Author Topic: teething puppy or doesn't like food???  (Read 9338 times)

Offline boom

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teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« on: March 25, 2006, 01:05:18 pm »
i have a 4.5 month old boerboel. i have been having a tough time getting her to eat for the past few days. she went to the vet this week and all looks good, no worms or anything, except she is teething. she eats nutro brand large breed puppy food. but she has not been eating much for the past few days. does she not like the food or are her teething gums bothering her, causeing her to not want to eat??? any help would be appreciated!!

Offline newflvr

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2006, 03:08:58 pm »
I think it could be a couple of things.  One, maybe, just maybe teeth are bothering her, but I've never had that happen.  More likely, she's just 'gone off her food'.  I have a couple of picky eaters and when that happens, I just boil up some white rice, chicken breasts and some carrots and mix maybe 1/2cup in with the kibble with some non-fat, salt-free chicken broth.  Usually, if nothing's wrong, pup will gobble that right down.  It can be varied with any low fat meat.

Good luck!  Puppys really try to make you crazy;  it's part of the charm?!!!!

Offline Jessdryden

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2006, 03:14:09 pm »
Good luck! Puppys really try to make you crazy; it's part of the charm?!!!!

I'll second that! 

Bella is teething now too.  It's awful--her canines are coming in inside the puppy teeth!  She has 8 of them right now...4 baby and 4 adult!  Poor little thing.  She doesn't really want to eat either.  She got a big dog cookie at PetSmart last weekend and couldn't eat it either :-\ ; she just carried it around (that was pretty cute!).  Sasha had the same trouble.  We tried to give lots of treats and other food (tuna, chicken, etc.) to round out her meals.

Offline boom

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2006, 03:23:13 pm »
i can see that she has several of her back teeth coming in, her little gums are alittle puffy. i have been moistening her food, tried iams gravy, adding some extras. according to the bag of food she should be eating around 6c a day, today she has eaten about 3c with 1 feeding to go, so she is eating just not as much. i found a place that sells canidae and chicken soup for the dog brands so i am going to get one of those and start transitioning. i also found a place that sells innova. between these 3, which one is the "best"?

she is a big girl, she is about 18 weeks and is about 56lbs. so i know she is not starving but i like to see her eating a little better.

Offline Teamshredit

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2006, 03:42:51 pm »
I'm not familiar with Boerboels. We need some pictures of your cutie!
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Offline shangrila

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #5 on: March 25, 2006, 04:37:48 pm »
Your problem is a combonation of teething and getting bored of food.

How have you been moistening her food? Some teething puppies need the food to be completely soggy and even a little warmth can help...when Zoey was teething, she wouldn't eat regular food either because it hurt her mouth. So, I would fill her bowl with water until it just covered the food, and then mirowave it for a minute or two - it made the food completely absorb the water and it made it nice and warm. That made her eat it.

I think it couldn't hurt to switch to a new food either.  All three of the foods that you mentioned are good foods so no matter what you pick you should be fine. I would probably personally pick innova - a little while ago I would have said canidae, but I just had to switch foods because we got a bad bag of it.
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Offline Imani's Mom

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2006, 07:28:42 pm »
If she is teething, try offering her raw cold whole carrots to chew on.  My breeder suggested this, and when Frankie was going through teething, she was miserable with the pain, and cold carrots really did seem to help.  Also an apple, cored and quartered would be good as well.  Now, even though my girls are done teething, they still beg for carrots and apples a few times a day, and both help to keep the teeth clean as well.

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Offline jagersmom

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2006, 08:00:28 pm »
Also an apple, cored and quartered would be good as well.  Now, even though my girls are done teething, they still beg for carrots and apples a few times a day, and both help to keep the teeth clean as well.
Thanks for the idea. Jager loves to eat crunchy pickles which even though I hate the smell of pickle breath his teeth seem to stay pretty clean. I'm going to have to try the carrots and apples! At least then I won't have to have pickle breath puppy giving me kisses
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k2campbell

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2006, 08:11:58 pm »
I would probably personally pick innova - a little while ago I would have said canidae, but I just had to switch foods because we got a bad bag of it.

Sorry to (kinda) get off topic, but Shangrila - you got a bad bag of Canidea?  What happened? 

Just curious, cause that's what Kate eats ;)

Offline shangrila

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2006, 09:25:32 pm »
Sorry to (kinda) get off topic, but Shangrila - you got a bad bag of Canidea? What happened?

Just curious, cause that's what Kate eats ;)

A little while back Zoey got this horrific eye infection, and the vet thought that she must have scratched at her eye really badly in the night to get it that infected. The antibiotics cleared it up at first, but then it kept coming back over and over again, and we couldn't figure out why. And her poop was not normal either.... We finally figured out that it started right after we bought a new bag of food, and we know it is not allergies because she had been on canidae for months. As soon as we switched her to a new food the eye infections stopped and her poop started looking better. We don't know what was in the bag but we figures out that it was hurting zoey. Up until then we had been really happy with canidae so I don't know what happened to that batch ???
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Offline kkmuller

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2006, 09:48:56 pm »
I've mentioned on other posts that I have volunteered for the "Guiding Eyes".  They feed their dogs Iams.  They ask us to soak the hard food in water for an hour before we feed them.  I never thought it may be because of their teeth but possibly.  They don't want us introducing any table food, Just in case the future owner doesn't welcome that.  Give it a shot.

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #11 on: March 26, 2006, 12:18:32 am »
Up until then we had been really happy with canidae so I don't know what happened to that batch ???

Strange!  I'm glad you guys figured it out though and that Zoey started feeling better ;)

Offline boom

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #12 on: March 30, 2006, 03:06:37 pm »
well i started trasitioning her to canidae shortly after my original post, she did better for a few days but then completly stopped eating and started vomiting. so i took her to the vet this morning and found out she has parvo! we are devastated but have started treatment. god willing she will make a full and speedy recovery! the breeder we got her from turned out to be a horrible breeder so we are going to report him to whoever we can.

Offline Jessdryden

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #13 on: March 30, 2006, 05:07:55 pm »
Oh no!  We're sending good thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery!  Get well soon!

Offline shangrila

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Re: teething puppy or doesn't like food???
« Reply #14 on: March 30, 2006, 07:49:16 pm »
I am so sorry to hear about the parvo  :-\

Zoey and I will cross our fingers and paws for a speedy recovery!
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