What do you feed your puppy? Puppy appetite

[JosieJosie1]

Hi all

Looking for some insights! New puppy since Tuesday - two months old. We were given a sample of his food - pedigree chum puppy nuts and a wet sachet of pedigree chum complete puppy food. We had gotten him Canagan pet food 60% protein as it looked very good quality and was recommended.

However he doesn’t seem to like it. We gave him his own food (only the nuts) on his first day, mixed in some of ours with his yesterday and as we are running low on his just ours this morning thinking if he was hungry in the morning he might eat it and get into it. He is eating it but not all of it (we are feeding amount given on the guide so I don’t think we are over feeding). We then thought we would mix some of the sachet in with our nuts and once we opened it he went crazy! Running over all excited to eat it and jumping up (previously he goes over to eat when we put it out then loses interest when he’s eaten a bit).

Just wondering should we just feed him what he likes and get some more of it or persevere with our nuts or persevere with our nuts and mixing in some of the wet sachet he likes. I don’t want him to stop putting on weight.

[JosieJosie1]

www.canagan.co.uk/canagan-small-breed-free-range-chicken-for-dogs.html

This is what we got. Happy to buy him whatever he needs though.

[GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman]

The website allaboutdogfood rates Canagan as being a better food than Pedigree. In fact, I fed my younger Canagan when she was a puppy and she did really well on it. I wouldn't feed my dogs Pedigree (though my parents' dog had mostly that for much of her life and made it to 17).

TBH if your puppy is hungry he will eat. In your shoes I'd give him the Canagan with some of the sachet and gradually reduce the amount of sachet food over a week or two to get him used to just having the kibble. It doesn't hurt to run a puppy lean and a lot of foods will recommend a feeding quantity that is more than the dog needs (I can't remember if Canagan did, but I was very tight with it when I fed it). A hungry puppy is a food motivated puppy, so I tend to train my dogs before rather than after their meals.

[Yamihere]

What are the poos like? That will help you decide how well your pup digests the food.
The guides on dog food aren't great as they overestimate how much they need.
Unfortunately lots of commencial dog food has crap ingredients and additives which can cause behaviour problems and diseases like cancer. Pedigree is not great for dogs, unfortunately. All about dog food a pp mentioned can help you decide on what food is best for your dog, your own ethics, and budget. Whatever you choose, it's a good idea to replace 25% of the commercial diet with fresh ingredients like mince, offal, carrots and green beans. This has been shown to reduce the occurrence of cancer in studies.
I home cook for my dog but I realise not everybody can. A lot of dogs also do very well on a raw diet. You can buy it frozen, ready made from a lot of companies.

[Funf]

It's a difficult one, if it's as good as people say? We stick with what our breeder recommend Burns, we mix wet food pouches with dry food, poo's are fine dogs thriving. The Vet also agreed its a good food, so happy with it.
We only use one flavour, she also has the odd Pizzle ( very good at keeping her quiet) Pigs ears and a couple of treats jammed inside a Kong type toy.
Dogs are quite good at starving them selves until the owner gives in!

[JosieJosie1]

Thanks all for your replies. I just looked up that site and the reviews are very good for Canagan so I think we will persevere and mix in either some warm water or a wet pouch.
My mother suggested some bisto gravy but I’m not sure if that would be good for the pup. We only have him 3 days and he is eating the stuff just not all of it and I felt bad when he was so excited about the pedigree sachet!

[BiteyShark]

I think as food goes dry food is pretty boring to a dog compared to wet food. Wet food is generally smellier and tastier for them.

[Funf]

all ours have preferred wet food.
We mix half a 400g pouch with 3-4 handfuls of dry, she was too heavy but now her weight is perfect (15 months old)
Its all still new to him once he gets the routine and feeding time routine you will be fine, just choose your food and stick with it unless you have a very good reason for doing it.
I have used gravy in the past but I think it was a high salt content? Don't take my word for it though, do remember it has to be easy for you too.
I just carry a new pouch in the car and if we are ever stuck out I have food for her very simple only need a tupper ware and fork

[JosieJosie1]

Hi @Funf you are correct. We went to the pet store this eve to get more wet food. The girl here said that gravy has a very high salt content. She recommended we stick it out with the dried nuts and maybe try them in a bit of salmon oil. Said that wet food just isn’t great for dogs and they need to eat more of it to get the same nutrients. She said if we keep him on it we won’t be able to wean him off when he’s older.

I bought several sachets of it anyway as we are trying not to leave the house so I don’t want to be going back there in a few days if he still won’t eat but she said no treats (We we’re giving him semi moist liver treats for potty training) and just try get him to start eating it if he is getting hungry and that dogs can go several days without food if needed.

I don’t like the idea of that but the Canagan gets such great reviews for improving dogs health and even getting rid of health problems they had when on other foods so I think we will give it a go tomorrow and see how we get on and I have the wet food if we are stuck. I’ll try the salmon oil too as I got that while I was there.

[JosieJosie1]

Oh and thanks everyone for all for your advice! We are very new to this - I’ve had dogs growing up but farm dogs who eat scraps And generally get on with it etc - so we want to do right by the pup!

[BiteyShark]

Said that wet food just isn’t great for dogs and they need to eat more of it to get the same nutrients.

I disagree with this comment that it isn't great for dogs.

Yes you have to feed a greater amount compared to dry because by it's very nature wet food is wet and hasn't been completely dried out to remove all the moisture. So for gram to gram yes you need more but that doesn't mean a dog can't get the same nutrients. For example, take a brand like millieswolfheart which is rated highly and has both wet and dry for the same ingredients so you can buy it either as kibble or as wet in cans.

Wet food can be poorer on teeth as it sticks to it but I brush my dogs teeth anyway and I do think some of bad teeth is simply down to genetics.

Also I tend to think no matter what we want sometimes things are dictated to by our dog. I wanted to feed kibble because it's quick, non messy and you can store large amounts easily. My dog on the other hand didn't like kibble and we ended up wasting a lot trying to get him to eat it. He was skinny and I mean at the lower end of the scale due to an underlying health issue so we ended up moving to wet and he has thrived ever since.

[JosieJosie1]

Thanks @BiteyShark that’s good to know! I’ll see how we get on today and make a decision! I got some good quality wet stuff not pedigree so it should be decent for him!

Then Canagan have adult wet food so could always swap onto that.