Puppy food/eating help

[carrottopper]

We have a 6 month old maltipoo puppy. I know they can be fussy eaters. We want to keep him on dry food but he's just not interested. I've tried 4 different makes but I'm having to squash in cheese and meat to get him to eat and he now seems to be just picking out the good stuff and leaving his kibble. Do we go cold Turkey and just leave his food out and hope he eats or keep trying different makes? It's so upsetting and I hate eating when he is obviously hungry. What would you do?

Kibble is pretty boring to a dog and yes some people would go cold turkey and offer nothing else until they eat.

Personally I think dogs have only a few real likes in life with food being one of them so mine gets spoilt with a variety of cooked and wet food each day to make it interesting.

@BiteyShark

Kibble is pretty boring to a dog and yes some people would go cold turkey and offer nothing else until they eat.

Personally I think dogs have only a few real likes in life with food being one of them so mine gets spoilt with a variety of cooked and wet food each day to make it interesting.

Utter rubbish.every healthy dog eats when hungry.you decide what food you want to feed your dog and thats it.Of course if you mix in cheese,he will only pick out the cheese.you have created the problem not the dog.what a dog likes most is walks.but most people are too lazy to walk a dog properly,feel guilty and compensate with rubbish food.most dogs in the UK are obese!Please feed your puppy a good healthy dogfood diet and not human food that is often salty,sugary,too fat and also dangerous in some cases.

Please feed your puppy a good healthy dogfood diet and not human food that is often salty,sugary,too fat and also dangerous in some cases.

You can feed good quality dog food that isn't kibble and has a variety of flavours/meats/fish. There are lots of complete wet, cooked and raw dog food available as well as kibble.

I have a fussy dog too, lots of the little ones are. People on here will tell you that it’s of your making, but I know differently.
Have you tried a different kibble ? Your dog might just not like it.
Have you tried putting warm water in the kibble and letting it soak, then mashing it ?
Will the dog eat the kibble if you hand feed it or use it as training treats ?
How do you feel about cooking a meal every day ? Like meat/chicken, pasta and veg.

@GoodnightGrandma

I have a fussy dog too, lots of the little ones are. People on here will tell you that it’s of your making, but I know differently. Have you tried a different kibble ? Your dog might just not like it. Have you tried putting warm water in the kibble and letting it soak, then mashing it ? Will the dog eat the kibble if you hand feed it or use it as training treats ? How do you feel about cooking a meal every day ? Like meat/chicken, pasta and veg.

🤣🤣🤣.most people with small dogs treat their dogs like humans and therefore will feed their dog inappropriate food and portions.fat dogs die on average 2 years earlier and with lots of joint pain in older age.the saddest is,that you think you treat your dog,when in fact you cause lots of health issues.

Please don’t assume what I feed my dog.

I do want to keep him on dog food as I know it has all the nutrients. How long do I let him go cold Turkey and just offer dog food? How long do I give the new food a good? He had his last change of kibble 5 days ago and I have been offering 50/50 with his old food. He won't eat out of my hand. I've tried putting it on the floor for him and in a toy which makes him work for if. He seems to enjoy the new kibble the day I change it then he won't eat it the day after. He had Turkey, carrot and broccoli yesterday and picked all the kibble out on the side.

Dogs are quick learners when it comes to training their humans. At 6 months he’s probably still on 3 meals a day, that gives you lots of opportunities to train him.
Make him work for e dry meal. Breakfast after his morning walk. Make him sit, wait, bowl down, wait, then take it. If he doesn’t eat within 5 mins, bowl up. Try again in 15 mins. Repeat.

No treats other than for training and then either use some kibble, or very tiny slivers of cheese/chicken etc
I see no harm in adding warm water to soften and make gravy, specially for a youngster. Also you could add toppers like a spoon of tinned Chappie or one of the cooked foods like butternut, forthglade.

Maybe the food change causes him a very slight digestive upset.introduce(mix in) the new food very slowly.if he refuses the new food completely for 2 days,I would maybe check out if there are any medical issues.But the most important is,not to give in.Our 4legged darlings can have a very very determined mind and want you to follow his will.If you do this,you will forever follow his little demands.there is some excellent quality kibble food out there,that provides all the necessary nutrition for your dog.

@lotsofdogshere

Dogs are quick learners when it comes to training their humans. At 6 months he’s probably still on 3 meals a day, that gives you lots of opportunities to train him. Make him work for e dry meal. Breakfast after his morning walk. Make him sit, wait, bowl down, wait, then take it. If he doesn’t eat within 5 mins, bowl up. Try again in 15 mins. Repeat. No treats other than for training and then either use some kibble, or very tiny slivers of cheese/chicken etc I see no harm in adding warm water to soften and make gravy, specially for a youngster. Also you could add toppers like a spoon of tinned Chappie or one of the cooked foods like butternut, forthglade.

Exactly this^

I've thought about mixing in a topper but feel like it's another thing I'm doing to a fussy dog. I keep having to buy these bags of food at £12 until he finds one he likes but if I'm changing it every few days, he must be getting confused. I've tried mixing a new one in slowly but he's not keen on the old one anyway.

Personally I think a diet of plain, dry biscuits with no variation must be incredibly boring for a dog.

Personally I would pick a good quality biscuit he can tolerate and then add wet food to each meal - it doesn't have to be loads, but enough to add flavour, texture and some variety to his meal times.

Once you've done this, I wouldn't pander to fussiness. Food down, if he hasn't eaten after twenty minutes, remove it and nothing else until his next meal time. Our beagle went through a fussy stage at about six months too and this is the only thing that worked in getting him to eat his meals again.

I would also make sure you're not accidentally over-feeding (it's so easy to do) and consider timings and how many meals he gets a day. We dropped to two meals a day when he started leaving his lunch, which made a huge difference to his appetite and enthusiasm for meals

Our dpup barely ate any of her kibble meals for a week, maybe had 3/4 of one of the 4 meals she should have over the course of a day. Just wasn’t interested, tried soaking adding a bit of gravy.

Lots of people said she’ll eat if she’s hungry but I was worried so tried some wet. She now have 1/6 of a Lilly’s kitchen tray mixed with kibble
Licks the bowl clean and is excited for meals, feel bad now that she must of been hungry and she’s much more content and sleeps better too.

Listen to your gut

Best plan for fussy eaters is to give less at each meal. Hard to do when you want them to eat more!

However give them small portions at their normal meal times. Leave the food down for 15 mins then remove food.

No treats at all and then offer the food at the next meal time.

Once the habit of eating at meal times has been created you can slightly increase the quantity of the food.

Dogs have way fewer taste receptors than humans so no they do not get fed up with eating the same food everyday. The smell of the food is way more important than the taste. So kibble made from good quality ingredients will smell better than cheap as chips kibble but apart from that dogs do not exerience food like we do. Of course many dogs will like novel food as they enjoy novel experiences