Problem with our puppy's food

[Leo12345]

Hello!

When we brought our puppy (Cavapoo and her name is Shirley) home, she was 13 weeks, and she eagerly ate her dry puppies food. When we filled her bowl, she would eat with great appetite and finish her portion.
She has been with us three weeks now.

We've been also training her commands like 'sit', 'come', and following us on the leash using small dog's treats, and she learns very well.

Now the problem is that our puppy does not want to eat her food anymore.
When you fill her bowl, she comes, lazily takes couple of grains and leaves.
(We tried to take the bowl away and bring it back, same result).

We noticed that this happens especially after we trained her using her treats.
We tried following the advise to train your puppy using her normal food instead of treats. But she does not want to be trained with her normal food, she turns her nose away from it.

So we have a dilemma: stop using treats, then our puppy eats her food, but we are not able to train her at all, or use treats, then she does not eat her food.

What to do?
Many thanks for any help...

 

[JudyN]

What variety of dry food are you feeding? Some dogs find it pretty unexciting. Sometimes you can make it more enticing by adding a little hot water (then allowing it to cool to a safe temperature) to release the aroma, or adding a little wet food.

It's also possible you're feeding too much overall - some commercial foods are generous in their guidelines.

 

[Leo12345]

Thanks for your reply! We use Royal Canin. We tried with water, but she did not like that.

 

[JudyN]

Royal Canin's a bit rubbish really... Have a look at the All About Dog Food site: All About Dog Food.co.uk You can put in your dog's details and your budget, and it will suggest suitable foods, giving them ratings out of 5. Of course, this isn't any guarantee that she'll like them better, but it'd still be worth it.

I would also be prepared to use tough love for a few days if she's still not keen - if she doesn't eat her food, remove it and don't give her more till the next mealtime. I'd still give her nice training treats, though not enough to fill her up. If you get the impression after a couple of days that she's really hungry but still won't eat her kibble, I'd try either a tasty wet topper, or consider a raw diet - most dogs LOVE that, it much easier than most people believe, and there's people on this forum who can advise you.

 

[Leo12345]

Thanks you!!

 

[Michele83]

I was having the same problem. Someone on here also advised I look at the All About Dog Food site (probably Judy!) which I did and I switched to the highest-quality one that was suitable for my dog's age and breed (Eden). You'd think high-end foods would be really expensive but it's actually not (it might even work out less expensive) because you don't need to give as much of it. Since I changed, mine's gone from not touching her food to eating all of it all the time