My puppy isn't interested in food, is it OK?

[AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons]

I feed her Hill's science Plan puppy food.

In the morning I give her a small bowl (appropriate for her weight) of kibble. She barely touches it. I remove it after about an hour as she's very bouncy in the mornings and I wonder if she needs more time to calm down sufficiently to eat.

At noon, I roast her a chicken wing and debone and chop it and giver her that. She wolfs that down in a oner. And gives me puppy eyes for more. (Which I don't give her.)

At 3.30pm I give her another bowl of the Science Plan kibble which she eats one kibble at a time, and eats only about half of it. I remove it after 30 minutes.

Then at 7.30pm I give her a final bowl of Science Plan kibble and again she eats only about half of it, sometimes less. Again I take it away after thirty minutes.

Is it OK to keep giving her the chicken or am I ruining her diet? And outside she eats moss and grass. Is that a sign of something, like a pregnant woman sucking coal?

I also cooked her cod fillet and rice but she hated it. I tried to give her a little leftover turkey yesterday in place of the roast chicken but she turned her nose up at it.

She's a Cockapoo and quite Poodle about her food I feel. She can't be bothered with treats. But she's lovely and learning to do things fast. But I am wondering if I should alter her diet or be doing something else?

[Gingerfudge]

My Dpup hated kibble, which was fine by us, we just went straight to raw.

[Cavapoosarebest]

I had the same problem with my cavapoo. I also gave up on the kibble and went straight to raw, mainly chicken wings. She's 2 now, happy and healthy. And still doesn't like kibble.

[MostAmused]

Our pup loves food so he always eat his kibble (we put a little hot water on it to make it taste nice) and sometimes when he seemed a bit bored of the food we mixed in some cooked chicken and he ate all of it.

I'm just commenting to say that he will also chew up grass and moss outside, we mentioned it to the vet and she didn't seem bothered about it. I think he just likes to chew it and spit it out.

[Focusfocus]

Too much human food at such a formative age may have just given her a discerning palate whereby she knows (1) human food tastes nicer and (2) if she holds out she gets human food.

I had a similar situation. They will eat when options are removed. Try switching to a stronger grain free meaty kibble if you can afford it. Try sprinkling warm water on it to bring gravy out. And remove human food for a while so she knows it's this or nothing.

Also I realised through much trial and error that my short snouts pup will eat off a flat surface like tissue paper, and locked up distraction free in kitchen.

Meaty brands to try are Millie's Wolfheart, acana, etc. get samples first though.

[Focusfocus]

Oops - he, not she, sorry!

[Focusfocus]

Get a grip, me! It is a she!!!

[financialwizard]

My dpup hated kibble and has been fed raw since 10 weeks. She has never turned her nose up.

[pizdets]

Doodle here. Ate dreadfully for the first 6 months of his life, was full of beans but skinny and it caused me so much stress. Switched to raw same as pps and never looked back, I highly recommend it!

[AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons]

Does anyone have any good links as to how to go about feeding a puppy a raw diet. I need to read up on what it entails and the pros and cons.

[OttiliaVonBCup]

If she's always been like this it's ok.
Any sudden changes in appetite - ring up the vet.

[VeryStressedMum]

My puppy was like this just hated dry food and didn't eat it so I mixed it with some cooked mince or tins of puppy meat...This was over 10 years ago I'd never heard of raw feeding..

[pizdets]

Switching is scary at first but actually it's fine once you have done it. There have been several threads on here with recommendations and you can buy complete food from several suppliers like nutriment too. There's a group on Facebook - raw feeding UK, which us useful. I'm sure someone more experienced will be along soon with better advice!

[LadyTurmoil]

Look at this website dogsdinner2.webs.com/ It's the one that's linked to the Raw Feeding UK Facebook group. Loads of info about raw feeding for puppies - how much, how often, what to feed etc.

