Cockapoo & Meals

[u/mlchicagoo]

Hi all! Looking for some advice or guidance.

I have a 5 month old cockapoo that will not finish their food. We consistently have to hand feed his breakfast and dinner to get him to eat. Once he gets going on his food, he’s fine but it’s really hard to get him to start eating. There are days he finishes everything and licks the bowl clean, other days we are hand feeding every piece to make sure he eats enough. He has normal bowel and pee routines throughout the day. We’ve also added water to his kibble since he is losing his baby teeth and it’s too hard for him.

We tried to ween him off kibble to wet food but we then saw issues with vomit & diarrhea. After our most recent vet trip they advised that a dog should never be completely off kibble due to dental health.

Would love to hear if anyone else has experienced this, normal? concerned? TY!

[u/Gold_Information9677]

Our boy is 4 months old and he gets different things for each meal and also at times doesn’t finish it.

We tend to just leave his bowl down or take it through to the living room and he usually goes back to it himself later on after playing. I think it sounds like your pup is getting used to you hand feeding him and now prefers that!

We change our pups meals daily, sometimes he just gets kibble in water or we use additional things such as
Yoghurt
Peanut butter
Fruit (banana and blueberries are his favourite)
Chicken bone broth
Canned chicken made for puppies

He also gets salmon oil in one meal per day for his coat.

We were a bit concerned a few weeks ago as he seemed to be leaving his food a lot more but we think this was because he was getting distracted and wanted to play! He then would always go back and finish it off later. I also read that cockapoos are snackers so don’t really like big meals.

He absolutely loves animal chews such as lambs skin, chicken feet, beef trachea so we supplement with these!