Hi I have a westie that is eight months old, he seems to have gone off his food over the last couple of days. He usually crunches his bones with the best of them but at the moment just cant seem to be bothered, he has turned his nose up at his usuall chicken or rabbit portions. I suspect he may be teething but am not sure how long before i should get worried and pay a visit to the vet. I have tried mincing his food but he just licks it a bit and leaves it for our lab who is following him about like a hoover at the moment. Is there a way to tell for sure if he is teething?

You say 'He crunches his bones'  - I do hope they are raw as cooked bones are liable to splinter and can damage the dogs mouth and intestines

I would have thought a Westie would have been well into teething at eight months and would have lost many if not all of his puppy teeth, but he could be a late starter.

When your pup starts teething his gums will be a little swollen above the puppy teeth which are loosening, they can also look pinker than usual and he will be wanting to chew a lot ;) You will find teeth around the house if you're lucky :)

hope this helps

Hi Dill thanks for the reply, dont worry everything he is fed is raw. He did loose a few teeth at 5/6 months which did put him off his food for a while, i wasnt sure how long the teething process takes if it is over a short period or spread out over a couple of months. I am probably worrying over nothing anyway, I had always been told that westies could be fussy about thier food, but as he has eaten absolutley everything up until now i thought he might be different. Maybe not :-)

He could just be taking his time over it, some dogs do ;)
Is it possible that he just isn't hungry as he's reached his potential height?  Once he's stopped growing upwards he won't want as much food as he once did.

Don't know why Westies are reputed to be fussy eaters, all the ones I've ever met have been way overweight, ribs long gone under the fat - and their owners always tell me that they can't get them to eat   (not saying yours is, just the ones I've met ;) )

You might have a good point about him reaching his full height, and come to think about it i dont think i can remember seeing a skinny westie, could it be that as they can be fussy, frosties and coco pops are sprinkled on their food.  :-)

Have you tried feeding him alone without the lab around?
I have a food orientated dog that will harass the life out of the other dog until she walks away, for this reason they are fed seperately.
Some dogs just don't fight back and allow the other to butt in and take whats theirs.

Thanks Mygirl I will give that a try.:-)

Its worth a try Martin, there needs be no confrontation with my two it only takes him to be there in the background and she will walk away. (I thought i was a bitch thing tho :D )

Ha!  I defy any mere dog to try and take food off any bitch I know :D :D 

Probably more like gravy and tasty bits, and then of course if he/she hasn't eaten 'enough' chicken bits in between meals to keep up the strength ;)

Westies aren't very big and don't need nearly as much food as many would think :D

I dont think i have to worry about him being slightly off his food, just had him weighed at the vets and got told off for him putting on over a kilo in a month. I was at the vets to get a tick remover gadget, i found a small tick in his armpit but a large one behind the base of his ear, these could well have put him off his food. As well as being totaly full up. ;-)

LOL :D

If he's not running for his food you're probably giving too much ;)  Many dried foods are soo full of calories that its very easy to overfeed and still feel like you're not giving them enough :)

Your probably right, both my dogs are fed a raw meat and bones diet which in my opinion has to be the best, the mistake i have made is looking on a site called westhighlandwhite.co.uk where i found a recomended growth chart for westie pups. My experience just goes to show that not all pups are the same, and that pups fed an appropriate diet dont put on weight as fast as a pup fed on junk food.:-D

Totally agree :D

I wish I had the spare freezer room to feed Barf as I think its one of the best methods ;)