My boyfriend and I just got a puppy for a pet store in the mall. She is a rat terrier and weighs 1.1 pound. She's supposedly 7 weeks old but the vet says she looks more like 6 weeks old.

Anyway, the first two days went really well but now she refuses to go near her water bowl. It's really stressing my boyfriend and I out. We've tried giving her a bath so she would drink the bath water and using a different dish. I even licked out of the dish to try and persuade her to drink it. The only thing that has worked is giving her snow from outside and then giving her water from a syringe.

Why would she stop drinking water? She wasn't eating well yesterday either but she finally ate some more this morning. She got heartworm meds a couple days ago and that's the only thing I can think of that would be effecting her stomach. I'm really worried about her but I'm hoping she is just adjusting to her new home.

Any tips would be great!

It doesn't sound like she was properly weaned from the mother. How did the pet store get a puppy that young?

I have no idea. I'm kind of pissed about it. I guess they lie about the age so they can sell them younger. Apparently they don't care about the effects that has on the puppies.

I should also add that her energy level has NOT decreased at all. She is still very energetic and playful. Also, she did drink water for the first two days.

Take her into the vet. Something isn't right. You shouldn't have been able to get her that early- not that it's your fault. It's not, but that's young. We got our puppy young too but we didn't have those kinds of issues.

Last February I got my Chihuahua puppy from a breeder at 5 weeks old. Marley was way too young to be taken away. The breeder said he was eating and drinking just fine. When we got him home I realized he wasn't eating or drinking... he only had 2 teeth!! We ended up buying him Chicken baby food (he didn't like the turkey kind) and mixed it in with his dry puppy food and added water. I heated it in the microwave for 15 seconds and then he ate and drank! According to the vet, he wouldn't have made it had we not tried everything to get nutrients and water in him! Good luck, it takes a lot of patience!:)

We took her to the vet on Sunday and they tested her for parasites etc. They said she was healthy.
Thanks for the baby food idea. I think she would eat that. We're going to try some new things tonight. My boyfriend is going to buy some chicken broth for her to drink until she comes around to the water idea.