They really love it and it's not difficult. I could put 10 days worth of food in one small freezer drawer for a 15kg dog, so you don't need tons of space. You can order sample packs of raw from Raw2Go for £16 inc postage, or just get friendly with a local butcher. Morrisons is always recommended for good bargains. You can add coconut oil and Apple cider vinegar (with the "mother" if you want to). All info on above-mentioned sites.

It's not complicated and it's fun to source interesting bargains - it definitely does not mean you'll be butchering a cow carcass in your back garden (unless you want to!!). It will mean clean teeth and a gleaming coat. Try it and see

[BurningBridges]

My cockerpoo was the same pretty much from the first few weeks. He came from the breeder with a good quality dry food and quickly realised that human food was far nicer. Within a month or so he would rather go without food for the whole day than eat dog food.

He's very sick now 5 years on (gastric problems); so he has to have chicken all the time and I can't withhold food so can't "force" him to go onto something else, but once his condition is stabilised I have to get him onto a proper diet.

The moral of my story? Don't give your dog the chicken!! Maybe as dog is so young the raw diet will work if you fancy giving that a try?

[AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons]

Thank you, people. Very useful. Especially the cautionary tale about the chicken.

[AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons]

I think I'll stick with the Science Plan and just be tough if she doesn't eat for a day or two.

[Gingerfudge]

I don't understand the cautionary tale about chicken.

Burning Are you saying a dog eating chicken is bad and caused your dog's health problems or was it that your dog would only eat chicken and therefore the lack of variety in his diet was bad. When you say a Proper diet, what do you mean?
It's just that chicken is a healthy food for dogs but only when given as part of his diet because variety is important.....other meats, fish, bones and offal should be fed too.

[BurningBridges]

Ginger sorry not very clear I was saying that due to his illness he can now only eat chicken, and again due to his illness we cannot withhold food in order to "make" him eat anything else. But that chicken alone can't be a long term solution as you say. But this is just my very sick dog (posted in Doghouse)

The point I was making is that long before he was ill I gave in to him all the time and he got used to human food and lovely roast/boiled chicken!

[AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons]

BurningBridges - But did the chicken make him ill in the first place. My vet said chicken was OK. So I am a little confused.

Is chicken actually human food though? I suppose it is if it's roasted and served with gravy. And it is if it's served with chippolatas wrapped in bacon.

I just plain roast a chicken thigh and give her one each day. I can see it's making her not bothered about her Science Plan so I'll stop. I did it initially because she wasn't eating anything.

[Gingerfudge]

Alpha I think you'll find most dogs will not choose kibble over meat. If your aim is to stick with kibble then don't give in to feeding her something you are not happy with in the long term. I often had to hand feed Dpup in the early days even with raw meat...not a problem for me, but sometimes it just takes time for them to build an appetite, dogs like children will not starve themselves...try to relax a little.

[Lovemypuppy]

Sounds very poodle to me! My doodle used to constantly be refusing food - even food he previously ate, and alwaysafter he has discovered something he likes better. So for example, happily ate kibble until he discovered wet and then held out for that. Then we gave him some chicken and he wouldn't have any dog food (kibble or wet). We didn't cave in (ok we did a bit at first - puppy eyes!) but we got tough and he eventually realised if he didn't eat the kibble or wet (at our option) he would be hungry (because we would take it away and not give him anything until the next meal). So he eats it now. And he gets other food (chicken, meat etc) a couple of times a week as a treat

[AlphaBravoHenryFoxtons]

Yes, she is very poodle.

She's our first dog so I am a bit anxious about her food, given how fussy she is.

[BurningBridges]

The vet has recommended that Hill's science plan to me as a trial (once my dog is a bit better) but it would involve not giving anything else maybe for 2 or even 3 days if he didn't eat it - I'm not sure I'd be strong enough!!

[Lovemypuppy]

Have you tried sitting with her while she eats? That sometimes helps with puppies as they're used to having some competition to make them eat. Won't get rid of the poodle aspect but may help a bit...

[Lovemypuppy]

I mean sitting on the floor next to the bowl. Also if you're thinking of changing kibble mine tolerates Lily's kitchen now...