Bentley not eating properly :( Fish4Dogs

Apologies if I am being neurotic but I just wanted to get some opinions;
Bentley is on Fish4Puppies and did love it, so much so that I 'could' use it as a training treat.
He has been off it for the last week and I am at a loss. He is eating everything else though I am now mixing in his old Science plan with it to get him to eat something with more substance. But the reason we took him off that was soft poos and his anal glands weren't naturally secreting; he has already started 'bum skiing' again

at first I thought maybe it's because his gums are sore - he just lost a whole batch of puppy teeth but he is more than happy to crunch on everything else so it can't be that.
Or
I bought a 12kg bag of food. there is about 6kg left. Is it possible that the air has got to it? Can dogs really be that fussy though considering he eats all manner of disgusting things?
Or
My OH just went to Afghan last Sunday, he stopped eating his food on Tuesday....
Or
I gave him a splash of gravy on his kibble last Sunday night, and then a tiny bit of tuna with it on Monday night; he wouldn't eat his food Tuesday morning....

It's just really unusual for him to not eat as he loves food. And I really wanted him to be happy on F4D cos of the gland problem

Has anyone had any similar experiences whilst using F4D? Or any ideas what I can try?
Sorry for the long post I'm just worried that my boy isn't getting the nutrients he needs

hi

how old is your pup now?how many meals are you giving him?
a healthy dog will never starve itself,butsome,after the rapid growth phase dont find food to high on their list of priorities...you could also be feeding him more than he requires.
imo chopping and changing his food about,will make a rod for your own back and will not help his anal glands
i would use the 10 minute rule...give him 10 minutes to eat each meal,take it up even if he starts eating at the 9 minuite mark,(and dont titbit him inbetween)he will soon realise that you control the food and it 'doesnt pay' to be fussy
good luck!

I think that could be the problem. This is exactly where things started to go wrong with Bella. If she gets a whiff of anything more exciting she will refuse kibble for days.
You can try adding various healthy things (like chicken, tuna etc) toitto make it more exciting for him.Be warned though, we did this with Bella but eventually she would pick out the Tasty bit and leave the kibble...
Some dogs just get bored of kibble I think (who can blame them really!)but how you solvethat depends on your dog I think. We have tried all sorts including raw, but have I think just made the problem worse....
We are now trying to be stricter and doing the 10 minute thing...with some success....
Hope you get it sorted...fussy eaters can be a big headache!

I had the same thing with my puppy, but that was with the Hill's Science plan, and although I've been on the F4Dogs for months now, I never used it at that age. When you say he eats other things, are those other things softer?? If not, again, it was the same with my puppy, she could crunch her way through a carrot so I dispensed with the idea that it was teething problems, but she couldn't seem to crunch her way through her kibble, and eventually she just gave up and walked away before even trying, and this sounds kind of the same as I had when mine was a puppy last year.

What I tried doing was actually putting the kibble in a plastic bag and smashing the he*l out of it with my wooden steak hammer (yeah I know, but a puppy's gotta eat, it's growing!!!), she would eat it then, with maybe some tuna in, coz otherwise it was too dry, like eating a smashed up digestive biscuit when your mouth's all dry! If you've got the time and the inclination, then try that, plus it will give off a better smell, and don't forget it's the smell they go for first!

Could well be that it might have gone a bit off in the warmer weather, again, I had the same thing with the Hill's and it seemed to change it's outer coating when that happened, and it looked sort of "oily" as opposed to nice and dry, is your F4Dogs looking like that??

I would be erring on the side of teething personally, so if you try mashing up some kibble then you'll know it IS that, because quite honestly, that kibble is blooming hard stuff (I know coz I've had to smash it!) and it must hurt their teeth when they're going through the teething process surely?

Good luck, in my honest opinion I really don't think it's being fussy, and if you try all different things without changing the actual food (oh I did that and caused all sorts of gastric problems, and you wouldn't want that!) you might get some idea! Phone up F4Dogs and ask them to send you a sample of the Sardine or the Salmon and try your dog with a brand new little pack and if he eats it, then you know yours could well be off! Come to that, ask F4Dogs if the way you stored it might have affected it perhaps?

well....I actually had a trial pack of F4pups in the cupboard and had the same thought but he sniffed at it and walked away so it can't be that it's not fresh...it did look different colour to my bulk bag though... I haven't been leaving the food down for more than 5 minutes.
I think it's probably time to cut him down to 2 meals a day. The only reason I haven't done this sooner is that I take him to work with me and one of the guys I work with is a 'grazer' - always eating. Unfortunately he thinks the 'don't feed my dog' rule doesn't apply to him (we had a row one day cos he gave Bentley Choc and I went beserk saying it would kill him and he told me I was being stupid, Digby (old English Sheepdog) is fine - grrrrrr) and consequently Bentley hangs around him begging. it's not too bad but I have kept him on lunch in the hope it will deter him from begging so much....
TBH I would be bored eating the same biscuits every day which is why I have on a couple occasions given him tuna etc. I just don't want to create a fussy eater what do you think?
I was going to go to the F4D shop this weekend to get some Tiddler treat things, I will see if he will give me a sample of the adult kibble to try him on....

