Hi Have 15 week old puppy - Beagle, he is fussy, which for a beag is unsual, Vet does not think there is any prob as the boy is not skinny and looks fine, coat is nice and shiny.  He is on Arden Grange Graduate and is not at  all fussed, I like the AG as it is very natural and is one of the best around.  He just picks at the food on its own, I have tried it soaked, semi soaked, crunchy, dry, I have to aldulterate it with some tuna, chiken, rice and when he is mega fussy I mix some Ceasar dog meat in with it to get him to eat it, its such hard work, I only leave the bowl down for 10 mins and then pick up, he is fussy with treats as well.  He was on Beata pup when we had himn and he was not fussed on that either.  I have also tried leaving the bowl down for longer so he can graze but that did not work either

He is wormed regularly

I have tried with food in a kong, not really interested.

It is very odd, all the beags I have ever known love food, even training with food motivation is difficult.

He is all right within himself and runs about like a mad thing

I would put his food down , leave it for 15 minutes and then pick it up again. Repeat however many times a day you feed him ;) At the moment he has you running around in rings trying to please his food fads :D

If he is hungry he will eat eventually (unless there is a medical reason for him not to)

HTH

Melody ;) - Who has had this problem in the past with her Malamute ;)

I agree with Melody - so long as you've ruled out any possibility of teething problems (and feeding the kibble soaked means you can discount that) just put it down for a limited period and pick up what he doesn't eat - otherwise you will end up having to find something new to 'tempt' him every time he feels like pulling your string.  However this isn't to say that you should feel you HAVE to feed the same thing every day - a little variety doesn't do too much harm, so long as YOU are making the decision and it's not putting a strain on his digestive system......

Most dogs love naturediet.  Its not a dry food though, its semi moist and sold in 390g cartons.  It is very dense and not sloppy.  You could give this a go but obviously if you want to keep him on dry food its a non starter.  I can't reccommend any other dry completes and from the research I've done on most dog foods, your pup seems to be on one ot the best at the moment anyway.

Hope you sort it soon.

Linda

Don't pander to him at 15 weeks he can miss the odd meal, put it down and if he is not interested pick it up. At his age he may be teething so that may not help and he should be on 3 meals a day so if he is on 4 I would drop one. IMO drop the lunch time one and reduce the late night till about 6 months when you reduce to 2.

I'm probably going to get slated for saying this but I pandered to my 9 month old pup Alfie (Rottweiler) right up until he was 6 months ish.  He was the fussiest eater on the planet (apart from his litter brother who my good friend has).  I've put all kinds of wonderful things (Tripe  mince chicken) into his food the encourage him to eat this always worked.  Everyone said that I was making a rod for my own back but suddenly at about 7 months he changed and eats his food just damped down with warm water (nothing else).  So I think his appetite will improve as he gets older, as everyone told me that Alfie's would and I certainly didn't belive them at all.

Hi,

I went through this with my 10 month old male Goldie at about the same time and i'm just getting it again now with my 14 wk bitch Goldie and I've put it down to teething which she just started.I do what Melody suggests they don't starve themselves they do go back to eating everything up, with my boy it lasted 6-8 wks.My bitch if she misses a meal certainly eats the next one.Of course it may not be due to his teeth but I found in both my cases it was.

Briony:-)

Think we have all been through this at some time, you are desperate to get food into the pup so he does well and he is far more interested in doing something else. Once they are about 4 month the odd missed meal will not hurt but it is hard not to worry and start feeding with your fingers.

I agree with the picking up of the food dish,it does work with SOME dogs.The thing that confuses me is, say you serve soaked dry food do you put this in the fridge and heat and serve at the next meal OR do you always offer fresh food?
Do not make the mistake i did in the past,iff my dogs refused to eat what i offered them i would replace it with something different and so on and so on,they then knew if they held off for long enough they would get something different,like someone else said it is a good idea to offer variety so they dont get hooked on 1 particular food,it's just like us everyone appreciates a bit of variety i wouldnt want to eat the same meal day in day out,then you wont have the problem with him getting bored with his food wich is bound to happen seeing he isn't a chow hound :D

good luck & keep us posted.

christine