# My puppy won't eat breakfast



## treyn (Nov 19, 2016)

Hi! Thanks to all who offered suggestions a few months ago on how to get Bohdi to stop barking at my son. They've become great friends and it is such a joy to watch them play. 

Bohdi is now 5 months old and he won't eat his breakfast. He walks to his bowl in the morning, sniffs at it and walks away. We haven't changed anything since he was 2 months old, except giving him just a little more each meal, and I'm perplexed I guess.

He stays on a pretty consistent schedule:

7:30am - +1/4 cup Acana puppy kibble
12:00pm - Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried patties
5-6:00pm - Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried patties

Is it the Acana he all of the sudden doesn't like or is he ready for 2 meals a day? I would think that 5 months is a little too early for that though, right?


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## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

My girl rarely eats first thing in the morning. I don't worry about when she wants to eat, as long as she is eating. Most dogs will give up the midday meal at some point.


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## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

treyn said:


> Is it the Acana he all of the sudden doesn't like or is he ready for 2 meals a day? I would think that 5 months is a little too early for that though, right?


I would try two meals a day, say 9am and 5pm. If he continues to gain weight, then no problem.

Ricky's Popi


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

they are all different. You'll figure it out New Dog Owner? Watch Out for These 5 Common Mistakes


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

All of mine made it very clear when they didn't need/want 3 meals a day, and we just dropped lunch at that point. 

Also, if you are feeding kibble at one meal, and freeze dried raw the other two times, it's like offering dry saltines for one meal, and steak for the other two. Which one is he likely to skip if he's not REALLY hungry?


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

lol Karen, I wouldn't bet that a dog would prefer freeze dried raw over kibble. We all know which one is the healthest. Too bad dogs don't always know what's good for them. :smile2:


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

As Sabine says "- Kibble is specifically "engineered" to be appealing by spraying it with a mixture of fat and flavoring after it's been extruded. Entire companies exist that do business solely in developing flavoring enhancements for dry food. Freeze dried food is not processed in that way, that's why it doesn't have that typical "kibble stink" odor. it just smells of the natural, dried ingredients."


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## Hava Novice (Aug 30, 2016)

I can't even imagine the day that Oreo will pass up on any meal. He is a pig, and I swear he can tell time! He comes into the kitchen around 11:50 a.m., and just looks at me, if I ignore him, he will go to his bowl and bark. He does the same around 5:00 in the afternoon. I have been scaling back on his mid day meal, and increasing the amount at breakfast and in the evening, but I bet he won't give up the mid day feeding without protest.


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## boomana (Jul 9, 2015)

My boy frequently doesn't want breakfast. I let him be. Lola, quite recently has also barely nibbled at her breakfast. She could stand to lose a pound, so I'm quite fine with it.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

davetgabby said:


> As Sabine says "- Kibble is specifically "engineered" to be appealing by spraying it with a mixture of fat and flavoring after it's been extruded. Entire companies exist that do business solely in developing flavoring enhancements for dry food. Freeze dried food is not processed in that way, that's why it doesn't have that typical "kibble stink" odor. it just smells of the natural, dried ingredients."


My dogs certainly think kibble is the LEAST attractive food on offer. We rarely do freeze dried raw "diet" type food because most have fish oil in them, and Kodi is allergic to it. But canned, refrigerated, fresh, home made, freeze dried whole meats... ANYTHING is favored over even the best kibble. I use it mostly for low value training treats around home, thta I can keep in my pockets or in jars around the house for impromptu training opportunities. (It's amazing how much training can get done 30 seconds at a time during the day)


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

boomana said:


> My boy frequently doesn't want breakfast. I let him be. Lola, quite recently has also barely nibbled at her breakfast. She could stand to lose a pound, so I'm quite fine with it.


Pixel OFTEN skips a meal... sometimes both in the same day. She's the skinny one of the crew too. I have to watch Kodi's weight carefully, and I don't think he's ever missed a meal in his life.


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## Zoe093014 (Jan 27, 2015)

Zoe is not a breakfast eater. She does eat lunch and dinner though. We use high quality kibble or "crunchies" for desert. Every now and then she will crunch on a couple after her main meal.
I really don't mind her not being a breakfast eater because I really don't want to face or cook raw organ meat first thing in the morning! (part of her meal). Yuck! She lets me know when she is hungry by coming into the kitchen and standing at a certain spot and looking at me. :smile2:
She is playful, happy and healthy so as long as she eats I'm happy.


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## Tux's Mom (May 24, 2016)

krandall said:


> All of mine made it very clear when they didn't need/want 3 meals a day, and we just dropped lunch at that point.
> 
> Also, if you are feeding kibble at one meal, and freeze dried raw the other two times, it's like offering dry saltines for one meal, and steak for the other two. Which one is he likely to skip if he's not REALLY hungry?


I was thinking of the same reply. I am not a fan of kibble anyway. Who wants to eat cereal especially if you are a born carnivore? I DO use two or three teeny tiny puppy kibble bits for reward treats since they are so small, but Tux's three and a half meals a day are Primal Raw and raw goat milk.


