Off food, teething, food change or something else

Hi,

Murphy is 20 weeks old and in the last couple of days has decided he doesn't want to eat his James Wellbeloved kibble anymore. I usually mix it with a bit of Butchers Choice puppy.

Not sure as he's teething if this is the issue or whether he doesn't like the food anymore. When I cut up some of my tea earlier he ate it all up but ideally I would like to serve him dry food and not have to change.

I also tried to add a little warm water to the kibble to soften it and he's still turned his nose up.

He's been on JWB for 9 weeks now?

Does anyone have any advice they can give me please?

Thanks, Julie

See the post on finicky eaters in the Library section. Whatever you do, don;t start feeding him your own food just to persuade him to eat. Give him 15 minutes to eat his normal meal, do not cajole him, just totally ignore him. If he turns up his nose or eats only part then calmly lift the bowl and put it away till the next *scheduled* feeding. Do not give treats, do not try to encourage him to eat a bit more. Repeat for next meals -- this usually gets them back to eating properly very quickly, within a couple of meals, once they realise the game is over and either it is eat what you get, or don;t eat (kids do the same thing with parents!).

This is really typical behaviour for many cavaliers at this age who quickly realise they can get lots of attention simply by not eating -- ie he is now training you to respond to what he wants -- attention and maybe some other interesting tidbits.

Do not start trying to give other things unless you want this to become a full time headache!

It is funny but so many times people say their dog is very finicky, won;t eat this or that, has to be hand fed (another absolute no-no!!) -- true of a cavalier I m currently looking after. But once someone else is feeding the dog (me right now!) they happily eat from their bowl, eat kibble, etc, not a single feeding problem. The issue is generally not the food at all but the manipulation of the person connected to the meal -- it is a game for attention. A different person means the game isn;t played.

I definitely don't want to turn him into a finicky eater, but he's just had me again now. He seems to want what everyone else has, including the cats. Was just feeding them some tuna and Murphy was going mad for what was in the tin, so I mixed some into the food he left before, and he ate the lot!
Thanks for your advice, I just need to be firmer with myself.

Murphy and LouLou said:

I also tried to add a little warm water to the kibble to soften it and he's still turned his nose up.

He's been on JWB for 9 weeks now?

Does anyone have any advice they can give me please?

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Is there any chance his kibble could have gone stale? I never buy bigger bags than I can go through in a couple of weeks at most, to make sure it stays fresh.

No, I don't think it will be stale, I only buy the 2Kg bags and I opened a new bag and still he turned his nose up.

I'm happy to buy him any food, but I researched the JWB before I put him on it. I could end up keep changing his food and still be in the same situation this time next month.

He seems to want what everyone else has, including the cats.

I'll read up on the finicky eaters.

Many thanks for the replies so far, Julie