Dog food advise...

[Sarah]

We're having trouble with tommy at the minute with his eating, he's driving me mad! When we got him as a puppy he was on bakers! after learning how crap it is we soon took him off it and pretty much had him on iams ever since. Lately tho he seems to have gotten bored with it, so we added a wet pouch to it (James beloved) and he enjoys that but after a few months he's started getting bored again, he'll eat it but not all of it so I don't think he's eating enough! We've tried to get him off iams too with burns and Harrington but isn't interested at all! (this has all happened over a year I'd say with the food swapping) so I've come to the conclusion that I don't think he likes dry food but I don't want him on a diet of just wet pouches either so I'm stuck! He's really funny about dog treat biscuits too so I genuinely think he doesnt like dry food anymore! Has anyone got any suggestions on what to do? I don't really wanna buy fresh chicken all he time either cos it's time and money! But if that's all he's gonna eat I don't really have a choice! Any suggestions will be greatful! Xxx

[Kimmikins]

The key thing to remember is that dogs will not let themselves starve. Also, different foods have different calorific content, so you might be feeding the same quantity to look at, but that will have different nutritional value from brand to brand. I personally don't like Iams any more than I like Bakers, but that's because of their animal testing practices as opposed to the quality of it.

You can try adding a little bit of gravy to the dry food, if it's the dryness of the food that's causing him to leave it. Natural yoghurt is another tasty and beneficial additive for dinner time. What about mixing a little bit of wet food in with the dry food at dinner time? We use Nature's Diet wet food, which Sara loves. For dry food we've recently switched to Fishmongers Finest, as it was the best priced food I could find with ingredients that I approved of!

If you think he'd prefer just chicken, then the raw mince from P@H is brilliant, and only 99p per pack so it doesn't cost the earth. One pack will feed Sara for a day, and she eats twice a day, so for Tommy it will work out even cheaper per day. If you don't want to feed it raw you can bung it in the microwave to cook it (you could do it in a pan too, but you said you didn't want something time consuming so I've always shoved it in the microwave for a couple of minutes if it's not being fed raw)

I'd go with the gravy/yoghurt/tasty wetness stuff first to try and tempt him to eat the dry if you want to keep feeding this, and then come back and reassess if that still isn't winning him over. But he really won't go hungry for long, so don't fret about him not eating enough while you're getting the issue sorted

[Sarah]

Aww thank you so much for the advise, I'll take it all on board! And ye I've always had my doubts with iams you know with it being so commercial and that must be it lol! I'll discuss it with Martin when I get home. But thanks again, it's defo something to think about xxx

[Adrianne]

found some great food on the shelves in Tesco..50% named meat and other high % named ingredients, no crappy grains or low grade meat products.. im really impressed and at £1-00 for a 400g tray it is good value and can be mixed with their dry food if you want it to be.


double click to see the pics bigger and see the ingredients ..

[Sarah]

Oh thank you for this! Defo gonna have a trip to Tesco today! I saw your FB post and thought "Oooh" haha! Thanks for all your help xxx

[sparks01]

now thats worth a look we are always looking for stuff to add to crashes dry food thanks

[sparks01]

they are on facebook too

[sparks01]

Just got some and crash demolished it put some of the duck with rice and veg onto his dried food and gone in seconds lol now crash is usually a grazer so this might help lol

[Dani]

 . . . . . . is making a note of this naturo food   xxx

[sparks01]

The naturo food will last up to 72 hrs when opened so we split this into 4 portions and add it to his dry stuff he get two feeds a day so we going to see how he does
We were adding chicken to his dry food to encourage him to feed better but fingers crossed this will be better

[Adrianne]

I hope so ..mine certainly enjoyed it ... mind you I have been 'home-made' feeding to top the dry food and anything will be better than my cooking...dogs are probably relieved!

[sparks01]

[kristina]

Hey I looked at that but they didn't have any for puppies?? Kristina

[Adrianne]

technically, as soon as a dog has its adult teeth - known as the 'six month molars' it is able to eat what an adult eats..but with so many additives in commercial foods an immature digestive system may not cope with some foods.
i have always used the six months molars as a guide myself...put thm on adult foods and never looked back...
just a few weeks to go in xenas case.

[kristina]

Thanks for that reply Xena is losing teeth all over the place some I manage to keep  most she just swallows she actually lost one this morning while playing with her tug-a-rope toy think it must have hurt her as she has not touched her rope toy since and she bled a bit,scared me too.She is fine now and I did think it might be too soon for her to go onto adult stuff.Kristina