# Puppy not eating full serving of dry food



## BrittanyM (Jan 28, 2012)

Hey everyone,

I'm supposed to be feeding her 1/3 of a cup twice a day, but Kiya will not finish her first meal until the afternoon and will only eat a tiny bit of her second meal. At the moment, I am free feeding her but I'm worried she is not getting enough nutrients and fat content to help her grow. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I should do?

She is just over 2 months old, she weighs 2lbs 5oz and is a papillon.

I was at first mixing the honest kitchen in with her dry food but because she is not eating it right away I have been keeping it out so the dry food will not spoil.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

BrittanyM is my irl friend. I suggested to her to try feeding some merrick puppy platter canned food, as its one of the only small cans pet valu carries, and it will help with increased fat and moisture for the puppy. From what I have heard, the puppy is not very food oriented and takes her time eating. My concern would be she's not eating enough and doesnt grow properly.


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

Wow, that seems like a huge amount for a tiny puppy. Honest Kitchen website says 1/4 cup dry food + 1/3 cup water for this food so you are feeding her twice as much as she needs. I would back her off to the 1/3 and see how she does.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

She was only feeding a small spoonful of the honest kitchen mixed with kibble, but she stopped that too. She's transitioning from the breeder kibble to Acana small breed puppy, only 1/3 cup twice a day. But she is not eating her entire breakfast until mid afternoon, and then doesnt finish her whole dinner.


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## CariLynn (Jan 28, 2012)

I know my picky husky didn't like her new kibble so I have been mixing a half cup of frozen mixed vegetables that I microwave till they are warm then stir them in her kibble, she loves it now and eats it all. Can you do that, but cut the amount of veggies down to maybe a tablespoon or so warmed? I am sure someone more knowledgeable than I will chime in if this wouldn't be good or not for the puppy, as veggies are a healthy alternative. Just an idea...


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## IslandPaws4Raw (Sep 7, 2011)

How is her growth rate/body condition? If she is growing and is not too thin I wouldn't be worried that she's not getting enough. Each dog is different, so she may not need the recommended amount. If you think about it she is so tiny that all that food couldn't possibly fit in that tummy at one time. As a comparison my 25 lb pup is getting 2/3 cup of kibble twice a day with a raw meal for lunch, and her body condition is great.


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## nfedyk (Jan 13, 2012)

I think that is too much food for your little one. Our papillon is 9 months old and weighs a little over 8 pounds. He gets 1/4 cup of food twice a day.


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Lola ate kibble when she was a puppy and she is a 10 lb, 8 month old JRT. I fed her BB Wilderness and she only got 1/2 c for the entire day! She rarely finished all her food either but she has grown and developed just fine. I agree that you are feeding her too much. As long as she is gaining weight and has adequate energy she is getting enough food.


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## DogLuver (Oct 19, 2011)

Welcome to the forum BrittanyM! Your puppy is absolutely adorable!!!

Like other people are saying, she is probably getting enough, I didn't look into the foods you are feeding and their guidelines for her weight, but you can tell if she looks skinny then she probably needs more, but if she doesn't look skinny, then she's probably getting enough.

But!... this is what I need to add. Free feeding can cause forever picky dogs. My experience with this, I have a Golden Retriever (who is now 4.5yrs old) who was a super picky eater until I stopped free feeding him. I thought I had tried everything, topping his foods with all kinds of great stuff, changing his foods trying to find what he liked, and nothing seemed to work. I always thought, well it's best that there's always food out INCASE he get's hungry, because we want him to eat...but free feeding wasn't making him eat more at all. This was a real problem for him though because he was underweight (very active, picky, tall, lean Retriever) so we were frustrated with consistently having to encourage him to eat, and we had tried everything. I started researching, and found that free feeding often leads to picky eaters (especially if their already picky as puppies!). 

So what I suggest to you is to start a feeding schedule. For a puppy 2-3 times a day is best if you can manage that with your schedule. Take the amount she needs for the entire day, split it into 2-3 meals, and for each meal put the bowl down in front of her for 15 minutes, whatever she doesn't eat after that, pick it up (take it away from her), and then give it to her at the next feeding time. This is sort of a "tough love" way to get them to understand "you must eat when I put it down for you, or else you have to wait until later" and she will be more hungry next time. Don't be discouraged if for the first little while she still doesn't eat, this takes a little bit of time of coarse, but it usually works.

I feed my dogs 3 times a day, like me, breakfast, lunch and supper. (breakfast at 7:30am, lunch at 4pm, and dinner at about 8pm). This has helped my Golden eat the appropriate amount each day, and maintain a healthy weight.

Good luck! You've got some great advice here. Stick around, a lot of people here are willing to help you with any questions that come up next.


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## shellbeme (Dec 8, 2010)

I feed Rocky twice a day. I don't know why but small dogs seem notorious for being picky eaters. When we feed dry food, Rocky will not eat it out of his bowl, I have no idea why. We have to serve it on the ground, before we did that he would eat only a bite or two. Wet food on the other hand, if its something he REALLY likes, he will scarf down even if it is in the evil bowl.


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## DDBsR4Me (Jan 23, 2012)

DogLuver said:


> So what I suggest to you is to start a feeding schedule. For a puppy 2-3 times a day is best if you can manage that with your schedule. Take the amount she needs for the entire day, split it into 2-3 meals, and for each meal put the bowl down in front of her for 15 minutes, whatever she doesn't eat after that, pick it up (take it away from her), and then give it to her at the next feeding time. This is sort of a "tough love" way to get them to understand "you must eat when I put it down for you, or else you have to wait until later" and she will be more hungry next time. Don't be discouraged if for the first little while she still doesn't eat, this takes a little bit of time of coarse, but it usually works.
> 
> .


