# Cocker Spaniel Puppy not eating?



## mandijane44 (Jul 16, 2013)

Apologies if this has already been asked but I was after a little advice about my puppy. I have a 10 week old Cocker Spaniel who seems to be off her food. Is it common in this kind of weather? I have kept her on the food she was eating at the breeders, Oscars dry, mixed with a little pedigree chum but she does not seem to like it much. Is there a food other more experienced owners can recommend to try? She is boisterous and full of energy so she is not poorly but just not enjoying her meals, unless I add some scrambled egg or chicken  Any help gratefully received.


----------



## Bramblesmum (Aug 23, 2011)

It's a hard one this - and I am not the right person really to comment.

Has she been happy on her food up till now? Have you asked the breeder what s/he thinks. Breeders should be a good first port of call for advice and support really.

It could well be the heat - in these temperatures quite often animals don;t want to eat - have you tried feeding her when its cooler? Equally it could be something.

I don;t think you want to get into the habit of changing food every time she won;t eat as dogs can think this is a good game and stop eating to see what tasty morsel will be brought out next. That being said one of my kittens took a dislike to the James Wellbeloved that Cats Protection had been feeding her on and climbed up to the top shelf in the garage to raid the Purina Pro Plan cat food I'd had my old cat on.... that she ate but refused the James Wellbeloved point blank. I gave in!!

I say I am not the right person because I had non eating issues with Bramble - I did take him to the vets because he turned the not eating into an art form - my vet (not my current vet) didn't examine Bramble just gave me a lecture on how being underweight is better than over weight and said Bramble was just being fussy. I asked for help on a couple of forums and several people suggested to me that Bramble was exhibiting signs of a liver shunt - and in the end thats what it was. He didn;t look ill either - full of life, in fact he used to be referred to as "Exocet" due to the way he ran when out for a walk, but at other times he was quiet and well behaved. He was very very thin - I ahve one photo somewhere where due to the way the light was you can see every bone in his body - and he remains thin. So as I say I am not really the right person to comment as I wouldn;t want to worry you - liver shunts are very rare, so I am not at all suggesting that your pup has one.

Hope you get her sorted


----------



## ElvieMogs (Mar 22, 2012)

If she's otherwise fit & healthy with normal poos I wouldn't be concerned. I agree that chopping and changing isn't always a good idea but neither Oscars nor Pedigree chum are particularly good foods. It may well be the hot weather putting her off just now so I'd wait till it cools down, shes eating more and then change to something better. It'll give you time to research. There's a lot of info on here, particularly the dry & wet food indexes in the stickies above. Also Whichdogfood.co.uk has lots of good information on what to look out for regarding food labelling and ingredients together with rating each food


----------



## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

mandijane44 said:


> Apologies if this has already been asked but I was after a little advice about my puppy. I have a 10 week old Cocker Spaniel who seems to be off her food. Is it common in this kind of weather? I have kept her on the food she was eating at the breeders, Oscars dry, mixed with a little pedigree chum but she does not seem to like it much. Is there a food other more experienced owners can recommend to try? She is boisterous and full of energy so she is not poorly but just not enjoying her meals, unless I add some scrambled egg or chicken  Any help gratefully received.


How long have you had her, sometimes when they first come home they will pick at food rather then eat properly. The heat too can make some dogs go off food out just pick and leave some I have known it happen.

With some pups too it been known what you are feeding the meals in can actually put them off too. Some don't like deeper bowls they have to stick their heads in, especially if they were fed on flat puppy feeding pans at the breeders. With some its also what they are made of, some don't like stainless steel or plastic either the material itself or because as they are light the often move around. Others if they didn't have collars and tags before don't even like the tags banging and clanking on the bowls. It has been known that trying different types of bowls or even a flat human type plate they will start to eat better.

You could try also feeding the dry and making sure you coat it all with a good quality wet and rub it into the kibble so its well coated. Other things that sometimes help is adding a little warm water to the kibble and either feeding immediately or letting it soak a bit. You can also add water to the kibble coated with a good quality wet food to make some gravy and make it more appealing often that works too. So they are having the same food just served differently.

Sometimes the more you add human type goodies especially the more they get crafty and wont eat it.

Do you leave food down to graze on, if you do that can also cause problems. At her age she should be on probably 3 if not 4 meals a day with the daily allowance split equally between the meals and fed at routine times. If you are not already then having set meal times, leaving it for 15/20 minutes and then picking it up until they next meals due can help.


----------



## mandijane44 (Jul 16, 2013)

Thanks for all the advice so far, some interesting points to consider. She has never really seemed keen on the Oscars so I think I might do a gradual changeover to something of a better quality, I didn't realise Oscars was poor, it was the food that came with her from her breeder as part of her puppy pack. I did ask the breeder, who did say not to leave the food down, so I have been picking her dish up after 10-15 mins, even though it looks untouched  Her poos are fine and she is full of bouncy energy so I am probably just being too anxious! We are at the vets on Friday for 2nd vaccinations so I will ask the vet to check for any potential problems. I will also change her feed bowl I think as yes she does clank a bit so I have taken her collar off. 

Thanks again for the advice


----------

