First time dog owner - what to feed?

[Cedars]

Hi guys,

I've read through all the poisonous food list so I don't mean things that are harmful.

I was wondering what you think it'd be best to feed our 4 month old lab puppy when we get her in a few weeks time. Brand names would be great, along with any added extras you give them! Don't want her getting fat!

Hannah xx

 

[A1fie]

Hi - It depends a lot on what sort of budget you have. I feed mine on James Well Beloved. It's expensive but it's good quality. Most of the supermarket ones are not great.

There is a really useful website, it's american that gives you a detailed analsis of the ingredients of most of the top brands. I can't remember the link, but it's something like 'dog food analysis' if you google it, you may find it. It's a really interesting web site.

Feeding will also depend on what you plan to do with your puppy. If she is going to be a working dog then there are specific brands that will cater for her.

Also, a lot of people swear by a raw food diet. I don't know much about it TBH.

Ultimately as I said it depends on your budget. I think that feeding poor quality food that is unfit for human consumption, must have some detriment effect on dogs, but I don't know.

Only final thing to say is whatever you decide try not to feed just tinned or wet food as there is not enough nutrients in them. I think a can of food is made up of approximately 75% water which is dreadful.

Good luck and remember to post some piccy's when she arrives.

 

[Spudlet]

To start with find out what the breeder has been feeding and stick with that, then wean the pup gredually onto whatever new food you choose.

Personally I feed dry complete food and think Iams or Eukanuba are both good quality but that is my preference.

Also don't forget to reduce food accordingly if you are using treats for training, as these extras can mount up quite easily.

 

[MurphysMinder]

Your pups breeder should give you a diet sheet, and hopefully some of the food he has been fed on. I used to give about a weeks supply. My advice would be to buy the same feed and keep it on him for a t least a few weeks (unless it is rubbish of course

), and then graduallly change him over to whatever you choose. If you feed a complete puppy food, which is what I would recommend, then you do not need to add any supplements, in fact doing so can be harmful. And I find that the feeding quantities given on the bags are way too much usually. I feed Skinners Field and Trial to my GSDs, according to the bag they should have at least 3 coffee mugs a day. The older ones have one and a half, the pup has 2. If I fed the quanties Skinners suggest they would all be overweight.

I'm sure you will get lots of suggestions of brands, just look carefully at the contents, dogs were not designed to have a mainly wheat diet, and avoid a very popular brand which is full of sugar!

 

[lizzieuk1]

as said there are lots to choose from, first use what the breeder is using until she's settled in then gradually mix a little of the new food in, i would say over 3 weeks is ok.
look at foods like Hills science diet, Iams, Eukanuba, then compare the nutritional analysis with some of the others there are cheaper versions that are the same quality so do a bit of research before you decide.
any doubts have a chat to the vet when you go for vaccs

 

[KarynK]

Personally I would not give my dogs anything less than human quality food, and you very rarely get that in even expensive dog food.

Obviously with the stress of going to a new home you would feed what the puppy was having with it's breeder but take a bit of time to decide how you want to feed her after that. Do some research with an open mind and find what is best for the dog.

Bear in mind that there are virtually no regulations on the ingredients or additives that go into pet food and often those values written on the sack mean absolutely nothing nutrition wise as chicken can mean beaks and claws! Ask the company questions before you decide.

A really good test of any "quality" dog food is to ask to visit the factory where it is "made", if the answer is a resounding NO then you know that what is going in there is less than desirable.
Crown Pet Foods (wellbeloved included in their range) have a huge meat processing plant in the West Country, locals complained of an awful smell of cooking rotted meat! Did they change the quality of the meat, did they heck they spent 1 million odd installing filters to keep the smell in. It is this and worse that a lot of dogs are eating.

I would loose the will to live if I had to eat dried biscuits for my entire life, looking forward to the odd table scrap! Mine are fed raw on a variety of natural human quality food the bulk of which costs me around £5 a month for 2. That meat and bone is "saved" from the incinerator and I have two happy dogs. My diet is not difficult to feed, is balanced over a more natural 1-2 weeks and does not contain any unnatural cereals used as bulk to make dog food cheaper. I support my local butcher in the process too!

 

[Cedars]

KarenK,

What do you feed your dogs exactly? And how much does it cost you? Most puppy websites are saying except £8 a week on food, so it can't seriously cost you £5 for 2 for a month??

Also isn't it really dangerous to give dogs bones?

Hannah xxx

 

[PucciNPoni]

flamehead, I'm not an expert on raw diets, but presumably raw bones are better than cooked as they don't shatter.

Personally I really like Land Of Holistic Pets food, it's holistic and it's human grade ingredients. They do a basic biscuit as well as rice/lamb that's been dehydrated. It's not particularly cheap to buy, however, as with any quality dog food, you don't need to feed as much of it. Also, the clean up tends to be a bit erm...tidier.

 

[Ravenwood]

I echo the above about gradually introducing from what he has already been fed but just wanted to add that whatever you decide to feed - check the protein levels.

I have always fed Chudleigh Puppy and then onto Chudleighs Working Crunch - working dog food doesn't have VAT so normally cheaper.

