Dakota is about 8 weeks old. I'm feeding him Blue Buffalo Wilderness puppy food. I had to transition him from Purina Puppy Chow (this is what his owner was feeding him. He gobbled up the Wilderness for a good week or so. I'm trying to feed him about 2 cups a day since I know that he is a growing boy. I try to feed him about two or three times a day depending on how much he eats for breakfast. I give him one cup for breakfast. He used t eat quite a bit of it, but now he's only eating about 1/4 of it. Any suggestions? I want him to eat a lot so he can grow up to be a big boy!

I feed him a cup at night too. If he doesn't eat all of his breakfast (which is lately) I give him the rest of it for lunch.

Do you think he's tired of it now?

And of course I spoil him with lots of treats and bones throughout the day haha

I would say to cut the treat and bones intake. They will fill up on them and not eat.

That's what I was thinking, but I don't usually give him treats before breakfast. He gets SUPER excited for food time, but then doesn't eat much at all.

Try a couple teaspoons of warm water it will set off an aroma.

The warm water is a great idea, but try splitting up his food over more feedings. An 8 week old puppy needs 4 feedings a day, and that way his little tummy can process the food better. We did 4 feedings until Ghost was about 4 months old, then knocked it back to 3, and now we are down to 2 as of a couple months ago.

I'll try both ideas! He looks great (not too skinny and not too fat), but I want a little more fat on him because he's a puppy. Thanks for the advice! I'll give it a shot.

That's a lot of food! I ran into a similar issue with my guy around that age (was feeding him 3/4 cup twice a day Royal Canin). Sometimes he would eat it all and others not. I tried the warm water and he actually seemed to not like that at all and I found he was wasting more food that actually eating. I started to switch him over to Taste of Wild lamb formula and I had GREAT success with that! He ate it all up! Since then, I've converted him to an all raw diet (he loves that 100% better!) but my other dogs are still on TOW and he still tries to gobble their food up lol.

Adding some chicken broth to his food wouldn't hurt, to give it a little flavor. Also, adding a bit of white rice or boiled chicken breast to it wouldn't be a bad idea! When my guys have an upset tummy I'll feed them chicken and rice bland diet to settle their tummies and they LOVE it!

Cutting back on the treat's wouldn't be a bad idea either lol

bott6654 wrote:

And of course I spoil him with lots of treats and bones throughout the day haha

Something tells me this might be the culprit. How much is "lots"? If he's not finishing his breakfast, I wouldn't reward him with the yummier but less nutritious treats later. What dog wouldn't like to fill up on treats rather than their main food? It'd be sort of like rewarding a kid with cake after they didn't finish their meal.

As has been suggested, I would split meals into 3-4 feedings at that age, at least 3 separate feedings if 4 is not feasible.

If he's eating okay as it is, then I wouldn't worry too much. Based on what I'm reading it doesn't sound concerning to me. Unless he's underweight or not eating I wouldn't resort to doctoring up his food unless you plan to stick with it long term. I say that mainly because you don't want to create a picky eater.

Well, we try to do a couple of training sessions each which can turn in to lots of treats. All of the little morsels can add up quite fast! I'll start him on 4 feedings a day tomorrow and see how it turns out. Thanks for the advice!

You can always use kibble as a reward during your training sessions instead of treats, or mix and match. With one of my dogs I used her breakfast kibble to do a training session in the morning, I'd use about half her bowl for training and then she'd get the remainder in the bowl as the end of the training session.

Edited to add: that training served 2 purposes, we got training done AND simultaneously reinforced NILIF.

You may also be blessed having a Husky that self regulates his food intake.

Adobo eats what she feels she needs, Biko is a chow hound and would love to devour what Adobo leaves behind.

UPDATE: I cut down on the treats this morning and this afternoon. It's helped a lot with him eating all of his food. I'm feeding him less with each meal but more times throughout the day. Also, since he is teething pretty bad (had some swollen gums last night actually) I drizzled warm water on it not only to give it an aroma but also to soften it up a little bit. It's worked great and he's gobbling it up and wanting more now! Thanks for all the advice!

For his teething if you want. Take a washcloth and wet it ring it out and leave it twisted put it in the freezer and freeze it. It works like a baby teething ring and will feel good on his gums. Just watch where you let him chew on it as it thaws it will get things wet an or puddle.

I try to do that with his rope right now (get it wet and then freeze it). I also give him ice to chew, but he just licks it. He likes to put his face in his water bowl too (I'm guessing it feels good on his gums). I don't think he understand that the ice is for chewing lol. And of course, he always prefers to chew on my hand or arm instead of a toy! We're fixing this problem though.

You can try crushed ice chips. Kale did the same thing, only licked the ice cubes. Crushed them up and he chomped on them lol

just last night i made ice cubes with a few pieces of Luna's dog food in them. She loves it!

That's a good idea! Like frozen foodsicles!