Can’t get my puppy to eat for the life of me

[rescuedsheep]

Yuki is just over 4 months old now. Vaccinater and on tick prevention as well as dewormer.

I’ve always had issues with his eating. His very very very picky(I’m not exaggerating by the number of very I put in my sentence). I switched his kibble to Royal Canin GSD puppy formula because he always had issues with his previous kibble on which he was weaned on.

I soak his kibble in water for around 5-10 minutes and add some wet food in it(recommended by breeder to get him interested). This was after a number of experiments I did to get him to eat as he simply won’t eat his dry kibble.

But since the last 4 days he has totally refused to eat his kibble in any shape or form. So far I’ve tried feeding him with a boiled egg as topper(thing he used to go absolutely nuts for in the past), adding carrots, adding a bit of Greek yogurt. Nothing seems to be working.

The vet cleared him of any illness and said he looks to be just picky. He eats just fine if I hand feed him(could be part of the problem) and eats fine if I throw the kibble on floor but not as much as he should.

He weighs only 35 lbs and I really want him to eat else he will start getting even more skinny than he normally is.

Has anyone ever had an issue like this? How do I make sure that he eats his daily intake without me struggling for 40 minutes even after which he hardly eats half his required volume.

I (try to)feed him 3 times a day. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you!

puppy tax

 

[fribus]

@rescuedsheep May not be the food, may be the bowl. Dogs are weird sometimes, try a different bowl or even a plate or even the floor. My lab hated his bowl so he ate off a mat until he was 6 months old, we then tried the bowl again and he was fine.

 

[rescuedsheep]

@fribus I’ve tried 3 different bowls and two flat dishes. Nothing works. If I throw a small bit of his kibble on floor he goes for it, if the quantity is too much he ignores. It’s very weird tbh lol

 

[joseph33]

@rescuedsheep I feed my dog in Amazon boxes, because she prefers to work for her dinner. Dry kibble and maybe some salmon topper in an Amazon box resealed. She thoroughly enjoys tearing up the box and ears every bite off the floor.

 

[one12man]

@rescuedsheep So my girl was similar and I realised that I was bringing a lot of stress into the situation around meals because I was so worried. What worked for me was relaxing and starting the hard ass routine. The hard ass routine involves putting food down at meal times, giving the dog 20 mins access to it. If they don't eat it, it goes away until next meal time. It worked well enough, she still wasn't eaten the recommended amount but she was gaining weight just fine, and the recommended amount is just a guideline not a one size fits all.

Shes 18 months now and still skips meals sometimes but as long as she is a healthy weight and seems happy and energetic I'm not worried

The risk of trying lots of tricks to entice them to eat is they learn if they snub their food you are gonna keep brining better things.

 

[rescuedsheep]

@one12man I think we are in the same boat. We are definitely way too stressed of him not eating and I think it translates to him as well. I’m gonna try this, although I’m very worried about him skipping his meals and my wife more so but we will give this a try.

 

[one12man]

@rescuedsheep I was a mess, literally cried on the floor when I tried to hand feed her and she walked away. All that stressed energy is making the dog stressed and seeing meal times as a bad thing. Have you tried training and using kibble as a reward? While it's very important for puppies to get all their important nutrients skipping a few meals doesn't seem to have done our pup any harm.

 

[jdthcstl]

@rescuedsheep I think too much changing it up makes them picky. They learn to wait for something better. My girl went through phases of this. If she still liked treats then I knew she was just being picky.
I stopped changing it up and she would get what she was given or not eat. They won’t starve themselves.

 

[rescuedsheep]

@jdthcstl I think that’s what has happened in his case too. We should have been more patient with his eating instead of throwing anything we could just to get him to eat. I’m gonna try and just stay at dry kibble now for some time to see if he stops being picky.

 

[brendanxx]

@rescuedsheep Both my GSDs are picky eaters and grazers. The boy is 115 lbs so I know he does eat, but he seems to only eat when I’m not in the house.

They have one brand of food that they tolerate are used to switch things up but they always want to eat Royal Canin. The vet told me that if they’re hungry, they will eat it just may take time.

 

[rescuedsheep]

@brendanxx It used to work with my pup too. Leaving the food in crate and leaving the room. He would fake whine for a few minutes then eat his food. Now if I do that he just goes straight to sleep instead. Vet said a pup will never starve himself but I’m not sure about this one.

 

[colp777]

@brendanxx Wow, my dog would ever eat or drink if I wasn’t home. As soon as he knew I was leaving, he’d stop. I think he didn’t want to go to the bathroom in the house and that was his way to make sure of it, lol.

