pinky11 Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 (edited) Hi well finally we picked up our new boy (cavalier) on the weekend(pics coming soon) everythings going well except feeding ,his breeder only weaned the pups on natures gift wet food - he eats this fine but i want to feed him premium biscuits .My question is how do i get him to eat the biscuits? Advice greatly appreciated as he wont go anywhere near his food, i've even tried mixing both together he only eats the wet food. Edited August 31, 2010 by wiggum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra777 Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 You've had the pup 3 or 4 days - leave his food alone!!!! Nature's Gift is OK, not perfect but OK. Leave him on this for AT LEAST a week so he can settle into his new home first. To introduce a new food you may need to soak a few biscuits (and I mean only 4 or 5) and mix the 'slop' in with the canned food so he can get used to the very different taste. Do this for three or four meals. Then give him a ''meal'' which is only biscuits - just two or three to start with if need be. Put them in the normal place where he's fed at the time he's most hungry (usually breakfast but not always) and walk away. If he doesn't eat them in 10 minutes pick them up and give him nothing else until the next meal time, when he gets a few biscuits ONLY. If he eats them, give him a reduced amount of the canned food and next meal do exactly the same thing except with more biscuits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 (edited) He is a baby- and now everything is different. Changing food is not what he needs right now - What he is on will do fine for another week or so ..then follow what Sandra777 has said What will be best for him right now is to be happy and relaxed and eating well .. so he associated your house with his yummy food- changing food abrubptly after just a day or 3 could be very stressful, and also lead to diarrhoea, which is NOT good for babies Looking forward to pics! Edited August 31, 2010 by persephone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jed Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 What everyone else said. He is coping with the stress of a new home, nothing familiar, no mother, no brothers and sisters, no familiar humans. Nice though you are, he is still in a strange and stressful situation. Changing his food produces more stress, and consequently possibe tummy upsets. Cavalier pups do not have great strength in their jaws and dry food is generally not a favourite because it is hard for them to eat. I never feed my cavalier litters dry food. One reason is that 90% find it too hard to eat. Natures Gift is an ok food, and as others have suggested, continue with it, adding one or two biscuits to begin with, and gradually changing over 2 - 3 weeks. The dry should be soaked until it is soft, I doubt that you will have a lot of success getting an 8 week old cav pup onto a totally dry diet for the reasons given above. A cavalier who does not like his food will not eat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretel Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 Yes I've answered much the same as the other posters in the Cavalier thread Jed, I've never had a problem with Cav pups not being happy to eat dry food though. Mine all eat it well by the time they are ready to go to their new homes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genabee Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 If your pup is anything like what mine was, it is more about getting used to a new environment than the new food. Give him a bit of time to settle. Lucky for me, Genevieve thinks she is a vacuum cleaner and will eat anything in her path - but it did take her a couple of weeks here to get to this point. She would also only eat if I was sitting next to her (not anymore - I turn around and her food is gone!), as she was used to eating with all the other pups (something else he is getting used to). Cavs are generally little pigs, so I would be surprised if it is because he is especially fussy. Sandra777 is right about taking the food away etc. It works. Pup won't starve himself, I doubt he would skip more than two meals before cottoning on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nahla + Teddy's Mum Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 When we first got Nahla she was only 1.3kgs and her mouth was so little! We softened the biscuits with warm water and made it all mushy so it was easier to eat. Maybe try doing that so he thinks its the same thing? We kept both our dogs on the same food they were on when we got them for about a month until they realy settled in then we changed it to what we wanted to feed them very slowly so we had no problems! I think the main thing is to keep him feeling secure the first couple of weeks then worry about changing his diet. Congrats on your new puppy hope everything goes smoothly for you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunnyflower Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 A cavalier who does not like his food will not eat I can support this! Oscar was 2 in July and only when I changed his dry food to Nutro which was 2 months ago has he actually started eating dry biscuits on their own. As a puppy he was the cutest squishy faced thing I'd ever seen but the most annoying one I'd ever dealt with He wouldn't touch his food and after advice (from DOLers) to leave it on the ground at morning and night for only 10 minutes at a time and eventually he will eat, after 3 days he finally ate. However Oscar was about 7 months old and I tried many foods without success. Good luck. Just enjoy your puppy for now and feed him what he knows and worry about food changes once everything is familiar and he is completely comfortable with you guys and his surroundings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jed Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 Gretel Jed, I've never had a problem with Cav pups not being happy to eat dry food though. Mine all eat it well by the time they are ready to go to their new homes. Gawd, mine go all pathetic, turn their noses up, and say "no, too hard, we can't eat this". I must be breeding cavs with very weak jaws!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsha_UK_AU Posted September 6, 2010 Share Posted September 6, 2010 Both mine are on dry only (with the occasional chicken neck etc thrown in). My 8 month old is on Royal Canin intestinal because he has an odd tummy and my 20 month old is on Royal Canin CKCS breed specific kibble. Both LOVE their dry food. They were on raw mince/kibble before but the puppy had constant runs and both have improved since being on premium kibble only. Their little mouths crunching on the kibble are so cute - specially my 8 month old.... he has this weird little chewing face - so cute! Susan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky11 Posted September 6, 2010 Author Share Posted September 6, 2010 (edited) Good news !!! he's eating Royal Canin dry and he loves it Thanks everyone for the advice Edited September 6, 2010 by wiggum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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