# Healthy Puppy But Doesn't Eat All His Food



## onaggar (Jun 22, 2011)

We've been offering Nubis, our 14 Weeks old healthy Male V. puppy 3 X day dry puppy food Hills Science Plan Veterinary Formulated Puppy 1 Year based on the breeders's and the our vet's recommendation (breeder in Hungary and Vet in Cairo, Egypt). 150 g. in the morning, 100 g. afternoon and 100 g. at night. Some days he eats all his 3 meals, some days he just eats some of each meal and leave some. We've added some chicken broth, some other natural foods to 1 or 2 meals per day mostly he eats them but also has left some of those sitting in his bowl. Any suggestions on how to make him eat well? This is our first Vizsla, our previous dog experience was a Dalmation which we had for 13 years and he was a good eater.

Nubis, our


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

It sounds like you are doing everything right. It's my understanding that Vizslas tend to be fussy eaters, although I haven't had that experience with my Willie Boy. He's different, though, because he did suffer through a peroid of starvation when he was young (lost dog, "stray"). 

As others have said on different threads here, sometimes what you have to do is just shop around until you find a food he really enjoys. Buy the smallest bag you can find to begin with, just in case he doesn't like it. Sooner or later you will hit on the right one for Nubis!


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## JillandDan (Sep 8, 2010)

mswhipple is correct. We have experienced this fussiness first hand. We have tried the following food with no luck on getting her to eat scheduled meals:
Wellness, Blue Buffalo (both puppy flavors), Nutro Natural (both puppy flavors)
We now have Holley on Merrick Cowboy Cookout. She seems to eat more but still doesn't eat at designated times and never empties the bowl completely. We leave her food out per our vet who says she is just a grazer. She has seen many dogs like this. She is almost 1 and weighs 46lbs so we are happy as long as she is healthy.


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## jld640 (Sep 29, 2010)

A few months back, one of the folks on this forum suggested mixing a spoonful of wet dog food into the kibble. Sure enough, with the wet dog food, Savannah consistently eats her meals. It has let us escape the process of trying multiple foods, at least for the moment.


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## kellygh (Oct 25, 2010)

Yes, we have to mix a bit of can food, veggie, or the occasional satin ball in Pumpkin's (10m)food to entice her to eat. Vs seem to be notoriously picky eaters or at least with odd habits :. If your pup is healthy, I wouldn't stress too much. Please read through the food/diet threads, because there have been quite a few about picky eaters, putting on weight etc. BTW, 60% of the time, Pumpkin does not eat all of the food she is given at a meal. She never took to eating the recommended 3x per day. She has always eaten on a 2x schedule, because that is what has worked for us. We have some days where she picks at one or both of her meals, and if she has been in the field on birds, she will rarely eat much for 6-12 hrs. Weird.


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## Linescreamer (Sep 28, 2010)

Nupro. This is the only thing that has worked consistently for us. Sprinkle on the food and add a few drops of water. It is a nutritional supplement that they like. The other things my V has eaten consistently is steak, copped meat and hot dogs. My problem with those food items is I want him to eat like a dog!


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## onaggar (Jun 22, 2011)

Thank you all for the useful info. I think we will try a bunch of these suggestions made on this topic and will let you know. I saw a weight chart for Vs growing up on vizslaforums.com since we were trying to figure out the healthy weight for Nubis but not sure how accurate this chart is, anyway, Nubis today is 14 weeks old and weighs 10.4 KG or 22.88 lbs. does that seem like the healthy weight range, we haven't weighed him at the vet yet.


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## Linescreamer (Sep 28, 2010)

If you can't see his ribs your doing good! If you can see the ribs, try to fatten him up!


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## datacan (May 15, 2011)

I would love to be in your position. Our Sam eats everything.

IMO no need to overfeed them. Portions printed on the bag are generic at best and if followed you will end up with an obese dog.
If U can see his waist then it's OK. If U can see the outline of their ribs when they are turning then it's OK.
If U can see the ribs when standing upright and still U may need to feed some more. - Just my opinion.


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## redrover (Mar 17, 2011)

I agree with datacan about portions printed on dog food labels--those companies want to sell more dog food, so I think they're always on the high end.

That being said, I find that Jasper's pretty good at self-regulating his food intake, and over time I've learned not to get too concerned if he goes without one or two meals. Once I mis-measured and gave him too much food at a meal--he stopped when he had eaten his normal amount, and ignored he extra. I've had dogs that would eat the couch if they thought they could! 

I will occasionally mix in interesting things with his food--a few treats "hidden" in the mix, a little yogurt or cottage cheese, canned pumpkin if his stool is not quite normal, etc. He gets very excited about these additions, but I only do it occasionally. He also seems to be much more interested in eating all of his meal if I make it his reward for walking nicely on his leash and feed him bits of it as we walk. BUT if he even sees/smells better treats instead of his kibble, he will politely take the kibble in his mouth, drop it on the ground, and then look at me as if asking for the better stuff.  So I make sure not to take any of the better treats with us if I intend only on treating with his regular food.

Edit to say this: I recently started the switch from the food the breeder had Jasper on, Purina Pro Plan Performance, to Acana. He did ok on the Purina, but it had fillers and unclear protein sources, and I also think he had either an allergy or general intolerance to one of the ingredients in it. Since I wanted to avoid chicken as a meat source, we tried Acana Pacifica, and he's been going nuts for that. I haven't seen him that excited about a meal since he first came home. Not sure if it will stay that way once he gets used to the new food, but as others have said, it could just be finding the right food for you and your dog.


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## onaggar (Jun 22, 2011)

Thank you all for your great feedback and info, very valuable information. I'd say seeing his ribs is quite visible sometimes but not all the time, it's quite strange actually. Any suggestions on fattening a V puppy? 

At Redrover, why do you avoid chicken as a meat source? ??? I'm asking this questions because several books, sites have suggested adding small tiny strips of chicken to his dog food (of course no skin or bones) and we started adding that to Nubis's dry puppy food and he seems to enjoy it a lot more now than before after adding the chicken bits, we don't do it daily but I'd say every other day. 

Thank you


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## redrover (Mar 17, 2011)

I don't have a good, scientific answer at all, haha. Only because chicken was the main protein source in his original food, and I wanted a fresh slate with that. Some dogs will actually develop an allergy to chicken and other protein sources--my trainer's dog developed a chicken allergy at age 1. Since I don't think it was a full-on allergy, but more of a general food doesn't agree with his digestive system thing, I didn't want to do an intensive elimination diet to find out exactly what it is that he was having problems with. It could have been the chicken, the grains, or even something else about his food that didn't totally agree with him. Plus I thought it would be more interesting for him if we got away from chicken for a little while. 

He does really love chicken that I make, though, and he gets the (very) occasional treat of a few bites. That doesn't seem to bother him at all, but again, it's only a couple of bites every month or so. Eventually I may try adding it back in a different formulation of Acana and see if he still does ok with it. 

I will add, though, that even though he loves loves loves his new food, he's still self-regulating how much he eats really well. I've been slowly adding in the Acana, which is definitely denser than his previous kibble and I think fills him up faster, and he's still willing to walk away from the bowl when he's full even if there's some of the yummy new stuff in there.


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## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

http://redbirddog.blogspot.com/2010/06/dog-food-for-very-active-vizsla.html

Your temperatures are unreal! No animal would be hungry in those temps.

Good luck and stay cool as you can. The Red Sea sounds better. 

Rod


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