I have an eight week old Westie puppy who I picked up from the breeder on Thursday. She's so wonderful. I've decided to name her Harlow. She's not, however, eating nearly as much as I expected, or as much as the breeder told me she would. The breeder had her on kibble. I plan to transition her off of this, but will do it in stages. Anyway, she's eating so little. Two things come to mind: she's overly stimulated with all the new things in her life, and also she's no longer competing for food with six siblings, so perhaps isn't as motivated to bolt down as much as possible while the gettins good. Whatever the reason, I think she needs to be eating more. I did give her a whole, raw chicken leg. She loved it and worked on it and worked on it, but apparently an eight week old isn't quite up to the job of tearing meat very efficiently. Try as she might, she didn't succeed in consuming much of it. So then I tried cutting it into bite-size pieces. She choked on one of the larger pieces and that scared me. I'm still offering raw chicken on the bone and she does love knawing on it, but it isn't a source of much meat for her at this point. I've also tried cottage cheese and brewers yeast. Again, she nibbles a little, but doesn't eat much. To give you an idea if how much food she's consuming, she's been having two small poops a day, and one of them tends to be a tiny poop, the first happens in the early morning and looks to be a relatively normal size for an eight week old (though I admit to not really knowing what that is) and the second comes in the afternoon and is usually a couple teaspoons of poop. Surely this doesn't represent much food coming in. Any suggestions?
Puppy appetite problem
- Thread starter Kellster
- Start date
A chicken leg might be too hard just yet, but will keep her busy. Chicken backs or necks might be easier on her at that age. If you can find a source for ground raw food that might work as well, I usually feed ground.
On raw she will have smaller stools, nothing unusual.
Just remember not to offer her a buffet at every meal, give her something to eat, she can choose to eat or not, and take the rest away till the next mealtime. If you start getting her used to the idea that you will give her something else to eat if she turns her nose at something you will be in trouble. If she learns there are no other options, she will eat. If she misses the same meal all the time, then you know she can start to reduce her daily meals.
Also dogs raised on raw tend to be smaller and leaner than their kibble siblings, and you will notice that but no need to worry. My border collie looked nothing like his sister and brother, he was a third their size and had a different coat, he grew to about their size in the end though.
Lana
On raw she will have smaller stools, nothing unusual.
Just remember not to offer her a buffet at every meal, give her something to eat, she can choose to eat or not, and take the rest away till the next mealtime. If you start getting her used to the idea that you will give her something else to eat if she turns her nose at something you will be in trouble. If she learns there are no other options, she will eat. If she misses the same meal all the time, then you know she can start to reduce her daily meals.
Also dogs raised on raw tend to be smaller and leaner than their kibble siblings, and you will notice that but no need to worry. My border collie looked nothing like his sister and brother, he was a third their size and had a different coat, he grew to about their size in the end though.
Lana