Hello I have a 1/2 year old female papillon dog I adopted from the local shelter last Thursday. It has been 8 days now and she will only eat little amouts of dog food and if my fiancé hand feeds her she will only eat and we need to stop this. We are trying to get her to eat nutro natural choice small bites dog food and she won't eat it at all. She came from a puppy mill to the shelter early last month. We now today have her on a schedule put the food down 3 times a day show her the food for 20 minuets but all she does is sniff it and walk away we where told the she is very healthy and that she ate really good at the shelter. By doing this schedule will she eventually eat her dog food? I don't want to let her go hungry and hate doing this to her. What should I do I need some advice thnxs

hello I have a 1/2 year old female papillon dog i adopted from the local shelter last thursday. it has been 8 days now and she will only eat little amouts of dog food and if my fiance hand feeds her she will only eat and we need to stop this. we are trying to get her to eat nutro natural choice small bites dog food and she wont eat it at all. she came from a puppy mill to the shelter early last month. We now today have her on a schedule put the food down 3 times a day show her the food for 20 minuets but all she does is sniff it and walk away we where told the she is very healthy and that she ate really good at the shelter. by doing this schedule will she eventually eat her dog food? I don;t want to let her go hungry and hate doing this to her. what should i do i need some advice thnxs


In my experience a lot has depended on the dog - what did she eat at the shelter? What was she raised on? Sometimes you have to mix a lot of that and a little of the new stuff and then gradually change the proportions.

I've also had rescues that simply didn't eat - I would do what you say (put the food down, take the food up) until I felt guilty. Those dogs I hand fed for a few minutes to get them sort of started and then I walked away - and left the food down. I've had dogs that wouldn't eat when they were home alone and dogs that wouldn't eat if you were watching them. I've had dogs that prefer to eat in the early AM and dogs that prefer to eat at night.

I think it depends on the dog and your level of comfort. I've fried hamburg and baked chicken to mix with dog food. I've tried different brands.

Eventually nobody starved to death, nobody had to be hand fed forever.

I have a German Shepherd AKC who absolutely refused from the time she was 6 weeks old to eat puppy chow of any sort, mixed with canned, mixed with real food, mixed with anything. She went right to big dog kibble and that's all she would eat. I've heard about it the other way around (would only eat puppy food) but she simply would not eat. She's a very big dog now but at 11 pounds she wouldn't eat puppy biscuits and went right to the big ones.

I have no idea why and I talked to the breeder about it - she's always been this way.

So I guess you have to see what works - and try not to go crazy in the meantime.

Check the sticky at the top of the forum.