What To Mix With Dry Dog Food?

Lemlin

I'm feeding my five month old cocker spaniel trio bloom gem at the moment. However, I've also been mixing in:

1. Some bits of canned tuna some evenings to help with protein and its coat
2. A boiled egg (with the shell taken off) to do the same as the tuna

However, someone also told me I should be mixing in a bit of oil for the coat. What type of oil is best?

Someone also told me to leave the shell on the egg as its very good for the dog. Is that true?

What type of items do people mix in with their dog's dry food to get good results?

Honey-ec

You can give the whole egg - raw- shell and all, but do it outside - they tend to make a bit of a mess! Mine love to play with it a bit first, then when it cracks they eat the filling and then the shell.

Tuna canned in oil is the handiest, because you don't need to drain it and the oil is already there. Same goes for any canned fish, really - sardines, mackerel, herring. Aldi do grand little tins of sardine or mackerel in oil for 39c each. One tin per serving is perfect. They also do sardines in tomato sauce, which my dogs love, but some dogs don't react well to nightshades.

You can also give the odd tin of dogfood, but it tends to be full of sugar, so use it sparingly. One tin should do about 3 feeds for a medium sized (25kg) dog.

As I said, if you're feeding fish tinned in oil, you won't need to add oil, but if using tuna in brine, you might want to throw on a glug of sunflower oil. Salmon oil is excellent, but can be hard to find here.

ISDW

If you feed a high quality dry food, you don't need to mix anything with it. I don't know anything about the food that you mention, so don't know how good it is.

I do sometimes give my dogs a treat by adding a raw egg, with the shell broken up on it, and my dogs like to steal the shells if I've been cooking with eggs.

Salmon oil is very good, there is a lady in Belfast that sells it, Paddypaw is the name of the company, if you google it I'm sure you'll get the details.

Please don't use any fish in brine, it is too salty for dogs.

Sigma Force

Is there something wrong with the dogs coat that you are giving him extra food, if the food (not familiar with the one that you use) is a good quality dry food then you don't need to add anything else. With a complete dry dog food just make sure the dog isn't getting too many nutrients as well with extras added to the complete food it might be too much.

If you find the dog perhaps has very dry skin or a very dull coat then it might be worth looking into a different brand of food, evening primrose oil is sometimes used as well for skin problems.

Tuna can have levels of mercury in it and too much is supposed to be bad for cats so can imagine it's the same for dogs also it can be salty as mentioned.

Honey-ec

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

Tuna can have levels of mercury in it.

This old chestnut comes up every time. If a pregnant woman can safely have up to three servings of tuna a week, I have absolutely no problem giving my dogs the odd can.

Lemlin

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

Is there something wrong with the dogs coat that you are giving him extra food, if the food (not familiar with the one that you use) is a good quality dry food then you don't need to add anything else. With a complete dry dog food just make sure the dog isn't getting too many nutrients as well with extras added to the complete food it might be too much.

If you find the dog perhaps has very dry skin or a very dull coat then it might be worth looking into a different brand of food, evening primrose oil is sometimes used as well for skin problems.

Tuna can have levels of mercury in it and too much is supposed to be bad for cats so can imagine it's the same for dogs also it can be salty as mentioned.

I am planning to change the brand of food I give my dog to Orijen but, at the moment, I'm trying out different types of food mixed in with its present food to see what she likes and what gets good results.

I'm using the Trio Bloom Gem because I've been told that Orijen may have too high a level of protein for a puppy so I'm delaying the Orijen until she's six months at least.