Fussy Puppy isn't eating- normal?!

[Smckenry]

Hi All, I think I have a bit of a princess on my hands....

Breeder 'warned' us she was a little fussy when we picked her up, and she's now 13 weeks. When we first brought her home, she didn't really want to eat for the best part of a week. I figured she was settling in, teething etc and she would eat if she's hungry. We put the food down 4 times a day with a little hot water in there (3 sometimes if she asleep in the evening), give her 1/2 hour, and then it comes back up.

She was on Purina Puppy, but we wanted to move her over to JWB. So we've done the done thing, switched over gradually- its been about 3 weeks now. Occasionally we put a sardine in there- and guess what?! Its gone in seconds 

After settling in, and up until mid last week she just hoovered it up. She was getting better at eating it all in one go as well, even at 75% new food and 25% old. but when I switched to 100% new she just looks at it. she puts her face in the bowl, then leaves it. I switched back to 75/25 but same thing.  Its not that she doesn't like the food- if I drop any on the floor she hoovers it up.

Yesterday I hand fed her almost all of one of her meals-i needed her to eat to calm down a little  She ate the very last bit by herself and I gave her loads of prise during and after.

But again this morning, not interested. she did eat a few bites herself, then left it. and usually she eats all the breakfast one and its the rest I worry about!
I know I know- if she's hungry she'll eat- but I want her to eat and stop being so ratty....!

Is this normal? Any suggestions? (Sorry for the long post!)

[fenby]

Harvey was a really fussy eater as a pup. He just wasn't interested in kibble and would go a whole day without eating. We swapped to wet food and haven't looked back, he gets so excited when it's meal times. There are some really good wet foods available Harvey has Naturediet. It's just trial and error, I'm sure you'll find something that suits your little pup.

[Archie bean]

Harvey was a really fussy eater as a pup. He just wasn't interested in kibble and would go a whole day without eating. We swapped to wet food and haven't looked back, he gets so excited when it's meal times. There are some really good wet foods available Harvey has Naturediet. It's just trial and error, I'm sure you'll find something that suits your little pup.

Exactly the same here. Archie refused point blank to eat any kibble. He would have rather starved. I didn't particularly want him to just eat because there was nothing else, I wanted him to enjoy his food. I switched to Wainwrights wet trays and he absolutely loves it. Initially I mixed it with his kibble but he sucked the wet food off and spat the kibble out so I gave up with the kibble. 

[Smckenry]

Clever Archie! 
Thanks guys. I have free trial for this tails.com tailor made food- I might try that and if not then switch to wet!
Is it much more expensive than dry?

[Mudmagnets]

I feed Minstrel wet food too - Forthglade in his case. As a puppy he was on Naturediet, altho the food is the same price as the adult version, if you go by the N/D feeding chart it then becomes very expensive - they reckoned Minstrel needed three 390g trays a day  . Probably this is because the wet food is made up of a lot of water. (not sure if the amounts are the same for all wet puppy foods)

[Archie bean]

Clever Archie! 
Thanks guys. I have free trial for this tails.com tailor made food- I might try that and if not then switch to wet!
Is it much more expensive than dry?

I think it depends on the dry. Some of the better quality dry foods are very expensive. Archie has only a fraction of the recommended amount of his food. He's a big boy and prone to gain weight too, but two thirds of a tray a day plus a few treats seems to be plenty. I buy the trays in bulk boxes and it works out to be about 56p per day. So around £15 a month. Pribably a bit more than some dry but not too bad. Plus he's happy!! There is a grain free version which is more expensive and I give him that once in a while as he really likes the rabbit flavour!

[Smckenry]

Hi All,
Thanks for the advice!
Just to follow up, the day I posted this ( I realised I had a bag of JWB Fish flavour (she had been having the turkey) she was ready to have only JWB so instead of giving her a mix of JWB Turkey and the old Purina Beta, I thought I'd give her a whole bowl of the Fish JWB. She loves it if we give her a bit of sardine in her bowl as a treat, and the ingredients aren't TOO different from the turkey overall and really I just wanted to see if she'd eat it.
So I added a little water as usual and she ate pretty much the whe thing 
Next few meals I thought I'd try without the water, and she gobbled it all up! It's been about a week on the fish now and she loves it- doesn't leave to bowl, doesn't look at me or worry about where I am or what I'm doing, just eats!!

So basically she just loves fish and doesn't like turkey!

I realise the training treats I was giving her were also turkey based (wainwrights I think) and so picked up a bag of 'puppy salmon bites' for PAH. Now her bum in on the floor soooo quickly when she knows it's training time!!