I have a 9 week old toy poodle bitch - we collected her last Sunday from the breeder when she was 8 weeks old. She was weighed on Tuesday at her 1st vets appointment and is 1.2 kg.

I am worried because she seems to be hardly eating anything at all - I know she is tiny and so the amounts she would eat wuold be relatively small - she was on porridge for breakfast, scrambled egg with a tad of chum puppy  for lunch, Eukanuba puppy for dinner, and for supper, rich tea biscuit and milk.

Well she wont eat the porridge - so have knocked that on the head. I have been trying her with Eukanuba (either dry or soaked with water) and sometimes mixing some chum in with it to give it flavour - she is just so inconsitent with her feeding - maybe will have 3 or 4 nibbles and then leave it. She will eat her rich tea and milk at night.

The vet said for me to just feed her Eukanuba with maybe something put in to tempt her and to see how it goes - but I am worried that she will lose weight.

I think that maybe she is a picky eater because she went over to my other dogs bowls last night and was happy to tuck into Eukanuba adult stuff!!

Any suggestions please?

jane

Forget the fancy bits and try to get her to eat dog food, even a small amount of a quality dog food is better than porridge. Small amounts of raw egg, tined tuna or pilchard to get her going or may be raw mince beef, chicken or cheese sprinkled on her food may help. At her weight she weighs less than a lot of puppies do when born so may be increase her feeds to 5 or 6 a day and only expect her to take a spoonful at a time. If you are very worried make one meal the milk you can get to give to un weaned puppies.

Hi Jane,

1.2 Kg at 8 weeks is fine for a dog that will likely weight less than 10 lbs when fully grown.   You have no need to worry.

I suggest that you cut out the rich tea and milk, the biscuit in particular is not doing her much good.  If she likes the Eukanuba than go ahead and feed her it for her four meals. If she eats the scrambled eggs, I would keep her on it as well.

If you have a Pets at Home nearby you could try Naturediet puppy - most like it and it is a very good dog food.

Stacey

Thank you for the reassurance about her weight. I have 2 older toy pooldes but never worried as they were always piggish boys and would eat anything and everything!

She doesnt really like the eukanuba- just has a couple of mouthfulls then walks away. I will try mixing scmabled egg in with it and see if that helps.

Thanks again

Jane

Hi Jane

When I tried feeding my 8 week old pup on dried food he just picked at it and only ate 1/2 the amount of kibble suggested :( so I soaked it in warm water water for him and he loved it, couldn't wait for next meal.  The only thing i can think of is they were too hard for his teeth.

Jax

Hi Jane
I am having exactly the same problem with my 13week cocker sp.... won't eat that much unless i stand near and literally feed..

very worrying.