Shih Tzu Poodle Mix – Puppy Barely Eats or Drinks!
by Folland
(Vancouver, BC)
We adopted a 4.5 month old Shih tzu Poodle mix last Sunday. She is only about 4lbs and won’t be getting much bigger. She is very calm and seems really comfortable at her new home but the issue I’m having is that she barely eats or drinks anything each day!
She nibbles one or two of her kibbles and then will run off and play. I’ve put warm water in it, I’ve added rice, the two suggestions the pet store gave me but she still eats very very little and drinks even less! She doesn’t even go looking for her food or water, the only time she eats is when I either hand feed her or if I place it directly in front of her and stand there and wait for a while. The minute I walk away she loses interest.
When she’s in the car with me I will give her water out of the lid of my water bottle but at home she drinks very little. Some other sites said that I should only put the food down at 8am for 20 mins then pick it back up and wait until dinner time at 4pm to put it back down again for only 20 mins and at some point she will be too hungry to protest but she’s so little that I feel bad! Also, should I be restricting her water too?
This is making her training very difficult. She can hold everything in for her entire sleep (last night we went to bed at midnight after she went potty, she held it til 9am this morning… even held it while we were outside until she got back inside.)
Please help! I have many more questions but this one worries me the most.
Hi, and thanks for the question – it worries me too – if you have any concerns such as the above I would always take your puppy to a vet as there might be a variety of reasons why your puppy is refusing to drink. My advice wold be to take your pooch to the vet – and once you have any medical problems ruled out pop back here and ask as many questions as you like.
