9 1/2 wk old low appetite - Page 2

adding gravies and canned dog food is starting a bad habit and gravy is not good for the gall bladder and pancreas, and canned dog foods are full of what a puppy , unless sick ,doesnt need.... I have never fed any pup anything but his dry dog kibble,with a little raw liver in it...they will eat it ....if you upset the pup , when you get it home, in a dietary way...you are asking for gas, diahrea and vomiting..... It is not necessary....to pamper a german shepherd.....it is detrimental and you are worrying over nothing.... and of course, your vet will sell you some science diet and 10cans of special puppy diet of science diet and tell you this is what you do....Im outa this conversation.......cannot understand why the breeder did not instruct you how to feed a new puppy,, the right way/....akc puts out a pamphlet to new puppy owners...it says do not get all upset over changing the pups food...stay on what the breeder is feeding,,,,,if puppy is healthy,,,he will eat after a day or a week or so......no problem....do not add things or supplements to dogs food and do not make food and meals a big issue... do will start making an issue over it if you make an issue over it....... In 29 years of breeding , I have never had a puppy to not eat and had to add anything to their dry kibble , except a little hot water, stir and then add liver later , after I see their stool is firm and they are digesting properly.... I have had people call me three days later,,,my puppy wont eat that food you were feeding....funny , they ate at my place......you just give them some time and keep putting it down , just like they have always been fed....The change is,,,no other littermates to make it a challenge to see who eats the most,,,and no familiar surroundings.....but your attitude can change that....I wean all my pups and have them eating fabulous meals when they go home and its when the attidude of the new owner kicks in...oh poor puppy,,,you dont like that ill go get you some other food ....or Ill feed you canned food,,its better,,,it smells like meat....if that is what you want to do...go for it.....but it is not the waY to make this pup know ,,you are the master....

As most people here have said I don¿t think there is anything to worry about, but a teaspoon of vitamin B complex a day can help to stimulate appetite and would do no harm...

bmexline, This is a difficult situation to deal with. On the one hand you want them to eat good but on the other hand you don't want to spoil them. My first thought is get rid of the treats if they are better tasting then what you give him for his meals.Teach him with out treats if he is picky and even if he were not picky he doesn't need stuff that will encourage him to live for the good stuff. Dogs are oportunists and bluffers. They will wait it out if they think something better will come along. Some dogs, pups, are just not good eaters from the beginning. Some things that I have used in the past are competition. If you have another dog that can come around at his feeding time you might want to let the other dog have at his food if he doesn't eat it right away. They will usually eat even when they do not want to if they think they are going to lose it to another dog or puppy. If you hear nothing I say please hear this, DO NOT PAMPER HIM AT THIS POINT BY ADDING SPECIAL FOODS TO HIS MEALS. Anyone can add liver, chicken, turkey, fish what ever to his food and get him to eat. Your goal should be do teach him to eat what you feed him. Again, if you start doing some of the things that I have seen written you will create a little monster that will turn his nose up to any thing you feed him if it is not to his liking. Please hear that! I am not saying starve the dog to death as some might read this. He will survive. But at 9.5 weeks you must start out on the right foot. This is the time to teach him good eating habits, not bad. I do not leave the food down for long. I do not allow them to roam around when the food is there. If he leaves and shows no interest in 10-20 minutes I pick the food up. He must learn that eating is a privledge that he must take advantage of. You will need to do all you can to get the message through that he needs to eat what's available. In the end you may just have a finicky eater and there is only so much you can do. However you owe it to yourself to at least try and teach him good eating habits by not pampering him. Hope this helps. You are welcome to email me privatly if you have conserns.

THANK YOU OLSSCHOOLGSD FOR REINTERATING WHAT I THINK I SAID THREE TIMES IN MY POSTS....DO NOT PUT THINGS IN HIS FOOD AND PAMPER HIM YOU ARE THE MASTER OF THIS DOG YOU FEED HIM PROPER DIET AND FOLLOW THE BREEDERS HERE ON THIS SITE THAT HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS...... AND Oleschoolgsd , Preston, Louise, DH , Shelley,,MOlly, Bob-0, Jonah, Veronicak9, and the list goes on ........

@yellowrose of Texas: dont give 9 1/2 week old pups milk ....milk is not on the diet.... Sorry - I would not pamper this puppy, really not. I spoke about a really special milk for pup¿s and only a teaspoon to show him what wonderful he could eat. My thought was only - to touch his nose with the good smell :-) No pamper of course. And - so I note: I haven¿t had a puppy what not want to eat - sorry, I think sometimes I am right.... with growing up healthy a lot of pup¿s over a lot of years....

...by the way: my advice was only friendly - meaning for the puppy.