That might be an idea too, (about the adult food), because I found although my puppy would walk away from her own puppy kibble after a few weeks on it, she would eat the other dog's adult kibble with great gusto A lot of breeders (especially gsd) always say to change over to adult kibble anyway as soon as possible, but the vets tell you different, they say for a large breed, to stay on the puppy for a year! I didn't, mainly because, I was so desperate to sustain the growth, and when a puppy's not eating what can you do, if you don't want to start spoiling them and cooking up human food for them! I'm glad I'm over all of that now, and now the puppy has grown into an 18 month old adult, she will happilly eat the Fish4Dogs kibble on it's own without anything added, so I know she wasn't being fussy, coz she certainly hasn't turned out that way, and I think sometimes they really are trying to tell us something!

The only reason I knew my food was "off" was because it was kept in the same place as the puppy food, but a different drawer, and my older was was heaving as he was eating it (the stuff that had the oily outer covering I mean!), then I realised, that although it was kept dry and closed, the sun had been belting in through the door onto that cupboard making it too warm in there, and I don't think this F4D has any preservatives in it does it, just like the food they were on didn't!

You'll just have to try by the way you think best, just like I did, and try doing what I did with the crushing of it and see if there's any different, because my dog ate it immediately when I crushed it all up like that adding some wet, i.e. the tuna. You don't have to add a lot of wet,i.e. tuna or tripe, just enough to relieve the boredom.

The more you mess about with this and that by trying different foods, you can create even more problems, and I'd strongly advise you to stick with the F4D coz in my opinion you couldn't be giving better! Why not ring them, or your breeder and discuss about changing over to the adult if he'll eat that with no problem? I can relate to this, because this is exactly what I had with mine, and I sooooo wish I hadn't listened to my vets back then and just changed to an adult food instead of messing about with different brands, but then I hadn't discovered F4D then!

Good luck, and good luck with that bloke at work, he needs to listen to you, it's your dog!

This is about what I often suggest. The disappearance of your OH could be adding to the problem. I would give him plenty of attention and the 10 minutes suggested.

I also agree with an early switch to adult food for larger breeds. I don't know that it helps small breeds or hurts them.

It is also very important to keep dogs lean. An overweight large breed puppy is far more likely to have joint problems than a lean one. You should be able to easily feel the ribs, but not see them. Your vet can confirm your judgment of the dogs condition.

Thank you everybody for your replies I had a good look at the food last night, and I think that the air has indeed got to it The kibble is all different colours, some dark some light brown, and maybe do look a little 'waxy'. If I think back to the weekend when I gave him the sample pack, all the kibble was the same colour and dark brown. So this could indeed be the issue. I keep the bag in our cellar which is really cold and no sunlight, but the bag wasn't airtight. I keep a tub upstairs that holds a week's worth of food and i'm pretty sure that I topped it up the weekend before he stopped eating, and that perhaps the reason I added the gravy and then the tuna was to get him to eat it.... So, really annoyed as there is at least 5 kgs left, guess I will mix it in with the new stuff so it's not a complete waste.

I have to say that I was quite upset about it all this morning and gave him Science Plan for Breakfast just so that I knew he had eaten something. And had a pop at Dave for looking at Bentley whilst he was eating, I explained to everyone to just ignore him if they're eating anything.

Anyway, I'm waffling but I have been worried and you've all been so kind with your advice, thank you so much

Well imagine how I felt, when one of the dogs was actually heaving whilst he was eating it, but I thought nothing of it at the time coz he's old and heaved when he'd been gnawing himself in the past, so I just put it down to that, until I inspected the food properly, smelled it, and just like you, it was all different shades and very "oily" as you say! That's why I knew it had to be something, I had a gut instinct that my puppy wasn't being "fussy", coz quite honestly I've never experienced a fussy eater puppy or dog come to that, even though I've always spoiled them with human food off our plates and sunday lunch! Lol!

Now just concentrate on finding something he likes to mix in with the food of your choice, put it down, tempt him with a bit of the "nice" if you have to, to give him a start with it, then shove it under his nose and walk away! He'll eat it! He's going to be a tad "wary" now, and look as if he doesn't want his food (that's what I got anyway with my puppy!) so you'll just have to be aware of that, and like I said, if he sits and stares at you as much to say "oh no, is this that awful c*ap again?", then just take a little bit of the "nice" you've put with it from the same bowl, and he'll tuck in, hopefully!

The things we go through Good luck!

so went and bought a 1.5kg bag of F4D Salmon (got the huge biscuits - was rushing ) and he kept turning his nose up at it last night, I was leaving it for 10 mins then taking it away, and trying again after half hour. No treats in between. Eventually at about half 9 he started eating from my hand, but at least he ate something.
We walked this morning at 8 for about an hour and offered him food at half 9. It is now just after half 12 and I had to had some ham to get him to eat anything. I have smashed up the kibble for him too. He has prob had about 20 grams so I have taken the rest away and will now leave it til tonight. The strange thing is that it can't be the smell because he practically took my hand off for a piece of fish jerky yesterday afternoon and is eating the little super star treats....

Am I going to have to add a tasty topper for every meal? How long do I keep up the '10 min take away' thing for? What do I do about training if I'm not giving him treats?

Sorry to keep coming back to this. I am going to keep perservering but I feel terrible. I could cry I am so wound up. It's been almost two weeks and he is noticeably thinner. With my OH being away I feel like I am failing my boy