Akita Puppy Not Eating Enough?

[TikaAkita]

My 11week old Akita puppy doesnt seem to be eating enough. She is starting to look a bit too thin through her waist. I am taking her to the vet tomorrow for her vaccinations and will ask them for advice also, but i thought i would ask here as well

I feed her a cup of Advance puppy dry food in the morning, which she will sometimes eat all, some or none of. I offer her more around lunch time, again sometimes she will eat it, sometimes not.

At night she gets mince beef or chopped casserole steak with some 4legs all natural meat, it would be around two cups worth. Last night she only ate half of it, and ate the rest when i gave it to her this morning. Most of the time she will eat all of it.

The first week she put on 1kg, the second week 1.6kg. She keeps busy by playing in the yard and going places visiting with me, sometimes I will give her a 20min walk, but am very conscious of not overdoing it with her joints and such.

Could she just be growing faster than she eats, which is making her look thin? She does like food, especially the tasty treats I use for her training. She just seems to be picky about when she likes her food. Perhaps its just due to her being an Akita?

So i guess I'm just looking for an answer as to is there something I should be doing to get her to eat enough? The last thing I want to do is underfeed her or overlook a food issue.

[Aziah]

My suggestion to you is put her meal down and if she hasn't eaten it in 15 minutes then take it away until next meal time then only offer her half of the previous meal that she left. If she eats all of that meal then offer her a little more at the enxt meal. There will be a turning point where she eats her meals when they are given.

Don't offer her a huge meal to start with because it's obvious she's not going to eat it all as she hasn't done previously.

You can also try mixing some plain yoghurt, an egg or sardines in oil in with the dry food.

I'd also suggest you cut out the beef mince (assuming it's the mince we'd cook with?) and the chopped steak and replace that with chicken wings, turkey necks etc.

I'd also suggest minimal treats for training until you have her eating her main meals well.

Edited July 10, 2012 by Aziah

[KumaAkita]

TikaAkita - come visit us in the Akita thread http://www.dolforums.com.au/topic/107568-akita-thread/

Photos are mandatory!!

I think Aziah has great advice. Start at basics - give a time limit as to how long she can sit with the food, start getting her meals right before moving onto too many treats.

Are you soaking the kibble at all? My boy found the Advance really tough going on his little fangs.

Also - you're not alone, Kuma went through this phase... well, actually he's still going through it! He's a fussy bugger.

[TikaAkita]

Thanks for the advice :)

I have tried the egg mixed with dry food but was put off by the half dried egg mix when she didnt eat it, I will try the sardines mixed with them though. I have read that they shouldn't have food for free all the time, I was just worried that she would be hungry and wouldn't be able to tell me. But she is a dog and she won't starve if she misses a bit of food. I am babying her a bit in this area!

I just continued with the beef as it was similar to the breeders diet. Is it not really the best thing for her? Or is it that she will be more interested in the chicken necks and such?

I will post in the Akita thread too :) I will also try soaking her next dry food meal.

Edited July 10, 2012 by TikaAkita

[KumaAkita]

The chicken necks/wings are good for puppy teeth, they also get calcium for the bones and loads of other nutrients. I do warn that you should be careful with them - there will come a point where she'll try to swallow it whole - this was the point we moved on to turkey necks!

Don't worry - if she misses a meal or two it won't hurt her. May even make her more thankful for her next meal :)

[Aziah]

Thanks for the advice :)

I have tried the egg mixed with dry food but was put off by the half dried egg mix when she didnt eat it, I will try the sardines mixed with them though. I have read that they shouldn't have food for free all the time, I was just worried that she would be hungry and wouldn't be able to tell me. But she is a dog and she won't starve if she misses a bit of food. I am babying her a bit in this area!

I just continued with the beef as it was similar to the breeders diet. Is it not really the best thing for her? Or is it that she will be more interested in the chicken necks and such?

I will post in the Akita thread too :) I will also try soaking her next dry food meal.

If you try the sardines, just try a small amount of dry and use the time limit.

If the beef mince is like the stuff we would cook then I feel that she would get more nutrience from wings & necks etc.

[minxy]

Like others have suggested, I would definitely soak her food. I soaked Kyojin's kibble every meal for ages (though we ended up mostly continuing this so as to increase his water intake). Are you feeding as much as what her breeder had her on? I never raw fed Kyojin, but the amounts sound about right for what we fed him when he was that age. We were giving him a biscuit bone for morning and afternoon tea at that age as well (breeder's recommendations). Looking at Kyojin's spreadsheet, he was putting on about 1kg every week too which seemed to be pretty normal from what I've seen with other Akitas.

This is a growth chart for Akitas which should give you a rough idea:

Edit: Sorry it posted while I was still typing.

Edit again. Dammit, I format it in my post but when I actually submit the post it stuffs it up. I think I'll add the table as an image instead.

Okay! Hopefully this works

I wouldn't worry too much about her actual weight though as long as she's putting some on, and that her ribs aren't too obvious. If you can really feel her ribs then she's underweight. Adding water, natural yoghurt and a raw egg once a week really helped make food super appealing to him. He's never been fussy though, which can be common in the breed.

Edited July 10, 2012 by Minxy (Kyojin)

[Dogsfevr]

I would call your breeder first off & discuss it with them after all they now the pups,the breed & any tips.

Your vet whilst helpful may suggest another brand of food or something very different that your breeder may not feed for good reasons.

The obvious questions is are you feeding what the breeder suggested ??

[TikaAkita]

Thanks for the chart! I tried to find one online but couldn't. I am feeding in line with what her breeder was feeding her, I thought there might be some additional advice gained here.

She loved her chicken neck tonight so I gave her another small one after a reduced amount of her normal dinner, and up it all came! Revealing that she had hardly chewed most of it, which i'm sure is the cause of it coming up again. Even though i saw her working away at the chicken necks. I will make sure the vet checks her teeth just to make sure they're all right. Otherwise I may have to break up the foods she doesnt chew well.

She also had her first bath tonight and I feel better now I have seen/felt her with all her hair flattened and her ribs were pretty good.

[minxy]

She sounds like her weight is probably fine. How much is she at the moment? In terms of getting her to eat her food more willingly you could also try adding a bit of chicken stock to her kibble or a small amount of wet food for flavour. That's great that she's enthusiastic about eating the chicken necks. Maybe you could give them to her frozen so that she needs to work at them a bit more.