Senta: Me either: Ive never had a pup that didnt want to eat the food, the bowl and me hand on the way down to the bowl,,,so its hard to tell someone how to do , and not get bossy....pups take different turns when they leave your home and go to a new one...but mine are high food drive , so i guess ,some are not,and that is one of my pet peeves......Id be worried if I had a dog that didnt eat, infact, when mine slow down or dont eat....they are sick...or their is a female in heat.....and mind is on something else,,,not eating... I wonder what the breeder of this pup has to say about how to feed pup....Why did you change the food from what the breeder was feeding......I always tell people , if your gonna change the food,,,wait for several months, till the pup is rooted and grounded in his routine...and is eating properly.....and that means eating two meals a day.....and not a lot...for you dont want pup eating too much and getting too big too fast.....your pup, sounds like a good size , just keep up the happy meals, and happy attitude , and he will catch on...soon..... I tease the 9 week old pups , with their food in my hand or pocket , to follow the scent and I also give them food , in a tracking pattern of the grass or dirt , and of, course, I wait till they are really hungry, and watch them hunt for it....I use the liver, in tiny pieces, to make them follow it and look at me....try using a tiny piece of raw liver, and then pitch it in his bowl, after he show an interest in it...I always feed in the wire crate, with door closed,,,,so they eat or else..no playing,,,,they know it is eat time and when finished , remove bowl. I found ,if you are feeding , just in middle of kitchen or open floor....they find something else to do and dont understand , its eat time...so kennel the pup and they know , eat in kennel,,,love it and makes them want to always go into the kennel....which is a good trick to accomplish that deed.....

Generally I do the same like you, yellowrose of Texas. Only the used things are different: you take liver, I take this special milk ( or milk powder... ) - only for the smell. I agree with you: if a puppy doesn¿t eat may be he is sick or pampered. I give my new owners enough of the food ( for weeks ) what I feed here for my puppies. And I give them too this milk-powder for the first day in the new home - against the possibility of home sickness. And it helps - special if the puppies have to go a long arduous journey. In every litter may be one of the pup¿s who eat a little slower than the others. That is normal - like real life. For such a puppy I would use this milk-powder, and it works. That was the reason to speak about this powder - like a possibility, not more and special not to pamper the puppy. Of course - we can use the possibility_ eat or not eat. If you are hungry you will eat. BUT for such a little puppy in this age I would not use this possibility - I would start with love, special because puppies home was changed a to short time before. For my opinion that isn¿t pamper. It¿s more for trust.

This is a baby, not a prisoner. All the talk about not wanting to start bad habits is just plain sad. You should be focused on making this puppy healthy and happy NOW and later it will be very easy to cut back on expensive extras. Straight dry kibble is very hard on pups. Buy very high quality meats and mix with high quality kibble (Innova is fine, nothing cheaper). Some feeds dry out the intestines very badly and do great harm fed dry. Add chicken and cottage cheese regularly. (Together they keep the P/Ca ratio correct.) If you feed a pup well it will grow strong and healthy with enough musculature to support its skeleton and soft tissue during stressful times. Too thin and the pups hips are suspended on weak hip and core muscles and get strained. Finally, BRAIN development depends upon constant, high quality, good volume of nourishment. Pups fed pure kibble who eat only 2 cups a day cannot develop mentally any better than they develop physically. I recommend ignoring the meanies, and feeding the pup as if you love him until he is 18 months. After that, wean him of many of the extras. He will be grown and healthy by then. My recent pup eats three cups of Innova and Abady mixed together and mixed with a can a day of the highest quality meets (cost is > $1.50 a can or its probably not good). He also gets a teaspoon of cottage cheese a day, and chicken (4 oz) three times a week. Plus, of course, vitamins, including C and antioxidants. Plus good treats -- especially during tracking sessions, during which time he can eat the equivalent of three hot dogs. Everyone who sees him, including vets, are shocked at his sheen, health, and alert attitude. I wonder why people try so hard to starve and deprive their puppies? My dogs have lived to be 12- 14.5. The three I have are still alive, of course, and if they don't live to be 12 or more, I will change what I feed the next generation.

The problem with many pups is that breeders have let them continue to "gang feed"--they eat readily because of competition with siblings. This pattern of feeding may be easier for the breeder but is doing no favor to the puppies or their new owners. I brought one 7-week-plus pup home. Very soon, I figured that the breeder's family had just thrown dry kibble on the cement for the pups to gobble (or else the pups had scattered food from a feed pan to the cement). Anyhow, I mixed the cheap Purina puppy food (used by the breeder) in a Pyrex bowl and stirred in some Nupro Joint formula--and threw as many handsful of kibble that the pup would eat directly onto the cement. The next step: the pup would only eat out of the Pyrex bowl because he could see the cement through the bowl. Switching this guy over to mostly raw (and a quality kibble) was a successful but gradual process. He eventually became a "chow hound".