A sack of complete dog food kibble such as Chudleighs or Skinners should cost you around £14/15 per sack give or take. I have two dogs, fed twice a day and a sack lasts about a fortnight.

Personally I wouldn't feed Iams or Eukanuba (sp?) as have heard bad things about them.

I have heard excellent reviews about the BARF or raw diet - but have never actually got round the logisitics of feeding it - it is so much easier to scoop out of a bag twice a day

ETA: if feeding table scraps (I do!) don't give them anything fatty - like the fat off a pork chop for example - it can lead to pancreatitus.

 

[KarynK]

Sorry bit tardy as I am on foal watch!!

Bones are perfectly fine as long as they are not cooked, as above that changes the consistancy and makes them like concrete and prone to splinter, not good news!! It is what dogs used to be fed before we had canned the dried "dog food". My sister and I have been feeding this diet to a total of about 20 dogs over a combined 20 years + and no problems.

I have two Australian Cattle Dogs, medium sized but quite stocky! Most of the diet is sourced from the local butcher and he charges the princely sum of about £3 to gather bones together!!! I have a small chest freezer so I can buy in bulk for them. I also get chicken wings from him at about 25p each, or from the supermarket. The supermarket reduced fridge is where you will find me! Basically I feed human grade food and organic where possible, especially fruit and veg.


It’s important not to mix the two diets as the raw food travels through the dog quite quickly and wheat and dried food does not, so serious problems can arise. Basically you don’t need to balance the diet on a daily basis and probably mine are balanced over a week or even two. If I am running low on something and they get Chicken for a week I don’t worry as wild canines would do that if there were a glut of some kind, like baby rabbits. So you need to think what they would get if wild. Sometimes they get it frozen if I forget to defrost it! They don’t mind at all!!

For each of mine:

1 x Chicken Carcass with a bit of meat on it or 4-5 Chicken wings form the basis of the diet and I would feed that probably on average 4 days a week. Sometimes I buy a chicken for me, remove and roast the crown and they get the rest. Wings are really good as they have a perfect meat to bone ratio of about 80%. Occasionally they get turkey as well.

1 day a week I will feed mince of some kind a large packet between 2, to this I add a couple of heaped tablespoons of blended veg, like spinach plus carrots and anything left in the fridge, fruit as well but in small quantities and blended so as to break down the cellulose and make it available to the dog, like they would find it partially digested in a preys stomach. I usually use an egg as liquid with cold pressed (uncooked) cod liver oil or olive oil. I will also bung in a handful of pumpkin seeds from the health store as this will help remove worms by irritating them, and sometimes a kelp tablet as a supplement. Sometimes I use the dog packet minces frozen from the pet store.

I feed lamb ribs 1 each if they don’t have a lot of meat on them, and they will have those once or twice a week and one meal of offal, mine are not very keen on liver and kidneys but love hearts. Sometimes I will lightly brown liver so that they at least get some. They have frozen raw green tripe from the pet store and I rotate that as part of the offal meal.

Then I will feed whatever comes my way from the butcher, pork trotters occasionally as it does make them stink a bit! Rabbit they like, and deer bones and other game if I can get it. The only cooked they get is a tin of pilchards in tomato sauce, sometimes they get a raw fish mixed in from the reduced counter, whitebait are quite good. They will eat salmon heads as well.

I give eggs as a treat or bits of fruit and veg and the odd biscuit as a treat or Bob Martins beef jerky. They also get lamb spine bones as a treat to keep them quiet and occasionally a beef knuckle, but as they are inclined to squabble I have to take them away when I’m not about to supervise.

My sister has been feeding this a couple of years longer than me and has written a couple of papers on it here is the link to her website. http://members.aol.com/Brushbow/src/speciesmenu.htm


There is also a book by Ian Billingshurst called Give Your Dog a Bone it is a good start although I don’t agree with all his suggestions and don’t feed dairy or any form of bulk carbs (rice, cereal or pasta) this is another book that is for the purist http://home.earthlink.net/~affenbar/bookpage.html

Just picked up a load of food from the butcher yesterday a bit more than I usually order as I have a new chest freezer. I had around 8 breast of lamb with no bones 6 breast of lamb with bones about 15-20 lamb rib bones, two bin bags of chicken carcasses, two pigs trotters, misc bones including a pork leg joint! 5 bags of chicken wings, enough to totally fill a good sized small chest freezer for £15! This will last the boys a couple of months, but I will buy in some liver from the supermarket, lamb hearts and a bit of frozen tripe just to top up! The butchers are often very grateful that they don’t have to pay to get rid of the stuff and if you buy meat from them for yourself as well they will give you a really good deal (it’s 100x tastier than the supermarket!) and you get to keep your local shop local!

An interesting thing I have noticed with chicken wings, supermarket ones two bites and they are gone, but the butchers ones they have to work harder with, so the supermarket chickens have soft bones as they are so young when killed! But they are great for older dogs and puppies!

You can still do the diet at a reasonable price from the supermarket wings are about £1.80 and that would be 1-3 meals, you can buy lamb bones for about 90p as stock packs and offal as well, there are frozen pet food slabs as well but some have cereals added and again quality is not guaranteed and most importantly there is no bone content!