Doesn't feel like eating ...

[Marthas Vineyard Newfie]

Murphy ( 18 weeks old ) has not been eating is usual amount of food lately. Do you think it is because he is having a growth sput?? Someone told me to add a raw egg in his food in his morning meal. Any suggestions on how to intice him back into eating?? He was just at the vets last week, he is healthy and fine.. I don't know whats up with him lately....

 

[sarnewfie]

You will find with males much more than females a loss of appetite depending on where they are in their growth spurts, males generally are not as driven by food as the females are.
i would just let him skip if he wants to, dont use anything special, maybe yogurt but dont go out of your way.....he will probably perk up in time.

 

[BluwaterNewfs]

I don't remember seeing that male finicky stuff starting until the male hormones start kicking in.

The other thing to look at -- did you recently increase the amount you feed, if so, maybe it's to much. IF he is otherwise acting normal, I wouldn't get too worried. IF he is NOT acting normal then, I might get worrried.

 

[bearbearsmom]

Bear went through that finicky eating stage too. I made the mistake of trying with different things to intice him into eating. Everyone told me just to let it go and he would eat when he was hungry, but I was getting all up tight thinking he was going to starve himself (RIGHT !!). Anyway, I created myself a monster for a while as he got the idea if he held out long enough I would keep putting in the "good stuff". I'm in the process now of switching over to the home cooking method, but I wouldn't worry too much about him. I would be careful, though, because you could create for yourself a "gourmet eater" if you try enticing him too much. Like everyone told me - he won't starve !!

Nancy, Bear and Bumper

 

[BluwaterNewfs]

As long they are healthy, they will not let themselves starve! When we travel, Cole doesn't eat. So when we are away for a week, like at the national I lucky if eats what amounts to 1 meals worth of food for the week. He also does this when Savannah is in season. He will pick just little here and there.

 

[aga_ing]

May I ask about growth spurs? When do they occur and how important are they likely to be? Ludo is now 5 months and I've been tracking his growth almost daily for the past 2 months and it's been very uniform.

 

[Marthas Vineyard Newfie]

Yes, last week Murphy got all his final set of vaccanations, had a CBC done, and a micro-chip implant. He was eating Bil-Jac Select dry kibble, but seemed to be getting bored with it, last week I switched him ti Bil-Jac Frozen Raw meat, which he loved, but has been giving it the cold shoulder for the last few days.. He has never been a puppy that woofed his food down, he eats a few bites here and there. He is free-fed, but I do keep accurate check on how much he is eating in the course of a day. This morning he didn't feel like eating, so after about 1 hour of the food in the bowl, I rolled them into little balls, while he was lying on the floor, I would roll them to him, well.. he ate his meal, all 25 little balls of it!!!! He thought that was a great game Maybe I just worry to much, huh???

 

[Zatara and Merrick's Mom]

Laurie: Regarding growth spurts -- I only have experience with my one newf, who just turned 10 mos old a week ago. He grew steadily (about 5-10 pounds per month) until he was about 7 months old. Between 7-9 months his growth was very slow (a couple of pounds per month). At that time I posted to this board to ask if that was normal (the consensus seemed to be that slowdown was normal around that age). Then at his 10-month weigh-in his weight increased by about 10 pounds over the prior month. I'm not sure whether the increase was due to a growth spurt or whether some of his earlier weights were taken incorrectly. Hope this helps a little.

 

[Halli's Mom]

Halli has been very finicky this week with her eating. At first I was blaming all the snow, then I was blaming the fact that she is so tired from playing in all the snow, but my final thought is that she is finicky because my husband (her playmate) has been away and she misses him. AND, of course, she just turned 5 months and is still growing like a weed AND her adult teeth are still growing in. (Even Einstein couldn't narrow this one down) Any thoughts? Since she is behaving normally otherwise, (see posts on "The Dino"), I haven't been worrying.

 

[aga_ing]

Thanks Kristen, I'll keep that in mind and see how my boy grows.

I've been weighing him every 2-3 days on my bathroom scale (first I weigh myself then I weigh myself with Ludo in my arms and get the difference) but he's getting too heavy for this (65lb)! Besides, it's an unwanted reminder of how much I weigh!

So now it'll be once a week at the vet's (they have a scale in the waiting room).