# 5 month old beagle off food ?



## adgroom (Nov 21, 2010)

Hi, 
Been a while since our last post so must be doing things "sort of" right ! lol...

Our 5 month old beagle has recently been going off her food. 
We have had to start putting her in her crate with her bowl of food for her to eat it. So she does eat and is still putting on weight so we're not too worried yet, but we don't think this is normal Beagle behavior as we have been told beagles are always hungry. 

we have changed her food over to Hills as she was totally off the Arden Grange and wouldn't eat it at all. 

She is on 3 meals a day, 7am, 2pm and 8pm. 

how many meals should she be on ? people have said to us if she isnt hungry to cut her 2pm feed out, but we think she's too young for that.

she has also gone off having treats throughout the day, so training can be difficult somedays.


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## sarybeagle (Nov 4, 2009)

Hi. I cant remember but I think Bella was 6 months when we dropped down to 2 meals a day. 

to be honest Bella isnt that into her meals. She now only has tea time feed and somedays doesnt eat it all. She certainly doesnt live up to the beagle name. 

However in a beagle that young not showing much interest in meals is a little worrying as you say shes not eating treats either. I would be inclined to get her checked over at the vets incase its anything medical thats preventing her from eating.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Is she leaving one meal more than the others. If she is I would then cut out that one and increase the other two. If shes giving th same reaction to all three meals, then try missing out the middle one and the quantity that it would be split and increase the other two. Also is she just fed and always been feed on dry? If so even if you change the dry it can become very boring and repetitive for them. You could try using a good quality wet food, like nature diet or natures menu and mixing some of that in by hand so all the kibbles coated, to give it a more interesting smell and taste. Obviously if she puts on a bit too much weight, just decrease the kibble a bit.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Just noticed the treats for training she has gone off too. Dont know what you are using for training at the moment, but high value ones for dogs are usually, cheese,chicken,sausages,hotdogs. If you havent tried them before you could try tiny cut up bits of these. Anything liver based like livercake tends to be a favouite too.


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## Helbo (Sep 15, 2010)

Charlie went off his 3 meals quite young because he wasn't eating his breakfast. 

It feels a bit mean at first when you're used to feeding 3 times a day, but my advice would be to cut out breakfast and snacks and let your pup get hungry enough to tackle lunch. Make sure lunch is half the size of the evening meal so the pup won't be too full to eat the evening meal. It takes a bit of time to get the balance right.

You could also try to vary whats going in the bowl. Although the dry food shouldn't change if you've found one that suits, maybe add a spoonful of natural yogurt, some cooked meat (if you've done a plain roast), a plain scrambled egg, or some veggies like chunks of carrot, or a spoonful of wet food to mix through to give the meals some variety... 

As soon as I mixed a couple of spoonfuls of butchers wet puppy food into the evening meal Charlie gobbled it up - a welcome relief as I was getting worried about him only picking at his meals.


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## beaglebarmy (Oct 18, 2010)

My Beagle bitch wouldn't eat dry food at all as a puppy. In the end we switched to Naturediet (wet food) which she loved, no problems at all getting her to eat that.

I've had many Beagles over the years and can safely say that even if they aren't that interested in foods when they are younger, they do tend to get greedier as they get older!!!


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