puppy question

We picked up Jagger Sunday night. Everything has been going pretty good so far. Monday I started to feed him the same puppy food he was eating at the breeder. ( plan on trying the raw diet once everything settles down and he gets in his groove ) I been feeding him around 5:30- 6 am then at 12 -1pm and again at 7-8 pm, 1/2 cup each meal. The first day he ate all 3 meals fast, like it was his favorite thing. We played a lot in the afternoon til about 2pm. Put him back in his crate to rest and he appeared to be exhausted the remainder of the day and night. When I took him out for potty and just walk around the yard stretch w/e he just wanted to casually walk / sniff around. Not like earlier where he had a bunch of energy. So, I just assumed the days play time took a lot out of him. This morning he started crying around 4:15 am, I got up and went and took him out side walked him around and played a little. He had a lot more energy, wanted to run and play. So I brought his food and water around 5am and he drank some water went and sniffed the food took like a bite or 2 then just ignored it. I tried to get him to eat again about 15 min later and he ate about 5 - 7 bites. I had to leave for work ( 530am) so I put him back in his pin ( no fuss or anything ) Talked to my wife, she took him out about 7am, full of energy played with the kids. Asked if he ate his food that he did not finish she said she tried but he did not seem interested... as of now there stil out side playing.

Should I keep trying to get him to eat/ finish his first meal? Is there a point when its just too late and put the food away till his next meal ? We don't "free feed" and I would like to stay on this schedule. He is just over 8 weeks old.

lol sorry for the wall -o-text

Some people would suggest mixing it with sardines and eggs etc which is fine but its not something i liked doing nor did it work on my pup,(when ever i give him eggs or sardines its just a snack) you could try mixing it with warm water which is what i do every day and works without fail,i do however add one more thing tho and that is tin food.

My routine is 3 meals a day,i boil water and fill up to about a 3rd of his bowl then mix for awhile (by the end of the mixing the water is warm not boiling and theres stil alittle crunch to his dry food its not all soft) and then i mix a teaspoon of tin food in it and then a pick most of the tin food out and chuck it in the bin,my pup clears his bowl 100% of time.

Iv spent so many days worring and frustrated because my pup wouldnt eat i even tried him on raw which worked but i couldnt do it properly so i got him back on dry and now i have zero problems

I notice you mentioned bringing his food and water out. Does he get a bowl of water with his meals then or is it there throughout the day?

He gets water all the time, I I just brought his water bowl from the pin out to the backyard when I brought the food out to him this morning.

A pup of his age should be getting four meals a day of a good quality dog food. Can I ask which brand he's getting?

Fresh water should be available all day, in the same place so that he knows exactly where it is.

It could be that he's still settling in, after all, a pup going to a new home suffers a fair bit of anxiety in the first few days. It could be that you're giving him too much in each meal, or it could be that he just doesn't like the food.

If it's a good quality food, then I'd leave each meal down for about 5 - 10 minutes and if he doesn't eat it take it up again. As he's so young, though, I wouldn't like to see him go hungry. As already said, you could try moistening the kibble with a little lukewarm water and see if that tempts him. If you do that, however, then you must throw away any that isn't eaten as otherwise the water will make it go off pretty quickly.

He was eating Blue Buffalo wilderness at the breeder so we just continued the same. http://bluebuffalo.com/dog-food/wilderness-puppy?pf=1&lifestage=puppy&animal=dog - Yea, the water is changed through out the day, with bottled water.

Doesn't look a bad food at all, although it's a shame they don't state the percentage of meat in the product.

I'd just persevere, unless you want to switch straight to raw feeding now.

P.S. Do try switching to 4 meals a day, though until he's about 3 months old. That way he won't run out of energy between meals!

We wet Tip's kibble when we just got her and she gets a raw egg mixed with one of her meals every second day. Also once a week all the dogs get a petmince mixed with rice meal. Or you can try dog gravy to tempt him to eat. Like caryll said if you make it wet any left over must be binned as it goes off.

Thanks ! - Ill try doing 4 meals a day and wetting it a little and see how that goes. If that wont work I will try adding in things ( egg, wet food etc ) Since we are doing schedules I should only give him 5-10 min to eat before I take the food away to the next feeding ? Ill keep at it! Thx again!

I would give about 15-20min more, then up and nothing until the next meal. He is probably just excited

Hayley wrote:I would give about 15-20min more, then up and nothing until the next meal. He is probably just excited

That's far too long if the food's been wetted. It'll go to mush, and will go off very quickly.