Author Topic: 6 month puppy won't eat!  (Read 997 times)

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Offline Miriam

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6 month puppy won't eat!
« on: December 11, 2014, 08:03:11 PM »
Dizzy is 6 1/2 months old.  I have a 4 year old lab too.  Dizzy has never been a gobbler like my lab and I've had to coax him to eat in the past.  I feed him JWB kibble with Nature Diet.

Dizzy is a wcs and he's a big boy 14kg at last weighing so he's obviously eating some food.  I have to stand over him or the lab runs to his bowl and takes his food.  So I've taken to feeding Dizzy in the utility room without DJango and I stand with him.  But more and more he's just not interested and tonight wouldn't eat a mouthful of his tea.

What can I try?  Should I coax him with scrambled eggs or chicken or will this just make him worse?  He doesn't seem unwell, normal poos and lively in his walk but I hate him not eating. Any advice gratefully received!!

Offline Archie bean

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Re: 6 month puppy won't eat!
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2014, 08:32:45 PM »
I've gone through this at a similar age with several of my previous dogs. I think they often do go through a fussy phase. All mine gre out of it eventually.
There seem to be two schools of thought on how tomapproach it. The first is to just leave his food down for 15mins and then remove it. Put it down again a bit later and try for another 15 mins. The theory being that they will eat when they are hungry and learn that if they don't eat, the food goes!
Personally I prefer my dogs to want to eat and enjoy their food. Archie became incredibly fussy at about 6 months and stopped eating altogether. He was on kibble mixed with nature diet. He started off just leaving the kibble but then refused to eat anything. I tried various different foods but eventually ended up just feeding him wet food with no kibble (Wainwrights trays, which he adores). Once I found the food he likes we never looked back.
I think it is up to you whether you just persevere and hope he starts eating again once he knows nothing yummier is coming along, or if you try to find something that makes him enthusiastic again. I know a lot of people feel that by doing this you run the risk or creating a fusspot, always on the look out for something nicer.
As a first step, I might try him on just kibble or just wet food - perhaps it is the mix he doesn't like? Also try leaving him alone to eat as it is possible that he is picking up on your worry about him not eating.

Offline Miriam

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Re: 6 month puppy won't eat!
« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2014, 10:46:49 PM »
Hi, well thank you very much for the advice.  I tried Dizzy with the same food a couple of hours later and he did eat it all.  Then just before bedtime he was sniffing around the kitchen (with the dreaded lab) and I gave them both some more kibble and both ate it all up.

I would find it v hard for him to go too long without eating so I would try to find him a food he likes more as you did.  But I think he's a lively soul and just isn't all that food oriented, maybe his teenage hormones are distracting him.  After a labrador (labs love their nosh) it's a surprise.

Going to bed happy knowing he's got something in his tummy.

He's a lovely boy. 

Offline Mum2Riley

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Re: 6 month puppy won't eat!
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2014, 03:36:00 PM »
Riley is 18 months and a working cocker - he has so much energy i don't know where it comes from, but he's also the pickiest eater imaginable!  My other dog is also a lab that has never turned her nose up at a meal in her life, so a fussy dog is a shock.  Riley looks half starved but I've learned that he just isn't food motivated at all - he's on barking heads fusspot salmon at the moment and he's been ok until the last few days when he isn't interested at all.  If he doesn't eat much breakfast, I tend to put some scrambled egg or full fat cottage cheese with his tea and he usually eats then.  I have had to make myself walk away and not fuss over him, and if he doesn't eat it in ten minutes, I put it away.  You have my full sympathy  >:(  I also find putting some hot water over his food and letting it cool seems to release the smell a bit and that tempts him.