West Highland Terrier And Food?
February 16, 2010 by admin
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
I have a four month old West Highland White Terrier. I feed him Wellness Mix 5 Puppy Formula. The vet said that he should be eating about 1 cup per day at this point in his growth process.
I have been trying to feed him that amount. But he is flat out refusing to eat it. He only eats about 1/2 cup per because he is “hungry” but after that he walks away from it. He has nothing medically wrong with him, he passed his physical, blood tests, and has had all shots.
If I feed him 1 can of wet food it is gone. He loves it.
I tried mixing it and (wet/dry) and he just eats around the dry.
My only clarifications are….
1) He is teething and its hard for him to chew, although he will chew his rawhide “denta bone”.
2) There is something wrong with the food. Bad taste. Manufacturing defect. Something like that.
3) He is “bored” with the food. I know that is humanizing him too much, but I just want him to eat.
I know that it is not good to feed ONLY wet food because its not good for their teeth. BUT if I decided that is the best route for him to be able to eat food, what can I do to protect his oral health.
I was thinking of trying Halo, Nutro puppy formulas too.
Help and feedback needed.
He also plays/runs for 3-4 hours per day. So he should be really hungry.
He also favors water. He would drink 300 gallons per day If he could. Again, no concern to either vet he’s been to.
Thanks
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I would ask your vet if there is any possible way to encourage him to eat the hard food, or if there is any other hard puppy food that will be more appetizing and as healthy as the other for your puppy. Knowing Westies, though, they are pretty picky; at least mine is anyway.
You can try making the food more appealing such as making it out to be more of a treat since it could even be that everything else seems to be more interesting than food. Also keep in mind dog behavior and the fact that smell can stimulate hunger and dogs are more scent oriented then people.