Hi everyone,
2 days ago we welcomed a beautiful little beddy to our home. She is very shy and a selective eater. The breeder was feeding her anything from rice pudding, weetabix to wet and dry food.
These options havent helped with feeding as she will only eat certain foods at certain times of day?
i looked at some of the foods here and hoped you may have suggestions for me.
I look forward to your replies
Mark
Hi Mark
Welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your new arrival she is beautiful.
For me I had to think about my lifestyle when thinking about food. I ruled out raw as I have a small freezer and wanted something that I could have easy access to.
You could start by having a look at the reviews on this site. Have you tried inputting your dogs age and size etc along with the quality level you’re after achieving?
I had problems feeding kibble in the early days. He just wouldn’t eat it. I tried making it more appealing to him but he wouldn’t have it. I fed a good quality tinned wet food and then when he got to around 7 months old introduced some dry kibble as well to supplement his diet as quite honestly I couldn’t afford to increase his meat.
This has worked really well for me. He now has a tin of wet complete a day and some dry complete and eats it all nicely.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Try to not change the diet too frequently and give plenty of time for it to settle in.
Hello and welcome to the forum. Lucky you, having a Bedlington pup although I am a terrier fan so am understandably biased. First of all, I don’t have a copy but am reliably informed that this book by Gwen Bailey is quite informative for new puppy owners so maybe it would be worthwhile getting a copy.
We used to wean pups onto that type of diet years ago. I used to give Farley’s rusks, baby rice, Weetabix, scrambled eggs and probably rice pudding. They would also have raw or lightly cooked lean minced beef too. It got them used to different textures and flavours and they all thrived. However, nowadays there are good quality commercial foods that can be used for weaning so I assume that the modern approach is to use them from the off.
Feeding puppies is not an exact science but we know that they need higher protein and fat levels and if you compare the recipes on the packs you will see that the puppy versions are pretty much the same as adult ones except for these two elements. It also needs to be good quality protein (named meat/fish source) that is easy to digest. The other thing to remember is that until they are three months of age they need four meals per day because their stomachs are quite tiny. Giving them a bit of variety is no bad thing because it (hopefully) prevents fussiness and gives them a better range of nutrients. That being said, you don’t want to bombard them with all sorts of things. Your pup is probably not really fussy but missing the competition of his litter mates. He now doesn’t have to fight for supplies. However, don’t get into the habit of leaving food down because he will not value his food if you do that and in any case it is not hygienic.
Breeders tend to have their own diet plans but with my last pup (two years ago) I used to give a fish based commercial dried food, moistened and crumbled up. This was given three times a day and when she got a bit bigger I added a bit of good quality wet food for flavour and extra nourishment. Supper was goats milk and Weetabix. Scrambled egg was used as a substitute for one of the four meals every so many days just to add variety. I also used to add sardines sometimes and still do.
Have a look at this thread as it will help you to understand the principles of selecting a decent quality product for your dog. Next, go to the Dog Food Directory and use the Filters on the left hand side of the page to select the things that are important to you. If you need any help with this, please ask. Setting the ratings slider to 3.5 to 5 stars will give you the higher quality products. Clicking ‘Buy’ on each products will tell you if the product is online only or can be obtained in stores. Supermarket dog food is usually well below the 3.5 star threshold so is best ignored, particularly in the case of a puppy who needs good a good nourishing diet. If you have a good pet products store nearby, that would be the place to go to look for good quality food.
Some companies do not sell life stage products. This is because their food is already high protein so is marketed for all life stages. These products are usually at the top end of the star ratings system.
It is confusing choosing a good product but if you spend a bit of time understanding what you are looking for then it will stay with you for the duration of your dog’s life and will stand you in good stead as he will be much healthier with a good diet. Please post back if you want any further help.
I don’t really have anything to add to the discussion as I have never had a pup but just wanted to say hello and welcome to the forum 
Thanks for all the information and warm welcomes.
I’m stil processing the options as I was advised not to change her diet too much at first but getting her to eat is difficult with anything that’s good for her?
One of the things the breeder said to me was he would give her whatever she would eat listed in the original post?
The dry food he used and I’m trying is burns puppy mini. Now I have reviewed it in this site it maybe isn’t th best but getting her to eat something is a challenge.
To give you some perspective, I have been advised by my very helpful local pet supply shop that she should be eating about 100g but she may eat 25-30g in one meal then nothing else for the rest of the day? Also not drinking much water either. All that said she seems happy and full of energy?
We have our vet appointment in the morning so maybe they will put my mind to rest
It is early days and she is still settling down. Also, her gums will be a bit sore due to teeth coming through - she will be dropping those in a couple of months and her permanent ones will arrive. Are you soaking the kibble and crumbling it up? As she is so young I assume that you are doing this. I used to weigh out my pup’s daily allowance in a small plastic pot, add water and put the lid on. I then crumbled it up with my fingers, much as you do when making pastry and she would have that divided into three meals. Offering different types of food is rarely a good idea because is confuses the pup and can make them picky. Glad that you are seeing the vet today - please let us know what his or her opinion is.
Dottie,
I have been soaking the feed but I didn’t crumble it. I will give that a try. Thank you.
The vet says she is perfectly healthy and said she is still settling in so just persevere with the feeding routine and she will start to eat more.
They weighed her there and she is 2kg and that is about right.
Hello and welcome to you and your beautiful girl.
I’ve found this site extremely useful and quite an eye opener.
hope you find the food thats right for both of you. There are so many options these days, I’m sure you’ll find the one that’s best
Hello and thank you.
We are getting there, I think i was expecting her to eat more than she does.
That did occur to me and it is why I mentioned about how small their stomachs are. Kibble is very deceptive because it looks like nothing much in the dry form but once water is added it swells up.
Well thanks to the advice I have received here we are much happier with our food now.
Allie is eating 80grams of burns puppy mini (Not soaked or she won’t eat it) with a very small amount of any wet food.
As she is now 2kg I think that is enough food. It would be good to hear if there is anything else to consider
Mark
That sounds good. The wet food topper should spice it up a bit. Have you tried a little bit of tinned sardines or mackerel? They really enjoy that but don’t get the ones in brine.
first of all, welcome to the group and congratulations for the puppy.
have you analyzed some rations here on the page?
I don’t know if the ACANA ration is for sale in your country, but this ration has an excellent cost-benefit ratio. its rating is 93/96%. it is a natural, grain-free feed.