These Pets ain't loyal.

[BunnyPop]

I'm leveling a Hunter and all of my pets keep disappearing (currently L11). I'm feeding it level appropriate and diet friendly food every 4 to 8 minutes. I'm going broke feeding the ungrateful little bugger and it keeps running away.

Is this a bug? I'm a Night Elf if it matters.

[essedge]

Feed as soon as the happiness meter flashes yellow, and wait for the buff pet gets to drop before entering combat or it will drop prematurely.

Just started leveling a hunter as well and it's not a bug unless something screwy with your character. Just getting out of rank 1 loyalty can take a few hours and a full stack of food.

[randommz]

Wait 10 seconds after you feed your pet the food for it to finish eating. If the pet gets attacked while eating it cancels it.

[FeathersForever]

Also, it is probably worth investing a few copper in learning fishing to get some food (assuming pet will eat fish - cats ftw!)

[gotmilk0112]

Why fish for pet food? You can buy meat and fish from many vendors around the world.

Also, it should be noted that the happiness indicator on the pet screen is bugged. It always shows as happy no matter what. At least, that's what it's doing for me. Even when PetFeeder and my unitframe addon showed the pet as unhappy, the default pet stat screen showed it as happy.