Help Me - I'm stressing out!

If your puppy is peeing and pooping normally, and is bright eyed and playful...then I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Give him 15 min to eat and encourage him. He's not going to let himself starve...do you give him treats too? maybe he's filling up on that? And how many times a day to you feed?

How much does he weigh? Breed?

He is a maltese/poodle mix and weighs 5 pounds.  He gets treats when he shows appropriate behavior during housebreaking or teaching him to sit/stay, etc.  I use the freeze-dried chicken treats mostly and try not to exceed their recommendations.

If he is an only dog you can try free feeding him. Some puppies are just so obsessed with playing that stopping to eat can be a pain. Set out the amount he is supposed to eat in a day and let him choose. Dont fill up the bowl everytime he empties it, as that can lead to weight problems.
 
If you prefer to schedule feed him, then set out the appropriate amount, and you can add egg, cottage cheese, chicken broth etc. If he doesnt eat in say, 15-20 minutes pick up the bowl until the next meal time.
 
Dont worry, alot of puppies dont like to stay still long enough to eat a decent meal!

I wouldn't free feed, but then that's another one of the top ten endless debates around here! [] I'd recommend picking one food and sticking with it for a while. By constantly switching you may be giving him the notion that if he holds out now, something better may come along. You might want to go with canned or moistened kibble if indeed teething is making him uncomfortable. But I agree with Sheltiegirl - all else being normal he's probably fine. How much is he eating? A 5lb puppy doesn't eat all that much anyway, particularly if you're giving him high quality kibble.

He is on Innova puppy kibble and mostly Innova canned.  He hasn't eaten any of the moistened kibble lately and barely touches the canned.  I just don't want him to get sick.

Hi
If a pup or dog is not sick..normal poops, no vomiting, acting playful... then his eating habits are being dictated by him to you.  If you continue to change foods, he will continue to stop eating them.  I have found, after 40 years of raising puppies and many many owners with similar problems, that the bes thing to do is feed your pup , leave food down 20 minutes ( give or take) and pick up what has not been eaten.  Do not give food treats during the day to a dog who has not eaten his meals or if you must give food treats for training, use his dog food kibble.  Your dog is training you to give in to him.  If he is not eating, he is not hungry.  When he gets hungry, he will eat his food, whichever food is put down for him.  A 5lb dog doesn't eat much.... 1/2 cup of a decent food, twice a day, should be sufficient.  Feel your dog.  If his hip and rib bones are not protruding, if he has flesh on his bones, he is not starving or undernourished.  Check that the food you are feeding has meat or protein as the first three or four ingredients.  If he will not eat alot, at least make sure he is eating a good , healthy food.  Dog foods with grain and fillers as the first ingredients are not as healthy for dogs as foods with chicken , beef, fish, egg, and other natural proteins as the first four ingredients.  Most foods on the market, even the expensive, so-called "name" brands, are pretty much garbage, sprayed with chicken fat to give them smell and taste to appeal to a dog's senses of smell.  and taste.  Read the ingredient list.  After the first four ingredients, the rest of the ingredients are in such small amount as to not matter very much.  Beet pulp is a filler and bloater.  It is also sugar unless it says sugar removed.
Carol

Carol, what food would you recommend for such a finicky eater?  He has never eaten 1/2 cup of food at a time ever!

Hi
I haven't been a member for long on here and everyone has a favorite ( or more than one) food that they tout above all others but I have tried many many foods over the years and I was set on Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul ( or Puppy Loves Soul).  It has good ingredients and my dogs do well on it .  About a year or so ago, I tried some samples of EVO, but out by Innova but manufactured by Natura Pet Products.  I was in awe of the difference in my pups and pregnant/nursing mother dogs.  Since then, all my dogs are on EVO and their health, haircoats, every single thing about them has improved.  My dogs and pups were always in great shape, I thought ( as did buyers and their vets) but the EVO has made them all even better.  I have read people saying that the dogs need more water if fed evo.  This may be true because EVO has no fillers and the dogs stools are definitely firmer, even whiter like when dogs are fed BARF diets with ground up bone in the food.  My dogs are always given all the water that they can drink so that is not an issue for me.   I raised horses for years and only fed pure alfalfa hay, high in protein .   That, too, made the animals drink more but I did not find that to be a bad thing at all.  What I am finding on these lists is that alot of people keep changing foods as soon as their pet stops eating.  That is not a solution.  I think that exacerbates the problem. Of course a pet will eat a new food or new taste most of the time.  Trouble is, that new food gets old, fast, and then owners are stuck with many open bags of food and much money spent.  Stick with one food, a food with ingredients that are protein, meat, chicken, duck, turkey, egg, cheese, etc.   These are what dogs are supposed to eat.  Dogs are not made to eat corn, wheat, barley, rice., etc.  These are cheap fillers put in by the companies who care more about the bottom line profits than they do about the dogs. 
Carol

I bought a can of EVO Beef on Saturday but I haven't tried it yet.  Is it okay to give to puppies?  I'd love it if he drank more water.  But he loves crushed ice cubes.

You know, some large dogs eat only 1 cup of kibble per day. If your five-pound dog only eats a tablespoon of food per day, so be it. As long as he seems healthy, active, and not too skinny, that is all he needs. Stop worrying. You're turning him into a neurotic picky eater.

If a pup or dog is not sick..normal poops, no vomiting, acting playful... then his eating habits are being dictated by him to you. If you continue to change foods, he will continue to stop eating them

I agree with angelwynd7 and have seen the same problem on here many times. I have a problem though with the EVO recommendation for puppies; before you switch your pup to EVO e-mail Natura   [linkhttp://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=home-tab]http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=home-tab[/link]     and ask if the EVO is appropriate for puppies. I remember from some other threads that it either has too much protein or the wrong amount of calcium for puppies. The problem is I don't remember if that was all puppies or large breed ones; just contact them to make sure it's okay.

EVO is a wonderful food and as soon as all my large breed youngsters hit two we'll be switching from Innova to Innova EVO.
 
However, I'd stop the constant food switching and employ a bit of tough love with this little one.  I refused to be a short order cook for my children and I darn well won't be turned into one by my dogs.  Give the dog his bowl, give him 15-20 minutes to eat and take it up.  If he hasn't eaten, well, he gets NOTHING until the next meal time.  A healthy animal will not starve himself out of stubbornness...when they get hungry enough, they WILL eat, even if it's something that they have decided to hate.

I get a chuckle each time I even conceptualize my beast on freely available food.  He's slowed a bit now at a year but when he was 4-8 months I'm sure he'd have eaten a 40lb bag a day and still been looking for something []

I don't think you should ever take away food from a pup--especially a small breed one. My vet said they can get low blood suger and act lethargic.
I think you should just fill his bowl--he'll eat when he's hungry. Some dogs like mine, don't like to eat right in the morning. So if he is not eating his breakfast, I wouldn't take it away. Just leave it out and give him some exercise and hopefully he will work up an appetite later in the day.