Should I switch food if my doodle doesn't have a big appetite?

[Alli]

Our mini doodle Charlie is almost 10 months, about 26 lbs. and his shoulders measure 20" from the ground.  I've fed him Core Wellness grain-free puppy formula since we got him.  The current recommended amount is approximately 3 cups/day.  Charlie has never eaten that much.  Currently he eats about 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups a day.  And most of the time he won't eat unless we take the food out of the bowl and spread it on the floor for him. ??? The only thing I can think of that makes him do that is when he was a puppy, he knocked his metal bowl over on the tile floor and it made a huge noise that scared him.  For a long time he was scared of the bowl.  I love the little guy, but I'm not going to sit and hand feed him!  He has no rhythm of eating--sometimes he doesn't eat all day until the evening.  Sometimes he eats a little in the morning, a little at night.  We did do 2 scheduled feedings a day but he wasn't eating anything when we gave him the bowl.  So the vet said "He's a grazer, be glad", and just leave the food bowl down and when he wants it, he'll eat.  The problem with that is, if we have to be gone for an extended period of time (4-6 hours), then I feel bad if he hasn't eaten all day.  We have a local dog "barkery" that suggested I switch his food to Fromm grain free to see if his appetite gets better. My questions are:

1)Is it okay that he doesn't eat much and just grazes when he wants?

2)how many treats are too many?  Could this be why he doesn't have an appetite for his food? We probably give him 2-3/day (Core Wellness protein bars, Zukes beef filet, etc.), mostly when we have to leave him in his crate.  Occasionally he will eat a bully stick or tendon or tail, etc. 

3)Dogs love peanut butter...how much is too much to give them?

4)Should I try to switch to Fromm's to see if he'll be better at eating it than the Core Wellness?

Grateful for any advice!  Thank you!!!

[M Kol]

1) We have a mini goldendoodle too.  I think maybe leaving it more available for her is OK.  Ours isn't food motivated either. We ended up feeding her at night too.  Sometimes we leave it overnight, and she will eat it before bed. She will sometimes eat a little in the morning, and then again at supper when we get home, and a little more at night.  Sometimes it will go just once a day.  2) Eating treats does affect her appetite.  We only treat her for extra obedience or motivation, when she eats a lot of them she eats less food, so we make the food the high protein and grain free.  For basic obedience, she gets praise rather than treats, and she's gone through a group class with us and through her training sessions with a trainer. 3) Peanut butter sounds great, we haven't tried that yet with our mini but our prior dog loved it.  We used it for meds and to place it in a Kong.  Our mini goldendoodle does like cheese and meat quite a bit.  4) We haven't tried the brands you mentioned yet, but have tried others on the list. We try to give her in the order of quantity:  high quality recommended kibble, highly recommended canned, and we've experimented with a little raw from the pet store frozen section.  We are mostly a dry food  and somewhat canned family.  She eats based on being comfortable emotionally and what tastes good to her.  Physically she has a sturdy stomach and does not get upset by changing the brands, although we aren't dramatic with the changes.  Sometimes we'll feed a little of one in the morning and another at night, and mix the two brands for a smaller meal, so she is used to the brands through the whole bags .  She will eat more after she's had a busy day with exercise.  After she cools down, we'll feed her and if there isn't anything more exciting to grab her attention, she'll settle and eat.  The other item is if she is too thirsty it will be a little harder to eat the dry, so we watch to make sure she has water when she needs it.  We try to go by the guidelines. Actually for me, I found Orijen's guidelines a little confusing to me. And, TBH, the different brands will have different recommended amounts.  The main thing we've found is to make sure she is getting plenty of food, eats to what she wants, has it available, and by looking at her she is a healthy weight who physically is active and is emotionally well-adjusted. We weigh her and measure her - if she's maintaining or growing, and if she's feels muscular to the touch and acts with a high energy level, she's probably thriving.  Good luck, and glad to see we have something in common!

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

I would post/search these questions in the Food Group. Karen is the expert on food and give lots of people very solid advice in that group. I however am no expert. Good luck! :)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It was posted in The Food group and I did respond there. :)

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Just saw it there! I'm a little delayed today :)

[Amy and Annabelle]

I have a mini. She is a year old and weighs 14lbs. Up until she was about 7 months old she wasn't much of an eater. I gave her an 8am meal and a 5pm meal and still do. I knew she wouldn't starve herself without a medical issue, which she had none. If she didn't eat her 8am meal after 15minutes, I took it away and saved it for dinner. Of course she ate dinner. If she did it again the next morning, the same thing, she would get nothing until dinner, no extra. She learned real quick to at least eat some of her food in the morning because it was a long wait until dinner. And I am not going to leave food out all day for her.  Now she is a great eater. She would eat more if I gave it to her. But I didn't want to create any bad eating habits. I did sit with her to keep her company and have a cup of coffee, and I still do. Now I never took it away while she was eating, but if she stopped and walked away after that 15 minutes, I picked it up.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This is exactly right, and part of what I said in the Food Group response. 

[Amy and Annabelle]

Haha, I just saw that. Annabelle's private trainer that we had in the beginning recommended that to us though I was already doing it to some extent because that was more or less the way it was with our kids. They ate when and what was given to them for meals, but I am not a short order cook. We always had a well stocked veggie drawer, so that was their only alternative. Which it rarely came to that. Then later on after I joined DK I saw it posted here.

[Sharon]

We used to feed our 33 lb. Doodle the same food; however, you may want to double check the bag for the amount to feed for 26 lbs. I believe it's 1 1/4 to 1 3/4 cups per day, not per meal.

[Sharon]

Sorry, I thought you mentioned grain free original not the puppy. At 10 months, maybe try switching to a non puppy formula. We did that with our doodle and he did great on it. We now feed him a combination of fromm grain free and holistic select grain free.

[Sharon]

Also, we rarely feed out of a bowl but instead use feeding toys to help stimulate their active bodies and minds.

[Alli]

Thank you ALL for the great advice.  I'm new to this community and it's been overwhelming how helpful everyone is!  I got some great words of wisdom from Karen and I have a plan moving forward.  I'm learning that having a dog is a lot like having a baby--you learn as you go!  And every dog is different!  I'm going to stick with the Core Wellness since I know his belly handles it well and I'm going to switch him to the adult food as soon as we are finished with the current bag of puppy food.  All of the comments and replies really helped me think it through.  Also...I clarified with Karen in the Food Group post that I made the mistake of making it seem like we give Charlie tons of treats and peanut butter each day--We don't!  Of course he would love that but we don't over do it and when we give him treats they are smaller portions than what is suggested.  Anyway--thanks again for all the help!