# Puppy and not eating



## Olive23 (Jun 15, 2021)

hey fam
I brought Olive home just over 2 weeks ago now and she isn't getting into a regular habit in terms of her eating habits. Shes 9 weeks old and I have been trying to feed her 3x a day. I have soft food for her and she eats a few bites out of my hand only in the mornings. She then gets so playful throughout the day that she needs to be handfed her puppy kibble too. Only to eat a few and run away then maybe come back and she seems a bit jumpy by her food station. She has one upstairs in my office and one downstairs just outside the kitchen. Any tips to get her to eat better would be soooo appreciated!


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Olive23 said:


> hey fam
> I brought Olive home just over 2 weeks ago now and she isn't getting into a regular habit in terms of her eating habits. Shes 9 weeks old and I have been trying to feed her 3x a day. I have soft food for her and she eats a few bites out of my hand only in the mornings. She then gets so playful throughout the day that she needs to be handfed her puppy kibble too. Only to eat a few and run away then maybe come back and she seems a bit jumpy by her food station. She has one upstairs in my office and one downstairs just outside the kitchen. Any tips to get her to eat better would be soooo appreciated!


Hmmm… she was sent home at SEVEN WEEKS!?!? Has the vet checked her out and she is healthy and proper weight?

If not, I would follow your vet’s advice. She is barely at an age NOW that she should be leaving her litter. But at this point, I would put her food down three times a day. I WOULD NOT hand feed her at all. I would contain her some how neat her food, in a pen or something. I would leave her there for 15 minutes. Stay near her, so she does not worry, but do not talk or fuss over her. Then take the food away and take her out and go about your day. Do the same for each meal. Whether she eats or not. She will eventually learn that this is her only opportunity and start to eat normally!

A normal, healthy puppy will NOT starve herself!


----------



## Olive23 (Jun 15, 2021)

krandall said:


> Hmmm… she was sent home at SEVEN WEEKS!?!? Has the vet checked her out and she is healthy and proper weight?
> 
> If not, I would follow your vet’s advice. She is barely at an age NOW that she should be leaving her litter. But at this point, I would put her food down three times a day. I WOULD NOT hand feed her at all. I would contain her some how neat her food, in a pen or something. I would leave her there for 15 minutes. Stay near her, so she does not worry, but do not talk or fuss over her. Then take the food away and take her out and go about your day. Do the same for each meal. Whether she eats or not. She will eventually learn that this is her only opportunity and start to eat normally!
> 
> A normal, healthy puppy will NOT starve herself!


No she was sent home with me right at 8 weeks and will be 10 weeks by the end of this week! Yes she has had 2 vet visits and she is a happy and healthy girl who loves play and forgets to eat so I have to remind her. I am taking all the precautions and watching video's, asking for help on this forum and trying my best.


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Olive23 said:


> No she was sent home with me right at 8 weeks and will be 10 weeks by the end of this week! Yes she has had 2 vet visits and she is a happy and healthy girl who loves play and forgets to eat so I have to remind her. I am taking all the precautions and watching video's, asking for help on this forum and trying my best.


OK, great! Then my advice stands.  She will be fine, but you needto stop hand feeding her and letting her eat in bits and pieces theoughout the day, or she won’t learn to eat regular meals. She’ll get the hang of it. It’s tough because they are little and we worry, and Havanese are MASTER manipulators! …even the tiny puppies!


----------



## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

I asked my breeder about hand feeding because I had read about it to teach bite inhibition. She didn’t think it was particularly important but she did encourage training with part of the meal. I actually think her puppies are well socialized and spend a lot of time with children so they are developing bite inhibition appropriately. All puppies have a harder time with bite inhibition during play, but I don’t think hand feeding makes a a difference with that because it’s impulse control and development. My puppy was nippy like all puppies during play but he did respond to redirection and he also grew out of it. 

Training with part of a meal is smart but if she’s not on a rough schedule it’s not going to work as well anyway because it’ll be hard to predict the best times to train. It should only take a couple of days for her to get into a routine if you do what Karen suggests and remove the food. If she’s still not eating it’s possible she just needs less and her calories need to be adjusted a bit. My puppy’s portions were on the smaller side when he was getting 3 meals. Like humans, the amount we need can vary, and the amount I actually need is usually less than I think


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

EvaE1izabeth said:


> I asked my breeder about hand feeding because I had read about it to teach bite inhibition. She didn’t think it was particularly important but she did encourage training with part of the meal. I actually think her puppies are well socialized and spend a lot of time with children so they are developing bite inhibition appropriately. All puppies have a harder time with bite inhibition during play, but I don’t think hand feeding makes a a difference with that because it’s impulse control and development. My puppy was nippy like all puppies during play but he did respond to redirection and he also grew out of it.
> 
> Training with part of a meal is smart but if she’s not on a rough schedule it’s not going to work as well anyway because it’ll be hard to predict the best times to train. It should only take a couple of days for her to get into a routine if you do what Karen suggests and remove the food. If she’s still not eating it’s possible she just needs less and her calories need to be adjusted a bit. My puppy’s portions were on the smaller side when he was getting 3 meals. Like humans, the amount we need can vary, and the amount I actually need is usually less than I think


Oh! Using part of their meal to TRAIN is COMPLETELY different than just “hand feeding”. Ducky had his first lesson at our traing school today, and I purposely didn’t feed him lunch, because I knew I was going to be filling his little belly up with Fresh Pet. NOT the same thing at all! He worked for every piece of that food. It was NOT just handed to him!


