Rotating Food

[dakevmann]

I have started rotating Magie's food to keep her from becoming a picky eater. I started with Nuto Ultra and now I'm on Merrick cowboy cook out then I'm going to Chicken soup and then repeat the cycle. My question is what things can I add to her food to entice her to eat when me and my wife are on tight schedules and can't wait for my picky eater to eat.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[gmacleod]

Actually, if you don't want a picky eater then it's best to just put the food down, give your puppy 20 minutes to eat it - and if she doesn't, then pick it up and try again at the next meal time. If you keep adding yummy extras to entice her to eat, then she'll quickly learn not to eat until you produce them She won't starve herself to death. But pup's appetities do go up and down with their growth spurts - if your pup isn't hungry, it's because she doesn't need the food.

 

[Soriano Clan]

Thanx for the tip! I'm going to try this as Brutus will not eat his canidae without canned mixed in. I made the mistake of doing this with every meal. I've tried this past week of weening him off the canned but the pooper always seems to out-wait me every meal. So your saying its okay to skip a meal? I would feel guilty :P

 

[gmacleod]

Yes, it's OK to skip a meal If the puppy is hungry, then she'll eat well at the next meal. And if she doesn't, it's a pretty good clue that she's really not that hungry at all.

Young puppies are notoriously "picky". But you know, most of the time they're not really being picky at all (unless they're taught to be). It's just that they grow in spurts and during a growth spurt their little bodies need all the energy they can get. So the pup has a good appetite and eats well. Then the growth spurt stops, and the pup has no need of all that energy - and their appetite goes down accordingly. That lasts two or three weeks, then the next growth spurts starts.

Now what very often happens at this point is that the owner gets worried about the pup not eating much, and brings out all the enticing extras to try to tempt the pup (who simply isn't hungry). If you keep doing that, then the pup will learn not to eat until you produce something extra-tasty And all during a time when the pup really didn't need the food and was actually just responding to her body's needs when she just picked at her food.

So, it's actually better to simply accept that there are going to be periods that your puppy has little appetite and won't eat a lot. Those will be followed by periods when she eats everything in sight. Then isn't hungry again. By around 4-5 months, the big spurts of growth are all over and things will even out - but until then, it really is better to let her just respond to her body's needs and don't try too much to tempt her to eat when she doesn't want to. Bringing out the yummy extras every time she doesn't want to eat will actually teach her to refuse her food until something extra-special arrives.