# My very, very picky 8 month old puppy



## mrspotter01 (Jul 22, 2015)

Hi everyone - 

I need some ideas. I have an extremely picky eater on my hands. When we adopted him, he was an okay eater, but skipped breakfast. His previous owner had him on PetFresh, which he stopped eating. So I started making homemade food, which is gobbled down, then one day just stopped. Then he ingested to foreign objects, which made him sick, so the doctor had me feed him the bland diet of rice, chicken, and cottage cheese, which he ate well on and then stopped. So now, I am trying to get him on grain free kibble, and he flat out refuses it. He will eat a few nuggets off the floor, but nothing out of the bowl. I tried giving him PetFresh again, and he isn't having it.

He doesn't get any table scraps, and doesn't beg, so no human food, or food from the table. I give him a very tiny treat when I leave the house, and I only leave the food out for him 30 minutes and it gets picked up. I put his food in a quiet place so he can eat without distraction, and I walk him/exercise him 40 minutes and then play with him for 15 before I offer breakfast. Breakfast is 6am and dinner is about 6pm, so 12 hours apart. I am getting concerned because it's been a little over 2 days now. According to the vet he is very healthy and there is nothing wrong with him. Oh, and I have tried using unsalted beef broth to soften the kibble, and no. I also tried cottage cheese, and pumpkin. 

Okay, suggestions for my little guy? He is just stubborn enough, that he may hold out longer than me :redface:


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

What grain free are you feeding him?

Did the vet check his teeth and gums well? 

He may have just been kind of spoiled by the fresh food and the chicken and cheese and not find the kibble as interesting. Or he may not like grain free foods or the main protein source. Like, my dog isn't big on lamb based kibble, he eats it but slowly compared to chicken or fish.


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## notgaga (Oct 25, 2014)

Assuming he's healthy and just being picky, have you tried using his kibble as training treats? That could interest him. When my puppy got picky, around 8 months as well, I bought her a kong wobbler and suddenly breakfast and dinner were fun! games! and she started eating again. 

I've also used a muffin tin, filled all the little cup things with food and put tennis balls on top and that intrigued her to the point of wanting to solve the puzzle, and, thus, eat. I also got like a 10-12" piece of like 3" food-grade pvc pipe, drilled some holes in it (and cleaned it), popped some caps on the end with it filled with kibble and voilà, another meal dispenser.


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## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

You could try Acana fish formula. That is stinky, it might tempt him to eat. You can also top kibble with a little wet food, cottage cheese, yogurt (sugar free), coconut or olive oil, mix it all up and see if that interests him. (A little means a tablespoon or two of the cottage cheese or yogurt and a teaspoon of the oils. Too much fat is dangerous for dogs.)

I would get him to the vet just to be sure.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Amaryllis said:


> You could try Acana fish formula. That is stinky, it might tempt him to eat. You can also top kibble with a little wet food, cottage cheese, *yogurt (sugar free),* coconut or olive oil, mix it all up and see if that interests him. (A little means a tablespoon or two of the cottage cheese or yogurt and a teaspoon of the oils. Too much fat is dangerous for dogs.)
> 
> I would get him to the vet just to be sure.


Just to note on the toppers that "sugar free" yogurt means unsweetened NOT "sugar free" in the sense of an artificial sweetener. Plain greek yogurt is usually good because it is just milk and live cultures and its higher protein than regular yogurt. 

Canned, packed in water and no salt added, sardines are really good toppers too. Smelly and the juices soak into the kibble.


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## MelTruffles (Jan 27, 2015)

I use canned Green Tripe (for now, ordering frozen tripe soon) for my picky eater which is super smelly but highly palatable for our furry friends. I use the brand Tripett and I order it from Only Natural Pet online. I mix it with kibble and I also mix it with raw. Not only is it palatable, but it has health benefits. I highly recommend it, but it's a little hard to find in store. I would not be switching his diet willy nilly. He needs to know what he gets it what he gets. If you let him dictate the menu, you'll be crying yourself to sleep (Been through it, I swear).

For Sherman, I feed him taste of the wild, which has several formulas. I rotate the formulas available, which also keeps him interested. But, trust me, the tripe will work wonders! You could probably stick it on poo and he'll eat it.


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## nadia (Aug 19, 2015)

My grandpas dog is extremely weird about food. She's submissive to the max but with very certain things. If we are eating and she catches a glimpse of eye contact with us, she will immediately look away and duck under the table as if to say "I'm not trying to challenge you for that!! I don't want it!" And when my dog Cosmo eats near her, she outright refuses to eat. What we do sometimes is take handfuls of food and feed it to her by hand. It's annoying and time consuming but it made her accustomed to the food we were feeding her and now she just eats it. (Carefully and slowly, but eats it)

There is such thing as doggy anorexia, so this is a concern but some breeds simply don't eat much. My friends husky will go two days without touching her food and then eat the third day. She's lean and skinny but the vet says she's completely healthy.


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## 1mustluvdogs (May 8, 2012)

Hi there MrsPotter01-
I think you answered your own question here. He can hold out longer than you. Has he lost weight from not eating? Is he underweight? If the answer is no, then you are going to need to hold out longer than him. If not, you will soon run out of foods to tempt him with. The vet said he is healthy, so it's clearly that he just wants to see how many things you'll dish out for him. I've gotten all these goodies. What else does she have for me? The more choices they get, the pickier they get.
How old is he? What breed(s)?
You said he doesn't get any human food, but he does. You said that you gave him beef broth, rice, chicken, pumpkin and cottage cheese. Right? Not giving him food from the table is good, so he doesn't beg at the table, but all those are human foods.
You are doing the right thing by picking it up after 30 minutes. Is he in the same room with you while he eats? If not, I would put the food where you are going to be. Some dogs want to be by us all the time and feel that they must follow you.
Pick one high quality food and stick with it, period. He will eat it when he gets hungry enough. Have you ever seen an anorexic dog? Nature's Variety makes Raw Boost and freeze dried raw foods and mixers. They are a great brand and highly palatable. Merrick is another good one.
Stay strong. Tough love.


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## Lucy (Jul 13, 2015)

Hi mrspotter01,

my dog was very picky about food when I first got her, too. She hardly ate anything. In fact, she was not even interested in high value treats like chicken or cheese, let alone kibble. One thing that I tried in order to get her to eat was: I slid the kibble across the kitchen floor, one at a time. She then wanted to catch it and eat it—I guess sort of like dogs like snapping at flies, they like catching fast little objects. I managed to feed my dog an entire cup of kibble at a time like that.

Another thing that worked was feeding her the kibble form my hand (which is apparently much better than from the bowl) or putting some "sauce" on the kibble (olive oil, fat left over in the pan from cooking ground beef, a little bit of store-bought wet food).

I think with my own dog, the reason she was not so interested in food was that she was still a bit nervous in her new home and still adjusting. After I had her about a month or one and a half months, she just suddenly started eating her kibble without problems. I think her appetite grew with her confidence and sense of security.

Good luck!


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