I've had this pup for exactly two weeks tomorrow. She is 10 weeks old now. She is awesome and growing like a weed. She was about 13 lbs on Tuesday and lean. I am feeding her a raw natural diet.

The issue is, the only thing I can get her to eat is beef steak. She LOVES cow femur as a recreational bone. And she loves cheese or liver biscotti as training/reward treats. Actually this morning after refusing it at first, she eventually ate some fresh fish that I had.

If she doesn't like something she just flat won't eat it. She turns her nose at it like a little spoiled rich kid! I have offered her chicken necks/backs, chicken gizzards, veggies, egg, potato, a variety of treats and she just isn't having it. If I put the beef on the plate with other food she will pick around the other food to get to the beef. (She takes after her Daddy...me) If I put some flax seed oil on the beef she won’t touch it. I put a variety of treats in her Kong toy and she will only eat the liver biscotti and leaves the others on the floor. If humans had the dietary discipline of this dog we wouldn’t have the obesity problem that we have now!

She is very energetic, has good prey/play drive, learns quickly and is otherwise a normal pup. I just wish I could get her to eat a larger variety of food. I don’t think her eating is necessarily a bad thing I just want her to have a wide array of nutrients and be as healthy as possible. Not to mention steak isn’t cheap!

Any tips/ideas would be appreciated. Thank You.

Well, first of all, I don't think not eating steak is a bad thing, due to the fact that it rarely has bone in it, and if it does, it's more recreational in nature than consumable. If she's hungry, she will eat what you put in front of her. Perhaps you're overwhelming her w/a bunch of stuff all at once? If you're worried about nutrition, get her some tripe. It's the most disgusting stuff on earth, and one of the best things for a dog of any age. Plus, I have never seen a dog refuse tripe.

FYI-Flax seed oil is really not as usable for dogs as a fish body oil, so try wild salmon oil instead. That's another big appetite stimulant at my house. I actually had a dog get into a gallon of it in my garage....YUCK. Took 3 baths with Dawn to get the smell off him.

I'd take away the biscotti treats (is it possible she's just not hungry from too many treats?) and offer her only chicken backs/necks/leg quarters, etc. w/some veggie glop until she's more enthusiastic about meal time (try one of the Honest Kitchen recipes-sold at Leerburg). Dogs love those, IME, and they are complete enough that you needn't worry about what she's missing.

FWIW, my girl did the same thing at that age and outgrew it. She would hardly eat ANYTHING. Thankfully, at about 14-15 weeks she became a vacuum cleaner and I didn't have to make myself crazy trying to come up w/some gourmet dish she'd eat.

I have never known a 10 week old pup that pretty much won't eat anything and everything if she is hungry.....LOL

Most of them even when they aren't hungry.

Like Jenni suggested I would look at the amounts of treats. Especially if you have more then one person in the household the treats can really get out of hand in no time at all. It's hard to resist a pup. <grin>

Thanks!

Paul,
One of the wisest things I've ever heard about feeding dogs is, "no dog ever starved themselves to death if there was food available."

For whats it worth.
Randy

For what it's worth, my dogs don't seem to care for chicken at all so I don't buy it. I give them what they like so I don't myself stress about whether they are eating.

 Quote: Cathi Kemp

For what it's worth, my dogs don't seem to care for chicken at all so I don't buy it. I give them what they like so I don't myself stress about whether they are eating.

What do you use for bones? I'd have some stress myself if I had to come up with RMBs using no chicken.

Rabbit isn't readily available to me.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

What do you use for bones?

My staples are turkey necks and pork brisket bones. Occasionally I buy a 6-way cut goat and plan on lamb necks in the near future. I must admit though and I had forgotten this when I posted that last note - I bought chicken necks last month and they ate them. For some reason though they are finicky about chicken backs. I haven't paid attention to who the distributor is when I buy them.

10 week olds are a little different than 10 month olds. A ten week old dog can starve itself into a coma due to dropping blood sugar. It's uncommon in bigger sized dogs but it can happen.

Sadly, sometimes you gotta give to make sure they make it to that 16 week and older barrier that seems to actually make a dog act like it's hungry. I would start as others have suggested except I would switch beef over to a training treat and make sure at least something is going in regularly. If you must beef in THK embark is a great choice for a mix of raw/dehydrated until you get to that safety zone.

Looks like I was worried about nothing. Over the last several days since I originally posted her appetite has really kicked in. She is now eating beef, deer and she absolutely loves fish. She goes crazy when she smells the fish! I think it just took her a couple of weeks to get used to the new diet.

Thanks for the help!