Morning all. For those who are aware of Bud, our now 3 month old chocolate Lab Cross, he is doing fine and certainly gaining a character for himself. We have been feeding a Bakers complete Puppy Food which our vet has had no problem with, but yesterday my wife noticed randomly on a website that this is not healthy. I have since done more research and Kibble is coming out strong as an ideal food. I am just wondering if i could ask for some suggestions as to what would be deemed the healthiest for our Bud. He appears fine with what he is currently eating, other than some rather choking gas!!!! All suggestions welcome. Thank you.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Prepare yourself for an assault of different answers! Haha! I feed Hills, but wouldn't choose to if there was anything better available here. It's not appalling, but it doesn't rate particularly highly, either. If you're in the UK there's a massive choice of different brands available. From having read various posts about the same thing, it seems different dogs do better with different brands, so there is no one "perfect" food for all dogs. This website (http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/the-dog-food-directory) has a comparison tool which shows you the "best" foods based on their criteria. Do those match your dog's? Who knows!
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Thanks Fiona. I am prepared for quite a mixed array of responses. It would be simple to just pick a food we can see by the ingredients is healthy, yet sometimes i think it helps to gather some real life experiences and then take all the suggestions on board and move forward from there. We don't want to feed Bud a cheap product, though we do have a budget to try to keep to but not to the extent that he suffers in any way.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Lemmy is nearly four months now started on James well beloved but he went really loose on it and bad puppy trumps. Friend had packet of bakers puppy and gave me some, he loved it the chunks one it is. I've kept him on that he has 3 portions a day normally with a sardine on top handy as always seem to get 3 sardines in tin). He really enjoys this and doesn't seem to have any problems vet said he is in perfect shape. His coat is gleaming lovely bright eyes and plenty of energy plus puppy trumps are no longer a problem unless he finds a beach treasure of dubious origin of course. Treat wise I use the bakers for walks training, then in evening he may have a bone or pigs ear or pizzle or the stinkiest of all a dried tripe stick .
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Many thanks for your input. We have been looking at the James Wellbeloved kibble as an option, and i guess it is a case of almost trial and error as each puppy is different. Your Lemmy didn't appear to take to it yet our Bud could accept it with no issues. Our Bakers is the complete puppy meal.....chunks of meat as well as biscuits. He enjoys it but we were just concerned following what appeared to be a bad review. Our vet has given him a clean bill of health other than his slight gas issue so maybe we are worrying for nothing. We just want Bud to have a healthy yet enjoyable diet. As for your tripe stick treat.....all i can say is Lovely!!! ;D Thank you again.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice your welcome totally agree your pup may be great on the wellbeloved . Think puppies all seem to be different I've known ones with guts of steel others with the digestive constitution of an elderly mouse! Lemmy says tripe sticks are the future I can't say I'd want to eat one! Lol good luck with your puppy.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice I think the reason you'll get a bad review of bakers online is generally because they're very vague about what ingredients go into the dog food, usually saying animal or vegetable derivatives but not stating what they actually are - a lot of people are starting to want to know exactly what they feed their dogs so that's why I think it gets poor reviews. My parents fed our old dog on this many years ago and had no issues with her, it's a personal choice ultimately. I feed JWB kibble and mix it with Wainwrights wet food and she's great with that diet. However, when I switch her to adult food then I may try her on Millies Wolfheart as I quite like their philosophy, they also provide Metabolised Energy information for all of their product so i'll also know how many calories i'm feeding her which I hope will be quite useful in maintaining her weight when she's an adult dog.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice My lab was on Hills but had quite dry skin so he went wheat free as an adult on Skinners duck and rice which seems to suit him. My spaniel puppy came to me on Beta but in the kennels that had added tripe so I wasn't convinced it was a great food (although very standard in working kennels not long ago). I've mortgaged my house and put him on Orijen as I'd like to go raw but he'll spend time with other people and I didn't want the faff of raw Orijen was the closest I've found in a kibble.