New puppy won't eat from plate

[Acrylicpainter]

My daughter has just got a 14 week old puppy, she's feeding him raw but he will only eat from your hand and occasionally from the plate if encouraged. Is this normal?

Not in my experience no. Did he come on raw food? Are you sure of his age? Has he had vet check and vaccination?

What do you mean plate? If you’re talking about a ceramic plate maybe it scrapes and clatters which spooks the pup? My dog jumped a mile at everything as a puppy.

Plates are hard to eat from because the food slides and they have to chase it. That's why bowls are more usual - they have sides to stop the slide.

If you do change to a bowl get plastic with rubber feet so it doesn't clang or slide about.

I'll try a bowl, he won't really go near the plate.

Why isn't she using a bowl?

Use a bowl.

It's my daughter's dog , I'm puppy sitting

My dog is a ridiculous eater and she won't eat from a bowl. She's a rescue dog and at first we had to feed her from our hand.

Then she would eat if you threw it on the floor so,we started tipping it on a piece of paper. She then graduated to saucers. Every now and again she won't eat and we have to tip it on the floor.

I talked to a vet about it and she said it was probably a trust issue and that she was likely removed from her mother too soon.

She's six now and we have had her since she was eleven months. She's no better than she was.

We try to feed her when we are emptying the dishwasher as she seems to know that if that's happening then we are staying in the kitchen but not looking at her.

Mine is like this. He also brings his food to where I am to eat it. Some dogs are funny. As you are dog sitting, I'd do what she usually does.

We have a silicone licky mat with sucker feet. It acts like a dish, but doesn't rattle or move.

Photo?

So , tried the food in a bowl and he still won't eat it , tried it in the floor (plastic mat) and he took a bite but wasn't really interested. I thought dogs woofed their food down .

If you're just petsitting him is there a chance he's just stressed and therefore off his food?

This might explain it. Lots of dogs won't eat if they're not comfortable in their surroundings.

@Looneytune253 hes the same if I'm not there

Ddog is 14, he won't eat from particular bowls / plates. We resort to hand feeding as have to get insulin into him. Some dogs are fussy!

He will eat eat off a silicone lick mat

Does he eat at home?

He's gorgeous!

Maybe he doesn't like the food.

Did the breeder have him on raw? Not all dogs get on with it and if he was weaned on something else it can take a while for them to get used to it.

My 4 year old dog will happily eat from my hand some days if he's being a bellend and I'm in a hurry, he knows how to wrap me round his finger!

But all dogs will eat when they're hungry. The bowl/plate thing might be a thing but don't feel like you need to roll out the red carpet every night to get the puppy to eat, eventually they get it and they're fast learners at that age

Oh bless, he's sad and missing your dd. Mine doesn't eat well if I'm not home.

My dog likes to be hand fed too.

Yay , he ate from his bowl !

At that age, my puppy was a PITA with food and I had to hand feed him to put some calories in his tiny body.
Now, at 6 month old, he's a glutton and would eat his own mother if given the chance.

Don't overthink it, puppies can be weird and most likely he'll grow out of that.

Is the puppy wearing a collar with a tag OP?

If you were using a ceramic plate it's possible the noise of the tag hitting the plate was scaring him.

My dog has a ceramic bowl and will not eat if I forget to take her collar off as she's spooked by the noise.

@pigsDOfly no collar so it can't be that, she would only eat from the hand again this morning, I thought we'd cracked it the other day .