feeding

[Helen Smith]

I have a 10 week old cocker spaniel. Meal times are a it of a task. She keeps leaving her dish, wanders about - we have to remind her her food is there. She eats more if I am very near her dish. She's very active, growing well etc. I just worry she is not getting enough food. We tried going back to 4 meals a day but she didnt want that.

[abkb]

Yep, all normal, Finley is 10 weeks today and always wanders off 

[elaine.e]

Hello and welcome to COL . I hope you like the forum and stay with us to tell us more about your puppy and post some photos of her too please.

I had the same problem with meals when William was a puppy. He wasn't interested in food (complete opposite nowadays) but was so interested in everything else that he would leave his food if he thought anything more exciting might be happening. Typical nosey Cocker puppy

Like you and your puppy, I found that if I stayed near him he was more likely to eat up and finish his food, so I tried staying in the kitchen with him but turning my back on him and doing something boring like the washing up, or standing and looking out the window, anything that meant I was in the room but not interacting with him. Once he was used to that I'd stay in the kitchen with him but move about and do other things, then I progressed to leaving the kitchen for a few seconds and coming back, still not interacting with William at all.

The other thing I did was to remove his food bowl after 10 minutes, even if he hadn't finished it. I didn't want him to become a grazer because it would be more difficult to judge how much he was eating.

All of the above helped, but what really did the trick was when his Retriever friend ate his tea one evening after he walked away from it. Poor William looked so shocked

[Jonnydog]

Penny was the same when she was a pup. I tried all sorts, even hand feeding, but she never finished a meal. However, now she polishes off everything I give her, so you can't really tell. You could try mixing a bit of raw mince or tinned sardine into her kibble, or warming it in the microwave so it smells appetising.

[Helen Smith]

Thank you for your comments. That makes me feel a lot better.  She has been home with us for a fortnight now and is adorable. Second vaccination tomorrow so we will be able to start going out for walks in another week.