Only had her for just over 2 weeks and she is eating any feaces she can find including her own if we aren't quick enough. She won't eat the complete puppy food we were told she was on and are struggling to get her to have 2 reasonable meals a day.
She weighs 30.7kg and is full of fun and bounce. She has settled in well and fairly well behaved.
Any ideas please. she needs good food to continue with the growth.

Eve Pullen

Hi Eve

This might be a case where raw feeding could help.  You could try her on raw mince (pre-frozen if its beef) to see if she is interested.  If she isn't, try a quick flash fry to temp her.  There are companies that supply ready prepared raw diets, have a look here  http://www.landywoods.co.uk/  If you do a search for BARF you should find plenty of info.

Julie

It isn't unusual for puppies of this age to start to go off their food and if you arent careful they will learn to get picky when you try to tempt them.  The fast growth phase has finished so they aren't as hungry as they were and she has also changed homes.  If ind a visiting dog will often not eat well in the first week.

If she looks good on what she has been eating (apart from the poo that is :D ) then I would put her food down for 10 minutes at the appropriate time and pick up what she hasn't eaten and not feed her any extra at the next meal and so on.  don't worry if she doesn't eat at all ofr a day or two or very littel for a week or so.  When she realises that food will not be available except what is given at meal times she will eat.  Of course this means no between meals treats.

Also what are you going on as regards how much she should eat.  If it is the advise panel on the bag then you may find as most people do that this overestimates what they need by quite a lot in most dogs.

Is she in good condition.  she should not be fat and you should be able to fel ehr ribs easily if lightly pressed,a dn certainly you should be able to find her waist without digging.

Hi Brainless

Just to explain my thoughts here....normally I'd agree with you that changing the diet isn't a good idea at this stage.

Bernese are not normally fussy eaters infact they eat everything in sight, especially bitches!  The fact that this puppy prefers to eat faeces than the complete food indicates that there is somthing in the diet not suitable for this particular dog.  She has been with the new owners over 2 weeks so its unlikely to be a case of settling in and at 6 months old Bernese are most definitely in a fast growth phase so should be eating well.  It always amazed me the amount they needed to keep weight on!

The op could try other complete foods but there is more chance of these also being unsuitable than a raw diet which is quite different.  I found Bernese to do better on a diet containing a higher meat proportion than most complete foods gave.

Julie

That is the reason I asked about the OP condition and how she was judging not eating enough :D  So many people think they need to keep puppies fat as they are looking for the finished picture in terms of body.

Are Bern puppies still growing as quickly at 6 months as at four then?  with my own breed they are usually only about an inch off full height and about 3/4 grown, but of course these are medium sized.

Yes, I'd say Bernese are growing just as much at 6mths.  They slow down at 8 - 9mths, bitches maybe slightly before dogs.  A lot does depend on the lines though, short legged ones obviously maturing earlier and these then do put on weight easily but normally, in my experience its a job to keep weight on them when growing despite their ravenous appetite.

My Lapphunds don't grow much after 6 or 7 months either and my one and only Beardie was full height by 6 months but she was on the lower end of the standard.

julie