[Peppersmommy81]

So my girl is teething, and is having an especially bad time. She has lost her upper pre molars and lower k 9s that I know of. (Shes such a baby she 'asked' me to pull those) so there's not much to chew with anyway. She is running low grade temps too. The result is her not eating much at all. For a while I could get her to eat kibble (taste of the wilderness puppy) mixed with wet food (baby blue patte), but now she only licks the wet stuff up and not much of that. I got her this puzzle feeder toy called a tornado. It's this 3 tier spinning thing with these 3 plastic covers to make it harder. After I pick up her bowl I put the remaining in the toy with extra wet food Anyway she likes that better. I 1/2 fill it with the stuff from her bowl and use 'treat foods' (raw honey, Greek yougart, rice, boiled meat, jmismelly fish treats ) as incentive to play. She got the hang of it and will eat out of that now. It's still less then she should be eating, but way more then from the bowl (3x daily scheduled feeding).
Questions: is there any issues (long term) with me relying on the toy as her prime source of food (I currently use it 2x a day)? I'd rather she use her bowl, but I'm more concerned about her not eating atm.

Are there any better (healthy but soft/ lickable ) options I could use in it.

Recommends for another, possibly harder toy of this type. as she is getting quicker to find the treats and has pulling off those covers down I am worried she will get bored of it.

 

[DaySleepers]

There's actually a concept called contrafreeloading, where it appears that at least some individuals find food that requires effort to get to more appetizing than freely available food. Kind of like that idea that you value things you work for yourself rather than have handed to you. I think using puzzles for her dinner is brilliant! Some dogs only eat out of puzzles and food toys, and it's totally fine. It's good enrichment and teaches them problem solving, as well as exercises natural foraging instincts.

What you've got there is a level 1 (easiest) Nina Ottosson toy! I've got it, too. The company makes great puzzle toys, and you can check them out here: https://www.nina-ottosson.com/products/ You can even sort them by difficulty level. You can't buy directly from that site, but they list resellers in your country/area, and they're very popular so show up in many pet stores worldwide. There's other puzzle brands, of course, and if you're on facebook you might get some cool ideas from the group Canine Enrichment. They do more than food-based enrichment, but there's a lot of creative folks who post about commercial dog puzzles or make their own with household objects (toilet paper tubes are popular, haha).

Another option would be stuffable food toys. These are things like the Kong Classic, the Toppl by West Paws, or the Squirrel Dude. The great things about these is that you can freeze them to make them last longer. It might seem counterintuitive when you have a dog with a sore mouth, but many dogs actually enjoy frozen chews when teething. Otherwise, you can leave it unfrozen so they can lick the food out. And they're typically top-rack dishwasher safe, so super easy to clean.

For some additional tempting foods, I'd consider adding salmon oil for dogs or even a small bit of different wet food. I will say that using toppers can make a picky dog pickier, and you can wind up with a dog who refuses to eat until they get an add-on they deem good enough. It's something to consider, and have an eye towards weaning off as soon as you can. I understand that teething is a tricky time, though, so hopefully it'll only be temporary.

 

[Peppersmommy81]

Thanks for the reply. Im glad it's not an issue. Its food I would have had to throw away anyway and its not exactly cheap (she may be a teeny bit spoiled lol) If I dont use the bones then she only eats the treats out. Shes always had good mouth control so she plucks them out quick. I have to use wet treats cause she figured out she could flip the toy over and bat it around the floor to get loose stuff out. I started using the fish cause it makes it harder to find treats by smell, something I've noticed more and more. Could you recommend an appropriate toy (either a specific one or the appropriate lvl) that might be good for her. I thinknive increased the difficulty as much as I can on it, and She gets bored easily I've noticed, so puzzles that have a good options to increase the difficulty are prefered.
I tried Kong and Kong like toys and shes not really a fan (shrug) I freeze meat stock an juicy juice in ice cube trays and she licks them and bats them around the livingroom with a stalk and pounce all cat style. I'm told that's a boxer thing. I haven't refigured exactly how much she should be eating, but shes almost finishing (including the toy) what she did when she was 10lbs lighter (30lbs v 40lbs). shes still active though, just in smaller more intense bursts. I guess that's ok till this passes.