Canned Dog Food

The Mighty Quinn

I have two bichon cavalier mixes, coming up on 3 years old.

I've gone through lots of different food over the few years as they seem to take to new food and then just stop eating it after a while.

I started with 7s I think it was called, dry food. Was expensive but happy to purchase as they liked it and seemingly nutritious. Then they stopped eating it. I went to mixing some trays of pate with it. That kept them busy for a while.

Then they just stopped eating it completely. I did adopt a "if they're hungry they'll eat it approach", but after 2 days of no eating I tried other food.

At present they're on canned food, they don't like the gravy ones, just the jelly ones or the tesco loaf ones. They sometimes have nuts mixed in bit often don't like that.

I've tried the brand stuff, the own brand stuff. Lately they've stopped eating it again some days completely. Their form is good and they're toilets are fine, but seem hungry (mad for "human" food) and they probably are because they're picking their bowl only.

I'm wondering if there are major differences between types of canned food and what approach I should try. They love cat food, tins of fish in jelly, but afraid this isn't nutrition enough for them (quantity is the same, any ideas?)

DBB

Huuuge difference in quality of canned or wet foods op
The stuff you buy in supermarkets, such as Brandy, Pedigree, Winalot... take a look at the ingredients. There's almost no meat in there, it's just chunks of wheaty, grainy ick with some "animal derivatives" added. Ick.:o
If you're feeding wet food, to me, you need to go for high meat, and as little to zero grain as possible. Decent quality wet/tinned food is generally no more expensive than the tinned crud in supermarkets, and generally considerably more palatable, because of the meat.
Most supermarkets now do a couple of reasonably good wet foods, in plastic trays, one called Naturo, the other called Forthglade.
Zooplus also does a large array of good, high quality tinned/wet foods, Rocco is excellent, and really good value esp if you bulk buy (which i know... nobody with fussy dogs likes to bulk buy, but it's still good value in smaller quantities!) Naturediet is also good, as is Rinti. There are some more pricey tinned options on zooplus also, such as Wolf of Wilderness, and Lily's Kitchen.
Do change them onto new foods gradually over at least 5 days.

The Mighty Quinn

The Rocco food looks good, and surprised its same cost as supermarket stuff, thanks for recommendation.

The beef and reindeer sounds good, maybe the beef and salmon, they love a bit of fish.

The Mighty Quinn

Quick question for those in the know.

The Rocco dog food says on the tin to give 400g per day to a dog 10kg body weight. The tins are 800g (Beef with Salmon).
I have 2 dogs, one at 9.5kg, the other 10.5kg.

By the producer instructions, one tin will do the 2 dogs a day. It just seems small. They were having about 800g each a day of the cheaper supermarket food. Is it a case of quality over quantity?

I've been giving them a tin between them in the morning, and in the evening splitting a 400g can of beef with whole chicken hearts.
They LOVE it, licking bowls clean.

I just don't want them hungry (or overfed either I suppose), and it's a case of if I gave them twice as much, they'd eat twice as much, but they're like me in that sense haha, don't need it but will eat it.

Cherry Blossom

You could give them a bit more to begin with to make sure they are getting enough. Go by the condition of the dogs, if they start gaining weight then I would cut back a bit at that point.

DBB

Jeepers op... 400g per day per dog actually sounds like too much! The general rule of thumb for wet/raw food is 2 to 3% of body weight per day, which for both of your dogs would be 200 to 300g per day!
It might help if you visualise how small their tummies are... dogs their size would have tummies no bigger than a small satsuma, probably smaller, so they will absolutely feel satiated on far less food than you're thinking. So, go easy on the amounts you're giving them, as it's hard work to shift excess weight once they put it on

The Mighty Quinn wrote: »

Quick question for those in the know.

The Rocco dog food says on the tin to give 400g per day to a dog 10kg body weight. The tins are 800g (Beef with Salmon).
I have 2 dogs, one at 9.5kg, the other 10.5kg.

By the producer instructions, one tin will do the 2 dogs a day. It just seems small. They were having about 800g each a day of the cheaper supermarket food. Is it a case of quality over quantity?

I've been giving them a tin between them in the morning, and in the evening splitting a 400g can of beef with whole chicken hearts.
They LOVE it, licking bowls clean.

I just don't want them hungry (or overfed either I suppose), and it's a case of if I gave them twice as much, they'd eat twice as much, but they're like me in that sense haha, don't need it but will eat it.

The Mighty Quinn

:o

Thanks! The 9.5kg dog is very lean looking, but both were at the vet a week ago, weighed, eyes and ears checked, parvo and kennel cough boosters given. Vet said they were in fantastic condition, very healthy dogs.

Okay, feeding them plenty so. I asked vet about their food and he advised going for dry food only. At that point I'd bought about a month worth of the Rocco though.

