Rottie puppy stopped eating

Question
Hi - i don't know if this is your area, but I have a 3 month old rottweiler puppy that just stopped getting excited about food.  He'll take an occassional treat, but I can't get him to eat dry food anymore after having him a month.  He'll go crazy for canned food, but what could have caused the change in appetite?

Also, he has intermittent loose stools.  the first half of a bowel movement will be fine and the second half will be watery...

he did have giardia when we got him, but got a clean bill of health about a week ago, so we got him the giardia vaccine last weekend since he had been all over the house and backyard.  

do you have any insight or ways to get him to eat again?  I've tried putting the food on the floor or feeding him from my hand, but he'll only eat a little.

Thanks!

Answer
Hey, Jennifer,

While I'm not a vet, and this could be a medical issue, in my experience it's not uncommon for puppies to go through phases with their appetites where they're voracious one week and totally disinterested the next.

Since he's a large breed puppy, it's not necessary to force the issue. Smaller breed pups need to eat regularly (3x a day) or they could go into hypoglycemic shock. (Remember, I'm not a vet, so I could have the terminology wrong, but I DO know that small breed pups need to eat 3x a day.)

As for his intermittent loose stools, that's also fairly
typical for puppies, and depends on the level of activity and emotion they're experiencing. Basically it's just the result of the material moving through the bowel too fast.

Here's the best advice I can give you, though it may be kind of hard to do: he'll eat when he's hungry enough, so you just have to be patient and wait him out. (I told you it would be hard to do!)

I hope this helps,
LCK