Puppy won't eat from bowl - advice pls

[BackstreetSym]

Our 14 week old lab puppy has stopped eating from his bowl. He is fed Eukanuba large breed puppy 3 times a day. He will eat off the floor and out of my hand (I only know this as I needed to get to work and resorted to this once). We don't free feed and have started adding warm water to the food to bring out the smell and tempt him to eat.

He is drinking fine (out of his bowl, incidentally) and urinating/pooing to the same schedule as before. He continues to gain weight, and is looking really healthy and behaving normally.

If I put some of his food on the floor, he gobbles it up, and will eat the entire meal if I continue to do this until the bowl is about 1/3 full. Then (sometimes) he will finish what is in the bowl. Other times, he will just leave it.

He did tip his original bowl (quite small) over, so have replaced it with something bigger and more stable, in case he scared himself. But the fact that he sometimes deigns to finish his food from the bowl suggests this is not the reason.

Any tips or advice?

 

[s4sugar]

Often a deep bowl stops the dog seeing what is around and hence be apprehensive -switch to a shallow bowl and I'm sure he will eat better.

 

[quirky]

My dogs won't eat out of metal bowls. Is the new one the same or different material?

 

[BackstreetSym]

His first bowl was shallow stainless steel, I have now tried plastic and a becobowl. Next stop ceramic?

Just weighed him and he's 12.6 kg... that's a gain of just over a kg in a week.

 

[BigRed]

Are you trying to get him to eat more than he wants ? it is easy to think my puppy needs to eat x-amount of food, but puppies only have tiny tummies and 14 weeks is a young puppy. he is clearly eating enough as he is making a very good weight gain.

 

[MurphysMinder]

If he is fit and well in himself I wouldn't worry too much. Offer him his food and if he doesn't eat it in about 15 minutes take it away and don't offer again until the next meal. Healthy pups very rarely starve themselves, particularly labs. By all means swap to a more shallow bowl if that is what he is used to , but don't hand feed him, he will expect such service all the time. Freya had a couple of days of being picky earlier this week, so she missed a meal or two, she is back eating like a horse now.

 

[BackstreetSym]

Thanks all - really appreciate your help. Haven't been overly worried as he's clearly healthy, but reassuring to get the experts' feedback anyway! Will continue to implement the 15 minute rule, and may try a shallower bowl.

Of course, he never shows any hesitancy when it comes to horse poo!!

 

[Littlelegs]

I had one that wouldn't eat from plastic bowls, I was once told its the smell. Only plastic bowls she'd eat from were the expensive thick ones, like ones you buy with Disney characters on for kids. (didn't buy one discovered it by accident!)

 

[lexiedhb]

What about a tray?

 

[Venevidivici]

One of ours scared himself witless with the stainless steel dinner bowl when he was a pup. Changed to a pot/ceramic one until he was a bit older and realised his weird,distorted
looking reflection wasn't going to eat him.

 

[Bosworth]

flodden does not like metal bowls, I think its cos his tags bang on them. He actually prefers small cat bowls, and prefers plastic to metal. He will happily eat his tea if it is put on the floor, rather than put his head in a metal one.

 

[lazybee]

I don't think you have anything to worry about. He'll learn. What we do if we think any of ours are off there food, is to put a bit of tripe in the bowl. They love it and it's enough to get their appetite up. Sometimes in the hot weather ours don't eat as much or even skip their whole meal.

 

[BackstreetSym]

Update: shallow, white ceramic bowl tried and four full meals eaten within 15 mins.

Thank you all for your advice and reassurance.

 

[Bosworth]

brilliant news........ bloody fussy dogs