Changed dogs food - need advice

Allirog

Hi all, we changed our Jack Russell's food during the summer. It was a more accidental change than a purpose made change. She's a 9 year old jr and we only have her 4 years and prior to that she was fed tinned food so we tried to change and the best compromise we do was half and half but a few months back we purchased a brand which I've now been told is like giving skittles to a baby so we've stopped immediately.

However, the poor dog has a really bad itch and I'm just wondering is there anything I can do to help her? It has eased up a lot in the last few days since we discontinued her dry food brand so I'm just wondering what I can do to further help her.

Also, is there any recommendations of a food I could give her now at her age that won't upset her too much?

Thank you!

SillyMangoX

What foods was/is she on now OP? And what would your price range be?

Allirog

She was on the tesco finest pouch and bakers dry food. And now she's on just the pouch. I'm prepared to spend that bit extra on her food, I just don't know what to buy/make for her

cocker5

Allirog wrote: »

She was on the tesco finest pouch and bakers dry food. And now she's on just the pouch. I'm prepared to spend that bit extra on her food, I just don't know what to buy/make for her

Op you really need to take her off all supermarket dog food - its very poor quality and full of bulking agents and additives. This includes all tesco, dunnes, aldi and lidl...all supermarket dry / wet food. as a general rule 99% of all brands sold in your average supermarket is muck

you really need to give us an approx budget so we can recommend some decent food.

Nody

Welcome to the world of Zooplus users

Anyway, if you want to feed wet try Rocco on; quite cheap and no fillers or if you prefer dry then get something grain free such as Taste of the Wild or Wolf of Wilderness (make sure you check feeding guidelines as they tend to require a lot less compared to Supermarket brands!).

Allirog

€15/€20 a week?

I'm willing to pay anything and go anywhere today to buy her what's best for her!

cocker5

Allirog wrote: »

€15/€20 a week?

I'm willing to pay anything and go anywhere today to buy her what's best for her!

€20 a week is alot OP a 15kg bag for approx €65/€70 should last your jack russell 2/3 months.

have you considered a grain free diet?

I feed my guy Taste of the wild i buy all my dog supplies on here:

http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/taste_of_the_wild/231924

takes around 1 week for delivery... your best bet is order the food and wiat for it.. feed her boiled rice / chicken while you wait

maggiepip

Also from zooplus, Rocco and Lukullus wet food is superb and reasonable, much the same price as supermarket wet but 1000% better! Salmon oil or coconut oil added to your dogs food would help get over the itching.

tk123

cocker5 wrote: »

Op you really need to take her off all supermarket dog food - its very poor quality and full of bulking agents and additives. This includes all tesco, dunnes, aldi and lidl...all supermarket dry / wet food. as a general rule 99% of all brands sold in your average supermarket is muck

you really need to give us an approx budget so we can recommend some decent food.

Sorry this isn't the case anymore as I learned today in Dunnes - they're now stocking Naturo trays which score 4.3 for grain free and 4.5 for the other varities on allaboutdogfood.com

cocker5

tk123 wrote: »

Sorry this isn't the case anymore as I learned today in Dunnes - they're now stocking Naturo trays which score 4.3 for grain free and 4.5 for the other varities on allaboutdogfood.com

Glad to hear they are changing their ways... I did cover myself saying 99% of supermarket food was crap :pac:

aonb

Ive seen Naturo in Tescos for quite a while now.
OP you could worse than this brand, especially if you only have the one small dog and dont want to buy (1) online (2) large amounts (3) try her if she is fussy on smaller amounts.

You could give her SALMON OIL in her food, to help her coat/skin. You could also give COCONUT OIL for coat/skin (available in Most supermarkets - get the organic tub approx 6euro but would last months for a small dog) - small tsp in her food.

You could also, just til you find what food you want to give her and to give her tummy a chance, boil up a pan of brown rice and chicken thighs (which you will debone when cooked), to which you can add some very small diced veg (carrot/potato/peas etc). Boil all together, and keep in the fridge - last about a week.

