Food advice please for miniature puppy

[Chiffy]

For those of you who don't know me, I am an experienced dog owner but have never had anything to do with a dog smaller than a whippet.
My mad daughter is collecting a 10 week old miniature smooth haired dachshund at the end of this week.
Today she spoke to the breeders about the food it is currently on:-
Royal Canin dry kibble ad lib (available at all times)
Scrambled egg for breakfast, white meat at lunch time, red meat for tea. Apparently sometimes she eats it and sometimes she doesn't !
To be honest, I was appalled!
I was brought up, offer a meal, if not eaten , take it away till the next meal.
We do not want a picky feeder.
I do not like Royal Canin, it has some dreadful ingredients even if all the vets do recommend it.
Love to have your thoughts but definitely NO to raw feeding.

Thanks, in anticipation!

 

[{97702}]

As you know I don't 'do' puppies or smaller breeds so I am not going to be any help I'm afraid, but we must have pictures LZT who used to post on here has THE most gorgeous silver dapple mini smooth dachshund, I am in love with them now

 

[splashgirl45]

im not an expert on small dogs but i would just feed what i would feed a normal size puppy but cut the amount down. i also dont like food left down all of the time so i would feed small amounts 4 times a day...i feed james wellbeloved turkey and rice kibble with a splash of water and either tuna,cooked chicken, jwb pouch or pilchards on top to give a bit of wet food as variety..if it was me i would only change the jwb kibble to puppy and maybe soak in warm water while it is very little. im sure others will be able to give more expertg advice....but dont forget piccies are ESSENTIAL!!!!!!! also i would feed what the breeder says to start with and gradually change to what you feel is best....

 

[{97702}]

And here is the totally adorable gorgeous Rosie...... I am going to steal her

 

[Chiffy]

Thanks. Levrier. I am approaching this event with great trepidation. My daughter runs a pretty chaotic household of horses ponies children a lurcher a cat not to mention loads of dairy cows, quite mad!

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I feed Eden (and RAW) seems to be a lot of small dogs on Eden that do well on it. Is this from a mutual friend Chiffy?

 

[Cinnamontoast]

A friend's mum has three, one liver, 2 Black and Tan. I nearly nicked them last week! She's gorgeous!

Fish4dogs does small kibble, but there's a lot of pea flour in it these days. I agree, Royal Canin is poor quality, awful ingredients. Is it Lukullus someone was on about the other day?

This has 5 stars on allaboutdogfood. https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/1474/akela-complete-wet-working-dog-food And the dry version is sensibly labelled as weaning to adult.

 

[Kaylum]

Look on the allaboutdogfood website you will see that foods that are often recommended by people have not been researched properly as to what they contain. Also kibble doesn't smell very appealing so wet food can help if you use that as well.

 

[Chiffy]

Thanks for replies so far. Will do some more research.
Thank you CT for giving me hope that I might like her and she will be a proper dog. She is chocolate by the way, very appropriate for Easter!

No MOC, the breeder you are thinking of breeds the wirehaired.
This was nothing to do with me and came as a huge shock! The pup was bred in North Yorks, so quite a trek to get her.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

No MOC, the breeder you are thinking of breeds the wirehaired.
This was nothing to do with me and came as a huge shock! The pup was bred in North Yorks, so quite a trek to get her.

ahh, I know she has some smooths-couldnt remember though what she had available. Eden is rated 4.8 to 5.0 (depending on type) on the allaboutdogfood website-I am not a kibble fan really but both of them love the semi-moist, which is a 60/40 food but for dogs over 16 weeks I think (the dry kibble is fine for younger pups though).

I love dachshunds but would want a standard! hope you don't have chickens..

 

[Cinnamontoast]

I'm not a small dog person, but those three totally swung me. They're well behaved mini dobermans, which is what the family had previously!

 

[druid]

Acana do a small breed puppy kibble (almost cat food sized pieces) which is good quality and not bank breaking if you buy from zooplus or check the special offers on Bern pet foods own website (the uk manufacturer)

 

[JennBags]

I am a complete convert to Millies Wolfheart, both the dogs are on it, and Suzie hadn't had an upset tummy since we switched her (she was regularly either sick or the other thing before).

Here's a pic of Chiffy's reluctant new addition for you all:

 

[Chiffy]

Haha JB! I am sure I shall think she is cute, just unnecessary!

