[Dinaz Muncherji]

I have a 8 month old chihuahua, she is a finicky eater. I have been giving her kiblets soaked in water, with chicken or rice or carrots added to it, and she eats the chicken etc and leaves the kiblets.I
Can I give her dry kiblets or should they be given only soaked and moistened to a 8 month old.

[Lucky098]

The problem with little dogs is not many people treat them like dogs.

At 8 months, she should be eating solid, hard food. These little dogs are very picky eaters (as you are finding out) and will turn their noses up to just about anything. The other problem with these little dogs, you cannot do the usual "hold out til they eat" trick due to them dropping low blood sugar quickly.

Have you tried canned food? If not, maybe start introducing that without the kibble. Warm it up so that it smells good. If you stick with the higher quality brands of food such as Wellness, Nature's Balance and so on, the foods are very similar to "people food". Get her use to the textures.. if you have to force feed her, than do so in order to avoid low blood sugar and just gradually work the canned food from warmed and soft to room temperature with some hard kibbles.

Also, keep in mind.. if you are feeding her all sorts of goodies in her food, such as chicken, she is probably no longer hungry. Little dogs do not eat a lot and you don't want them to get fat. Forcing a little dog to get use to the idea of engorging itself only leads to obesity. So many take away the chicken and see what happens.

If you don't want to fuss with hard kibbles and so on, I would suggest you speak with a pet nutritionist or a vet about creating a well balanced home cooked diet.