What do you feed your dog?

[Molesworth]

I know this must have been discussed before many times before, but may I ask for opinions on dog food?

We adopted a six year-old Boston Terrier in March and his previous owners had been feeding him Hill's Science Plan. Now, he's not a fussy eater, he doesn't (as far as I know) have allergies, but he does seem to have a sensitive stomach because his poo tends to be on the - ahem - soft side.

I've heard bad things about Hill's and really I'd prefer to give him better quality food. I've tried him with James Wellbeloved, which he likes, but the poo situation was no better. Now I am trying him with Lily's Kitchen 'Proper Dog Food' and I'm seeing a bit of an improvement.

Another dog owner recommended either Naturediet wet food (v expensive!) or home cooking.

Do any of you prepare your dog's food yourselves and, if so, what recipes do you use? Is it a big hassle? Expensive?

Any other tips for producing a happy healthy dog with FIRM POO would be very welcome

Oi - now even I know dogging is a whole different - ahem - ball game!!!!

well hopefully there are some balls in dogging - but not always!!!

Naturediet - my dog has a really weak constitution after a very poor start in life.

She was on Burns but since we switched to NatureDiet her constantly running eye cleared up so we've stuck with it.

She poohs like a shire horse though.

my monster puppy also poos like a shire horse

tbh it amazes me how much poo can a puppy create?

My Mother and her husband refer to walking the dogs as dogging "Hun, I am just off dogging" "Ok, have fun"

king - maybe they are really going dogging

Lol bedlam, that is quite classic

Blondes, thank you for tht image - it will haunt me

The thing that is funny is, it is clear that they do have an idea what it means (or at least that it is not "clean"). I swear they do it just to embarrass me - they used to sing songs and do dances when I was a teenager too

HOOT!

pmsl @twatting the vicar!!!

I've just realised why there is another thread

To answer OP
I feed my pup on IAMS (rescue centre recommended IAMS or Eukanuba but I found that hard to find locally) they also said to give her half a tin of tinned puppy food every other day but that made her very squitty so I dropped the tinned food altogether.
I have to say her poo stinks and is much more foul smelling than any other dog I've had - might be time to reconsider the IAMS hmmmm. . .

We did Hills for both dog and cat for fifteen years until they both passed on. With now young dogs now we do BARF.

Wainwrights from pets at home, apparently the same as james well beloved but cheaper , puppy does fine on it looks very boring though! He also has chicken and hot dogs as training treats.

My puppy is on Salters have also hear that Skinners is quite a goo one along with AG JWB an Burns

I know Iams does animal testing (not very pet friendly then) and I think Hills does too which may be why some people are annoyed with them.

Aha, that could be it TwoIf. Thanks everyone for your posts - I'm going to see how he gets on with Lily's Kitchen dry food/Naturediet, but like the look of Burns, which seems as good as Lily's Kitchen but cheaper.

Must also cut down on the number of titbits he gets, which probably aren't helping

i like the look of burns ingrediants, which one of theirs is suitable for small pups? might order some to try

Burns mini bites are suitable for puppies and smaller breeds. Great food- Our dog (very sensitive stomach)has been on this food for nearly 2 years and she still loves it. You also need much less of this than a wet food so it works out more economical.

PLEASE TAKE SOME TIME TO READ WHAT YOU ARE FEEDING YOUR PETS WITH...

www.dogfoodproject.com/

I am now feeding DDog on Naturediet wet food mixed with Burns kibble and we have firm poo and - an unexpected but very welcome bonus - no more toxic farts. He loves Naturediet and it doesn't appear to have any crap in it

pumpkin or squash and rice are good to add to firm up poo.

We use prizechoice raw meat (tripe/beef/rabbit) mixed with James Well Beloved although may change to nutro as our pup has contact allergies and nutro may be better

euch, there's nothing worse than trying to pick up a poo that's too soft to handle!

I feed my terriers on Lily's Kitchen now and have no problems - I feed wet in the mornings and dry in the evenings and have seen a huge improvement in their poos and their overall looks.

If you do want to cook yourself, you could always add in some brown rice to the main meal for some extra roughage..

So nobody's mentioned Pedigree then? Is it not the done thing?
We adopted our Staff from the local Dogs Trust and were feeding her on Arden Grange's Lamb & Rice for the first 3 weeks or so. But she turned into a sheep, just grazing all day instead of doing what I'd expect of a dog i.e. gobble everything down as quick as possible, and her poos were tiny, soft and stunk to high heaven.
My brother (who has a chocolate lab - dog variety not sweet factory!) came to visit and asked why we were feeding her dried poncy food and to put her on pedigree. We did - she has half a tin with mixer in the morning and the rest of the tin with more mixer in the evening.
Her poos are normal - whatever that means - and she only belts out paint-stripping farts when somebody (ahem elder sis) thinks she's being lovely and over-indulges her on biscuits and the like.
She also has a gum/teeth dentistick once a day too.
She's happy, shiny coat, full of energy, fantastic!

12swtb10 - we have a staffie too (an incredibly spoilt one!) tbh we always used to feed him 'ordinary' dog food like pedigree, butchers etc. i never actually thought much about it until he developed colitis - it was very frightening, he was literally pooing blood.

i did lots of research once he was diagnosed as i didn't want to rely on medication to control the colitis (some of the meds have nasty side effects). now he is fed on naturediet which is an holistic food - it is made with meat, rice and carrots. to give you some idea of the difference between this and pedigree have a look at the ingredients list - i think pedigree etc have something like 6% meat? naturediet has 60% meat. yes, it is more expensive than pedigree but our dog eats 2 packs per day of naturediet where for his size (over 4 stone of dog!) he used to need up to 4 tins of pedigree so we haven't really noticed any price difference.

naturediet has made a huuuuuuuge difference - we are now able to manage his colitis through diet, he rarely has flare ups and when he does we just supplement with slippery elm powder which is practically miraculous for any tummy problems.

didn't mean this to be such a long post, just wanted to explain why we now use naturediet and why i would never again use pedigree etc - 6% vs 60%, no contest!