Yes MOC, there are chickens. They are very special, all have names. She better not.........

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Yes MOC, there are chickens. They are very special, all have names. She better not.........

ask T what happened to his chickens by the mini-dachs! be warned..

 

[CorvusCorax]

**love**

Be prepared for the wrapped ears and the sad eyes when you're trying to eat something.
'Buuut I'm starving and I haven't eaten for daaaaays'
(Bowl full of untouched kibble in background)

 

[GirlFriday]

TBH it sounds as though daughter could do without more hassle (and/or input from her mum!). Once it is an adult presumably she'll want it on whatever the lurcher is on so might be an idea to acclimatise it to a puppy version of that... Kibble is pretty horrid and daxies can have taste though. My mutt has cheap dried stuff for one of his meals to counterbalance the luxury of the little organic packets of wet food he has for the other. Seems to suit him (not daxxie, although his predecessor was but only a touch bigger) better than either/or.

 

[Sprout]

I have never fed my dogs "ad lib"!

I am not experienced with tiny breeds - as you know, I am a huge fan of Millieswolfheart products, and their customer care team offer fantastic advice.
I hope the little one settles in quickly and becomes a voracious eater with a big personality soon. Xx

 

[Chiffy]

Girl Friday, whatever I say would not stop my daughter doing anything she wanted to do! But our lives are inextricably linked. It would not be possible for her to have two Event horses if I wasn't involved, helping with horses, dogs and children. We get on extremely well but she knows I am not keen on this latest project.
She asked me to do some food research for her as she never gets time to come on the forum these days.

 

[RunToEarth]

My MIL has Chis and she feeds Canagen small breed kibble - it looks really decent stuff from the ingredient listing.

My retriever was ad lib fed as a puppy from the breeder. It took the best part of a year to get her eating at a set time as the grazing mentality had already been established at 12 weeks. I believe that as a result of this she isn't very motivated by food. In some respects that's great - there is nothing worse than a fat, greedy retriever. However, it makes hunger strikes more frequent and training her was a bit more difficult with her not being overly interested in a treat reward. Not sure how that will translate with a mini, but I really don't agree with the ad lib approach for dogs.

 

[hobo]

I will ask my friend who has 7 of them she has also bred a few so will know what has and hasn't worked. Though try not to let it eat what hers did 2 pairs of her knickers!!

 

[Chiffy]

Hobo you always manage to make me laugh! Interesting post RTE thanks. In fact thanks all plenty for us to research. Yes want good quality small bite kibble in a small bag at first incase rejected. Don't worry those of you that don't like kibble it won't be the sole food. The lurchers food would not suit a mini by the way.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Barking Heads Puppy Days is good quality and the nuts are teeny tiny. Comes in 1.5kg bags.

 

[s4sugar]

Give skinners a call & they will send out sam[ple. They do some decent puppy foods & a couple less good but still better than Canin.
Naturediet or forthglade would be good & easy as main feeds.
I agree, don't leave food down. It makes housetraining problematic and it is easier to work with a puppy with set boundaries.

 

[Chiffy]

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions. We made some decisions today.
Four meals a day, but no food left down . We will start with breeders food suggestions but asap move off Royal Canin.
First choice, Fish4Dogs small bite puppy, sending for some sample size packs.
Also sending for Forthglade puppy packs.

On the back up list Acana grain free small breeds puppy and Barking Heads.

Will let you know how we get on, I fear she has already been over indulged and is a fussy feeder. We shall see.

 

[Moobli]

She looks very sweet.

Our new border collie pup came with Arden Grange Puppy/Junior food and looks well reared on it, but I feed my dogs Simpsons Premium and so he is now on a mix of the AG with Simpsons Premium puppy. My dogs are fed a half/half diet - so they get raw for breakfast and Simpsons for their evening meal.

I have never fed ad lib - I don't see any reason for that, and believe it is more likely to result in fussy eaters.

 

[Chiffy]

Absolutely WGSD, that is what worried us, confirmed by others. Routine feed times is the way forward and helps with house training too.
I think our feed regime is much like yours. It's just all our other dogs are large so we knew we needed to find a good quality small bite kibble.
Rosie Sausage is on her way to us from Yorkshire as I write!
Love your pup by the way.

 

[Clodagh]

What a stunning and cute bundle of trouble!
I love Daxies and would like a Teckel one day, when i am too old to go shooting.