This is almost exactly what I did with my very first DDB, Bentley. When he was about 3-4 months old, he started having allergy like symptoms - itchyness, dry skin, etc. My vet said to find a food without chicken, corn, wheat etc....this is what started my "education" on dog food. 

Anyway, I decided on Wellness Fish and he was not interested in it at all. I did the above schedule, except if he didn't clean out is bowl during that meal, I divided his next meal in half, and did the same with the following meal until he started cleaning his bowl. Then I increased the food each meal (until he was eating the recommended amount) as long as he ate it. 

It only took him a day and a half to start cleaning his bowl at each meal. After that he would eat any food I fed him and I experimented with quite a few different brands - pretty much whatever good quality kibble the store carried (Solid Gold, Canidae, Timberwolf Organics, Innova, etc). I liked to bring samples home to try out different brands so he was always the guinea pig, but he wasn't really picky after I did the "tough love" with him. 

I think doing tough love with her is the way to go.


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## Celt (Dec 27, 2010)

I sort of did free feeding my 2. I would measure out where "morning" kibble and leave it down all day. At the next meal, I would pour what was left into the measuring cup and "top it off" with more kibble or can (kibble at "lunch", can at "dinner"). That would be left out til "bedtime". At the end of the day, I measured how much was left. I was always very careful to know exactly how much I was feeding. If your pup is gaining/maintaining weight, has energy to run and play, and doesn't seem to be "sick" more than likely she's getting enough to eat. Please be careful with tough loving a toy breed puppy.


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## monkeys23 (Dec 8, 2010)

That sounds like way too much food to me too. She's only two pounds! My 47lb dog at 1 cup of Acana grain free a day when I fed kibble. Granted she's thrifty, but still... i feel like the recommended amounts are often grossly overestimated, but I guess that is probably to cover their own butts.

Another thought is that maybe the kibble is too large or is hurting her gums? If thats the case maybe cold turkey go to THK only with a few chicken wings a week for teeth cleaning? I added organ meat several times a week to THK too when I fed it, IMO it needs it because the meat content is minimal and its technically cooked, not dehydrated.
Kibble just isn't natural for their teeth/gums... I know it hurts me to eat bread with a crunchy crust, doesn't seem that farfetched that a dog that small might find kibble ouchy. Especially since their little mouths seem to suffer more than larger dogs from commercial food, i.e. usually have bad periodontal disease problems. Just a thought!

Picky eaters are usually created, not born. i would not doctor food at all personally. Put food down for 15 min, it its not eat it goes away until next mealtime and so on. She'll eat when she's hungry. It really sounds to me like she's being given way too much food.
I would not free feed at all. Its impossible to know how much they eat and knowing how much is going in is helpful for diagnostics if there is an issue down the road.


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## shellbeme (Dec 8, 2010)

Ahh I just read the amount you are feeding. Sounds like she and Rocky were about the same size, I fed him a quarter of a cup twice a day at that age


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## DogLuver (Oct 19, 2011)

Celt said:


> I sort of did free feeding my 2. I would measure out where "morning" kibble and leave it down all day. At the next meal, I would pour what was left into the measuring cup and "top it off" with more kibble or can (kibble at "lunch", can at "dinner"). That would be left out til "bedtime". At the end of the day, I measured how much was left. I was always very careful to know exactly how much I was feeding. *If your pup is gaining/maintaining weight, has energy to run and play, and doesn't seem to be "sick" more than likely she's getting enough to eat. Please be careful with tough loving a toy breed puppy*.


There's no difference with "tough loving" a toy breed puppy to a large breed adult. As long as you are providing the amount of food she requires each day, she will not starve herself and the scheduled feeding will not cause her any harm whatsoever. 

Before trying the scheduled feeding with my picky Golden Retriever, I sort of fed him the way you explain here Celt....and it did not help him eat more at all, he would still leave his food untouched at times. This is when the "tough love" comes in, and it was much harder on me than it was Trooper lol. He will now eat the entire bowl of whatever I choose to put in front of him, this gives me ALL the control and I'm not at his mercy of what he "prefers" to eat and how much. If I want him to gain weight, I give more, he eats it all, if he needs to loose weight, I give less, and he eats it all. You should always know exactly how much, and what your dog eats every day whether free or schedule feeding. As long as you're watching your dogs health, weight, and energy levels, and all appears to be good, no harm can be done with scheduled feeding aka "tough love".


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## Celt (Dec 27, 2010)

I don't disagree that tough loving works but one thing they warn you about on "toy" puppies is that they can become hypoglycemic. I had the _lovely_ (sarcasm here) experience of a pup having a low blood sugar "incident" so now I think caution should be taken to make sure your pup isn't a "knucklehead" like my boy.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

When Snorkels was on dry food and a diet, twice a day I would count out eight pieces of dog food, and soak them. That was somewhat less than 1/8 cup. 

And her goal weight was 10 pounds. She lost about a pound a month at that rate. Recognizing her age and metabolism is not that of a puppy, I would still think a 2 pound dog wouldn't need very much food?


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## BrittanyM (Jan 28, 2012)

Thank you everyone for your responses, I decided to switch Kiya over to raw and she is finally finishing her meals and enjoying it... I guess she just didn't like kibble all that much.


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## DogLuver (Oct 19, 2011)

BrittanyM said:


> Thank you everyone for your responses, I decided to switch Kiya over to raw and she is finally finishing her meals and enjoying it... I guess she just didn't like kibble all that much.


That's wonderful to hear. Just be sure you know all the facts about RAW feeding so that you are giving her a complete balanced diet, it's easy enough to miss out on required nutrients if a RAW diet is missing something. I've been researching RAW feeding for a good 5mths now and I finally feel confident to start, I think it's a great choice if you do it correctly! Good job.


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