my puppy won't eat

Marble · 12-29-2007, 01:27 AM

i have just picked up my 8wk old female maltese today. That was 6 hrs ago.

The car ride coming home she was vomiting. I am assuming because this was her first car ride and she was not used to it.

Or it could be stress.. ?

Once she was home, she drank heaps of water. Then she slept. I then gave her a bath and fed her in a bowl (eukunuba sorry for the spelling).

She will not eat and drank some more water and went back to bed.

It has now been 6hrs since i picked her up from the breeder.
I am concerned she has not eaten for 6hrs.

When i was at the breeder, she had already had a meal this morning.

I tried hand feeding the pieces, she only smelt it and licked it. then she was not interested.

The breeder was not feeding dry dog food but raw meat.

When should i start panicking that she might starve??

sorry for the long winded explanation

MagicToller · 12-29-2007, 09:03 AM

Don't panic just yet, most pups go through something like a transplant shock when their environments change dramatically. If the breeder had her on a raw diet, you may have to pick up a small supply meat to start integrating with the kibble to make the switch a little easier on her.

When we brought Koi home, my breeder mandated a Vet check within 72 hours to double-check that everything was alright and to assure that the puppy was healthy at the time of sale. That might be a good idea for you, and this might give clues if there's anything else going on with your girl other than stress. If everything checks out okay, she should want to eat eventually.

Inga · 12-29-2007, 10:58 AM

New home, new people and new food. This is a lot of stress this little puppy is going through. Did the breeder know you were going to be feeding kibble to your puppy and not meat? Has the puppy ever had kibble? I would recommend that you feed what the breeder was feeding for awhile and then start slowly making the change until you are feeding only the kibble you choose. You might want to look into foods that contain more meat as well like Innova Evo, Canidae, Chicken Soup and others. Might make that transition easier for your new puppy. We would love to see pictures of your new baby as well. Good Luck with her.

briteday · 12-29-2007, 01:25 PM

You may also find that transitioning to commercial food by using a canned food may be helpful, instead of going directly to dry kibble. Feed her a high quality food 3 times per day. Scheduling her intake will help to establish an elimination pattern as well.

Every pup should be evaluated by your own vet within 72 hours. But if your pup turns up healthy, it will not starve itself. Although the pup was probably weaned from the mother she is used to sleeping in a heap of her siblings and having mom take care of her every need. So be patient with your pup, provide a quiet environment for a while, establish a schedule of eating/playing/eliminating, remember that she is just a little pup.

Marble · 12-29-2007, 06:45 PM

thank you to all..

I have found out what the problem is.

Baci is only 8 weeks old and her baby teeth are very sharp but very spaced out. When i hand feed her a dry eukanuba she licks it and puts it in her mouth and rolls it around. After a while she spits it out.

After looking at how she is rolling it around in her mouth. It seems to be that her teeth are too spaced out to break the dog food.

I have soaked the eukanuba in water to soften it so she can lick it and swollow without chewing.

this seems to work but she is still not eating much.

she is just under 1kg, so i feed her around 40g per bowl. she only eats a little then plays and comes back to it. Within the 15mins she will probably only eat around 15g. Is that normal?

Thank you to all that has replied to my post!!.. you have all been very helpful and given me support!

Willowy · 12-29-2007, 09:55 PM

If she was raised on meat, she will not recognize dry dog food as real food. She might play with it, and maybe eat some, but will not take a full meal of it. You'll need to get some meat for her, at least for the first few days. If you really don't want to give her real meat, try a good-quality canned dog food---it's more like meat than dry food is. Then you can switch her over to the dry food slowly, so she can make the adjustment. You do need to get her to eat something soon---little dogs can get low blood sugar pretty quickly.

Love's_Sophie · 12-30-2007, 12:02 AM

She won't starve herself...she will start eating when she is hungry. Right now she is probably still not feeling the greatest either. Give her some time to adjust...

If she is eating about 1\4 c of food per day...even a bit less, she should be okay, she will gradually eat more and more as she gets used to her new surroundings, and she stops teething.

One thing you can do is soak her food in hot water, and let it totally mush up, that way it is nice and soft for her. If she is really picky, you can add a bit of beef or chicken broth to it, too, so the food smells more tantalizing to her.

Marble · 12-30-2007, 07:14 AM

Seems like she is adjusting to her surroundings.

her daily portion is 85g and she has eaten around 60g of that today. I am much relieved she is not starving.

She seems to be eating a little then play and comes back to it only if i remind her the bowl is just next to her bed.

Every time she take a bite, she kinda jumps back from the bowl. Not sure if she is scared of the bowl. It is a big bowl so her whole face fits into it and there is still heaps of room.

anyways.. thanks for the support because i was really worried!!!

briteday · 12-30-2007, 01:06 PM

Some dogs are skittish about the containers that there food is placed in. You may have to switch to a plate or something less intimidating. I had a couple of ofoster dogs that would only eat from a plate. They wouldn't put their faces into a bowl. Even their water had to be in a shallow pan.