My daughter's CKCS 4 1/2 months old puppy is refusing to eat her food. She was on Pedigree chum puppy food and mixer when she got her and she weaned her on to Burns mini bites She never really liked the Burns,just took a couple of mouthfuls at a time and wasn't gaining weight. She loooked all"clapped in" at the back. So she bought a crate of Nature diet puppy and for the first couple of days she ate that,although not very enthusiastically.Now she will only eat it if there is a bit of chicken or sausage or other "human" food in it and she is at her wits end.She is always"starving" and manages to get pieces of food etc that her two little boys are eating,despite all her efforts to make sure she gets nothing apart from her own food.She has thrown out more of the Nature diet than she has eaten.She would really like a dried food for her,but is not convinced that she will eat it.She was thinking of a lamb based puppy food,but the only one she can see on the market is Purina,and she was going to give that a try.Is this just a trait with Cavaliers? her last dog was a toy poodle and she ate all her food with gusto,as well as all the scraps the kids fed her.The breeder also runs a boarding kennels and she will be going there for 10 days when she will be 7 months old,and my daughter is worried she won,t eat at all as they will just feed the dogs food with no bits of chicken etc.,so she is anxious to find a food that she likes and will eat on it's own.Any suggestions would be appreciated.She has tried taking the food away after 15mins but it made no difference,she still wouldn't eat it.

One of the problems with feeding food such as Pedigree" not only is it full of chemicals preservatives colourants and goodness knows what it also has flavour enhancers. So to switch onto completely dry then becomes problematic.

The dry food I have found to be the most palatable which is also a quality kibble is Royal Canin. The reason that it didn't work when you lifted the food after 15 minutes is you probably didn't give it time to work. Plus you have gone down the sticky path of adding tasty morsels the puppy has got you trained really well. If like feral dogs it had top survive on whatever it could find then |I promise you it would not be so fussy.

We create this by pandering to their whims and foibles. This is because we actually teach our dogs to be fussy and picky eaters by free feeding. That is leaving down food all day. The dog then comes to the realisation that it can eat at any time and does not fall into a routine.

Free feeding can also have an effect on dominant behaviour; it can give the message to a dominant dog that he could be a pack leader as he has access to food at any time. To overcome this decide on how many times you will feed per day. If he is over 1 year then this will be either once or twice. Feed the food of your choice not the food of his choice "I am a firm believer in a quality all in one dry food"  If you prefer the more natural diet that is fine as long as you cook the meat "Never Feed Raw" put this down for ten minutes only, if the dog has eaten it in that time fine, if not pick the food up and put it away. When the next meal is due then only put out amount of food you would normally feed, do not double up.

It may take a few days for the message to get home, but it will in the end. Remember the dog's dim and distant shared ancestor was Wolf like.  Which is a feast and famine eater; they sometimes go many days or even longer between kills, so your dog will not starve, instinct and survival will take over and the dog will resume eating the food you choose not the food he chooses.

Many people think that it must be boring feeding them the same thing every day. But do not realise that supplementing a quality dry food with tinned or pouch food is like putting tomato sauce on Lobster Thermidor. I am sorry to say I am not a fan of most tinned or pouched meats and in some cases these are detrimental to the dog's behaviour. We also assume that taste is a factor. It isn't, dogs have only 17% of our taste capacity, lets face it if they can eat there own and other animals faeces which many do, then their choice of taste and quality must be questioned.

Canine
Can you tell me what Kibble is?
thanks

Dried complete food such as Royal Canin, James Wellbeloved, Eukanuba etc.

Halve her rations, put it down, remove after 5 minutes, offer nothing else until the next meal time.

No dog will starve itself to death.

Dogs are very quick to pick up tensions as are children,hence why so many of both suffer from "food issues".

Hi Thanks for the advice. She has decided to stick with a dried food,but not Burns,as she didnt seem to do very well on that.We read the ingredients on Pedigree complete dried,but were not impressed,so she is looking for a food similar to Burns.We have a good pet shop here,and they can order in any brand for you,but I think we might send for some samples first.I have to add that yesterday she had no treats at all and still only picked at the Nature diet,and her "doings" were very small and hard,so she relented this morning and gave her scrambled egg which was devoured in 5 seconds flat.She is only a 4 1/2 month old puppy,so she needs to find a food that she likes and does well on.I will search the net and try and get as many samples as I can and she can try her with them and see which one is best.
Cheers

Hi jeanb,

having owned an EXTREMELY fussy CKCS, I would advise your daughter that if she continues to add tasty morsels in the dog's food, she will be a slave for the rest of the dog's life.  I know this because it's exactly what my mum did, and we ended up having to cook for our CKCS every day until his last.  Nothing wrong with that of course, if you have the time for it, but remember that unless you really know what you're doing, you won't be giving the dog a balanced diet with all the nutrients it needs.

if you're not keen on Burns, there are other similar brands that are just as healthy, for example Eaglepack and Arden Grange.  James Wellbeloved seems to be a popular one too.  I've never tried any of these as my dog is on Burns but I've seen them recommended a lot :)

When our CKCS was a pup, we used to worry so much that he was starving himself, we would sit on the floor and feed him by hand, add bits of chicken to his food etc. thinking we were helping.  In fact this does not help, but merely encourages fussy eating. 

Try the advise given by others in this thread, but just remember you need to be consistent otherwise it will be a waste of time

good luck :)