[Saphira2021]

Help.

I am many years a poodle owner but now with the new puppy, well, an almost adult dog, I don't know what to do.

We got her last November from a reputable breeder. She has a full set of heath and other papers. Nothing wrong with her.
She ate well until about a month ago, but now she is not eating in the morning at all. I can't entice her unless it is a scrambled egg. Nothing else any longer appeals to her. Used to be yogurt and cottage cheese and she is good to go.
Ok, She is getting older, so I thought it was ok. Now, like today, it is 7pm and she still ate nothing. She ate some yesterday afternoon, but not much. The day before was almost nothing too. The process has been gradual, over the last month.

One thing she will eat is if we feed from my hand freshly cut up cabbage or cucumber or tomato. Other fruits and vegetables are good too, though on the rest she is more picky.

We feed her Eukanuba and Natural Balance (wet and dry, mixed) per breeder instructions. She gets vitamins in her food too. We vary between different flavors but it makes no difference.

We play with her, she chases ball in the dog park. What she exists on, I don't know.
We though maybe she is not well, but the speed with which she chases that ball, says otherwise. And the vet says she is fine. We will go to the vet again on Tuesday and I will raise this issue.

I always had standards, this is my first mini. She is about 13lbs and 14"

I am lost and stumped. Help.

 

[cowpony]

You have been mixing the two foods; does she eat either food when they are not mixed? Did her refusal to eat correspond to getting a new lot of either brand? Is her weight holding steady, or is she losing weight?

 

[PeggyTheParti]

I saw a sharp decline in Peggy's appetite as her growth slowed down. I managed it by keeping her dry kibble and wet food (which I was using as a topper) separate. That way the kibble can sit out for the day. The wet food, on the rare occasion she doesn't eat it, gets picked up after an hour or so. But since I stopped mixing them, she's much more inclined to at least eat the wet.

You could also start trying out some other kibble as treats, to see if there's one she loves. Our local pet store provides us with samples for this purpose. Peggy loved one brand so much, I decided to keep it as treats. So now she gets about half her day's calories handfed during training or as a little surprise when she's being a good girl.

 

[Raindrops]

It is very normal for appetite to slow at that age. Misha certainly went at least 24 hours of refusal a couple times. Varying things may help but don't cater too much or you will develop a little monster.

 

[Dechi]

Beckie (oversized toy) rarely eats in the morning and unless I give her canned food or treats, she won’t touch her food much until supper. Small dogs really don’t eat so much and some are nibblers. They eat a few kibbles here and there. My other toy, Merlin, will sometimes skip a day and not eat at all.

I would weigh her and make sure she is maintaining her weight. If she is losing, then maybe a vet visit is in order. If not, if you think she doesn’t like her food, you can try to change it but make sure to pick one she likes (get many samples and let her choose) because you don’t want to make her fussy.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

We finally shifted Peggy to lunch and dinner, since it was clear she didn't want breakfast. The only caveat is that we do give her a small kibble snack before bed. Otherwise that would be a long time with an empty belly, which can cause vomiting.

Oddly enough, she's now wanting to eat earlier and earlier, so maybe we'll switch back to breakfast. It's definitely more convenient.

 

[twyla]

I do know that around year is the last bit if jaw growth and if your pup is in between growth spurts they just may not be hungry. Growing puppies eat a lot. If your pup is peeing pooping and generally normal acting I wouldn't worry if your pup hasn't lost weight. My puppies during growth spurts ate three times as much as they do as adults.

 

[Dianaleez]

Normie will be a year old next month. He's done pretty much the same thing - some days w/o interest in food, other days he's ravenous. We just offer the recommended amount each day and pick up what he rejects.

The food is in his dish so he eats when he wants.

 

[Saphira2021]

You have been mixing the two foods; does she eat either food when they are not mixed? Did her refusal to eat correspond to getting a new lot of either brand? Is her weight holding steady, or is she losing weight?