Is the wet food really that bad if the quality is good? Should I switch to dry (they won't eat it at first, I know them too well..)

DBB

Most vets recommend dry food. A lot of those vets also sell it. There may be a correlation in there somewhere
Most dog nutrition specialists recommend raw/high quality wet
Having said that, I know a growing number of vets who feed their own dogs a raw/wet diet.

The Mighty Quinn

DBB wrote: »

Most vets recommend dry food. A lot of those vets also sell it. There may be a correlation in there somewhere
Most dog nutrition specialists recommend raw/high quality wet
Having said that, I know a growing number of vets who feed their own dogs a raw/wet diet.

I'll stick with the Rocco for now so. They're really keen on it.

So what you're advising me is, don't mind the puppy dog eyes and desperation licking bowls, and the "i'm hungry" guilt trips they try on me, they're well fed and don't need more!!

DBB

The Mighty Quinn wrote: »

I'll stick with the Rocco for now so. They're really keen on it.

So what you're advising me is, don't mind the puppy dog eyes and desperation licking bowls, and the "i'm hungry" guilt trips they try on me, they're well fed and don't need more!!

Look away! Look away!
My active, working 40kg German Shepherd gets 900g per day. Any more than that and the waistline starts to disappear! Just bear that in mind... your dogs are one quarter of her weight... feed them accordingly!

Gael23

I would hold form with the food. If they know there’s something tastier like human food coming along they will hold off for it. A dog will eat when it’s hungry

DBB

Gael23 wrote: »

I would hold form with the food. If they know there’s something tastier like human food coming along they will hold off for it. A dog will eat acid it’s hungry

I think it's now accepted amongst behaviourists that this is not a good approach to take, and is somewhat akin to leaving babies to cry it out until they exhaust themselves. It's now recognised that dogs can develop issues around food due to environmental issues, physical issues, management issues, health issues... and latent issues that persist even after any of those issues have been resolved. As a result, it's now felt that it's not as simple as leave them til they get so hungry that they'll eat food they don't like, and it's not good for their welfare... if I left my dog without food for the 2 days OP managed to tough it out for, I'd have a miserable dog with biley vomit all over the floor
Also, in the OP's case, I have no doubt that some smaller dogs in particular just don't enjoy crunching their way through dry food, it's just too much like hard work.

Meathcat

My dogs, though not pure-breeds, have been quite content with the nuts for years - I soak them the night before so they are still getting the nutrition of the nuts but the texture of wet food. I often mix in gravy or some of our leftovers like rice, chicken, veg etc. Usually, the nuts get soaked in the water that I have used for boiling veg, pasta or rice. Occasionally, I will give them a mix of a large tin of dog food plus the soaked nuts.

Apart from your dogs possibly being still full from the day before, maybe they just want a bit of variety in taste? If you mix it up a bit for them each day, that might help. I have a 15 year old terrier x who gets a bit like that - I have 3 elderly lab x girls who generally don't mind but he likes a bit more variety in his flavours! Occasionally we find he refuses point blank to eat his food so I would substitute it with a full bowl of wet food, then start mixing the soaked nuts back in gradually until he's back eating the nuts again.

Think about how you would feel getting the same dinner every day :-P Mix the tastes and textures up a bit for them, that might help.

The Mighty Quinn

DBB wrote: »

I'd have a miserable dog with biley vomit all over the floor

DBB wrote: »

Look away! Look away!
My active, working 40kg German Shepherd gets 900g per day. Any more than that and the waistline starts to disappear! Just bear that in mind... your dogs are one quarter of her weight... feed them accordingly!

Hi, just reporting back.

Both dogs LOVE the Rocco food. Have tried the beef with salmon, the beef with green tripe, and the chicken with whole chicken hearts (wow they love the whole hearts!). This morning saw the arrival of my latest order from Zooplus, the trio of meats.

Initially when I cut the feeding to what you'd suggested (more probably, they're on 400g each a day and they weigh 10kg or so), I was getting a few morning vomits before they were fed, yellow bile. I felt terrible about that. But maybe they were just getting used to eating smaller quantities as it doesn't happen now.

Also, the "leavings" have improved in quality. Generally easier to clean up after than with other foods, which is positive too.

DBB

Don't you love it when your dogs love the grub you're giving them
Do they still do the biley vomiting? A simple route around this is to give an extra meal... NOT more food now ... but split their daily allowance into 3 meals, if they're fed twice per day.
Great to hear it's going well for you op, well done:)

The Mighty Quinn

No more bile vomit. It was just a few days at the start, and just one of them actually. Wondering if maybe they were just adapting to the change in feed. But it seems to have disappeared now.

Can't wait to give them their new flavour for breakfast, will it be..

Beef with wild boar
Beef with chicken and game?