----------



## Olive23 (Jun 15, 2021)

Olive23 said:


> hey fam
> I brought Olive home just over 2 weeks ago now and she isn't getting into a regular habit in terms of her eating habits. Shes 10 weeks old and I have been trying to feed her 3x a day. I have soft food for her and she eats a few bites out of my hand only in the mornings. She then gets so playful throughout the day that she needs to be handfed her puppy kibble too. Only to eat a few and run away then maybe come back and she seems a bit jumpy by her food station. She has one upstairs in my office and one downstairs just outside the kitchen. Any tips to get her to eat better would be soooo appreciated!





EvaE1izabeth said:


> I asked my breeder about hand feeding because I had read about it to teach bite inhibition. She didn’t think it was particularly important but she did encourage training with part of the meal. I actually think her puppies are well socialized and spend a lot of time with children so they are developing bite inhibition appropriately. All puppies have a harder time with bite inhibition during play, but I don’t think hand feeding makes a a difference with that because it’s impulse control and development. My puppy was nippy like all puppies during play but he did respond to redirection and he also grew out of it.
> 
> Training with part of a meal is smart but if she’s not on a rough schedule it’s not going to work as well anyway because it’ll be hard to predict the best times to train. It should only take a couple of days for her to get into a routine if you do what Karen suggests and remove the food. If she’s still not eating it’s possible she just needs less and her calories need to be adjusted a bit. My puppy’s portions were on the smaller side when he was getting 3 meals. Like humans, the amount we need can vary, and the amount I actually need is usually less than I think
> 
> ...


----------



## NotAMuggle (Dec 4, 2020)

The thing Karen mentioned about putting her in her pen with her food is such good advice. When i first brought home my pup she was distracted by everything and would also take like two bites, sniff, then wander away to play with a toy or investigate something more interesting. Sounds like yours is similar. Minimizing the distractions and somewhat confining her with the food for her 15-minute mealtimes may help!


----------



## BocaVista (11 mo ago)

krandall said:


> But at this point, I would put her food down three times a day. I WOULD NOT hand feed her at all. I would contain her some how neat her food, in a pen or something. I would leave her there for 15 minutes. Stay near her, so she does not worry, but do not talk or fuss over her. Then take the food away and take her out and go about your day. Do the same for each meal. Whether she eats or not. She will eventually learn that this is her only opportunity and start to eat normally!
> 
> A normal, healthy puppy will NOT starve herself!


Hi Karen,

This is an older thread but I was just searching for this topic. My question is whether the food needs to be in the kitchen (and therefore her pen as well) or since we have her pen set up in the living room, can we bring the food to her there so we don't have to move the pen? I love your advice and maybe this will help Ellie eat better. 

I'm still not sure she really cares for the food the breeder had her on (Darwin's Natural Selections). She really took to Vital Essentials Freeze Dried Rabbit (for a few days) and now has vetoed that as well....

Thanks,
Chris


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

BocaVista said:


> Hi Karen,
> 
> This is an older thread but I was just searching for this topic. My question is whether the food needs to be in the kitchen (and therefore her pen as well) or since we have her pen set up in the living room, can we bring the food to her there so we don't have to move the pen? I love your advice and maybe this will help Ellie eat better.
> 
> ...


No, I don’t think it matters at all WHERE you feed her as long as it’s consistent and convenient for you. My dogs eat in their crates in our dining room. When Ducky was younger, he ate in his pen in my office. There is also no great need to keep her on what the breeder was feeding if you’d rather feed something else. Just pick SOMETHING nutritious, and as long as there is no sign that it disagrees with her tummy, stick with it. Don’t let HER call the shots!


----------



## BocaVista (11 mo ago)

krandall said:


> No, I don’t think it matters at all WHERE you feed her as long as it’s consistent and convenient for you. My dogs eat in their crates in our dining room. When Ducky was younger, he ate in his pen in my office. There is also no great need to keep her on what the breeder was feeding if you’d rather feed something else. Just pick SOMETHING nutritious, and as long as there is no sign that it disagrees with her tummy, stick with it. Don’t let HER call the shots!


I know the sample size is only 1, but we followed your advice this morning for Ellie and she ate a great b'fast. Thank you!!


----------

