OK to supplement complete dog food with fruit and veg?

54and56

Hi,

I've a lovely 4 1/2 month old Newfi/Rothie/Innuit mix pup who is settling in well with an older Alsation/Lab type mix.

This weight predictor http://www.enpevet.de/CalculateWeight.aspx (use USA date format to get it to work correctly i.e. Month/Date/Year not Date/Month/Year) consistently tells me she's doing to be circa 28kg when fully mature which I'm delighted with.

I have her on Royal Canin Maxi Junior and she gets fed three times a day. In addition she has started eating raw apples, peeled bananas, left over asparagus and even the raw stork of broccoli. It started when my daughter left a quarter of an apple on the couch by accident. The pup grabbed it and ate it so the next day in between meals we put a full apple cut into quarters into her food bowl and she took a quarter, waddled off to her bed and ate it before repeating the process three more times. She now gets a fruit/veg snack mid morning every morning. What she gets depends on what's available but tends to be an apple, a banana or some chopped veg such a carrot/broccoli etc. At around 11am she wanders into the kitchen looking for it!!

I assumed it's ok to feed fresh fruit/veg in limited quantities to her so long as it doesn't upset her tummy (and it doesn't seem to) but I thought I'd better double check here before it does her some harm or becomes a habit that can't be easily broken.

Cheers.

Into The Blue

Best to give the dog only small amounts of fruit, (less than 5%). (Pretty much as you are)

Feed fruit at least 1 hour before feeding meat or other proteins and a minimum of 3 hours after a protein meal. (Again, nothing different then what you're doing currently)

Knine

I would not give a growing dog fruit & veg especially if she is on a complete food. Too much roughage/fillers will just cause a lot of poo out the other end. An occasional treat is fine or to add to the diet of an overweight dog to help them feel full.

Those weight predictions are just a very rough guide so I would not have much faith in them for cross breeds. Genetics will follow through as in which ever of the breeds she takes after.

54and56

Knine wrote: »

I would not give a growing dog fruit & veg especially if she is on a complete food. Too much roughage/fillers will just cause a lot of poo out the other end. An occasional treat is fine or to add to the diet of an overweight dog to help them feel full.

It's just the one small treat a day but I'll keep an eye and if she's just producing more poo I'll reduce. She's also teething so I think the apples and broccoli have a nice chewing effect for her.

Knine wrote: »

Those weight predictions are just a very rough guide so I would not have much faith in them for cross breeds. Genetics will follow through as in which ever of the breeds she takes after.

Yes, I know they are guestimates but her weight gain is being measured week on week and the prediction is remaining more or less constant every time I run it with the updated info. The more data points the more reliable the prediction should be but I'm aware it's not an exact science and she could suddenly put on an accelerated growth spurt which would totally change things. Her father was a full Newfoundland (grow to 65kg IIRC) and her mother a Rottweiler (+/- 40KG) / Northern Innuit (+/- 30kg) cross so she could be a lot heavier than the predicted 28kg but I'm hoping not!!!

tk123

Into The Blue wrote: »

Best to give the dog only small amounts of fruit, (less than 5%). (Pretty much as you are)

Feed fruit at least 1 hour before feeding meat or other proteins and a minimum of 3 hours after a protein meal. (Again, nothing different then what you're doing currently)

Can I ask where you're getting these timelines from!?

My dogs get fruit and veg with their meals and in between and no issues.

TBH op I'd be more concerned about the Maxi Jnr you're feeding- I used to feed that and had nothing but problems with bad poos, blocked AGs, but more importantly a lot of people on forums blamed it for their large breed dogs putting weight on too quickly and developing pano.

54and56

tk123 wrote: »

TBH op I'd be more concerned about the Maxi Jnr you're feeding- I used to feed that and had nothing but problems with bad poos, blocked AGs, but more importantly a lot of people on forums blamed it for their large breed dogs putting weight on too quickly and developing pano.

Well she's been on it since I got her (end of Feb), her poo's are fine and she's definitely not putting on too much weight either by looking at her or based on her predicted weight Vs her parentage but I'm open to alternative suggestions. I'm using RC Junior Maxi as I thought it was the best/most suitable for her expected size but I only intend to keep her on it until she's 6 months old after which time I'll probably just put her on the same food our adult Alsation/Lab cross has been on for years - Aldi's own brand complete chicken and veg. I'm probably going to be slaughtered for using that cheap stuff but it served her well, she's her optimum weight and both healthy and active for her age (vet's opinion not mine) eating absolutely nothing other than Aldi's complete food.