Fussy puppy

[Dingdong99]

We've got a lovely little 6 month old cavapoo

He's very fussy with food though, and goes off food very quickly. I've been through about 6 different foods now, mostly wet (Lily's kitchen etc) but also tried kibble (like royal canin). He'll eat the new food for a few days, and seem to really like it at first, but then completely stops eating it

I've also previously given him leftovers like roast beef etc, and I think in doing so perhaps he's now not eating his dog food as he's waiting for the hood stuff? I've stopped giving him any human food now in an attempt to get him to eat his food but he's barely eaten for the past couple of days and I can feel he's lost a bit of weight

So my question is, should I pander to this and keep trying more foods, and giving him human food, or should I be strict and wait for him to eat his food? I have tried mixing them together, but then he just picks out the human food!

He still has lots of energy and is doing poops so wondering if I should tough it out!

Chopping and changing a puppy's diet is not good.you decide what you want to feed him and you stick to this.If your puppy has refused your food for 2 days,you take him to the vet for a check.A healthy pup will eat the food you give it.please dont give any leftover at moment,I think this will make matters worse.I also suggest you get a book or inform yourself about training a puppy.

Most fussy dogs are basically chancers and will take a gamble on seeing if something different appears if they wait... you get the odd one that is actually really fussy and will actually starve themselves, but mostly if you put food down fir 10-15 minutes then lift it and repeat with the same food at the next mealtime they’ll start eating properly within a couple of days.

Do you do set mealtimes and do you remove the food in between?

Our beagle went through a phase of this and like you I panicked I started giving him human food as he lost a little bit of weight.

However I spoke to the breeder who said it was pretty common. We stopped all human food and snacks and stuck to two meals a day at set times. If he didn't eat within 20 minutes at breakfast, the food got removed and he got nothing until lunch - no treats, no chews - nothing.

It took him less than 24h to cotton on to what was happening and he's never ever left food since

@Thatldo

Chopping and changing a puppy's diet is not good.you decide what you want to feed him and you stick to this.If your puppy has refused your food for 2 days,you take him to the vet for a check.A healthy pup will eat the food you give it.please dont give any leftover at moment,I think this will make matters worse.I also suggest you get a book or inform yourself about training a puppy.

I disagree with this. I have vet advice saying for some dogs you need to change food regularly to keep them interested. We have a dog like this and I buy a different food every week. I never buy the really big bags. I mix it up with wet food sometimes so in any one day no meal is alike. I also do some homemade food.

Dogs did not evolve to eat only one type of highly processed food.

My MIL will tell you my dog doesn't eat at her house unless she adds cheese, gravy or whatever to his bowl, when if she'd just put his food down and leave him to it he'll eat it eventually, but when he knows if he leaves it grandma will add cheese what's he going to do ???

Dogs did not evolve to eat only one type of highly processed food

While I agree in principle, unfortunately selective breeding and small gene pools mean that many dogs now struggle with their stomachs and can't tolerate diets that change all the time.

Yes, you'll get some dogs like yours (and mine!) who can eat anything with no issues whosoever but many dogs would have serious GI issues if you tried to change their diet all the time.

However one thing you can do is pick a brand and just switch between the flavours. It stops the diet getting boring but means you're not chopping and changing too much.

Yes ours is ‘fussy’, but she’s not, she’s a chancer. We don’t encourage begging but in laws do. So she’ll always wait till we’ve finished the human food before reluctantly eating hers. If she’s hungry she just eats.

Two bowls of food a day, set times, no treats , it’s boring but it works. And ishe doesn’t eat then it goes In The fridge.

@Frenchfancy.I have never met a vet who advocates this.We humans always put human thoughts in our pets.A dog eats in order to "fuel up".Of course a dog woofs down chicken/fish etc.,but essentially they think nothing when they eat,they eat to fuel up.I give the same brand with different flavours and quite often add a bit of leftover human food.To be fair, I never owned a very small dog(handbag dog),because of the intense breeding in those breeds,probably a lot of natural dog instincts are missing in those dogs.If one of my dogs doesnt eat her food,I know something is wrong with her health.

Our pup was fussy until we started butternut box. It’s expensive and we are always short of freezer space but our dog loves it. The variety of flavours keeps him interested. When we started it (about a year and a half ago) I was shocked at the difference it made - he wolfs it down has zero wind and firm pickupable poo. We haven’t looked back.

Really appreciate all the helpful advice

My dog is fussy but more in the sense she rarely eats her food if it's served in a bowl.... she will eat the exact same food if it's given in a kong/puzzle feeder/snuffle mat/lickimat/cardboard box etc basically anything except a boring old bowl. Can you pick a food you want to stick with and then try feeding her in an alternative way? Then you can change flavours of same brand.