New pup please can pick your brains?

[whenwillthemadnessend]

Hi. New pup doing really well 11 weeks Sleeping all night Clean during day today.
Got him sitting. Starting to respond to down.

But I have a few things I'm not sure about.

When can I get rid of his stinky home blanket. It reaks. I might wash it as it's vet bed but it's stinky. He has only been with us 3 nights so far.

I bought some big carrots and popped a few in freezer Are they safe to give him. I'm worried about choking like a toddler.

What can I pop in his kong. My dd has nut allergy so peanuts are out.

Thanks all.

My pup prefers cold carrot from the fridge to frozen, but either way your pup will be fine. Mine also likes raw broccoli florets, strawberries, frozen blueberries and banana and soft cheese squished onto a licky mat. Freezing the stuff on the licky mat makes it last a bit longer!

His favourite thing is a pigs ear which keeps him occupied for ages, but they are high in fat apparently so he just has one a week as a treat when I need some peace!!

If he's settled well try taking the stinky blanket away from him for a few days to see if he's ok before binning it. After a couple of weeks mine had no interest in the stinky soft toy that he came with!

We washed the blanket on day one as he peed on it

Ours hated frozen carrots and just spat them out - still won't eat them now as an adult but they won't harm him to have them frozen. Carrots are great for dogs :)

For the Kong, you could try natural yoghurt, mashed up banana, his kibble soaked in water or just his normal wet food.

I stick everything on a lickimat or a Kong. Cream cheese (you can freeze it), yogurt, kefir, kibble, scrambled egg, fruit and veg.

Her favourite is coconut yogurt spread on a lickimat though.

Take the stinky blanket away & wash it. Wear one of your old jumpers for a day then give him that instead. He will get comfort from it & feeling close to you which helps with bonding as well.
I’ve found carrots are like marmite, some love them some don’t. Anything squishy can go in a kong, regular tinned Chappie is good as it’s tolerated really well & never found one that doesn’t like it.

I gave mine a carrot and she looked at me like I'd handed her poison ...not all puppies like them! Mine would never eat veg..now 18m and still won't (except for Asda's sweet potato and meat treat sticks!)

Just wash the blanket... :)

Mine couldn't get the hang of a kong for ages but loved a lickimat with primula cheese spread on! Anything cheesy is a massive hit!

Mine loves carrots (more so as he got older - when tiny I think he couldn’t chew them properly) but hates peanut butter. Cream cheese, natural yoghurt, extortionately expensive dog pate from Pets at Home, meaty baby food, chicken fat - you need to check ingredients of anything runny to avoid heavily salted things, onion/onion powder, garlic and anything else that’s bad for dogs. I wish they could eat human pate as I’m the only one who likes it and can’t get through a whole pack before it goes off but that has onion in. You could make your own meat paste by blending cooked chicken and a bit of yoghurt, maybe? May be a step too far though!

Thanks for all these ideas. I'll get some cream cheese to start I think. Like the idea of broccoli too. He had first carrot last night and really loved it. It's rolls and you can chew it!!

We mix mashed sardines with either soaked kibble or cottage cheese and freeze it in their kongs. Disgusting, but they can’t get enough of it. Once they were older, I found if you put some kibble soaked in broth in the top bit, it freezes into a plug that takes even longer for them to get through. If not freezing you can do the same with dry kibble, healthy brands of dog biscuits or home baked treats.

Peanut butter gave both of mine the most disgusting farts I have ever smelled and that was the expensive, pure peanut/nothing added, peanut butter.

One of mine loved carrots, the other won’t eat them, he just carries them around like a beloved special object and keeps them in his bed!

Ours loved cooked meat juices frozen in a youghurt pot, yoghurt, cooked carrot, preferably dipped I a little gravy, banana, brocolli stalks, licking out egg shells.

She also liked a bit of cheese Squidged into an empty egg box that she had to open and little treats scrunched in newspaper in a box to ruffle through.

Kong: Shiphams meat or fish paste; cream cheese with treats or kibble stuck to it.

Something with a small amount of onion in it is unlikely to do any harm - we've always given our dogs table scraps including leftover stew made with onion, and our first dog lived to be 15 (and the second and subsequent dogs are still with us).