She probably has the skin issue because of the bad quality food - a very very common symptom (and JRT's are quite susceptible to skin issues). Since she is getting on, the salmon oil would help joints too. But as with everything, introduce gradually over a few days into the diet

Lucky dog, being well taken care of by her human - good luck!




As with all new things - supplements or oil/food - feed her small amounts initially to build up over a week or so - help her tummy adjust to the new food.

Allirog

Thanks everyone for the advice and comments. I really do appreciate it.

aonb wrote: »

Ive seen Naturo in Tescos for quite a while now.
OP you could worse than this brand, especially if you only have the one small dog and dont want to buy (1) online (2) large amounts (3) try her if she is fussy on smaller amounts.

You could give her SALMON OIL in her food, to help her coat/skin. You could also give COCONUT OIL for coat/skin (available in Most supermarkets - get the organic tub approx 6euro but would last months for a small dog) - small tsp in her food.

You could also, just til you find what food you want to give her and to give her tummy a chance, boil up a pan of brown rice and chicken thighs (which you will debone when cooked), to which you can add some very small diced veg (carrot/potato/peas etc). Boil all together, and keep in the fridge - last about a week.

She probably has the skin issue because of the bad quality food - a very very common symptom (and JRT's are quite susceptible to skin issues). Since she is getting on, the salmon oil would help joints too. But as with everything, introduce gradually over a few days into the diet

Lucky dog, being well taken care of by her human - good luck!




As with all new things - supplements or oil/food - feed her small amounts initially to build up over a week or so - help her tummy adjust to the new food.

Thanks very much for this. I suppose what happened here is we had our first baby in May and we managed to neglect the dogs food when we should have been paying more attention to it!! A lesson learned! She's very precious to us so not only have we introduced her to a new baby but we managed to mess up her tummy. If only I'd known!! Anyways, I actually have a roast chicken in the oven right now and some veggies so I'll give her that and some brown rice. Start small and I'll go from there. Thanks again. I really appreciate the advice!

hardCopy

tk123 wrote: »

Sorry this isn't the case anymore as I learned today in Dunnes - they're now stocking Naturo trays which score 4.3 for grain free and 4.5 for the other varities on allaboutdogfood.com

I saw these last night. The recipe reads like people food, nice people food.

tk123

hardCopy wrote: »

I saw these last night. The recipe reads like people food, nice people food.

They loved it! I raw feed and get frozen sprat for them so they're used to fish most days but got the salmon one for a treat. Smelled fishy but not unbearably so and was oily from the salmon oil so I'll probably pick some more up from them to add to my stockpile of Forthglade trays - I built it up last month when there was a chance (now canceled) I'd have to travel for work lol

Allirog

Thanks again everyone for the advice. We got a bag of James Wellbeloved and also the naturo food so we'll start with them and then hopefully try to get her fully on the dry food. Again, thanks a mill for the advice, it really is very much appreciated.

aonb

remember to introduce the new foods slowly - over several days - so that her tummy gets a chance to get used to the new food.

Some dogs are tempted by kibble/dry food when its moistened - warm water will bring the smell of the food out more... might be worth a try...

The other thing worth trying is to mix the two - dry/wet- with more wet than dry, then reduce the wet by tiny amounts very very slowly until you get to all dry. Although I know one of my fussy boys never enjoyed kibble on its own. He treated kibble as a treat only - NOT as his dinner!!! :cool:

Allirog

aonb wrote: »

remember to introduce the new foods slowly - over several days - so that her tummy gets a chance to get used to the new food.

Some dogs are tempted by kibble/dry food when its moistened - warm water will bring the smell of the food out more... might be worth a try...

The other thing worth trying is to mix the two - dry/wet- with more wet than dry, then reduce the wet by tiny amounts very very slowly until you get to all dry. Although I know one of my fussy boys never enjoyed kibble on its own. He treated kibble as a treat only - NOT as his dinner!!! :cool:

We mixed in some of the dry food into a good chunk of the wet and she devoured it. Kept going back to lick the bowl so we gave her a few pieces of the dried food on its own and the ate all that too. So I think we Will eventually get her onto the dried good but I'll keep the warm water idea as well just in case! Glad I got the advice too, so thanks again!