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Picky eater puppy - want to maintain balanced diet he will eat

547 views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  Jax08 
#1 ·
Hello all

We have a 15 week old GSD pup.
He was born underweight and then had coccidia at a young age and was only 6 lbs at 8 weeks old. Since then we have struggled greatly getting him to eat.

When he first came home we gave the breeders food which was holistic kibble. He refused to eat it at all.

At only 6 lbs and being sick with coccidia we rapidly transitioned to Fromm large breed puppy. He ate very few kibbles but not nearly enough.

next stage- the vet asked us to start adding foods to encourage him to eat as he was severely underweight and dehydrated so we started adding cooked chicken and baby foods to the kibble. Sometimes rice or pumpkin if diarrhea. This improved the eating.

Now: weight is better and health is better. 25 ish lbs around 15 weeks. However he refuses to eat kibble alone now. We have been able to transition away from chicken and baby food and rice and now instead we do the Fromm kibble plus Wellness Core Bowl Boosters which is raw freeze dried beef. He won’t eat unless this is added to his food. Is this okay?

what advise do you recommend? Accept that he is going to need this topper / mixer forever? Try to transition to kibble only (this will be very difficult as he walks away from any food without the topper) or some other option? He seems to love the freeze dried raw food but I cannot find any affordable options for a raw diet we can give as a puppy.
 
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#2 ·
My pup wouldn't eat the Fromm Gold puppy kibble, so I tried him on Orijen LBP and he loves it (it has a much stronger aroma than the Fromm which may help entice him).

His first two meals of day are raw (either DIY or Stella & Chewy frozen or freeze-dried raw) and last meal of day is the Orijen kibble.
 
#3 · (Edited)
One of the dried just-add-water foods that is formulated for puppies is kind of an in-between kibble-raw option that falls more on the fresh-food side of the spectrum.

Here are some examples:
(1) THK
(2) ONP house brand
(3) Sojo's
 
#4 ·
Some posters on here take a hard line on picky eaters. They advise wait them out, they will eat when they are hungry, and if you indulge them, you'll own a picky eater for the duration.
I can't say they are wrong for adult dogs, but when you are dealing with a 15 week old puppy, I'd follow your vet's advice.

There is a pretty good chance giving him a "topper" to induce eating will mean he will be highly resistant to eating without it in the future. But this age is critical for bone and muscle and even nervous system development.

I would not test his will in a hunger strike if he insists on the topper as a puppy. Maybe when he is closer to adulthood--18 months as opposed to a little over 3 months, you could put kibble down.

Most of my dogs have not been picky, but we had a GSD female who became insistent on having some canned food mixed with her kibble when she hit maybe 7-7.5 years old. We found that a little bit of topper went a long way, i.e. just a spoonful of canned dogfood or raw meat to flavor the top layer of kibble was all it took.
 
#5 ·
Bad editing here--meant to say in 7th line, "you could put kibble down with no topper and see if he would eat it." But at more like 18 months or at least 12 months, not as a puppy who is still in the fast growing stage. And I know they are technically still developing to two or even three years, but growth does taper significantly earlier than that. My main point is, I would not try to wean the pup from his topper at this early stage, lest he regress and you lose the progress you've described. The difference in price between good kibble and various kinds of toppers, canned food, raw meat, etc. is not that huge.
 
#6 ·
Thanks I kinda felt the same way. I have been told dogs won’t starve themselves and if I continue with these eating habits he will probably be like this forever however it is very difficult for me to watch him refuse to eat when he is already underweight and has had so many issues getting into a consistent growth pattern. He’s now gaining 2-3 lbs a week consistently for a few weeks with what we have been doing.
 
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