Westie Puppy

happypuppy

I have a 11 week old westie puppy and thought i was doing the right thing feeding him a mix of pedigree chum puppy pouches and Bakers dry food, now after reading quite a few posts i'm not so sure.

Should I only feed him dry food? And which one is best?

I want to make sure he gets all the vits, minerals etc that he needs while growing. He is not the best at eating his food (or i expect him to eat more - have just started measuring it all out) although we manage to get alot of the dry food into him using them as 'treats'!:)

leelee_m

Personally id mix in some meat with the dry food, chicken or that. Dry food alone just isnt enough, ive seen a few dogs that are just fed on nothing but dry food and they look miserable and somewhat undernourished. Imagine how you would feel eating dry stuff like that day in day out.
Vary it for him have chicken mixed with it some days and something else another day. If you can get cow hearts and boil them and cut them up into small pieces and mix that with his dry food that would also be good for him. hearts are very nutritional and great for dogs! They smell quite bad when they're boiling but your dog should love them!

Ruby Soho

Miserable and undernourished? That's bull, my two dogs get nothing but dry food and they are the picture of health (muscular, shiney coats etc). A good quality dry food (i.e. Royal Canin, Hill's Science Plan) will provide the dog with absolutely everything (vitamins, minerals etc) he/she needs at the correct amounts. They are complete foods, you do not need to mix them with anything. The pup just needs to get used to it, that's all, once he knows that that's what he gets fed, he won't mind
Choose a food specifically designed to meet the needs of a growing puppy. Most foods for your dog's breed and lifestage can be fed until about 1 year of age, then you can change over to a complete adult food.
If you mess around with chicken and heart etc, you will only succeed in making the dog fussy. Its not necessary, maybe as an occasional treat, but that's all.
Dry food is also much more economical for yourself too, if you buy a large-ish bag, it might seem expensive at the time, but it will last ages. It's better for his all round health, including his teeth, and your pocket. For example, I have 2 large breed dogs, it costs me about 10euro per week to feed them one of the highest quality dry foods on the market, if I fed them Caesar pouches, it would cost 15euro PER DAY.... each.
You will also find that feeding a relatively small amount of dry food means that less comes out the other end than if you were feeding pouches etc.

Whispered

Ruby Soho wrote: »

Miserable and undernourished? That's bull, my two dogs get nothing but dry food and they are the picture of health (muscular, shiney coats etc). .

+1 it depends on the food, mine gets Royal canin, I have heard not so good things about hills, but it depends on the dog I suppose. Wet food is supposed to be terrible for them.

I sometimes mix in a tin of tuna, or a raw egg (or a boiled egg if my OH is having one) he also gets pigs ears, cows ears, chicken in his kong, as a treat. And it without doubt makes him fussy, I have cut way back on his treats since he started leaving his food in the bowl and sitting under my feet or at the fridge looking for a treat.

Ruby Soho

Mine are on Hill's for the last 4 years, and they are doing very well on it, but it really does depend on the individual. I have thought about changing to Royal Canin to see, but i no point messing about with their diets if it suits them as is. And there was a SERIOUS reduction in poo-picking-up when I started feeding it to them

leelee_m

Yes in MY experience i have seen dogs who are fed on nothing but dry food and they look miserable and undernourished!!! Its great that your dogs are happy on just dry food but that's not always the case with all dogs!! Our dogs get meat mixed in with their dry food and they are not fussy eaters, they are happy and healthy, and their coats are in fantastic condition!!!
I was giving him an opinion based on my own personal experience so there's no need to get snotty!

Ruby Soho

Wasn't being snotty, just well informed
I was thinking that a lot of people on this forum might have taken offense to your implying that their dog's may look miserable and malnourished, when it clearly isn't the case. Yes there are some ****e dry foods out there too, made with rubbish ingredients, and I'm sure that some dogs would indeed look the same if they're fed that way, but if the quality of the food is there, then is not going to be an issue.

leelee_m

i wasnt at all implying that anyone on this forum's dogs look malnourished! All i said was that i have seen dogs before who werent getting all that they needed from just dry food! Like i said i was giving my opinion based on my own experience! thats all!

Toulouse

OP, Bakers and Pedigree are not great food to be feeding a dog if you want him to have all the proper nutrients. You'd be better off switching to a non-supermarket brand food like Ruby Soho mentioned such as Royal Canin, Hills, Arden Grange, Burns, etc.

If you feed a dog on a good dry brand then it is a complete food and is enough on it's own.

adelcrowsmel

Hiya,

I'm just after getting 2 cavalier king charles boys and had them at the vets last week for their shots. I was just asking him about their food as I was given a puppy pack with them of Royal Canin food. Not to alarm anyone but the vet said no way to give them that - that it is full of chemicals and was recently linked with 1000's of dog deaths in the US (though they don't advertise that). He said they imported some chemical from china that was put in the dry food and caused this - if you google it you'll come across some articles. Athought the chemical that caused it has probably been removed he said he wouldn't trust the other things in it either.

He recommended Burns dry dog food and said that it is mostly natural in comparision to other products on the market, so I changed my two boys to that gradually.

happypuppy

Thank you all so so much. As this is my first dog I genuinely never knew that there was so much to choosing his food and am so glad i came across this site so early in having him so I can make the necessary changes.

I was considering Royal canin until adelcrowsmel post (which was very worrying) but will do somemore research into brands now. Has anyone good or bad views on Eukanuba?

Thanks again all.:)

leelee_m

happypuppy wrote: »

Thank you all so so much. As this is my first dog I genuinely never knew that there was so much to choosing his food and am so glad i came across this site so early in having him so I can make the necessary changes.

I was considering Royal canin until adelcrowsmel post (which was very worrying) but will do somemore research into brands now. Has anyone good or bad views on Eukanuba?

Thanks again all.:)

My siberian husky is on Eukanuba and she loves it!!! She eats every bit of it! Havent had any probs so far with it. Her coat is in great condition and she's perfectly healthy and happy