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The doghouse

If you're worried about your pet's health, please speak to a vet or qualified professional.

Original poster

Dry food/wet food/mix of both

15 replies

cansleepanywhere · 29/05/2013 14:29

Hello,

My lab puppy is 11 weeks tomorrow. When we first picked her up from the breeder kc assured so thought would have been better she was feeding her all sorts, Weetabix, scrambled egg, webbox chubb rolls and dry food. I spoke to the vet at 8 weeks and mentioned her loose stools and took a copy of her diet sheet - he shook his head! On the vets advice we delayed her first injection and fed only chicken and rice for a few days. That sorted out the loose stools and gradually I've been increasing the amount of dry food to the plain chicken and rice. Thing is... now it's only dry food she's not interested in eating it. Yesterday she only ate her breakfast and her supper (which I had to put in a kong for her).

I'm feeding her James Wellbeloved but was wondering if you guys mix the dry food with wet food?? I spoke to the vet when she had her 2nd shots yesterday and he said to persevere as she'd eat it when she was hungry ..... but she's missing out on half a day's worth of food! Today again she's only managed breakfast - her 11am meal is still in the kitchen and she's due another feed at 3pm. She's happy in herself in that it hasn't slowed her down any and she's still 'producing' in the garden.

Do I keep at it with the dry food or mix with something else? If so what would you mix her food with??

Sorry for the long winded post - I don't remember worrying this much about the kids Grin

OP posts:
Frettchen · 29/05/2013 15:29

I would keep up with the dry food as she's so young. I foolishly started adding incentives to Dog's food and now she can be reluctant to eat it plain.

So long as she's not losing weight, and is eating it when she's hungry I'd persevere. She'll get used to the dry diet. In my experience, dogs like the routine; she's had a few changes recently, coming off of the mixture of things her breeder fed her. If you're consistent with the dry food she'll get used to the way things are.

topbannana · 29/05/2013 15:49

She's unlikely to starve herself so if you can bear it I would leave it plain- as frett says you risk a mega fussy dog if you start to add extras.
It may also be that you are over feeding her. TopPups puppy food has guidelines that go on weight but have absolutely no correlation to him (he is a manic working cocker and burns through food like you wouldn't believe, perhaps your pup is the opposite?) Your pup could be at the very bottom of one weight category so would not necessarily need the exact weight on the pack. I also always remove food after a few minutes to discourage grazing as most grazers I have known tend to end up overweight.

Imsosorryalan · 29/05/2013 23:01

To say our dog was a stray, she's incredibly fussy! We started her on JWB but ended up moving her onto pro plan ( prob not as good as JWB and more expensive) Angry
She eats this better, but still isn't keen on dry. I have been know to water down a bit of our sauce for dinner and mix it (eats it straight away) Blush

Lozislovely · 30/05/2013 09:13

I'm in the same position. I have an 11 month old Westie and struggle to find the balance to make sure he eats his dinner but doesn't get the squits!

He was having JWB dry with some Wainwrights wet food mixed in but went totally off it (and he started to have more runny poos) so I switched to Burns and some wet food for sensitive tums.

Some days he wolfs it down and others he'll eat half.

If I don't add something wet he just won't touch it.

I tried BARF but he turns his nose up at anything raw.

I do make sure he gets only half a portion if each though so he doesn't get porky Wink

Original poster
cansleepanywhere · 30/05/2013 12:24

Thank you all for your responses.

I'm sad to say that I relented and bought some wet food this morning to mix in, she'd not eaten since yesterday morning so after dropping the kids at play group today I went straight to the pet shop. Got some JWB puppy pouches and mixed just half of one in with her dry food and she wolfed it down!! It's the first clean bowl I've seen since she came home.

Huge sigh of relief from me!! The little minx has a will of steel.

I'm now on poo watch to see what the damage is.......

OP posts:
Lilcamper · 30/05/2013 12:33

I mix a bit of warm water in with dry food to make a 'gravy', seems to make it more palatable.

WeimaranerLover77 · 30/05/2013 15:30

Hello, my Weimarner has a diet of veg and raw chicken carcasses. It keeps his breath fresh, keeps his teeth nice and clean and he also digests it really well if you get me Smile
The reason why I put my dog on raw food was because is was prone to be hyper active and dry/wet foods can have a lot of E numbers in which would make him even more hyper hence why I opted for raw

trashcanjunkie · 30/05/2013 17:06

do you feed him the bones of the chicken carcass weimaraner?

trashcanjunkie · 30/05/2013 17:08

oh, and I second the bit of warm water in dry food. Alternatively a tiny bit of oily fish. Which is much better than wet food from a tin. I tend to think of pre-packed dog food like human convenience food or baby jars - fine once in a while, but not very nourishing

Megsdaughter · 30/05/2013 17:13

Little Staffie, wont eat any dry food, tried the lot, not even keen on dry treats. Big staffie will eat it if nothing else.

We feed both on Forth Grade tray wet meat, costs a fortune.

Bloody dogs eat better than us!

Original poster
cansleepanywhere · 30/05/2013 18:27

I did try the warm water, tinned sardines, bio yoghurt and even very weak gravy, none of which appealed to her. I don't want to be fighting with her to get food in when I've enough on trying to get the kids to eat their dinner and my dh.

I was of the understanding that chicken bones were a bit of a no-no Confused ?

She does like a carrot stick for a treat. At the moment I'm just happy she's eating anything.

OP posts:
Lilcamper · 30/05/2013 18:33

Raw chicken bones are very much part of a BARF diet, it is cooked ones that are dangerous.

Fairydogmother · 30/05/2013 18:35

My two get dry and wet Lily's kitchen - human grade meat with no crap added. They are two fussy gits and both clean their bowls daily!

Raw chicken bones are generally ok

WeimaranerLover77 · 30/05/2013 22:00

Hi trashcanjunkie. Yes he has the bones. Bones are okay as long as they are not cooked. Cooked bones splinter which is dangerous for them to then eat

trashcanjunkie · 30/05/2013 22:07

ah! good to know Grin

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