Is Your Tiny Pup a Picky Eater?
Picky Eaters can be a handful in any size/breed puppy - but it is worse in teacups and tinies, as not eating and hypoglycemic episodes go hand in hand.
Lets differentiate picky eaters! There are a lot of different reasons why a pup may not be eating well, let's see if we can weed out the obvious ones and how to combat them...
Lets differentiate picky eaters! There are a lot of different reasons why a pup may not be eating well, let's see if we can weed out the obvious ones and how to combat them...
This pup is new at your house [first couple of days with you] and you ran out of the puppy food the breeder gave to you and or you have changed brands?
This is usually very easy to take care off. First of all - give some canned food, make sure the pup eats and offer a fair amount of Nutrical or Dyne [at least 3-6 cc in a syringe if you have one]. If you don't have any on hand, plain honey or white syrup [karo syrup] will do temporarily [2 teaspoons over the next hour or so].
Next call the breeder who sold you the puppy and ask for the name of the puppy food it was eating, if you cannot remember it. Then go to the pet store [or grocery store depending on the brand] and buy some of it - if at all possible pick the exact same brand and variety for now. Also pick up several cans of wet food the breeder recommends. You can change or upgrade to a different brand the next time around - don't add additional stress to a pup that is new in your home!
In case of emergency or if you can't reach the breeder or you are too far away from a pet store with a good selection, get some Cesar Trays - most dogs tend to like them, if they are not too far of gone with hypoglycemia. Be sure to get several of different varieties. If you haven't invested in a high calorie supplement yet - buy a tube of Nutrical or Nutristat while you are at the pet store [Walmart and some grocery stores may carry it as well!]. I would recommend that you make the effort to find the same dog food your baby ate when it first came to you!!! Remember - it is not about you and your convenience - it is all about your teacup puppy!
Next call the breeder who sold you the puppy and ask for the name of the puppy food it was eating, if you cannot remember it. Then go to the pet store [or grocery store depending on the brand] and buy some of it - if at all possible pick the exact same brand and variety for now. Also pick up several cans of wet food the breeder recommends. You can change or upgrade to a different brand the next time around - don't add additional stress to a pup that is new in your home!
In case of emergency or if you can't reach the breeder or you are too far away from a pet store with a good selection, get some Cesar Trays - most dogs tend to like them, if they are not too far of gone with hypoglycemia. Be sure to get several of different varieties. If you haven't invested in a high calorie supplement yet - buy a tube of Nutrical or Nutristat while you are at the pet store [Walmart and some grocery stores may carry it as well!]. I would recommend that you make the effort to find the same dog food your baby ate when it first came to you!!! Remember - it is not about you and your convenience - it is all about your teacup puppy!
This pup has experienced several hypoglycemic episodes since you have brought it home, and it keeps going hypo overnight or never seems to bounce back quite to how it was before...
If the pup has been eating previously and has lost conditioning and strength since it has been with you, this is either a case of mismanagement or of a medical underlying condition. If you want to save your baby and want for it to recover its health, you more likely than not must change the way this puppy is living at your home. First I would strongly to recommend going for a wellness check and getting a fecal done at your vet, especially if you did not get that done when you first brought your puppy home...
If you can rule out medical issues and internal parasites, you need to look at how your pup lives at your home. Please read the following pages [and the attached support pages] for more information: Playpen, Nutrition, Feeding Schedule, Puppy Stress, Preventing Hypoglycemia, Harmful Stress + Activity Levels, and Living a Sheltered Life.
If you cannot pinpoint why your puppy is not thriving, feel free to contact me for a Personal Consultation.
If you can rule out medical issues and internal parasites, you need to look at how your pup lives at your home. Please read the following pages [and the attached support pages] for more information: Playpen, Nutrition, Feeding Schedule, Puppy Stress, Preventing Hypoglycemia, Harmful Stress + Activity Levels, and Living a Sheltered Life.
If you cannot pinpoint why your puppy is not thriving, feel free to contact me for a Personal Consultation.
This puppy was of correct age to go home [9-12 weeks], had been eating fine for a while [several days to weeks while in your care], but suddenly stopped or is not eating as much as it did before?
If nothing else has changed in the living environment and you did not change the puppy food, what do you think is the trigger to the changed eating behavior? There can be a number of reasons - seasonal changes - it is getting hotter or colder? Activity levels have changed - does your puppy get more floor time, play time or have you started taking it on walks? Do the kids play more with it, or do your other pets hang out with it? Did your puppy recently go through a growth spurt, that has now stopped?
All of these can cause for the metabolism to change and needing either more or less food. Usually they need more food, and if they don't get it - it can cause a "just off" feel to them, not quite a true low blood sugar episode, but close enough to feel unwell and off and not wanting to eat.