 

[d7p]

@rescuedsheep Did you check for parasites? Send his stool to lab. We had that issue when our girl was sick from lamblia gardia parasite. Without stool lab check vets were "she is just picky". It was hard on her. Next time she had inflammatory bowel. Also she has confirmed food allergies where some are just irritating for her without strong reaction. Since we switched from bought food to cooked she is way better and no longer picky.

 

[zeezee]

@d7p Yeah, your dog has had a hard time! Multiple issues.

Mine hasn't gotten so bad, but did have giardia, which was treated under vet supervision. Then the loose stools returned. Stool sample to vet showed lots and LOTS of bacteria; treatment was an antibiotic course plus a recommendation of probiotics for the rest of her life. I'm good with that; and the probiotics seem to be sustaining her gut health.

Just curious whether probiotics and general gut health were a part of your conversations with your vet.

 

[d7p]

@zeezee We had run of strong drug against parasites twice to get rid of giardia. Of course all in vet clinic. That was before she was 6 months old.

Inflammatory bowel was treated with run of antibiotics and some antiinflammatory drugs, change of diet to cooked beef and probiotics. We give her probiotics only when needed. We reduce antibiotics to not stress her liver with that. Her brother had same issues with bowel. To much drugs did put so much stress on his body he didn't make it. Owners didn't trust diet change as good idea. This was when she was around 2 years old. I was cooking her for last year. Any issues with loose stools we treat with diet and mild stomach drugs. Vets were consulted about that.

 

[zeezee]

@d7p Sorry to hear about the male dog and diet, and that he didn't make it.

I had one dog that didn't survive gut issues. This was a long time ago now, decades, probiotics and anti-inflammatories weren't even on my then-vet's radar, just allergies; and there were no proved allergies that he had, it was just a guess. I'm still really sad about that. Everything I knew to do wasn't enough because my vet also didn't know enough to be able to help. And the internet as it existed then was completely uninformative, relative to what's now available.

I think that just like people, dogs can have different kinds of health issues. I'm actually wondering if probiotics with every meal forever is such a great idea. I don't mind the expense involved in supplying that, but I do kind of wonder.

How do you decide when probiotics are needed? How do you decide when to let up?

Edit: Re the giardia. *Never* before this season did I have giardia in any of my dogs. But all the same, she managed to pick it up, first dog ever to do so. I put this down to these last two winters being the first ever where white-tailed deer have browsed in my yard, and brought their disease and their parasites (ticks) with them, such that my dog also has a first-ever case of anaplasmosis. Grr. Deer management in my state (Minnesota) has been terrible.

 

[2iceblest]

@rescuedsheep My picky girl did well on, and loved, a raw diet. You could try your boy with a raw chicken leg, complete with bone and skin, and look into the whole raw feeding thing if he likes it.

 

[rescuedsheep]

@2iceblest Yeah this is like my last ditch step to see if he gets back to eating on his normal routine else I will start reading about raw feeding him.

 

[440281/]

@rescuedsheep Several things: 1) some brands have “trial sizes.” Little bags of their food. All you have to do is call them up or write them or email them and ask if they have them. Sometimes they give it for free. Sometimes really cheap. Doesn’t hurt to try. 2) I feed mine (and my previous one) on strict schedules. 7:30am - 2 cups. 6pm - 2 cups. I make sure he eats everything. If he doesn’t, i take his food away. Trust me, sometimes, he will fight me. 3) the last bag that I fed my dog, he refused to eat. I smelled it and it smelled stale. I told the company I bought it from, and they sent me another bag, on them. And it was the food. This new bag, he’s cleaning up the bowl. 4) some of you are making things way too complicated. The more you add things to their food, the more they’ll expect it every time. And if you leave one of the added ingredients out, they’ll notice and won’t touch the food. 5) generally speaking, the foods you buy at PetSmart or Petco are mediocre quality at best. There are so many better foods out there. Look into it. 6) there are many GSD “support” groups on the net. I’m in a bunch of them. Food is one of the biggest topics in all these groups. You can find out what everyone is feeding their dogs. 7) a lot of times, many of you don’t exercise your dogs. They sit at home all day. Work that hunger up.

 

[rescuedsheep]

@440281/ I told my wife that it may be possible that we have received a bad batch of food because his pickiness started when we got a new bag but she thinks I’m crazy because surely Royal Canin can’t make that mistake right? I guess I’ll never know.

Mistakes were made when we fueled his pickiness by adding stuff but we are working on eradicating it now.

He gets more excercise than recommended for his age by the vets and breeder because he just loves to play and I don’t feel like stopping him from doing that albeit in a safe manner. No jumping, no abrupt change of directions, no slipping. Along with this he gets sniffing sessions on his walks and training for his mental stimulation. I know he’s hungry as he goes nuts at times trying to bite us or anything he sees and he will gobble up a treat in milliseconds if I throw at him but he just won’t eat his kibble.