Puppy apetite problems

I have an eight week old Westie puppy who I picked up from the breeder on Thursday. She's so wonderful. I've decided to name her Harlow. She's not, however, eating nearly as much as I expected, or as much as the breeder told me she would. The breeder had her on kibble. I plan to transition her off of this, but will do it in stages. Anyway, she's eating so little. Two things come to mind: she's overly stimulated with all the new things in her life, and also she's no longer competing for food with six siblings, so perhaps isn't as motivated to bolt down as much as possible while the gettins good. Whatever the reason, I think she needs to be eating more. I did give her a whole, raw chicken leg. She loved it and worked on it and worked on it, but apparently an eight week old isn't quite up to the job of tearing meat very efficiently. Try as she might, she didn't succeed in consuming much of it. So then I tried cutting it into bite-size pieces. She choked on one of the larger pieces and that scared me. I'm still offering raw chicken on the bone and she does love knawing on it, but it isn't a source of much meat for her at this point. I've also tried cottage cheese and brewers yeast. Again, she nibbles a little, but doesn't eat much. To give you an idea if how much food she's consuming, she's been having two small poops a day, and one of them tends to be a tiny poop, the first happens in the early morning and looks to be a relatively normal size for an eight week old (though I admit to not really knowing what that is) and the second comes in the afternoon as is usually a couple teaspoons of poop. Surely this doesn't represent much food coming in. Any suggestions?

I'd give her a few days to settle in. She's probably feeling the effects of leaving the only place she's ever known along with her dam and siblings - thats a tremdous thing for a young pup. Give her time, she'll settle in

If she doesn't start eating, then I would contact a vet for a thorough check-up (which I would do anyways).

But also, don't be afriad to contact the breeder - thats what they are there for.

Are you planning to switch her to a raw food diet? If so, have you done a lot of research on the raw diet? It sounds like maybe an 8 week old small breed dog should not be eating chicken that way, but I don't know, I've never done raw myself. Maybe someone else here has some experience about that.

Puppys need more vitamins than adult dogs ,I would try her with a few different puppy foods, my pup is 9 weeks I found that she doesnt like the pedegree puppy food in the can it even smells groce to me , but will eat the new pedigree natural for puppies with rice and chicken with cheese has no artificial colors or preservatives which smells alot better too, she also likes the fresh meat rolls you can find them in most supermarkets but i prefer to give her the puppy food as I know shes getting all the vitamins plus she also has a bowl of puppy dry food which she nibbles on during the day

FYI - Pedigree, even the "natural," is a very low quality food.

Thank you everyone for your responses. Harlow is now 10 weeks old and she's now on a raw food diet (Nature's Variety and Primal). She's doing great. Really loves the food and I no longer have any trouble enticing her to eat. The holistic pet food store in my area is amazing. The owner has spent a great deal of time with me talking about doggy diets and she's got Harlow on a good diet plan. I'm certain we're doing the right thing and that she's going to be a very healthy dog for the duration of her life.

I have fed raw to small breed puppies, and medium breed puppies, IMO its the best way to go.

Woo hoo! Sounds like you're doing a great job.

well Ive had all my dogs I have owned on pedigree dog foods and they have all been healthy and had no health problems what so ever even if it is low quality my dogs are healthy and look great too thanks for your input lizzybeth727 {edited by mod} , food is food and pedigree has been on the shelves of supermarkets for years ,,hmmm I guess it cant be that bad can it otherwise they wouldnt be aloud to sell it

Do YOU sell it??

by the way puppies should be fed several times per day as their little stomach's can't handle big meals all at once so a mix of dry food which has more protein is left out for my dog to nibble on as well as giving them soft meals which doesnt have as much protein 3-4 times a day and lizzybeth I think you should learn a bit more about protein

Can I feed too much protein?

The answer to this is yes and no. In theory, if a healthy animal eats too much protein, some gets excreted in the urine and the rest just gets used as calories or is converted to fat and does not cause any harm. If you dog has a kidney problem, however, high protein diets are not recommended. The other factor is that next to marketing, protein is the most expensive ingredient in the food and why pay for more than you need. Most pet food companies strike a happy medium and meet the minimum recommended requirements and add a little extra to be safe.

no I dont sell it I just buy it

you should know the effects of too much protein in a dogs diet as I just found a post you have sent in

My friend has a male lab, about a year old, I think. He had been urinating almost every hour, so the vet did a urinalisis. He found crystals in the urine, and said it could be fixed by a diet with less protein. It must not be related to a UTI, because he didn't prescribe any antibiotics. Of course he did prescribe a Science Diet food (C/D, I think, not sure), but we're not sure if the prescription food is a permanant thing or if he'll only have to be on it for a while, then he can go back to his regular food? His regular food is Wysong, adult formula, which I personally am not very familiar with.

So my question is, do you think we'll have to use the Science Diet only for a few weeks/months, and then go back to the Wysong, or will we have to switch to a lower-protein food as a permanant fix? If so, is there a lower protein Wysong food, or is there another brand you can suggest? Thanks

Stores are ALLOWED to sell cigarettes and they KILL people, places like McDonald's serve unhealthy portions of food to people knowing of the health risks, stores are allowed to sell crap food like IAMS, Pedigree, Ol-Roy, etc., because in all honesty, people simply do not know any better and they keep flocking to the stores to buy it.

Just imagine.. if we all stopped harming our own bodies, and then harming our dogs bodies... maybe stores wouldn't be allowed to sell such garbage. Think of the possibilities!

You should make sure that the calcium/phosphorus ratios are ideal for the amount of protein in the food before blaming the high protein for crystals. It could also be caused by not drinking enough water.

Im pretty sure ciggarettes and mcdonalds have nothing to do with dogfood and to be honest I really dont care what you feed your dogs mine have always been healthy never had to take mine to the vet except for vaccinations if you want to waste your money thats your choice....

I think you should probably find another board or just realize that we're all going to continue to think (and know, through scientific proof) that Pedigree is the dogfood equivalent of McDonald's and cigarettes.

So you can continue to waste your money as well.

PEDIGREE pet food has been the market leader in pet food for over 40 years.
All our products which are deigned to be complete and balanced for adult
maintenance or growth are expected to meet the nutritional standards based
on the Association of American Feed Control Officials guidelines along
with the companys own stringent criteria set by our vets and nutritionists
at the Waltham Centre for Pet nutrition based in the UK

All recipes are checked by analysis, palatability and digestibility testing
and by life stage feeding trials to ensure the products fulfil their
intended role. Further quality checks are continuously undertaken on raw
materials and there is regular sampling of the finished product at the
point of manufacture and points of sale.

We strongly believe that if our products did not deliver
the nutritional and health claims we advise then our company would have
been out of business long ago. Ultimately you as the owner are the best
person to decide the benefit of any food and can judge its success on your
dogs overall health, wellbeing and happiness.

Yes, I believe everything Pedigree's website tells me as well.

If you feel comfortable feeding that food to your dogs, fine, but please don't preach about the greatness when we all know better here and will continue to spread our knowledge to those willing to provide the very best for their animals, despite the amazing marketing abilities of companies like Pedigree.