Rescued a pitt bull female about 10 wks old and won't eat dog food. What should I feed her?

Healthy dogs won't deliberately starve themselves to death- so in most cases you can simply offer dog food & wait until the dog is hungry enough to eat it.

But in this case since the pup is so young & is already underweight, she needs to get nourishment. Try mixing canned food in with her dry food, or feed straight canned food if she'll eat it. Pick a good-quality premium food (hint- don't go to walmart or the grocery store :).

If that doesn't work, you can moisten the dry food into a mash with warm water and hand-feed her, or use a syringe to get it down her throat. Avoid giving in & offering people food, this just spoils her & teaches her she doesn't have to eat the dog food. Most I've ever done is drizzled a spoonful of chicken broth over the dry food....again, not something to make a habit of, the salt isn't good for them.

Talk to your vet about getting her some Nutri-Cal, it's a calorie rich "paste" flavored like beef or chicken or something, has vitamins in it, and can be used as a supplement for underweight or picky eaters.

She may indeed have worms, but it is best to let the vet do a fecal. Tapeworms & a couple other types of parasite aren't treatable with over-the-counter wormers. So let the vet determine what parasites she's got & prescribe the appropriate treatment.

Good luck & kudos for helping a needy pup :)

She is probably a bit depressed about being abandon so many times in such a short period of time. That will effect her eating habits, but your doing the right thing. Keep giving her the chicken, try to mix in some rice and/or potatoes for carbs to fatten her up. I would buy canned puppy food get a good brand like Solid Gold. Mix in a little at a time with the food that she will eat and you should soon be able to get her on the canned food completely. Then you can start adding in hard food.

Just love her and if it takes you feeding her people food for awhile don't feel guilty.

Good luck and God bless you for taking care of her,

Liz

my pitbull was the same way when we got him except he was 2 and also very skinny. We tried purina puppy chow large breed formula and he ate that for a while he also liked it and it put some weight on him . Try mixing hamburger in with puppy chow and dont feed her i know it sounds cruel but we had to do the same thing with my dog and if you keep waiting and seeing that she doesnt eat and feeding her table food then shell know if she waits long enough shell get it however dont let her go for 2 days without eating. Now my dog is eating purina healthy morsels which has a high level of protein and helps build muscles and he has been eating that for about 6 months now and the vet said he is perfect. try it out

leave the dry food out and do not give her anything else. she will eat rather than starve. you can mix a little canned food with it, might help. about deworming her, if she has worms, giving her worm medicine will help not hurt. worms can kill if there are enough of them.

We do a lot of rescue where dogs have been dumped and a lot of times they are half starved and very skinny. Feed her the dry food as much as she will eat and the weight will start to come back on her unless she has a medical reason to be so skinny.

We found 2 lab pups that appeared to be purebred. they had been left at my son's vacation home, They were near death when we found them. We took them 75 miles to our house and fattened them up in 2 weeks and found wonderful homes for them. they would eat anything they were so hungry.

Boiled chicken(boneless skinless breast) and rice or canned dog food will get you by for now.Try mixing a little kibble into what she will eat here and there It can help her get used to taste and texture.It will also provide nutrients that are lacking.

For the first couple of weeks,keep things really quiet around the pup.Even though the situation she came from was bad it's what she was used to.The change can be very stressful and lead to loss off appetite.Take things real slow and easy.Good Luck!

well sometimes it not like the dog food and mabey try people food and they might be more atraccted to that then try dog food after a couple days and it could also be scared that u might leave it or something because sometimes my dog wont eat its dog food in the morning unless u sit next to him and wate for him to finish

I think you should give her meat,and try to play wit her.Make her feel at home and happy because most dogs will like that. Do what ever she wants.

try giving it cans of wet dog food its teeth arnt strong enough to chew dog food yet