Talk

Flip

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

The doghouse

Puppy gone off his food...

6 replies

NatFrenchie · 16/09/2015 18:57

Hi all

My 7.5 month old puppy has been having Canagan dry food from about 10 weeks old. It's a quality high protein food which gets good ratings/reviews which was why I chose it originally.

He has over the past couple of weeks decided that he doesn't like it and will only eat it under sufferance if he's starving or it's mixed with something else. He seems perfectly happy in himself, no issues that I can see.

A friend came to visit with her black Lab and she feeds him Burns. We mixed some with the Canagan and now my dog will eat Burns mixed in with his usual food but only in the evening, he still won't eat in the morning so I wonder whether he's eating it in the evening because he's really hungry. I'm not too sure about Burns though anyway as it has a high percentage of grain added to it.

Big preamble to my question - what is a good quality food for a young dog? I don't know if the Canagan is just too rich and if that's the case, then other foods like Millies Wolfheart will probably be the same. His poos tend to start off OK and then become a bit runny. I am getting concerned because I think he's too thin - he's not put on weight for a while now so I need to find a solution which is satisfactory for me as well as him.

Should I revert back to some kind of puppy food?

Any ideas gratefully received.

He's a schnoodle (schnauzer/poodle x) by the way - if that makes any difference.

OP posts:

Report

tabulahrasa · 17/09/2015 07:26

He might just not be hungry.

He's about the right age for his growth spurts to be stopping and possibly getting puberty hormones and both of those could make him eat less.

Loose stools can be a sign that they're being over fed as well btw.

Report

daisydotandgertie · 17/09/2015 07:39

My guess is there are a couple of things going on here.

How many poos does he produce a day? And how large are they?

Report

nmg85 · 17/09/2015 09:25

My just turned 1 year old is exactly the same. Sometimes she just won't eat for a few days and I don't worry as its usually that she is hoping something better comes along (like chicken). If it goes on for more then say 4 days I usually consider taking her to the vets, I always think I am being a worrier but both times she has had some kind of infection so I guess my judgement can't be far off. It could be to do with his age as a previous poster said, mine started her first season a few weeks ago and wouldn't eat for nearly a week so could be the boy hormone equivalent :-)

Report

NatFrenchie · 17/09/2015 16:57

Well typically he scoffed his food this morning for the first time in days - I can only assume he must be very hungry now!

daisydotandgertie he tends to go first thing during his walk, or if his walk is later, then he'll go in the garden and then a couple more times if he's on his walk, each time progressively looser unfortunately! And then he'll sometimes go again after supper (assuming he's eaten) in the evening. Size wise - the first is normally pretty large if he's not been the night before, otherwise they're average sized, getting smaller to virtually nothing (but quite runny) by the third one of his walk.

I did cut his food down because of the overfeeding possibility but he is quite thin as a result of not eating.

I have been told by my local pet shop to stick with the Canagan (they aren't stockists - so no vested interest) as they consider it a high quality food but to also mix in something like Burns or an equivalent to stop his stools being so loose. I have bought a new one called Natures Way which has some brown rice in it so I think I'll mix it in and see what happens.

Of course it could just be down to hormones or him becoming a fusspot. He seemed mighty hungry when we were eating our sausage casserole last night funnily enough! I only wish my hormones would make me less hungry, but when I'm hormonal all I want to do is eat chocolate!

OP posts:

Report

daisydotandgertie · 17/09/2015 21:20

I'd change his food.

Mixing two completes isn't the best idea, because each is supposed to be nutritionally complete, but it does sound as though he isn't managing to extract enough nutrition from his current food - the skinniness and the excessive pooing points to that to me.

Not sure which Canagan he's on, but I would choose a food which avoids those ingredients, eg choose lamb and potato. I have massive faith in this brand www.simpsonspremium.com/sensitive-dog-food, the regular variety of it has sorted out a springer with similar problems to you.