How to get 8 week cocker to eat his food?

[DotTheCaddy]

He has been home 3 days and doing amazingly but he just isnt interested in his ordinary dry food.

He loves his training treats and frozen veg but come meal times he just turns his nose up. I've been adjusting the recommended portions to account for the treats so I thought he would still be hungry.

I've tried it dry and soaked, as well as soaked in chicken broth. I'm not sure whether it start mixing it with something nice or whether that would just teach him he can turn his nose up and will get something better.

Does anyone have any tips? Thanks

We had to stop what we were doing and sit down with our puppy (cocker X Belington) or he wouldn't eat as he was too distracted. He was a tiny puppy (runt) and is now way way bigger than the adult male breed average for either breed, so I suspect he was missing out on his share of food when he was with his litter.

I tried mixing it with scrambled egg this morning and it was slightly more successful, Ie he ate all the egg and only left a few bits of the kibble. Ordered some salmon oil too. Thnks for all the advice all.

I think cockers are fussy, as @BiteyShark say, they are dogs driven by their noses so it's no surprise that once they realise there is better food out there, the kibble is no longer interesting

We've also been using Butchers wet food for puppies which he also likes (though doesn't like the lamb version), just ordered some Harringtons and Pure Chicken (dry but you mix with water) to see if either work because I can see that once he gets used to one food, he starts to go off it

We still mix his kibble in

All about dog food (.co.Uk) gives you dog food ratings but I wouldn't be too hung up about it. Pup did the best with royal canin puppy cocker kibble yet it's got one of the lowest ratings!

I've also noticed that he likes his food better when it's warm so I mix the dry food with warm water before he gets it

Hand feed / use it as treats

I’ve tried numerous different kibbles and raw food for our Lagotto with very little success.

Currently she’ll only eat kibble if hand fed it whilst out on walk. Few pieces at a time. And not every time. Raw food gets eaten intermittently but nothing consistently. Is a bit of a nightmare trying to feed her tbh.

Have tried mixing all the things suggested her with the kibble to make it more interesting- she’ll just lick round the kibble. Have even tried flash frying the raw food and dropping bits outside for her to scavenge (at the suggestion of the raw food company). Worked once but refused after that.

The problem with leaving her to not eat is that she then wakes up at 5am hungry and we all suffer. So it’s a constant round of trying to cajole her to eat enough of a mix of things each day. Not fun.

Hope you have better success than us!

Mine was literally handfed for much of his first year, while trying different kibbles and putting things like chicken or egg in it. He would eat if it was fun - if I hid it around the room, put it in an egg carton or cardboard tube, hid it in a rolled-up tea towel or put it in the big kong, or got him to do a trick. Then he stopped eating the bits out of the toys or hidden - he’d find them and then leave them - and we had to feed him outdoors because that remained fun! Eventually someone gave me some salmon oil and it worked like a charm. He is now so used to having two meals a day he will eat it even if I run out of oil, thank goodness.

However, for a very little puppy, it may just be a bit unsettled and will start eating better. They’re also missing the competition from other pups in the litter so get less bothered. I was advised to feed mine goat milk as well as kibble (separately) for the first couple of months, which at least meant he was eating something! Plus treats, which he always wanted.

Teaspoon of pate mixed in may do trick.

My p

Opps dropped my phone sorry 😆

My cockerpoo was/is exactly the same we tried absolutely everything we could think of. In the end we gave up and it worked. It was like she knew the more she refused the better the food she got. Then ear it a few days gets bored and will stop.

She has a portion of dry left in her bowl which she eventually will eat when she's hungry and a portion of wet food in the evening.

We also put food in kongs mixed with treats, the game bowls, snuffle mats etc to make it more interesting for her

Good quality wet food.

Thanks for the comments all!

The salmon oil arrived today (thanks Amazon prime!) and it went down much better than plain kibble! He didnt eat it all from his bowl but managed to get him to finish the rest by playing hide and seek which he loved @MaryLennoxsScowl (love the username btw!)

Don't be too surprised if the oil only helps for a short while.

I tried scrambled egg, cheese, cooked chicken and each time after the novelty wore off he started to still leave the kibble. Fortunately since swopping to wet and changing flavours so he doesn't get the same one each week he always licks the bowl clean.