When your puppy is growing and becoming a 6-month-old, you must take proper care of it. It will involve different activities, including outings, potty training, walking, and playing with kids and other puppies. You should provide an excellent environment to raise your puppies.
If any of the above facts are missing in raising your puppies, they will not grow as you expected. Moreover, you will face some bad things with your six-month-old puppy. I will show you everything regarding your puppy.
6 month old puppy not eating:
Your 6-month-old puppy is not eating because of illness, change of taste, and other reasons. Sometimes, it’s very okay for the small puppy not to eat the same food over the entire week or month. You need to have variations in the puppy’s diet. Otherwise, your puppy will refuse to eat.
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Sometimes, a simple tooth problem or stomach upset will be the crucial reason your puppy is not eating. You must check your puppy’s health regularly and give him some medicine accordingly.
Especially when your puppy doesn’t have sound teeth, it will refuse to chew and eat healthy food.
If that happens, you must consider providing some soft food so that your puppy can eat them without using its teeth. Also, you can offer it some medicine and train how to eat with bad teeth slowly. It will be ready to eat anything suitable on its way.
So, your first job is to find out why your puppy is not eating.
Once you get the reason, you can take action accordingly. If you find any other reasons and you cannot solve them, you must consult with a doctor.
He might prescribe some medicine with particular exercises your puppy must regularly follow to enjoy good health and start eating again.
Reasons for 6 month old puppy not eating:
You will mostly find these five reasons for a 6-month-old puppy not eating. Although you can count more, these reasons will cover most others.
Upset Stomach:
Stomach upset is the main reason your puppy is not eating like before. Since puppies tend to eat and try everything, they might eat something unusual. If they make any mistake, their stomach will be upset, and they will fail to eat anything.
You cannot force your puppy to eat anything delicious. It will always skip or avoid your food and remain starving until it gets well from an upset stomach.
Sickness:
Your six-month-old puppy may face other illnesses, including colds, fever, and gastric. In that health condition, your puppy will not eat anything because of the tasteless tongue.
If you offer the most delicious dog food to your sick pet, it will keep away from the food and don’t even touch it.
Sickness or illness might include mood and other factors. Whatever the reason is, you must find it out and try to recover it very soon. Otherwise, your pet puppy will fail to survive in the long run.
Teeth Problem:
Since your puppy’s age is only six months; you must be careful about its teeth. It will have new teeth and will try to use its teeth on everything. As a result, your puppy’s teeth will be in bad shape and face tooth pain and other diseases.
When a six-month-old puppy mourns from a tooth problem, it will refuse to eat anything. So you need to find out why the puppy’s teeth are painful and how to sort it out soon.
Mood Swing:
Sometimes, your 6-month-old puppy will go through a mood swing phase. Especially when you don’t spend time with your puppy, and it feels very lonely, it will stop eating and will not eat anything.
Should I be concerned about my 6 month old puppy not eating?
You should be concerned about your six-month-old puppy not eating. There might be several reasons why your puppy is not eating. You need to consider them and try to find the best solution for them.
Here I’ll add four different situations and will try to tell you if you need to be concerned with them or not. They are:
Not eating as much:
If your puppy isn’t eating as much, you should never be concerned about your six-month-old puppy. Maybe for a while, your puppy doesn’t have anything to eat.
It happens when your puppy doesn’t find suitable food or cannot enjoy the surroundings.
If it happens, you need to worry about your health, not your eating habits. It will be okay in the next few days, and I will start eating like before. Therefore, not eating as much is not an ideal concern for you.
Not eating or drinking:
If your six-month-old puppy is not eating, drinking, or eating, you should be concerned about this. Drinking is something that needs to be regular for all the pets and puppies.
If your six-month-old puppy doesn’t drink, it will face dehydration problems and will become sick very soon.
Therefore, you should be concerned about not eating or drinking. You must find out why it happens with your puppy and sort out the problem immediately.
Not eating and sleeping a lot:
If your six-month-old puppy is not eating and sleeping a lot, you should be concerned about this fact. It’s a serious indication of the sickness of your small puppy.
Maybe it is facing stomach issues or something wrong with its head and other body parts.
Not eating all his food:
You should not be concerned if your six-month-old puppy is not eating all his food. It’s very okay to find such incidents regularly. Since your puppy is small and doesn’t have any training, it will leave some food after eating.
Solutions:
If your 6 month old puppy is not eating, it’s a serious problem, especially since pups need a lot of calories to nourish their growing bodies.
As a solution, you can take it for a check-up, have some variation in their items, have a new food bowl/ location, and use some spray. Going for a walk might also help relieve their boredom, encouraging them to take more food.
Variation:
Puppies can get tired of regularly eating the same type of food. That’s why you may try including chicken broth or canned meals. Adding a tiny portion of canned dog food or unsalted chicken broth to your puppy’s dry diet can increase their appetite.
Toy:
You can also put your puppy food into an eye-catching and engaging toy. To create more engaging and fun mealtimes, it is highly recommended to set puppy meals into an interactive feeder toy.
Flavored Spray:
Another effective option is to use a flavored spray. At times, you should try using some flavored sprays made for use on puppy meals.
As a precaution, don’t shower a gigantic sum as this could assist energize your puppy’s pickiness. Numerous flavored showers come in an assortment of flavors, such as shelled nut butter or cheese and even the chicken flavor.
New Food Bowl/ Location:
Another way to encourage your 6-month-old puppy to eat is to buy them a new food bowl or set it in a new place.
You’ll be able to attempt moving the bowl to a modern area as well or grant your puppy a little control by acquiring a meal allocator. Changing the schedule of their meals might also be useful.
Walk:
One of the most effective ways to encourage your 6-month-old puppy to eat is to take them for a walk.
Exercise helps to grow food cravings in your six-month-old puppy. If your hairy companion is up for it, work out sometime during their mealtime.
How long can 6 month puppy go without eating?
A 6-month-old puppy can go up to 7 hours without eating. Puppies are tiny and sensitive, so they require proper feeding at the right time. Newly born babies need to be fed after every two hours.
As puppies grow with age, the time gap also increases. Puppies aged above 5 weeks can be fed with a gap of five hours. A six-month-old puppy is quite grown up, so the time gap can be extended further.
A puppy aged six months can stay without food or anything for almost 7 hours.
Nutrition is vital for the growth of any animal. So proper feeding is essential if you are looking for a fluffy good looking puppy or dog. That’s why the time should not exceed 7 hours, as it can cause malnutrition and hamper the healthy look of your puppy.
Arrange Those meals by keeping the 7-hour time gap in mind.
Final thoughts
If your six-month-old puppy is not eating, it might have problems with its stomach, teeth, and mental health. You must take proper care of it and try to find the reason and act accordingly. I also explain when you should be concerned about the fact and when you should avoid it.