Puppy won't eat his food!

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

Just after some advice.

Puppy came to us on James Wellbeloved dry food, he was on this for a few weeks but was never really keen. When we went to the vet for his injections they gave us a different brand of food that was smaller (he's a tiny, chihuahua so the smaller nuggets seemed easier for him to handle) but he's never been all that keen on that either, he seems to be eating so sparingly that I'm wondering if a wet food would be better? He's drinking well and going for a poo but I would feel happier seeing him eat a decent meal everyday or 2-3 small meals.
Any advice?

[CornflakeHomunculus]

What's his weight like? As long as he's a healthy weight and not losing any I wouldn't worry too much. The feeding guidelines on dog foods are almost invariably overly generous, only one of my four gets anything close to the recommended amount for a dog of his size.

If he is losing weight then a good wet food, to feed either on its own or mixed with the dry, could be worth trying. There are some really excellent ones that come in small packs so you won't end up having to chuck loads if he's only eating a small amount per day. The Natures Menu Country Hunter pouches are good and Forthglade have started doing smaller versions of some of their wet foods.

How are you feeding feeding him? Set meal times or are you allowing him to graze when he wants?

[user1494670108]

I have a big dog (Lurcher) who is very active and his meals look tiny!
However he is a good weight and when I gave him more he started leaving it so I would go by whether he's losing weight (or failing to gain) rather than how much he eats.
I raw feed by the way

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

He's seen the vet twice (between jabs) and he'd put on weight between those visits but they said they'd like to see us 3 months later to check his weight because he is so tiny.

We were doing set meals but then just left the food and changed it each day in case he was wanting to eat at a different time.

He is very active, friendly, and he does look bigger so I'm not concerned about anything else, he just only seems to eat a 3/4 little nuggets from his bowl before going off again and sometimes that's only once a day.

[Soubriquet]

I have a picky chihuahua

She loves piccolo dog food mixed with forthglade grain free wet food

Both brilliant quality foods and completely grain free

[Soubriquet]

piccolo

forthglade

Be careful with forthglade because some do contain grain. The grain free ones do state on the front grain free

[CornflakeHomunculus]

I'd go back to set meals if he were mine. It's much easier to monitor exactly how much he's eating that way and also less chance of him getting distracted and just forgetting to eat if the food is only available at certain times.