dare I ask? best food for 5 month old bc

meesha

meesha

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We have had our 5 month old BC a week, currently on beta puppy dried food as that is what last owner fed. Seems happy, bright, tummy v healthy and stools good, not too bonkers now has settled in and listens to commands etc. Do I continue on or gradually change to something like James's wellbeloved which seems recommended by people. Also do we stay on puppy to 12 months, again conflicting reports some saying to change them over v gradually to adult earlier.

Just to add she is a really nice weight but I am feeding near top end of recommended amount as seems hungry but will obviously be carefully monitoring weight.....she is faiirly active as at yard twice a day and is on the go most of the time at home doing puppy things, after advice I am trying to be careful not to over-exercise so all at her pace mooching about the yard etc.

Thanks all
 
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If its possible, ditch the kibble and feed raw, but I know that's not do-able for many owners, although its number one best food for the dog.
Don't know the best kibble but I saw a super thread somewhere where someone had done all the work for you, and listed all major brands with their ratings.
I'll try and locate it, but being a techno idiot I doubt I'll be able to provide a link.
 
Different feeds work for different dogs,if she's happy with what's she's on now and your happy I wouldn't change IMO my springer is on skinners and is doing brilliant n it he was on raw , we just don't have the storage for raw or he would have stayed on it . We had our old lurcher on skinners all her life , our lurcher is now n Arden grange , he's a fussy little monkey but is positively blooming on this :) you can change into junior food at 6 months I think, phone some feed companies and find out :) beau will go onto junior at around 8 months until around 18-24 months :) he will then be on skinners field and trial either their duck and rice or crunchy depending on his protein needs :)
 
Skinners is ace, mine are on the Crunchy & do brilliantly on it, nine year old NI, 7 year old Corso cross & 10 month old Dane. Fab food.
 
Thanks all, not sure I am brave enough to do the raw thing. Is anyone else feeding beta? And are you feeding the guideline amount?

Will also look at Skinners and Arden grange just to compare.
 
Last bc always had scraps, have introduced couple bits to poppy and they don't seem to upset her so all good, she especially enjoyed her sardines in her Kong but can't say I enjoyed her breath afterwards !
 
Thank you blackcob, will have a look and see if worth introducing new feed towards end of this one. Not really concerned by price if worth the money.
 
I have my BC on arden grange. Seems to be doing well on it, he is very fussy with dog food but seems to enjoy the sensitive bag!
 
Skinners, wainwrights, burns or arden grange? These come out as the best for puppy all 3.5 Star, all the 4 and above I think I would struggle to get hold of locally and don't want to mail order if not sure poppy puppy will eat them.

Pros and cons please

Sorry to bang on but want to make best choice, think will avoid tinned partially for convenience but mostly as it all seems rubbish, would rather add scraps and aldi sardines !
 
I changed my puppy from Beta to Burgess Sensative Puppy complete, following a suggestion from 4sugar. I changed her slowly over a period of several weeks. She was doing ok on the Beta, but it contained wheat, and the Burgess is wheat free.

She also has meat when I cook it.

Not a BC, but a Bichon.
 
Ooh ta amymay, worth knowing, will look at burgess, we had chilli tonight so puppy out of luck but any meat cooked she will have along with anything else appropriate.
 
I LOVE raw feeding! Its a bit scary at first, but once you get into it, its easy! I love hunting in supermarkets for bargains! And my dogs look amazing on it! They literally glow. The hidden bonus is, they dont smell like dogs, they dont fart and they do tiny little hard non smelly poos :D Their behaviour is much better as well :)
 
Our 5 month old BC is eating raw mince (we need to empty the freezer for the next bull!) and some dog biscuits in whole milk straight from the cow. He is growing nicely on it and looking good.
 
FrankieCob said:
I LOVE raw feeding! Its a bit scary at first, but once you get into it, its easy! I love hunting in supermarkets for bargains! And my dogs look amazing on it! They literally glow. The hidden bonus is, they dont smell like dogs, they dont fart and they do tiny little hard non smelly poos :D Their behaviour is much better as well :)
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Agree with all of this.

I've fed mine raw for years and now my little 7 month old is on it (has been since I got him at 10 weeks old). We sometimes get a bag full of free scraps from our butcher or I'll go through the bargain shelf in the supermarket too. The peelings from our veg get mulched down and mixed in with the meat as do any bits of fruit that are not likely to get eaten before they go off. You feel like nothing is being wasted - almost free dog food :p .

You can now buy raw food, frozen in chunks from pet shops so you just take out the amount you need. Nowadays it's much easier to feed raw.

And yes, the poos are much smaller, dryer and easier to clean up ;)
 
I feed mine nature's menu frozen raw blocks which are convenient if you want to do raw and can be bought in pets at home. He is now on two halves a day plus some grain free food such as wainwright's, fishmongers (both pets at home and are grain free and have good offers), the cereal free James Wellbeloved or one called 'carni love' which is 65% meat of wild boar and other fancy stuff (pet shop has it on offer all the time, not sure I could afford it otherwise!).

My guy is sensitive but has been fine on all of these foods, I think you want to avoid excessive carbs and especially cereals with collies if they have a tendency to get hyper/stress/destructive. Dogs don't really need carbs you see. Some foods are like 4% meat 'derivatives' with the rest cereals and people why their dogs are bouncing off the walls.

Any of the above dry foods will probably be fine, I would personally avoid things that contain rice as mine gets a wee bit hyper on that, but he tolerates it well and I use some JW treats like mini jacks etc.

I have gotten used to looking for the meat percentage, if it's above 60% then it's probably worth a try. Then you can check the back of pedigree chum, bakers etc and be aghast :-O
 
Sorry if you think this is really stupid question, but to all those who feed raw diets, what do you actually give your dogs. I have just tried looking online and couldnt really see much about what meats to actually feed? do you just feed raw meats? or other raw foods too?

thank you x
 
There is a small divide in people who think it is necessary to feed raw veg as well, and people who just feed meat, bone and offal. There are percentages you should feed, something like 80% muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% offal (don't quote me) but this can be varied according to weight gain etc, and firmness of poo! Mine mostly has these blocks for my convenience which are just meat, I go for lamb, rabbit, fish, occasionally chicken as I want to avoid allergens (beef, pork etc are common allergens to be avoided for a very sensitive dog, as is chicken apparently but I don't find we have a problem with that) I occasionally give him whole chicken legs, wings, thighs etc which are cheap enough and he is absolutely delighted to be given them. He also gets chicken or lamb liver, kidney, heart which he also loves and eats frozen too (I get the ickiness out of the way in one go by dividing them into handy portions) as he likes to have a wild experience gnawing stuff in the garden bless him.

I think feeding vegetables is fine as extra vitamins etc and provides bulk for a dog that would only get a small portion otherwise, but I do not think they really need them.

I would not feed anything bigger than a lamb bone wise and haven't really ventured beyond chicken when it comes to bones (mainly because I cannot find any good sources that don't require bulk ordering and having more than a shoebox sized freezer as we do!)

It's much cheaper if you want to feed blocks to order them in bulk, they would be half the price for us, must sort out the freezer issue.
 
When my collie came into rescue he had big bald itchy patches, and most food would turn to diarrhea, even small things like dentastix would mean diarrhea for 3 or 4 days. Poor poppet. I am not an 'only raw will do person but it saved his life for sure, and like I say I do feed some high quality dry food plus treats with no ill effects, now that he is settled in a home. He was on a whacking 3 whole blocks a day in the rescue too, now only one so he must have been stressing it off.
 
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