If your pup has been out in public socializing more, it may have picked up a virus or an infection. If you have a cold, you may have passed that down to your puppy [anybody in the family with a cold, flu or similar sickness should not handle the pup and especially not kiss or snuggle with it while they are sick!!!].
Have you recently been to the vet? Is it possible that your pup picked up some germs there? Has it had recent vaccines and being depressed could be a side effect to that?
How long has it been since your pup has been dewormed??? Internal parasites are a way of life when you have dogs, and your pup should be on a regular deworming routine [every 2-4 weeks] while under 6 months of age.
Have you got her started on heartworm prevention if she is over 4 months of age? You should if heartworms are a problem in your area.
Again - if you can rule out sickness or internal parasites, you need to look at how your pup lives at your home. Please read the following pages [and the attached support pages] for more information: Playpen, Nutrition, Feeding Schedule, Puppy Stress, Preventing Hypoglycemia, Harmful Stress + Activity Levels, and Living a Sheltered Life.
All of these can cause for the metabolism to change and needing either more or less food. Usually they need more food, and if they don't get it - it can cause a "just off" feel to them, not quite a true low blood sugar episode, but close enough to feel unwell and off and not wanting to eat.
If your pup has been out in public socializing more, it may have picked up a virus or an infection. If you have a cold, you may have passed that down to your puppy [anybody in the family with a cold, flu or similar sickness should not handle the pup and especially not kiss or snuggle with it while they are sick!!!].
Have you recently been to the vet? Is it possible that your pup picked up some germs there? Has it had recent vaccines and being depressed could be a side effect to that?
How long has it been since your pup has been dewormed??? Internal parasites are a way of life when you have dogs, and your pup should be on a regular deworming routine [every 2-4 weeks] while under 6 months of age.
Have you got her started on heartworm prevention if she is over 4 months of age? You should if heartworms are a problem in your area.
Again - if you can rule out sickness or internal parasites, you need to look at how your pup lives at your home. Please read the following pages [and the attached support pages] for more information: Playpen, Nutrition, Feeding Schedule, Puppy Stress, Preventing Hypoglycemia, Harmful Stress + Activity Levels, and Living a Sheltered Life.
You are changing dog food brands or varieties, or you have just purchased a new bag of its established food, but all of the sudden it doesn't want to eat it anymore?
If you are changing dog food brands, do it gradually and not abruptly from one day to the next. If you are planning on changing brands or variety, buy your new dog food well before you run out of the old one. You want to mix app. 2-3 cups of each dry variety in a container or food bag and shake it up very well, and feed the mixture until you are out. Then you go on to feeding the new puppy food only.
This should be a gradual process taking 1-2 weeks of mixed food, before you go over to offering the new feed only. Do your research well in advance and then stick to the new food and stay with it! Don't change dog foods every time you go shopping - dogs do not require steady changes of flavors, and frequent changes may actually be the cause of picky eating in your pup or the cause of allergies that will be hard to pinpoint if your dog eats everything with no rhyme or reason...
If you just bought more of the established brand of dog food your pup is used to and likes, and now your pup refuses to eat it, do yourself a favor and have a good long, hard look at the bag. Check the expiration or manufacturing dates. Check for the quality of the bag itself - is it ripped, terribly wrinkled and beat up? Was it not properly sealed? Does it look like it might have been wet? Is the ink smeared, the outside of the bag discolored, sticky, gooey and just "ugh" feeling? Or the print distorted or runny? You are looking for outside sources of contamination first, such as spraying of pesticides, insect + rodent damage, or water + moisture damage that may have caused spoilage or mildewing. Trust your pup's nose over yours and don't force it to eat if the food looks off, is of a different texture or color than usual, clumped up and glued together or in any case different from what you are used to!
If you can't find any external obvious problems, go online and do a search for recent [and not so recent - search up to 12 months in the past - you may picked up an older bag!] dog food recalls. If there is nothing there - look at what else your puppy might have been eating or getting into coincidentally. If you are by-feeding a lot, if she gets snacks, table food, or has access and may eat other pets food - this can often change the way a dog will look at her own food.
My guess would be with something external that has happened to the bag in warehouse/storage or during transport somewhere - most likely a pesticide spray that either leaked into the food somewhere, or that you may have transferred from the outside of the bag onto the actual food itself when you opened the bag. When in doubt, return the bag for a refund if possible and get a different one [preferably from a different location, source or store].
This should be a gradual process taking 1-2 weeks of mixed food, before you go over to offering the new feed only. Do your research well in advance and then stick to the new food and stay with it! Don't change dog foods every time you go shopping - dogs do not require steady changes of flavors, and frequent changes may actually be the cause of picky eating in your pup or the cause of allergies that will be hard to pinpoint if your dog eats everything with no rhyme or reason...
