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We have a 8 month old gorgeous black lab boy who has always been fed dry kibble and has loved it up until 2 months ago. For some reason he's stopped eating it. It's although he finds it difficult to bite it, if that makes sense. He has been on hypoallergenic food due to possible allergies so we changed it to see if it was that fact that the hypoallergenic food was too bland but no, he wouldn't even eat the 'normal' kibble either. We just tried him on James wellbeloved wet food which he eats fine (not when mixed with kibble though) but it's so expensive. Any thoughts on why he's went off his kibble and any recommendations on wet food.
Thanks 😊

 

[Coco-Loco]

I'm not sure if they get more teeth around that age, perhaps his gums were sore. If you use kibble as treats when training will he eat them or does he refuse them then too? Sometimes dogs try it on a bit in the hope of something better, sometimes they will only eat if handfed or given the food as treats - they don't want to know if it is simply put down in a bowl.

If wet food is too expensive you could just add some warm water to his kibble and leave it a few minutes to go soft. Chappie is a cheaper wet food, it isn't the highest quality but it doesn't have loads of bad stuff in.

Be careful if you start offering "better" food to tempt him, he may well become very picky over what he will and won't eat.

 

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We have tried some gravy in with the kibble and putting water in it but he still won't eat it. Sometimes he will eat the kibble if you hand it to him but sometimes he won't. We tend to mash it with water and put it into a long which he will eat.

Some times when he gets a treat it's like he has to try and put it to the back of his mouth or it just falls out.

I know what you mean about not changing food as we don't want him thinking he can get his food changed when he feels like it. We done the whole put it down and if it's not eaten in 10 mins then take it away but that resulted in him eating maybe 100g in total over two days.

 

[Luna-Tuck]

My girl went picky over her food at that age and with hindsight I think 2 things were going on.
The first was that she was with hindsight overweight. She'd stopped growing and wasn't using up the energy she was eating so I think she was actually attempting to self-moderate her energy intake. I at the time was very worried and switched her food to a completely different fish-based food which happened to be adult food too and she ate it. The packet recommended less food for her weight on this brand which perhaps helped!

The second thing going on was a slight intolerance to dog food containing chicken/poultry. Even the lamb variety I switched her to had a lot of poultry fat! Switching to Fish based food probably helped here!

So my suggestion would be to 1) get vet to check his teeth out especially of he isn't chewing toys etc either.
2) Check his ribs and see if he has just a little covering over his ribs or if you can't feel his ribs to give an indication of whether or not he is over-weight. Sloppy or soft poops all the time or very often can indicate that he is eating too much too.

It can be that recommended amounts on food packets are higher than an individual dog may require as they are just that, recommended - not a rule. Eg: my boy should be fed about 260g a day judging by the packet but he actually gets about 180g. I up and down according to activity levels and his appearance.