New Maltese owner

[Max166]

Hi my name is Nicole I bought a 4 month old MAltese for my daughter 2 weeks ago. His name is Max.. I need help he's not eating the dog food, went to the vet last week and he told me to feed him chicken if he's not eating the dog food because he has to eat...but now he loves the chicken and I'm scared that Max will be spoiled with the chicken and will never eat dog food...HELP!!!!

[AshleyAndSophiePup]

It's a lot of change for a puppy to leave his mommy and litter mates, when I brought Sophie home a few months ago, she was definitely sad at first, so I hand fed her her food, it established a bond between us and I knew she was getting all the proper nutrition. Chicken doesn't have all the proper nutrition for a little puppy, try hand feeding him and eventually moving your hand closer and closer to his bowl, he will learn to eat his food. I only started to give Sophie small bits of chicken when she's been really good.


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[Zoe's Mom88]

Welcome to SM!! This is a great site with lots of info. You can certainly spoil them very fast eating just chicken. I am even surprised the vet suggested that. I would try and wean him off the chicken and mix it with his puppy food and slowly take it away completely.

[IvysMom]

Hi,

We have a Tibetan Terrier who is a super picky eater and she would literally go 3 days without eating before finally lowering herself to eat dog food. I was desperate. Then recently Science Diet came out with a new variety called Ideal Balance. It comes in both canned and kibble. I feed the fussy TT the canned and my Maltese puppy the kibble. The canned SD Ideal Balance comes in both chicken and beef flavors and our TT loves both. It looks like a stew for people, scrumptious looking. Our TT has gone from literally hiding when she knew you were getting her dinner ready, to leaping 3 feet into the air in excitement as we open the can. Make sure it is the "Ideal Balance"; Science Diet also has other "stew looking" dog foods but those aren't as good as the new "Ideal Balance". Our vet's office started carrying it at my request and say they can't keep it on the shelf, people are coming in buying it by the case. Our farm supply store also carries it as does our local PetCo. It is cheapest at our farm supply store, $1.99 per can.

They do have a SD Ideal Balance canned for puppies as well as the kibble but as long as my Malt puppy will eat the kibble, I'm keeping her on that (makes for a cleaner face!). Here's a link to the canned puppy (are we allowed to post links here??). Since yours is a fussy eater, Max might prefer the canned:

http://www.hillspet.com/products/sd-canine-puppy-ideal-balance-chunks-and-gravy-chicken-canned.html

[Max166]

I was shock myself because he started off saying no table food but after he weighed Max he said Max was a little under weight. Also he gave me can food and told me to mix it with the dry food but that didn't work

[italianna82]

You may want to try adding a tiny bit of wet food on top of the kibble. That may get him to START eating and then he may continue to the kibble. That's what I did with Gucci and it seemed to help her eat out of her bowl.

[DeniseA.]

Benni did the same thing when I brought him home...would not eat the kibble. I had to add a little bit of water to it...and even added some very tiny pieces of chicken meat. (about a teaspoon finely chopped) He would then clean his plate. I have slowly decreased the amount of chicken...so not it is all kibble.

[Furbabies mom]

My Yorkie, Hardy was picky also. I hand fed him for awhile and would bounce the Kibble on the floor like a game. Now he's the biggest of my 4 dogs, and the best eater.