How can I get him to drink water?
 

We have had ben now since sunday and we are concerned. I took him to the vet on monday and he was doing fine. I told the vet that he does not like to drink and he does not eat that much. is there any tricks i could use to make water more appealing? also he does not eat too much only about one meal per day. thanks in advance.

Does he eat kibble or canned food?

He's been eating kibble. I am using the same one that the breeder was using. it is eukanuba.

Okay, I was just asking because dogs that eat canned food usually don't drink much which is normal because it is so high in moisture. If it were me, I would switched to canned or homecooked because your dog would eat and get its moisture. You could syringe water into his mouth but that is no fun.

hard
 

I personally beleive euk is a good food for a dog so i feed it to yogi. The trick is to put just enough in bowl to cover the bottom of the bowl, thats about the size of a small yorkies meal. 2 to 3 meals like that a day. As far as getting him to eat it, i had to hand feed him for the longest time, and even now at a year old i still have to hand feed him sometimes. With the water, i use dental fresh for dogs (http://www.petco.com/product/9671/De...for-Dogs.aspx). fill the bowl with water and add the ammount shown on the bottle. i use like a capful. My yogi started drinking alot more water once i started to use this. back to the food thing, i have to ask you if you give him treats during the day including rawhide or greenies or any kind of chews. i find that a greenie will cause yogi not to want to eat a meal. small treats will take away half his meal and so on. I stopped giving yogi treats period until he started eating 3 healthy meals a day. Now he eats 3 meals and after each meal i tell him good boy and let him chew on his bully stick for 30 minutes. He now knows that if he eats he gets an awesome treat afterwards and i think that may be his motivation.

usually it helps if there is 4 or 5 hours between meals. it gives your pup time to get hungry again, and the more he plays the more he will start eating eventually.

good luck

thank you so much everyone. I have not given him any treats yet. and I did read that you have to be careful giving treats because they are so small that giving them too many treats effects their caloric intake.

Water: find out if he likes ice cubes. I'll go and toss one on the kitchen floor and let them have some fun... they usually end up getting chewed and swallowed.

Food: I have dry down to nibble at but I feed two mixed meals per day. I toss some food in the majic bullet and mix it with the dry. (chicken, beef, turkey, fish, yam, pumpkin, rice) (google dog safe & unsafe foods and have some fun)

* for the really picky times I toss some of the dry kibble in the bullet with the mix.

Alana

I forgot to add a few things to the water list;

you can also give him other things that have a high moisture level; apple, orange, lettuce and so forth (the google list will help)

Also, you can make your own ice cubes with water and 1/4 - 1/8 mix (from your magic bullet)

no grapes

Hi,

My two-year old, Kasey, doesn't drink that much water either. I give her Artemis dried food, mixed with a little parmesan cheese and boiled chicken twice a day -- and each time, I add enough water to the bowl to make it just a little bit like soup, then mix it up. She laps the water mixture up before she even eats, and I feel better because I know she's getting her water.

(By the way, when she had a bout with diarrhea a week or two ago, the vet suggested I give her unflavored Pedialyte (like they give babies, from the drugstore) and mix a little bit of low fat chicken broth with it. That combo rehydrated her, and she seemed to love the taste. In case you ever need it....)

Hope this helps!

Kim

When Jewel was going though her illness, she stopped drinking water. My brillant Dan, came up with an idea to boil chicken and give them the cooled water the chicken was boiled in. We froze some and kept some in the fridge.

She lapped it up! Plus we added the chicken to her meals.

Make sure you strain the fat - use a paper towel and a strainer, works like a charm.

Hope it helps your kids too!