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## treyn (Nov 19, 2016)

Thanks everybody! I thought it might be the kibble he doesn't want anymore so this morning I put Stella & Chewy's in his bowl. He ate every bit of it immediately. Raw 3 times a day is too much $ for us, especially at the double daily portions the package recommends for puppies, hence supplementing with Acana in the morning. So maybe we'll drop lunch for now and see how he does? I just thought I should probably have fed him later (9 am, as suggested, instead of 7:30)....tomorrow. If he's super hungry today, I'll offer him his Acana....we'll see. He's a big boy, I think - 12 lbs at 5months old. That is big, right? So maybe his growth is stalling some and he doesn't need as much food.


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## Tux's Mom (May 24, 2016)

Tux is 11 months old and weighs 7.8 lbs. He's quite active but his parents are on the smaller side at 9 lbs. 
12 lbs. at 5 months seems larger than usual for a Havanese, but they all grow at different rates at different times.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

krandall said:


> My dogs certainly think kibble is the LEAST attractive food on offer. We rarely do freeze dried raw "diet" type food because most have fish oil in them, and Kodi is allergic to it. But canned, refrigerated, fresh, home made, freeze dried whole meats... ANYTHING is favored over even the best kibble. I use it mostly for low value training treats around home, thta I can keep in my pockets or in jars around the house for impromptu training opportunities. (It's amazing how much training can get done 30 seconds at a time during the day)


it's not the quality kibbles that are sprayed with appetizing flavors necessarily. It's the Purina type. These become addictive to dogs so much so that even canned won't turn a dog on. Cats are even worse , they really can be addicted to the flavoring in kibbles and will not even touch wet food of any sort sometimes. Cats shouldn't even be eating kibble more so than dogs.


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## Barbara Levy (Apr 22, 2016)

Loki would eat Bohdi's breakfast in a heart beat. You would think the dog was starving. He lost weight when he had Parvo and Giardia at 11 weeks and I swear he has been trying to make up for it ever since. I feed him Holistic Select canned food (1/2 can) and kibble (1/4 c.) a day. I mostly give him the kibble because I can put it in the Mazee Ball or another feeding ball while I make coffee in the morning and relax for a minute after work. He loves pushing the ball around. (I am working on getting him to bring me the ball since it is usually under something.) He also gets about an 1/8th can at a breakfast, and then I put an 1/8th a can in a kong in the freezer for the walker to give him. He also gets some veggies everyday, and a treat or some dehydrated bananas and sweet potatoes when I leave for work. He is now a lean and healthy 12 lbs. He still just sits and stares at us any time we go in the kitchen!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

davetgabby said:


> it's not the quality kibbles that are sprayed with appetizing flavors necessarily. It's the Purina type. These become addictive to dogs so much so that even canned won't turn a dog on. Cats are even worse , they really can be addicted to the flavoring in kibbles and will not even touch wet food of any sort sometimes. Cats shouldn't even be eating kibble more so than dogs.


Well, my dogs have never eaten any low quality kibble, so they've never had a chance to become addicted.   And the OP wasn't using a low quality kibble either, for that matter.

I WISH we could get our 16 year old kitty to eat something other than kibble. But she was a shelter kitty, and will even refuse pieces of home cooked chicken or tuna. She ONLY eats crunchy stuff. even when she used to catch mice (she's not fast enough anymore) she ONLY ate the heads and left the bodies for us to deal with :laugh: Since she's been with us, she's only had high quality kibble. (Nature's Variety with raw bites... and it took a LONG time before she would touch the raw bites!) No amount of coaxing will convince her to eat anything else.


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## Roz (Mar 27, 2008)

Karen; I've had a similar experience with one of my rescue cats. She won't eat anything but Orijien kibble. I have tried numerous times to transition her to wet food. She has terrible teeth and has had several removed. After her dental surgery, we offered her fresh salmon that we purchased for our dinner and she refused it, although she couldn't eat her kibble. We tried fresh tuna, as well as canned and she turned it down. We tried wetting her kibble to soften it and she refused it. We also ground the kibble with some water in the blender and she wouldn't eat it. She went 2 days without eating and finally on the third day I broke the kibble with my fingers into smaller pieces and she ate it.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

yeah karen we're creating kibble addicts lol. Some companies add what basically amounts to concentrated broth from completely acceptable ingredients. Nature's Variety adds in pulverized freeze dried meat/bone/organs on some products. And then there are the crappy companies that use disgusting things like animal digest. Phosphoric acid is common for cat food.


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## Dee Dee (Jul 24, 2015)

Sophie is with Oreo. I'll take 7 meals a day please. 

With snacks. 



She is 9.4 lbs at 2 yrs old. I just asked her breeder how much her Mom and Dad weigh, her Mom is 14 lbs and Dad is 16 lbs. She was estimated to be at least 12 lbs. I am very happy I got a little one she's the perfect size for carrying around <3


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## Greg Hansen (Feb 9, 2017)

*Havanese can be weird!*

My dog Mookie used to turn his nose up at breakfast, and we only feed our dogs twice a day. I started adding some low salt chicken broth to his food and that got him eating. The other thing is that, like us, they can board with the same old thing, so try changing it up.


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