# Please critique my puppies eating habits..



## johnsta (Mar 26, 2013)

This is my first German Shepherd. She is currently 10 weeks old, and we brought her home 2 weeks ago when she was 8 weeks. So far she has been a great dog (except for the **** nipping! driving my wife nuts!) 

I decided to start her on Orijen Large Breed Puppy. After a few days of diarrhea, her poops are very good. Not to soft, not to hard. I feed her at 7am and 5pm, usually 1 cup a feeding (she is 15 pounds). 

My concern is that she has little interest in eating her food. Sometimes when I give her food, she eats about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Sometimes she will sniff it and turn away. Never has she ate the entire bowl at one feeding. Sometimes we will sit there and my 3 year old with throw the kibbles at her and she will eat them all off the floor (sometimes not). Often times we need to keep her focused on her food to finish. 

A couple times I have added toppings (raw patties, cottage cheese, etc.) and she ate well. However, I don't want to spend the extra money on toppings since orijen is very pricey - nor do I feel like I should need to...right? Do 10 week old puppies not have a high food drive yet?

Do you think she just doesn't like the taste? 

Do some dogs not have a high drive for food? (Impossible right??!?!) 

I know smaller amounts are sufficient when feeding higher protein/fat kibbles like orijen, am I feeding too much? 

I haven't seen any issues in regards to energy or behavior. We exercise her a lot and she is plenty playful and energetic.

Any advice/suggestions? Am I over reacting? Maybe I need to be more discipline with her regarding a strict 10 minute eating time. If she doesn't eat right away, pick it up?

Thanks for your help! I really appreciate the help around here for us new "parents".

John


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## curedba (Mar 31, 2013)

Our pup is 13 weeks old and the exact same he is 31 pounds and will never finish off dry large breed orijen kibble and he was on the exact same food so I started adding green beef tripe to the food but he still wouldn't eat it so I switche him to blue buffalo wilderness puppy and he eats the whole bowl with the green tripe I think it may be because the Orijen large breed puppy kibble is too big for him so found the blue buffalo easier to eat my pup eats 1 cup 3 times a day with 1/4 of green beef tripe it smells really bad but works really well. Once he gets a little older I hope to switch him back to Orijen because I did its a better food


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## Beka (Apr 17, 2013)

I fed my pup the Acana/Orijen Large Puppy Breed kibble also right from when he came home and he was never overly keen on it :/ Im unsure if it was the taste or what it was but he would always just pick at it. 
He also never had "suitable" stools while on it so i took him off it completely when he got sick (unrelated to the food) and he needed a bland diet. 
I was only to feed him boiled chicken and rice while he was ill and also while recovering and now that he is back to normal i have kept him on the rice (just a smaller amount) but now feed mixed veges and raw meat with it and also give him meat bones and chicken necks etc instead. 
So he is pretty much on my version of a raw diet with no kibble anymore and his appetite is A LOT better and he actually gets excited over his meals now! Also noticed his coat looks better and the flaky skin he had on the dry food has since gone also!
Im finding it pretty cheap feeding him this way... i buy large trays of mince, trays of kidneys and livers, chicken breasts when they are cheap, and also the prepacked raw dog food pottles. I just stock up when its on special


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## curedba (Mar 31, 2013)

My pup was on Raw when we got him and if you can go raw this is the best way to go it is the best thing you can do for her unfortunately we were not able to keep our dog on Raw due to the fact we have 2 people in our house who are immune compromised and raw food laying around would cause a problem we tried feeding him the NRG dehydrated Raw but he didn't like that either lol and I found it was mostlt veggies and he was actually loosing weight on it.



Beka said:


> I fed my pup the Acana/Orijen Large Puppy Breed kibble also right from when he came home and he was never overly keen on it :/ Im unsure if it was the taste or what it was but he would always just pick at it.
> He also never had "suitable" stools while on it so i took him off it completely when he got sick (unrelated to the food) and he needed a bland diet.
> I was only to feed him boiled chicken and rice while he was ill and also while recovering and now that he is back to normal i have kept him on the rice (just a smaller amount) but now feed mixed veges and raw meat with it and also give him meat bones and chicken necks etc instead.
> So he is pretty much on my version of a raw diet with no kibble anymore and his appetite is A LOT better and he actually gets excited over his meals now! Also noticed his coat looks better and the flaky skin he had on the dry food has since gone also!
> Im finding it pretty cheap feeding him this way... i buy large trays of mince, trays of kidneys and livers, chicken breasts when they are cheap, and also the prepacked raw dog food pottles. I just stock up when its on special


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

At that age, we were feeding three-quarter cup four times a day.
I think it is way too early to feed her only two big meals.
Some people switch to two meals at five to eight months old.
Some, like me, keep it at one meal and two snacks.


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## Scorask (Apr 11, 2013)

Our pup Boston is 7 weeks old and we feed him a cup of purina puppy chow 3x a day. No issues so far......


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## Rachell2313 (Feb 6, 2013)

Sometimes they don't like the taste and sometimes they need a good workout to work up an appetite. Both of these were the case with my dog. I switched her from eukanuba to TOTW and when the weather got warmer i was able to take her out a lot more and exercise and she eats better than before 


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