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Lemmysmum....Thank you. And i agree with you...tripe sticks may be the future, but Lemmy and his friends in the dog world are welcome to the complete stock ;D Skooch....Many thanks for the feedback. I agree, at the end of the day it is a personal choice....of the puppy ultimately as he (or she) will let us know if the food agrees with them. And then we make the decisions. Our Bud's stomach hasn't really taken to wet food so we are avoiding this and keeping with a dry complete food. He enjoys it but we do want to retain more awareness of exactly how healthy his diet actually is. We also need to look seriously at his treats so as to maintain as good a healthy condition as possible. My wife is prone to the occasional morsal of our food, whereas i am trying to stand firm in keeping Bud on a canine food regime(hope that doesn't sound harsh. That is not the intention.) Anyway, many thanks again for the feedback.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Barbara...thank you for adding your experience and opinion. Everything offered is very much appreciated.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Keepertony glad I'm not only one who needs to train spouse! I could eat a hog roast on floor sitting next to Lemmy and he wouldn't even sniff it lol My husband however despite his protestations to never even give a scrap to pup can't walk in with dry cracker and Lemmy will do the Sit and paw with cartoon starvation eye! Hmmm I wonder why? Lol.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Lemmysmum....your description of Lemmys pleas for food made me chuckle. It would appear that someone is slipping him an additional treat not of the canine variety Bud will sit at our feet when either of us is eating and look up at us as if to say "Where's my share?" I am assuming this is either built into him from birth or it's because he has had a taste or two of this extra benefit from my wife. I manage to get him to lie down whilst we are eating though it can take a minute or two. We don't feed him indoors either as i have been endeavouring since day one to keep dog food smells out of the home (just a personal niggle of mine.) He has shelter if the weather is poor so he is never eating under a downpour of rain. I know my wife places the occasional morsal of human food in his bowl, but it is done without Bud watching. The hope is that he may eventually wean off the expecting food from us yet at the same time allows my wife to still offer these occasional extra treats (i don't think i will ever win the overall struggle !!
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice That is the best we can do. Looking back over what you said earlier about adding a sardine to Lemmy's food.....our Bud is only 3 months compared to Lemmy. Will a whole sardine, in your opinion, still be ok as i am thinking of trying this to see if it helps with the gas intrusions!! We have some to hand, and even though it could be said i am going against my own decisions to not feed Bud human food, if it aids in resolving a problem then i can excuse myself for that reason alone.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice I'm a little different in that I believe dogs should have a mixture of foods, but horses for courses etc. Willow at ten weeks had a sardine and pumpkin puree kong yesterday and loved it, so I'm sure yours will be fine - as long as you don't mind some very fishy dog breath for a while
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice I have found over the years that JWB gave my pup the runs, nothing wrong with the food, just didn't suit my dog. I have used Skinners Field and Trial (no VAT) and am now very happily on Simpsons Salmon and Potato and Simpsons Lamb and Potato for a change. I wouldn't feed Bakers because of the additives. Simpson's have 45% Lamb in the Lamb one and if I remember, an equally high amount of Salmon in the other one. I don't find dog food smells, but the dog can if it rolls in something unpleasant, a joy for you to come ;D
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Fiona....thank you for the advice. I am pretty certain i'll cope with the breath aroma.....i am pretty good at breathing through my mouth around bad smells in an effort to avoid the worst. Bud does manage to catch me out though on occasions....bless him. A yawn out of the blue right on top of me, or one of his slobbery licks. I'll start with the sardine addition with his next feed....pretty certain he will jump on that immediately before the rest of his food.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice Stacia.....thank you also for your input. Very much appreciated. We do feel that at some point we will wean Bud off Bakers. It's just working out an new option. I tend to find that the dry food has a pleasant enough aroma, but i really cannot tolerate the smell of wet food, and thankfully we don't feed Bud this. As to the joys of whatever he rolls around in.....comes with the territory i guess. As long as he is happy and healthy then i am pretty certain we'll cope with all challenges.
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice We put Hollie on Simpsons as this had 5* on the dog food directory, was quite expensive but we wanted the best for her she came to us on gusto (might as well be cardboard) Unfortunately it did not agree with her so we changed to skinners field and trial (vat free) which works out £20 cheaper for a bigger bag and is really suiting her When I asked the same question the advice was feed what you can afford and suits your dog Hope you get sorted
Re: Puppy Dry Food Advice We've tried Arden Grange and CSJ foods. Both foods have given a lovely shiny coat, but the amount of soft poo produced is huge, and is for the wind.........phewee!! So I am about to change to Skinners Duck and Rice. I got some samples sent to me after reading about what people on the forum said about it. I gave Maisie some for dinner last night, she loved it and actually crunched the food instead of inhaling it at great speed!!! Hopefully it will suit her tum!
