Doesn't want to eat.....
 

My puppy is 7 weeks old and doesn't want to eat. I am feeding him blue buffalo small breed puppy food. He refuses to eat it.

Any suggestions? Should I switch food to royal canin.... would that help?

I add chicken to his food and mash it with warm water, but he ONLY eats the chicken. Some help here please.....



- Danny

i would suggest switching but 7 weeks is really young to do so. that is really to young to leave the mother but do you have nutra cal on hand just incase ur babies gets low sugar from not eating?? ...you can also try getting the chicken flavored baby food and mixing that with the hard food. its blends better so hopefully he'll get some kibble in between. hoping others chime in and please let us know how you progress. welcome to yt and hoping you find a solution.

You can also try Rice Cereal.

I too had our pup at 7 weeks. In my opininion it was a little too early as just 5 weeks on her appetite is ravenous.
We put down her food the breeders gave us and she wouldnt touch it this continued on for 24 hours of no food which is I believe not good for toy sized puppies. So we fed her chicken.. She wolfed it down! We continued to feed her chicken for 2 weeks but in that time we were adding in kibble (Iams complete for small puppies)-
We began to add wet puppy food but she would seperate the chicken from the wet food so we changed brands and brought ceasers puppy food which she did eat but gave her a very poorly tummy so we spoke with the vet and agreed to continue her chicken with dry and gradually reduce the chicken content.. Now we are on one very small piece of chicken per meal to a bowl of dry and she happily wolfs it all down. - I bet she would eat the wet food now BUT it tends to really upset her system so we opted to stay on dry.

:thumbup: Maybe you can try crushing the kibble a bit before mixing with the baby food. At 7 weeks, it might be difficult for him to chew. Crushing will also make it easier to digest.

Have you tried soaking the food in hot water for a few minutes and then drained it and tried giving it to him? If he continues to not eat anything you probably need to go to your vet and ask about force feeding and make sure you know the symptoms of hypoglycemia.

You could also try hand feeding one piece at a time as a reward.

Yes I'd switch to royal canin.

At 8 weeks I found it almost impossible for my King to eat anything. What I used to do that worked AT TIMES and other times it didn't, was to crush his food up and make sure it was soaked.Then I'd feed it to him with my fingers or let him eat from the palm of my hand. He sometimes liked for me to make his food into a little ball and roll it to him. He eventually got tired of me giving him the socked kibble (I think) so I started just crushing his food and adding small small pieces of apple, and he ate that without being hand fed, surprisingly! That helped for some time as well! I noticed that some days he liked his food prepared a certain way (crushed with apples, or just crush and soaked, either hand fed or rolled) its like they really enjoy variety for everything, so I kept using all these techqniques thoughout. Now my King is 4 months. He still doesn't eat his kibble on his own which drives me a little bananas, but his eating habits are way better, and by way better I mean when it's time to eat he'll actually eat and he eats a reasonable amount for me not to worry about him starving or becoming hypoglycemic. His feeding portions are small and becuse they are small I just make sure to feed him more frequently then just settling on 2 meals a day. My trick to getting him to eat now is to cook a piece of chicken breast, I tear a small piece off and hold it in my fingers as I grab kibble and feed it to him that way. I don't feed him this small piece of chicken instantly, whenever I give him the kibble, I just use it so he can pick up the smell of the chicken. Eventually when i see that he has eaten a good amount I then give him the piece of chicken. This has worked very well for me! Oh and I just want to warn you about hand feeding, they can become accustomed to it, that they eventually don't eat unless they are hand feed, hence, my King. I have been hand feeding since 8 weeks...and still going. In the end I'm just glad he eats.

I recommend you try what I recommended, specifically what I do with the chicken, that has worked great for me! Good luck(:

dog
 

My dogs did not seem to like the blue buffalo either. I have them on Wellness. I am switching over and they eat this. When you can and the vet says I would go ahead and switch your dog. I do not trust Blue Buffalo food anymore. Too many complaints and sick dogs.