Thanks for all your advice previously, we have now had our puppy Bentley for 1 week. I am tying to add a photo, but my iPad won't let me. Was wondering if any body could help? He is now 9 weeks old, he was fed raw by the breeder. Every time he eats treats (either soft chew or orijen large puppy kibble) he struggles to chew them, he tries but they just fall out of his mouth? It takes a few goes for him to have any success. Is this normal? We have tried to get him on to orijen large puppy kibble. If mixed with raw he is fine, but not on its own, won't eat it, even if soaked. Has had a vet check from the breeder and our own, both say he is healthy. The only other thing I can think of is a grunting noise he does intermittently, which my wife thinks is hiccups. Any help would be appreciated: Vik
When the vet checked him out did they look really carefully at his teeth to check that they were all there and in good condition? Some puppies are particular about what they will eat. I would not say that it's unusual for a puppy not to like a type of food or kibble. So I wonder if he just doesn't like it or finds it too different (since you said that he will eat it if it's mixed with what he's use to). If that's the problem, well, different people have different approaches. Some will say to keep giving him the food till he gets used to it and is hungry enough to eat it. Personally I would switch to giving him what he likes Or you can try a middle road of mixing kibble and raw and gradually reducing the quantity of raw and increasing the quantity of kibble. Do you think he is managing to eat enough, and is he growing bigger?
Thanks for your response Rachael. He is eating his food if mixed and he is getting bigger, it was just the chewing when he eats just single treats ...... can't seem to keep it in his mouth, sort of chews drops it out and has to have a couple of goes. His plate is clean if it is a 50/50 mix of raw and kibble. He seems happy and otherwise healthy ....... just seems odd that he can't keep more solid food in his mouth without some difficulty.
My guess would be he has to learn how to chew the different textures - when Bailey has something new he puts it in his mouth, gets a look on his face as if to say "oh what's this" puts it on the floor, has a good look at it and then picks it up again, and repeats the process before eating it. When he was smaller it did look as if he was dropping things out of his mouth. Or as said above he's not keen on either the taste or texture.
Yes. He seems to be behaving the way he would with a small stone or piece of gravel - he's not recognising it as food. Try smellier treats (like fish or soft dried tripe) and see if they go down better. ...
Luna couldn't manage big biscuits at that age, when fed individually. It sounds perfectly normal to me
