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10 week puppy Very Underweight

1K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  nagami 
#1 ·
Okay so I'm at a loss for what to do. My puppy has become selective and picky since I brought him home. but he wasnt eating way too little so I wasnt concerned. He gained 2 pounds in the first 4 days home. then only gained 1 pound in 7 days. I was concerned I went to the vet. she confirmed he is 2 or 3 pounds underweight. He is ravenous for treats but wont finish his portion of food for the day. she sent in a stool sample. to test for parasites. and she said to just give him his food and see if he gains weight. she wants him to gain a pound by Friday but i dont think hes making much progress I dont know what to do. the vet says yo give the new food 2 weeks to work (he was weaned onto a cheap all life stages food. hes jow on orijen puppy and he loves it so much) and that to check for worms. but she said after that they will do a blood panel but she thinks it will come back clean as his mom and dad are DNA tested for illness. and all puppies in the litter are fine... she said he may just be a picky eater PLS HELP. I'm overmyself with worry. and I've tried dusting the kibble with liver powder. I've tried mixing the food in wet food. I've tried soaking it. HE WONT EAT. ? he just wants to play and run around and cuddle. but wont eat enough
 
#2 ·
This is the puppy that has poodle in him, right?

Poodles are notoriously picky eaters! No joke, my friend does a variety of things to get two of three poodles to eat otherwise they will choose to starve. Mostly, he treats kibble like treats and uses them for training aka he makes them earn kibble and therefore it's more interesting to them. When he's pushed for time, I've seen him pretend eat their food with a spoon. I've seen him throw it in the oven and pull it back out after a bit. I've seen him toss couple pieces at a time so they have to chase it. He also has a food dispensing toy they knock around.

I have one picky eater and one garbage disposal. Things that have worked on my picky eater are mixing food with a bit of yogurt with the kibble, pouring some salt free chicken broth on it, pouring flax oil on it, and crushing a cheese puff or two on the bottom of the bowl and putting kibble on top of that.
 
#5 ·
Keep track of how much he is actually eating. Measure it out so you know. I have a puppy that's 4 months old now and at 10 weeks (all the way to 4 months), she was always anxious to eat and I also would have been very concerned if she wasn't interested in food. There's a lot more to worry about if the energy level is down. It's a good sign that he's active like a puppy should be. And if everything else is normal, like no diarrhea, etc, then that's also a good sign. I would still be concerned about eating though. I recently learned how important the correct puppy food can be, so check into that, and make it more inviting by adding broth or wet food. Hope he starts eating well. Let us know!
 
#6 ·
Our dog was slightly underweight as a puppy for a while but he eventually fattened up and now he is a normal weight.

One thing that helped is to pour some kind of juice (tuna juice, sardine juice) on the food and he eats it right up instead of letting it sit there.

The biggest thing that helped though is that we would take him for long, really long walks (like 1-2hrs) and when he is done with the walk he is so hungry he eats his food right up. Good luck =)
 
#7 ·
Sorry I forgot that he is only 10weeks old, I guess you cannot give him the long walks yet :) Hopefully some kind of addition to the food will make the puppy eat more.

They have this new brand at Petco called Tiki it is a Hawaiian style dog food and they sell a pack of something called Poke which is a delicious Hawaiian food that they have made into a dog form, it is basically a creamy chicken thing that you mix into his food and he eats all his food when I mix that in. You can get a small sample pack for less than $2 to try, that is enough to mix with 2-3 meals.
 
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