Thank you all for responding. I will separate the foods and see if she likes that better. no new batches of any food. I buy all in large bags and trays of wet and use that until run out. The weight is steady. I had a bag of Beneful so I gave her some last night after the post. That went well. she ate some, and some this morning.
She also ate some nothing added rice today and liked it too. That is new to her. She does seem to like new things.
I will follow the advice and separate the wet from dry. leave dry in the bowl and give wet separately mixed with vitamins. Thank you for suggesting it.

I never had to worry about these things with standards. they ate when they wanted as much as they wanted and kept a perfect figure and weight naturally. I am learning new things and appreciate the guidance.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

I never had to worry about these things with standards. they ate when they wanted as much as they wanted and kept a perfect figure and weight naturally.

It sounds like your mini is actually doing the same thing, right? Eating when hungry, and otherwise saying "No thank you."

I was frustrated with Peggy at first, until I realized she's just really good at self-regulating. I think that's better than a dog that wolfs food indiscriminately. I'm just mindful of the nutritional value of the extras she gets, so she's not filling up on empty calories.

Is it possible the vitamins you're adding are too much for your mini? The food you're feeding should already be properly balanced, so maybe the supplements are filling her up?

 

[Saphira2021]

It sounds like your mini is actually doing the same thing, right? Eating when hungry, and otherwise saying "No thank you."

I was frustrated with Peggy at first, until I realized she's just really good at self-regulating. I think that's better than a dog that wolfs food indiscriminately. I'm just mindful of the nutritional value of the extras she gets, so she's not filling up on empty calories.

Is it possible the vitamins you're adding are too much for your mini? The food you're feeding should already be properly balanced, so maybe the supplements are filling her up?

not quite. my standard ate every day. this one began to skip.
she doesn't get any real extras except raw vegetables when I am cooking or fruits when I am eating them. 95% or her praise is given out in belly rubs and games.
The vitamins I give are actually less than recommended by breeder, but I will reduce some more. Hers are in the form of powder.

As to not eating in general, I have a bad history as I had an ongoing war with my DS from age 1.5 to going to college. He never wanted to eat. This was a constant worry and I guess I am not reacting well.

Thank you for your support. I feel much better. Thank you

 

[Raindrops]

not quite. my standard ate every day. this one began to skip.
she doesn't get any real extras except raw vegetables when I am cooking or fruits when I am eating them. 95% or her praise is given out in belly rubs and games.
The vitamins I give are actually less than recommended by breeder, but I will reduce some more. Hers are in the form of powder.

As to not eating in general, I have a bad history as I had an ongoing war with my DS from age 1.5 to going to college. He never wanted to eat. This was a constant worry and I guess I am not reacting well.

Thank you for your support. I feel much better. Thank you

I also became quite worried when my mini did the same thing. The vet told me that it's totally normal and not to worry until 5 days of refusal! That still sounds extreme to me but I guess it happens. One thing that I do and that many do is to use a type of kibble or dog food in place of training treats. I use Real Meat Dog Food but Ziwipeak is also great for this. It's a complete diet but is actually an air dried food so it is soft and extremely palatable for dogs. It is very expensive if fed as a main diet but perfectly fine for training treats. Other people often just use a normal kibble, but maybe one different from the day's normal offerings. It could be a good way to get a little extra food into her and stimulate appetite.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

not quite. my standard ate every day. this one began to skip.
she doesn't get any real extras except raw vegetables when I am cooking or fruits when I am eating them. 95% or her praise is given out in belly rubs and games.
The vitamins I give are actually less than recommended by breeder, but I will reduce some more. Hers are in the form of powder.

As to not eating in general, I have a bad history as I had an ongoing war with my DS from age 1.5 to going to college. He never wanted to eat. This was a constant worry and I guess I am not reacting well.

Thank you for your support. I feel much better. Thank you

I'm glad you're feeling better.

And if the vitamins are recommended by your vet, I wouldn't reduce them. I was just thinking aloud about possible things that might be filling your mini up more than you'd expect.

Minis eat so little compared to spoos. One spoonful of rice to a spoo, for example, would be the equivalent of four spoonfuls of rice to a mini. It can be hard to wrap our heads around just how small their stomachs are.