Hello, so we have had our girl for about a week now. She's 3 months old. She is amazing and so sweet and loveable! She is always hungry though. Like whenever we eat she is trying so hard to get all the food lol. It is subsiding a bit now that we have been training her. But is this normal? I feel like I'm feeeding her so much even though I'm feeding her a bit less than the suggested amount. I give her Merrick backcountry puppy protein formula 1/3 cup 3 times a day with a few treats in between. The suggested amount is 2 cups a day for 10lb puppy and she's a little over 9lbs. The Calories in 2 cups a day in that formula is about 900. but I feel like that is so much food! Should I be giving her more? Also whenever we go outside to potty I feel like I have to watch her like a hawk bc she is picking up any little tiny pebble or grass or whatever may be out in the grass. I'm so paranoid she will eat something and get an obstruction or get sick. . How do I make her stop? Is it just a phase like teething? Please help!
I feel you on this, I really do. Ever since we got our pup "Truman", he eats absolutely EVERYTHING he can get into his mouth. He was eating wood chips, pieces of toys, grass, plants, rocks, even POOP! He would constantly beg for food even though he had been fed 15 minutes prior. Being on High Alert like that 24/7 is exhausting. He has almost completely stopped this behavior, here is what we did:
1. He is on a leash every single time we go outside (Doing it this way made it so I can keep him away from anything he shouldn't be putting in his mouth, and BONUS: He gets extra leash training time)
2. We really doubled down on our "Drop It" command for when he had something already in his mouth and a "Leave It" command for when he was snooping in something he shouldn't be.
3. I went outside and picked up every single little morsel I thought he might be able to get his mouth on. I even used my shop vac to suck up an area where we had stray wood chips. This wasn't fun and took quite awhile because we have a pretty good sized yard, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
4. I changed his food. We had him eating a freeze dried raw alternative called "Grandma Lucy's" that my other 2 dogs had been on for YEARS. During the entire time he was going through his "hoover" phase his poop was very grainy and there were whole pieces of food, and it just didn't look like he was properly digesting it. We switched to Orijen & added a Multi-vitamin. This made a HUGE difference, some food works for some and not others I guess. Puppies eat an insane amount of food, hard to believe. He's currently eating 1 1/2 cups a day plus snacks.
He is still a puppy so he is still curious and puts stuff in his mouth on occasion, but he has stopped
consuming it entirely, and usually chews it for a minute and drops it and moves on.
Hope this helps