If you just bought more of the established brand of dog food your pup is used to and likes, and now your pup refuses to eat it, do yourself a favor and have a good long, hard look at the bag. Check the expiration or manufacturing dates. Check for the quality of the bag itself - is it ripped, terribly wrinkled and beat up? Was it not properly sealed? Does it look like it might have been wet? Is the ink smeared, the outside of the bag discolored, sticky, gooey and just "ugh" feeling? Or the print distorted or runny? You are looking for outside sources of contamination first, such as spraying of pesticides, insect + rodent damage, or water + moisture damage that may have caused spoilage or mildewing. Trust your pup's nose over yours and don't force it to eat if the food looks off, is of a different texture or color than usual, clumped up and glued together or in any case different from what you are used to!
If you can't find any external obvious problems, go online and do a search for recent [and not so recent - search up to 12 months in the past - you may picked up an older bag!] dog food recalls. If there is nothing there - look at what else your puppy might have been eating or getting into coincidentally. If you are by-feeding a lot, if she gets snacks, table food, or has access and may eat other pets food - this can often change the way a dog will look at her own food.
My guess would be with something external that has happened to the bag in warehouse/storage or during transport somewhere - most likely a pesticide spray that either leaked into the food somewhere, or that you may have transferred from the outside of the bag onto the actual food itself when you opened the bag. When in doubt, return the bag for a refund if possible and get a different one [preferably from a different location, source or store].
This is a very young teacup or tiny puppy [6-9 weeks or less] and not properly weaned from mom, or one that really does not know how to eat yet.
This can be tricky problem if the pup does not yet really has the mechanics down to eating on its own or gets exhausted, tired or frustrated with eating by itself and stops after 2-3 bites. Your first commitment here is to being available to feed the puppy 5-7 times during the day. When dealing with a very young or very tiny puppy it is of paramount importance that it eats frequently.
Begin with canned food watered down to a soupy, mushy consistency and see if it will lap it up when you dip its snout into it. Make sure to not get the nose clogged or let it inhale fluids and food into the lungs - that will stop it from trying very quickly and may actually suffocate and kill it!
If it can lick and lap it up, shows good appetite and is willing to eat that way, you are pretty much home free. Its going to be messy and gooey for a week or two, but it is willing to eat and that is what counts. Be sure to add some Dyne into the wet food, and gradually reduce the soupy-ness until the pup eats regular dry food.
Initially you may have to pry open the mouth and finger scoop some food in at the beginning of each feeding, but that's ok - chances are it will catch on quickly! Once you are at that stage [shouldn't take longer than a day or two, depending on the age of the pup] - you want to also soak dry puppyfood in warm water and mush up with a fork and mix under the canned food. As the pup eats better, you just want to wet the dry food a little bit - so it gets softer, spongy but keeps it shape but not mushy, and you will gradually offer less canned food and more of the moistened dry food.
Your pup will pick up eating quickly, and you will not need to soften up the dry food after a few days, but still mix a spoon of canned in for the duration to entice it to eat. Be sure to pick a brand of dog food that has the right kibble size for your puppy and that offers premium ingredients for quality nutrition!!!
If you are dealing with a very young or debilitated puppy that is too weak to lap up liquids and watered down food, also read about syringe feeding after a severe hypoglycemic episode!!!
Begin with canned food watered down to a soupy, mushy consistency and see if it will lap it up when you dip its snout into it. Make sure to not get the nose clogged or let it inhale fluids and food into the lungs - that will stop it from trying very quickly and may actually suffocate and kill it!
If it can lick and lap it up, shows good appetite and is willing to eat that way, you are pretty much home free. Its going to be messy and gooey for a week or two, but it is willing to eat and that is what counts. Be sure to add some Dyne into the wet food, and gradually reduce the soupy-ness until the pup eats regular dry food.
Initially you may have to pry open the mouth and finger scoop some food in at the beginning of each feeding, but that's ok - chances are it will catch on quickly! Once you are at that stage [shouldn't take longer than a day or two, depending on the age of the pup] - you want to also soak dry puppyfood in warm water and mush up with a fork and mix under the canned food. As the pup eats better, you just want to wet the dry food a little bit - so it gets softer, spongy but keeps it shape but not mushy, and you will gradually offer less canned food and more of the moistened dry food.
Your pup will pick up eating quickly, and you will not need to soften up the dry food after a few days, but still mix a spoon of canned in for the duration to entice it to eat. Be sure to pick a brand of dog food that has the right kibble size for your puppy and that offers premium ingredients for quality nutrition!!!
If you are dealing with a very young or debilitated puppy that is too weak to lap up liquids and watered down food, also read about syringe feeding after a severe hypoglycemic episode!!!