How to Train a Puppy to Eat Solid Food

To begin, if your pup is used to eating wet dog food instead of just dog milk, then grab his wet dog food, choose a high quality dry puppy food, and select a shallow dish and a small bowl. If your puppy is used to eating just milk then choose one of the other methods to use instead.

Place a very small amount of dry puppy food into the small bowl and cover the food with hot water. Allow the food to soak up the water until it becomes mush. Place the wet dog food that you normally feed your pup into the shallow dish and add the dry dog food that has turned to mush, then mix the two together.

Give the food mixture to your puppy to eat, doing what you normally do when you feed him just the wet dog food. Give him this new mixture for the next three days at every meal, unless he acts pickier about the new food, in which case give him the new food until he no longer hesitates to eat it. Make sure that he is eating during this time though.

When it has been three days and your pup no longer seems to notice the new addition to his wet food, then over a period about three weeks gradually transition him over to the dry dog food that has been soaked in water by gradually decreasing the amount of wet food and increasing the amount of dry dog food mush.

When your pup reaches the point where he is eating only dry puppy food soaked in water, then gradually begin to decrease the amount of water in the food also. Over a period of two to three weeks, slowly decrease the amount of water in the food, decreasing it just a little bit every day. Do this until your pup is eating only dry puppy food, without water absorbed into it.

When he will eat just dry puppy food, if you have not already done so, choose an eating schedule and feed your pup during the same parts of the day each day, such as morning, noon, and early evening. The number of times that you will want to feed him will depend on his age and your vet's recommendation. Two to three times per day is the most common for young puppies though.

To begin, make your pup a pudding type food, called gruel. To make gruel, mix together a little bit of high quality dry puppy food with hot water, and let the mixture sit until the food turns to mush, then add puppy milk replacement formula. The mixture should look a bit like pudding when you are done. Place the gruel into a shallow dish such as a flat plastic plate or a shallow pan. To minimize the mess you can put towels or newspaper on the ground where you are going to set the food down. Expect this to get messy.

After you have made your gruel and placed it into a shallow dish, place the dish onto the floor and call your puppy over. Encourage him to explore the gruel, to walk through it, play in it, and stick his face in it to try to sniff it or taste it.

After your pup plays in the gruel allow him to wander away from the dish, but keep him contained in that same room or area. While he is resting or exploring let him lick his paws and face, getting used to the taste of the gruel on himself. Wait until he is done licking all of it off to clean him up.

Repeat the play times in the gruel often over the next several days. Do this until he becomes interested in eating the gruel out of the dish whenever you place it on the ground.

When your pup is regularly eating the gruel from a dish, then after at least a week of him eating it regularly, begin to increase the amount of dry puppy food in the gruel and to decrease the amount of water and milk replacement formula. Do this over a period of at least two to three weeks, to allow time for his stomach to adjust to the food.

When you have increased the dry puppy food and decreased the milk and water to the point where there is only puppy food in the dish, then begin to feed your puppy regular meals out of a dish. The number of meals per day will depend on your puppy's age.

To begin, make a puppy pudding called gruel. To make gruel choose a high quality puppy food and mix it with hot water, letting the food soak until it becomes mush, then add puppy milk replacement formula to the mush. Put the gruel into a shallow dish.

Call your puppy over to you and dip your fingers into the gruel. Encourage your puppy to lick the gruel off of your fingers and praise him while he does so.

When your puppy is excited about licking your fingers, then place the container of gruel onto the ground and slick your fingers into it. Wiggle your fingers around in the bowl to get your puppy interested, and occasionally offer them to your pup again to lick if he does not go after them on his own while they are in the container.

Once your pup is excited about eating the gruel out of the container then you can remove your fingers from it. Practice feeding him small amounts of gruel every day for several days in a row.

After several days, when your pup's stomach has become accustomed to digesting the gruel, then very slowly, over a two to three week period of time, increase the amount of puppy food in the mixture and decrease the amount of milk replacement and water. Do this until the food is completely dry puppy food, without any water or milk in it. If your puppy's stomach gets upset or his digestive system has issues at any point, then stop the transition from gruel to puppy food until his digestion returns to normal again. When you continue the transition, make the transition from gruel to solid puppy food even more gradual this time.