What if my new Biewer Puppy isn’t eating his food

Our Biewer Puppies usually leave our home at 12 weeks when they weigh about 2-3 lb. That means your puppy is most likely as small as an average Guinea pig when it comes home to you. Here at Rock Mountain Biewer Terriers, the puppies live together in small puppy packs of usually 5-10 pups. When we feed the babies, everyone gets really excited and chases as fast as they can to the food bowls. The puppies love the competition and eat as much as they can fit before it’s gone. We always make sure that there will be leftovers at the end, so we know that even the littlest ones or the slowest ones were able to eat as much as they want.
The puppies always have access to their Life’s Abundance Kibbles and Freeze Dry Primal Nuggets. The cooked food gets served twice a day around 7 AM and 7 PM.
Now your puppy is with you, with no littermates around and everything is different. It is very common that the puppies aren’t eating well or refuse to eat at all at their new home, for the first few days. This is a very challenging time for you and your new baby so here is some advice from us for you.

Imagine your puppy’s blood sugar level like a battery, if your puppy eats and then takes a nap, the battery charges If your puppy is awake, playing, or if your puppy is cold, the battery gets drained, and the blood sugar will eventually drop if not re-charged.
When the blood sugar level gets too low, your puppy will become sleepy, the gums will get paler and paler, and the puppy won’t be interested in food, or toys because it feels weak. If you do not catch that problem in time, it will get worse. The puppy will get very lethargic, it is unable to get up, and will get seizures. If your puppy goes to bed with low blood sugar, and you don’t do anything about it, it might not be alive the next morning.

When you get home with your new puppy:

• Don’t hand your puppy around to friends and neighbors.
• Don’t take your puppy to the store, or the vet on the same day. Go straight home!
• Don’t overwhelm your puppy with all the toys and things you bought for him/her.
• Don’t go to bed before your puppy ate something.

Yes, everyone is super excited and you probably waited a long time for your puppy to finally come home. You can combine the fun with the important care your puppy needs when you get home. Give your puppy 1 cc of the Nutri-Cal supplement upon arrival at the airport.

Make sure you have pre-cooked some of the suggested meals at home. Baked chicken thighs, sliced or chopped, or boiled. shredded lean beef, is one of the favorite meals for our Biewer Pups. You can add a little fried ground beef, cottage cheese, and scrambled eggs on the side. Warm it up to room temperature and serve only tiny portions so you can tell if your puppy actually ate something or not. Put the plate and some water in a small private room like your bathroom, or guest bathroom. Also, put a cloth potty pad in that area and close the door. Your puppy will not be distracted by people, noise, or toys and the only interesting thing to see should be the food. Wait at least 20 minutes and then check if he/she ate. If not you have to hand-feed your baby. You can also throw little pieces and make it like a game. Not all puppies react the same way so you might have to get creative to get your puppy to eat.
If nothing works at all and your puppy won’t eat a thing, take a jar of Baby Gerber “Chicken & Gravy” from your emergency kit and feed it to your puppy with an oral syringe.  When syringe feeding a puppy, you have to get a firm grip on your puppy’s head and insert the syringe from the side, not from the front. If you are using a 6 cc oral syringe, you feed the amount in the syringe in 3 little squeezes. Give your puppy time to swallow. 1/2 jar will be good for the night and hopefully, your puppy will eat better the next morning. You can give another 1cc of Nutri-Cal before everyone goes to bed.

Your puppy might not be interested in the kibble dry food but for now. It is important to get him/her to eat, and home-cooking your pup’s meals will assure weight gain. Take your pup’s weight on a cooking scale 2-3 times a week. Your pup should be gaining weight, not losing weight.
It takes some patience and juggling to wean your puppy off the cooked meals and transition to kibbles. We do feed all our adult Biewers cooked meals as well!