Young puppy not interested in food
Posted: 06 Jan 2021, 06:14
Hi, I hope this is the right thread to post in as we're in the process of switching to a raw diet but the question itself is less to do with raw itself and more food in general..
Malik is my new puppy, almost 10 weeks old, mini schnauzer, been home for only 5 days.
His breeder had them on both raw and Royal Canin kibble (as some puppies were going to kibble homes and had to be used to both). Her adult dogs are on raw. We've been told he's been eating well but not a piggy, he was on 3 meals a day but all the puppies weren't really eating lunch so realistically it was closer to two meals. He ate well the first day he was home. We're gradually introducing our raw (pre-made so it's balanced) and he's now up to 50/50 raw and kibble (given at different meals). The problem is - he's not eating at mealtime!
We're certainly doing a lot more training with him than the breeder was doing so he's eating more in the form of treats. We do probably 3-4 short training sessions per day. For treats we've been using boiled chicken (which he loves and is used to) and 100% kangaroo chewy fillets that I cut up into tiny bits. Since he's been disinterested at mealtime we've cut down on treats, and are using toys, play, and verbal reward which works well, but not for every situation. We need to get him outside more as he's barking at everything and treats have been really helpful in conjunction with the other rewards. We're now only feeding him his kibble and bits of his frozen for treats and he accepts that, unless it's a really big step like meeting strangers which is when we resort to chicken. At mealtime he won't eat out of his bowl (either raw or kibble), but if I pick it up and scatter feed him he'll eat it. He obviously doesn't hate the food if it works for treats and when scatter fed. I don't want to stop his training but I don't want him to get fussy and stop eating his normal meals! Plus, he's a puppy and by my calculations he's not eating nearly the amount he should be.
Oh, and his poo is a normal consistency, he's been pooping twice a day but yesterday was only once.
Any advice? Sorry for the long post, I'm a first time puppy owner so I wanted to write everything down so maybe one of you more experienced folk can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Thanks in advance!
Malik is my new puppy, almost 10 weeks old, mini schnauzer, been home for only 5 days.
His breeder had them on both raw and Royal Canin kibble (as some puppies were going to kibble homes and had to be used to both). Her adult dogs are on raw. We've been told he's been eating well but not a piggy, he was on 3 meals a day but all the puppies weren't really eating lunch so realistically it was closer to two meals. He ate well the first day he was home. We're gradually introducing our raw (pre-made so it's balanced) and he's now up to 50/50 raw and kibble (given at different meals). The problem is - he's not eating at mealtime!
We're certainly doing a lot more training with him than the breeder was doing so he's eating more in the form of treats. We do probably 3-4 short training sessions per day. For treats we've been using boiled chicken (which he loves and is used to) and 100% kangaroo chewy fillets that I cut up into tiny bits. Since he's been disinterested at mealtime we've cut down on treats, and are using toys, play, and verbal reward which works well, but not for every situation. We need to get him outside more as he's barking at everything and treats have been really helpful in conjunction with the other rewards. We're now only feeding him his kibble and bits of his frozen for treats and he accepts that, unless it's a really big step like meeting strangers which is when we resort to chicken. At mealtime he won't eat out of his bowl (either raw or kibble), but if I pick it up and scatter feed him he'll eat it. He obviously doesn't hate the food if it works for treats and when scatter fed. I don't want to stop his training but I don't want him to get fussy and stop eating his normal meals! Plus, he's a puppy and by my calculations he's not eating nearly the amount he should be.
Oh, and his poo is a normal consistency, he's been pooping twice a day but yesterday was only once.
Any advice? Sorry for the long post, I'm a first time puppy owner so I wanted to write everything down so maybe one of you more experienced folk can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Thanks in advance!