I Need Help With My Puppy - won't eat

Hi, I have a good puzzle here...i have a 3 month old Basset Hound puppy that i got directly from the breeder about one month and a half ago..."Samantha" is a very cute, loving, smart puppy but she is also the pickiest dog you have ever heard of..

When she first got here she was 8 weeks old she was 8.3 pounds, very healthy and gorgeous, she was eating NutriSource Small & Medium Breed Puppy Chicken & Rice Formula (that was the food that the breeder use to feed her so I continue with the same food)...two weeks after that she got a Urinary Tract Infection, the vet prescribed Clavamox drops, 0.99 cc twice a day for 7 days...

She started on that medication and about two days she started to loss apetite..this is when my karma has begun...since then she has try all the premiun foods (ProPlan Selects, Eukanuba, Iams, Nutro Ultra, etc...) mixed with premiun canned food, Iams gravy, yougurt, cottage cheesse..etc...i know you will think is kind of crazy to be switching foods like that but you have no idea how hard this been for me; one thing I have to point is that she is so use to change foods that she never ever vomit or get upset stomach whatsoever.

Last friday I took her to the vet for her boosters and Rabies vaccine and the dr. tested her urine and it turn out to be positive for UTI plus a mild vaginatis..now she is taking Cephalexin 250mg one capsule every 12 hours for two weeks (she will have a follow up on june 30 to check if we can stop the med).

I've been having a very hard time with her since is really hard for me to use "tough love" with her as my Vet recomended (she told me to starve samantha for two days to see if she eats after that) there is no way i can do that now b/c of the antibiotic...if she takes it with an empty stomach she will vomit it.

I've even cooked some premiun ground beef and she will smell it, try it a little and walk away...I have to hand feed her and even though sometimes she spil it out.

I know the vet is not much concern b/c she has gain weight, she is 17.4 pounds (she was 8.3 pounds, so has she gain almost 10 pounds in 8 weeks) but I just learned that a standard 3 month old female basset hound suppouse to be at least 24 pounds.....This has freak me out b/c even thoung she has grew and gain weight she is too little and i am affraid this is all b/c she is not eating enough nutriens.

The only thing she will eat without hesistate is dry cat food and i've been advise this is not good for her liver so i am kind of desperate here, i have try everything from different dry/canned foods, plus convinations with gravy, yogurt, etc... and i can tell you this dog is never hungry...she even say no to beef..hello...!

I went to the pet shop and i got some vitamins (Puppy Daily Multi-Vitamin Excel TR), Nutricoat and Bene-Bac (the Bene-Bac is to prevent her from yeast infection due to the antibiotic)

I really hope to find some answers here, i really need help...this is very frustrared and my vet (who i love) doesn't want me to worry b/c she don't see my puppy in bad shape...God knows she is fine b/c I am here forcing her to eat but i really don't want to be doing this all the time...

Thank you and sorry about the long reading

Samantha's Mom

since then she has try all the premiun foods (ProPlan Selects, Eukanuba, Iams, Nutro Ultra, etc...)

None of those are premium foods. They are all junky mediocre ones..
Please read some of the postts within the dog food forum so you can learn a little more on what makes a dog food good.

Solid gold's wolf cub would probably be yummy enough that your pu would gobble it down along with half a dozen other brands that most people feel are good. If not there are good wet foods like Merricks that I've never met a pup who refused.

Try shopping in a feed store rather than a petstore. Much better selection of good foods to pick from, often have sample packets, and if you explain your dilema are willing to give you quite a number to try out.

Check out these sites for good foods:
Wellness (http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/)
Solid Gold (http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/)
Merrick (http://www.merrickpetcare.com/)
Timberwolf Organics (http://www.timberwolforganics.com) Canidae (http://canidae.com/)

My favorite puppy foods are Solid Gold Wolf Cub and Wellness Super5Mix.:) But the others have good foods too.

Thank you both for the advice..i was very surprise to hear that Eukanuba is a junk food though....I forgot to put Science Diet and Natural Balance on the list....Natural Balance have a canned food called "Dick Van Patten's eatables for dogs" that has a yummy selection...Samantha won't eat this ones eigther...I think this one looks like the Merrick canned food you guys mention.

Anyway I am here to listen and i've already found four feed stores around my area (two of them have all 5 selections you recomended) and i will go there an try to speak to them..hopefully they will give me some good advice.

Even though i don't care about how much i need to pay for a good quality food i am expecting to see Samantha eating it several times not only one time..... that will make it all worth it.

Thank you again,

Samantha's mom

once you find a food she likes, and is of good quality, stick with it for a while, and try the "tough love" method. I did it. I put my dog's kibble down, he turned his nose up at it, hoping I'd give in and give him something better... well, I didn't. I put his kibble down, gave him a 1/2 hr to eat, picked it up. Again, next meal time, put down, waited, picked it up. He DID eventually eat it. My theory: you don't like what's served, go hungry.

My dog was picky at 3mths too. so much so, that I had to disguise his food as toys & playtime. My dog REFUSED to eat breakfast, but as a growing pup, he needed it. So I filled his Kong a few times w/ his breakfast portion, and let him play w/ the toy - which dispensed his food. He thought it was a treat. When in reality, he was eating regular kibble.

good luck!

DVP is good.. I'm surprised your pup didn't like it..

You just need to learn how to read dog food labels so you can decide on your own what is good and what is not.. Generally if sold at the grocery store or walmart, the ingredients leave much to be desired.. If it's advertised on tv.. It's usually also crappy food full of filler too.

I really hope with something like Merrick's your pup does find it tasty enough to eat though, or any of the greta quality kibble.

ho boy, i know all about picky dogs LOL! my girl (8 months old now) won't touch any kibble or canned food with a 10-foot pole, no matter what... but give her a raw chicken leg, or a hunk of pork or beef heart and watch her go to town :rolleyes:

whatever you want to feed your girl (good-quality food, that is), do stick to your guns and stop being a kitchen slave... the advice already given is really effective for curbing picky eaters. also it puts YOU as alpha of the pack, not her, better to establish that now than later when all sorts of other behavioral problems can emerge. :thumbs up

The DVP canned foods aren't as good as the dry last time I checked. They just don't have the real ingredients that the dry food and even the merrick canned food have. (IMO)