Dry or wet food?

[Dolallytats]

My 9 month old cockapoo is a bit of a fussy eater. This is probably due to my kids dropping bits of food on the floor. I have been trying to get to it before she does, but it's hit and miss.

I feed her dry dog food, as this was the diet reccommended by my vet, online and by other dog owners I know. However, she is not that interested in it. She will eat it, but she doesn't eat the lowest daily portion size for her age. She is healthy, slightly underweight, but by a small ammount so the vet was not concerned.

I have tried her with James Wellbeloved, Millie Wildheart, Greenacre and Arden Grange. I am thinking of giving her wet food-or maybe a bit of both. I have heard conflicting things about both dry and wet diets so wondered if you guys would give me your thoughts and brands of food that you have found good for your pups.

Thank you

[witwootoodleoo]

IMHO wet food isn't great for dogs as it lacks the moisture they would naturally have in their food. It's also full of weird and wondeful ingredients a lot of the time.

I've also noticed that lots of vets seem keen to sell dry food and am always a bit suspicious it's got a lot to do with the amount of money they make on all the special dry foods they sell.

Personally I feed raw but if I didn't I'd go for a high quality grain free wet food.

[maitaimojito]

We have a rescue dog that will only eat wet food and his teeth definitely suffer. He is healthy in himself but the vet always comments on how clean our other dogs teeth are and he eats dry food (less of a bad breath pong as well!). The vet and breeder both recommended dry, although we now give him hypoallergenic food as he had a skin problem and we thought it might help.

[tabulahrasa]

"She will eat it, but she doesn't eat the lowest daily portion size for her age."

I'm pretty sure they make those up tbh...my dog is on half what the manufacturer says he should be, he's a healthy weight and it's stable, so I ignore what the packet says.

[Dolallytats]

Thanks everyone. tabu, I was thinking that she can't be doing too bad, she runs around like a looney and has plenty of energy for getting up to no good!!! I feel hugely guilty that she doesn't snaffle up her food.

[WeAllHaveWings]

Our lab gets much less than the minimum recommend amount, but is still slightly heavy. I remember the vet giving a leaflet out to cut his food by 30% after he was neutered, so that would take him well below those amounts.

As long as your vet isn't concerned about her weight she will be okay, it is better for them to be lean.

[ImSexyAndIKnowIt]

I've tried my poodle on Millie's Wolfheart, Markus Muhle, Lukullus among others and she refused them all. She's been on raw food now for a couple of years and loves it, never left a meal and her teeth are in perfect condition.

[JustBeingJobless]

I feed a mixture of both as ddog has to have medication twice a day and it's much easier to just pop it in her meals than trying to convince her to take it otherwise! The wet food I use is the forthglade 90% meat mixed in with a good quality kibble. Sometimes she has tinned sardines instead of the wet food.

[CMOTDibbler]

Mine don't like just dry food, so they have a mixture of mainly dry with a wet topper. They are healthy and happy on this

[MsAtomicBomb]

I have tried my dog on so many dry foods... Eden, Acana, Orijen, Millie's Wolfheart, Lukullus. None of them suited him, he had tear stains, was underweight, runny poo. Then I bought some Wainwrights wet food and haven't looked back, he is doing brilliantly on it. He has the lamb with rice and the duck with rice. Good look finding the best food for your dog :-)

[Sparklywine]

Hi, my ten month old cockapoo is also a fussy eater! She started off on raw but didn't like it at all, tried different varieties and practically had to hand feed her. She's been on two or three different types of Millie's Wolfheart dry kibble, but for most meals I add some Wainrights grain free wet (underneath!), or some tiny cubes of cheese occasionally, ham, some of her dried sausage training treats, anything to give variety. She will also be given just the kibble quite often so she doesn't become completely spoilt! I think she's a perfect weight (vet agrees she looks healthy), erring towards trim, and she's full of energy.
if we feed her anything that doesn't agree we know about it quite soon after as it makes an appearance at the other end! This balance seems to be satisfying her, hurrah! Good luck.

[NicoleC1990]

I raw feed my dogs, never had them turn their nose up at a meal!

I found both wet and dry food stained the teeth quite badly, so care should be taken to brush them regularly/give raw bones to chew etc.

[mummyeme]

Thinking of changing my puppy to raw food. If you use companies to buy the raw food from, who would you recommend please?
Thanks in advance

[ImSexyAndIKnowIt]

I started off with Natural Instinct but I would always forgot to get a tub out of the freezer to defrost so then I was using DAF who are good.
At the minute though I buy from They Love It. I feed the blocks straight from the freezer, I break them up into smaller pieces with a hammer and the dogs eat in the garden.

[applesareredandgreen]

My dog is fussy and spoilt! When we first had him he was. Quite happy on the dry food we had chosen but then started to turn his nose up. I started mixing in wainwrights turkey and rice trays which he was happy with for a couple of months, although began leVing the kibble again. He's now turning up his nose at the wainwrights but wolfing down Lily's kitchen- which is twice the price!!

[Dolallytats]

Lots of great suggestions. I've heard of the raw food diet but haven't looked at it-makes me feel a bit squemish!! I'm so glad it's not just me who has a fussy pup. I'm just waiting for some Naturediet food to be delivered and will try mixing that with her dry food. I gave her a weetabix and water yesterday (vet said to do this one a week for extra fibre) and she wolfed this down with the kibble that i left in the bowl, but obviously an't give her a weetabix every day. I think I will have a look and see what the raw food diet is about.

[ComradeHelveticaBlack]

My dog is raw fed and i get mine frozen from Paleo Ridge, they do all the hard work for you.

[Yourownpersonaljesus]

We use Nutriment complete raw food - my dog loves it. If you do decide to go raw then you change straight over - no need to do it gradually.