Is my dog eating enough food?
I have an 10 month old female dog who is a beagle mix breed. We adopted her from an old couple who said her mom is a beagle but dad is a mix of corgi and some Tibetan local breed. As a puppy she used to be extemely food motivated. We had to even get her a slow feeding bowl because she would just gobble up food as soon as we gave it to her.
Then in early March 2026, she got her first heat. And it was like a switch was turned off - from then she has been an extemely picky eater. Till then we used to give her boiled mashed mix of veggies (pumpkin, carrot, sweet potato, broccoli etc.) + chicken. Now she does not eat home made food at all. So we have started ordering food for her (packaged, ready to eat without preservatives from small businesses which contain veggies, fish/chicken etc.) - she eats this reluctantly. Often does not eat when given but sometimes goes back for it when hungry (I'm assuming she's hungry because she went back for the food). Even with this, we've had to explore several different vendors and flavours since she will keep rejecting after having it for a week or two.
Overall, on an average, she ends having around 350 grams of food daily (down from 650 grams before her heat). Now, the anxiety of our puppy not eating enough food has made us take some drastic measures - we've tried hand feeding her, adding different toppers such as ghee, butter (very small amounts), packaged topper gravies etc. I've read online that we should keep the food available only for 15mins or so before taking it away and then giving it again during the next designated meal time. I'll be truthful, the anxiety of her not eating anything means that we have not been able to follow this fully - we leave the food available to her whole day because we do not know when she will get hungry or want to eat. We've followed her around trying to feed her. My question is, why is this happening? She was extemely food motivated but as soon as her heat cycle started, she lost that. We've jumped through hoops trying to feed her.
Points that may be relevant -
Sometimes she does not eat her first meal of the day until 1pm. Even as late as 4pm
On most days, she will eat an average of 350 grams
She tries to eat grass whenever we go on walks
During the day, she sleeps a lot but often initiates play by bringing a toy to me in between napping
She's energetic on walks and interacts with other dogs
She eats around 50 grams of kibble daily, mostly. (this is counted in the average 350 grams)
She weighs around 9.5 kgs. She gained weight continously until her heat cycle started and since then she has stabilised. Her weight goes up or down by 300-500 grams when we check fortnightly but it hasn't dropped drastically
We took her to vet who did an x-ray but could not find anything wrong. Vet seems to think she's just picky
He prescribed a medicine to bring back appetite but she refused to have that also.
Why is she behaving this way? I'm at my wits end trying to ensure she's well fed. How much food should a puppy of her age and breed have?
Any advice is welcome. Please help. Also adding a photo of the pupper in question - Kili.