Feeding issues with my pup

Hi there,

I have a 10 week old staffy pup and I'm concerned he isn't eating enough. We got the pup off of my fiancées mum and she was feeding him heroes wet food. So.....I wanted to feed him dry food after reading up on the topic and read that I should gradually introduce dry food mixing it with the heroes wet food until I can finally take the wet food out of the equation. I have been feeding him 80g of wainrights dry food, 4 times per day. I was giving him 2 rusks with goat milk and then putting out his first meal of the day at 6am before I left for work and my other half who is on maternity leave would then feed him after she got up and ready at 10/11am and again at 4pm and then I would feed him at around 8pm. When my other half visited her mum's, her mum gave him wet food again which I wasn't too happy about as I thought this would set him back. We have tried mixing the food again and adding Warm water. After advice from the vet I now don't give him too many treats or rusk and purely focus on the dry food for now. Her advice was to give Theo 15/20 minutes with the dry food and then take it away so then he gets used to feeding times and knows he has to eat the food before it is taken away but I feel bad when he has only ate a bit and I have to take the bowl away before I go to work. It seems as though when I am over the bowl with him and grab some food with my hand he tucks in for a bit. I have today introduced other flavours of wainrights dry food which seemed to have worked a bit but still not finishing the meal. Has anyone got any advice and are we doing anything wrong?

Hope to hear soon

Sorry, you're not being ignored!

I would follow the advice of leaving the food down for a certain time then taking it away. And try not to hover, you'll be creating a worrying/needy feel to meal times that can in itself cause a dog to stop eating, or you set up a situation whereby they can't eat without the attention.

I'd stick with the dry food only for a while, just putting it on the floor and walking away, and see how it goes.

i've got to say, that sounds an awful lot of food for a pup! that's about 320gms of food. obviously i don't know what the pack suggests, but still, you might be giving him too much and so he isn't overly hungry.

there's nothing wrong with wet food as long as it's quality. vets tell you that dry food is better for their teeth, but there's actually no scientific proof of that!

if you're determined to give dry, then persevere - your pup won't starve himself! personally, i'd cut down the amounts a little & you could try adding a little doggie gravy, or a little cod liver oil, just to tempt him.

They can be fussy but as said above, the puppy won't starve itself. Personally I have a different school of thought with regard taking the food away, my Flo gets her breakfast but often doesn't eat it until Mid morning or lunchtime so it's down for when she wants it. If it gets within an hour or so of her main meal we pick it up so she doesn't wolf two lots down.

Some may say I'm wrong to leave it down (dry breakfast btw) but the way I see it as long as she isn't getting other food as a supplement then I let her have it when she wants and we still control her intake.

I don't have a problem with that, Ian, although I think with a pup I would prefer them to learn to eat at mealtimes but if you have a dog who finds that hard then so be it.

Good point about the amount of food, I'd missed that!

I think when we walk away he's scared we leave him so his attention is taken away from the food. He's been better today, eating 3 and a 1/2 bowls.

Gilly, yes I was trying to follow a guideline from the pack. 100-380g per day for a medium dog for the puppy food, so the portion is within these guidelines. I know I am near the limit so I may try cut down a little to make the meals more even. I've been strongly advised by others, (people I know, the vet and reading up online) to go with dry food for various reasons such as Dental care, dry stools, healthier, less additives. I have purchased wainrights wet food as well as I was mixing it in for a bit to encourage him to eat more. I also used jelly and normal gravy (realise this is high in salt and shouldn't have done this) for a bit as well. Adding warm water seems to help at times as well. How should dry food be served? is it okay to constantly serve dry food? Or should water/other food products be mixed in?

Ian, the other reason I want to take the bowl away is to get him used to feeding times so that when my Mrs goes back to work he will have a sort of routine, therefore I can leave his food out, go get ready then take him out to do his duties before work.

Bridogal wrote:I think when we walk away he's scared we leave him so his attention is taken away from the food. He's been better today, eating 3 and a 1/2 bowls.

Beware, that's a slippery slope. Remember always that your boy is learning from everything that happens, and it's not always what you think or want. They learn by associating actions with responses, if a response is what they want it's worth doing that action again, if it's something they don't want they will not repeat it (it sometimes takes a few repeats for it to click, in both directions). In this case, it is very likely that he'll be learning 'if I stop eating/whimper/etc, humans will come back to me and pay me attention'. In other words, you could well be teaching him to be clingy and have a separation problem later on.

I know it can be hard when a puppy gives you that look, but you have to bear this learning mechanism in mind. Find a halfway house where he's not really worried but equally that you're not hovering over him. Maybe sit quietly a few paces away for a few meals, then gradually increase the distance until you can go out of sight.

I agree with Liz about going back to him and being there when he stops eating - I had huge issues with Buddy when he was 5 months would not eat out of a bowl - went hungry for a week so I started hand feeding or sitting with him - huge mistake, took so long to get him to eat on his own and when he went into kennels he didn't eat for 5 days because they just gave him the bowl and walked away -no attention so he didn't eat thinking they would come back and they didn't - he is now 2 and he still wants attention when his bowl is put down before he will eat out of it runs around the room barking at it and only eats it when he realizes we are not going to come over and play they don't forget those early days and habits !- - you really do need to be cruel to be kind with this type of thing I learnt the hard way LOL

Bridogal wrote: I've been strongly advised by others, (people I know, the vet and reading up online) to go with dry food for various reasons such as Dental care, dry stools, healthier, less additives.

i've heard that before, and i'm afraid a lot of it isn't true.

you can get excellent wet foods (naturediet is one that comes to mind) that have no grains, no additives and contain tiny pieces of natural bone (and the bone is from the same source as the main meat - so, a lamb naturediet will have lamb bone etc). some of them are actually much better than some of the dry foods on the shelves!

loose stools only occur when there are additives/grains that a dog is sensitive to, and so the fact that a food is wet or dry doesn't come into it.

also, as i said before, the help with dentition has never been proven, and i've personally seen some dry-fed dogs with awfully dirty teeth!

quality must come first - then you can sort out whether to give dry or wet!

Thanks for the advice people.

He's been much better after taking his bowl away after 15/20 minutes and if he doesn't eat the food straight away I try mixing hot water. He's starting to eat more and more, delighted!

Great news!

that's good to hear!