How do you persuade puppy to eat complete dry food?

Oh dear! After all my careful research into the different types and brands of dog food, it would seem that Millie really wants to carry on eating Winalot out of a can!

I have tried moistening the complete food and I have also tried putting some gravy on it to make it tastier (she's not stupid: she just licked all the gravy off the kibbles didn't she!). She has taken a few from my hand but will not eat them out of a dish at all. Any ideas folks?

I gave her some cooked chicken off a carcass that I'd boiled up to make soup which she wolfed down but I don't really want to go down that route if I can help it (my neighbour's dog would only eat chicken that she cooked for him!)

She doesn't seem to eat a great deal at all really - I have been trying to give her something 4 times a day but I think she is only really eating twice a day (this could be down to the fact that she was fed twice a day by her breeder).

Help!

what age is she?

have you tried mixing some of the dry food with some of the winalot?

Some dogs you can wean off canned food, and some you must outwait. If the dog never did eat very well, and has seen the vet since the problem existed, you may be over feeding it. A vet check still won't hurt. Many dogs will wolf down more than is good for them and look for more. Others refuse to eat more than than they need. Your dog definitely should be narrower at the waist than the hips and chest. You should be able to easily feel the ribs, but not see them. Each dog is different. Standard recommendations are a good place to start, but each dog must have its food and exercise adjusted to its individual needs. This includes puppies. Many come from the breeder overweight. Little butter balls are cute, but leaner ones are healthier. the bigger the breed, the more important keeping them lean as puppies. You may want the vet to confirm your judgment. Adjust the dogs food and exercise as needed to reach its ideal body condition. Some German Shepherds and other breeds may refuse to eat enough to completely hid their ribs. As long as you are feeding a concentrated, meat based chow, the best thing is to accept it.

The worst thing you can do is to bribe a dog with rich foods into eating more than it needs. Instead, Put down the dish with what the dog should eat, and give it 15 minutes to eat. Then take it up. Do not give it anything to eat until its next scheduled meal. In a few days, it should be eating what it needs. Continue to check its ribs and adjust the food as needed. This is not easy. I had a Shepherd go 3 days on a few nibbles. I was a wreck, but she was fine. It is almost unknown for a healthy dog not to eat what it needs. Unfortunately, in too many cases, it is less than the package says, and less than the owner thinks the dog should have. Many dogs are quite good at holding out for tastier chow. Like kids, sometimes it calls for tough love.

Hi Terri Millie who I think is 9 weeks old should really be be on 4 small meals a day at the moment and it is important she eats. .

Has she been wormed recently?

Kibble is pretty unexciting, I am not surprised some dogs are reluctant to eat it. Dogs are attracted to food by smell and the smellier the better usually and kibble has very little smell to attract a dog.

Adding warm water can help to bring out any smell but the best way to make kibble attractive is to add a little something with a strong smell like sardines which are very good for dogs (in oil with the oil tipped away) or scrambled egg/meat/white fish/tripe.

Hi,
My dog hated her dry food when she was a puppy. As a small dog, she didn't eat a lot anyway, and so I was able to easily "doctor" the dry food with one of these 2 recipes:

1. Spread the kibble on a grill tray, and dot with a small amount of butter. Run under the grill until the butter melts and just starts to sizzle. Make sure it's mixed in well with the kibble and serve. BeBe loved the buttery smell, and ate her kibble this way.

2. I also sometimes put the kibble in a plastic container, and added just enough goat's milk to cover, plus a pinch or two of parmesan cheese. Put in the microwave for a minute until it sort of congeals into a mass.

Luckily, she likes her adult kibble plain, and I don't have to use these methods anymore, but they got me through a very awkward and fussy puppy stage!

Those are some very good ideas there - thanks for that and I will try them out.

Mini is right - Millie is 9 weeks old at the moment. She was wormed last week before I had her - she is due to go to the vet again next week to have the second batch of vaccinations and I thought that she wouldn't need to be wormed again before then.

I have tried mixing the canned food with the dry and she just leaves the whole lot but I will experiment with the sardines/butter and goat's milk/cheese recipes!!!

I don't think that she's underweight or overweight to be honest and she must be eating something over the course of the day as she does 3 or 4 poos every day! Here's a picture where you can see her body:


I will give her some sardines with her lunch today and report back on the results!
Tx

She's adorable - same colours as my Chin!

Good luck with your feeding

Hi Terri Millie is gorgeous and she shouldn't need worming again providing the breeder used a good quality wormer like Pancur (which is given to puppies on three consecutive days).

She certainly doesn't look too fat
Do you know why the breeder was only feeding two meals a day?

For my fussy pup, I blast a bit of NatureDiet (wet food, very good quality and very smelly!) in the microwave for 30 seconds and then mix it with some Skinners Duck and Rice dry. I rotate the flavours and she has never left it!

I have to say that my pup was worse when it came to fussiness when she was younger. She is almost a year old now and so much better.

Oh, it can be sooo frustrating having a fussy eating dog .When I got Bella she was on winalot too,and ,like you I did LOADS of research about which was the best dry complete. But she had other ideas! She wouldn't touch it,I tired various different kibbles in the end (perhaps a mistake, but I was desperate) and she wouldn't touch any of them
I even tried being really firm - put it down,then pick up after 20 mins , no treats etc...but she went for 8 days with hardly a few mouthfuls of kibble (I wouldnt recomend that for such a young puppy BTW, Bella was around 10 months old at this point!)
Anyway, I gave up and she is raw fed now and loves it. And once you get into the swing of t it isn't much more trouble than dry.
If you really can't pursaude her to eat kibble, you could look for a good quality wet food. Nature's Diet is a good natural food, and quite reasonably priced,shouldn't work out too expensivefor a little dog!
Good luck, hope you find something that works.
She is totally gorgeous BTW