walk away, don't hover to see if she's eating. take the time to read the newspaper or chazhound, or do something else non-distracting until it's time to pick up the food.

even if she wants to make things difficult for you and doesn't eat for a day or two, don't be concerned. dogs and people don't starve before they have used up all their body fat reserves and even some of the muscle tissue.

to be honest, even the fussiest puppy isn't likely to skip more than 2 or 3 meals in a row just out of refusal. be firm, be confident and don't cave in. offer plenty of fresh water and exercise.

there is no age limit to start feeding a raw diet, if you want you can start now. but as gempress already pointed out, read a few good books on the topic first and don't just dive in.

 

[coripc33]

Thank you all for your answers - I agree that she's got me trained (more than you know ) I just wanted to make sure that it's OK to not try to feed her if she doesn't want to eat, and that she won't starve herself - I have a bird too, and they WILL starve themselves if they don't eat what they want, so I just wanted to double check. I am more than willing to do this, don't get me wrong, I just wanted to make sure that she won't get harmed.

I was cracking up when I read about her being a little diva - that's exactly how she acts when it's feeding time - it is so funny to watch! Eating from a fork - hilarious, really!

Thanks again, I really appreciate everyone's input, especially since it's such good news.

 

[Gallien Jacks]

are her teeth ok, and is she ok other than being fussy

 

[coripc33]

Her teeth are OK - she is losing the baby teeth and getting adult teeth right on schedule (according to the vet). She is more than OK other than fussy.

I didn't force her to eat last night - as usual, she just sniffed at the bowl and refused to eat. I took it away, and she got nothing last night. This morning for breakfast she licked the bowl! She was sooo hungry... At lunch today she again didn't want anything, so I took it away. I hope she'll eat tonight, I would be happy with her having 2 meals a day which she can actually eat by herself.

Thanks to all for their encouragement, I hope we have only a few days over which she'll figure out that she has to eat when she sees it, otherwise it's gone for hours.

 

[Mordy]

good to hear the plan is working.

 

[I_LOVE_cInDeR11]

i would say to first try and force feed if he doesn't like to eat or just put a special treat at the bottom of the food dish with some food on top then he should be able to chow down to the treat and just do that for a while for about a week and then try it without the treat at the bottom and see if he still eats the food not knowing there isn't a treat at the bottom and see what he does.

 

[durvish]

never force feed! if it is so bad a force feeding is called for then the vet makes that call! and belive me it will take alot more than being a picky eater for the need to force feed