What do you add to kibble?

[BarryWhiteIsMyBrother]

We've had dogs for twenty years and have always fed them kibble - each dog (mostly mixed breeds/rescues) has thrived and lived a long and happy life. We do however mix kibble with fresh vegetables (about 2:1 in ratio) with every meal, and we add frozen tripe and tinned sardines in oil once a week (on different days). For a treat we mix some wet food but that's a few times a year only.

We are keen to stick with kibble and our vet seems very happy with that. However I wanted to know if there are any additional foods that anyone else feeding kibble successfully adds to their dogs' diets. Eggs, yoghurt, fish, etc. I've read about multiple things you can add but wanted to hear first-hand experiences. Thank you.

This is really interesting, thanks for all of the ideas.

Our little husky is 12 weeks old. He was just having kibble but always mooching so we tried him on a few things after doing lots of research ( thank god for Google! ) and he loves tuna, chicken, good quality sausage and separately loves carrots, apples, bacon and corned beef.

He loves food.

How boring must it be for a dog to be given kibble day after day for meals? It would be like us having the same meal all our lives.
There’s a good website called ‘All about dog food’ that rates different dogs foods on nutrition price etc. A lot of kibbles ( not all) are full of fillers like that just pass through the dog. No nutritional value just to bulk it up. And a lot are designed to swell in a dogs stomach to fill them up. Put a piece of kibble in water and see if it grows in size!

I reckon retired greyhounds do very well for food on the basis of what I read. Ours has retired greyhound kibble (cheap and disapproved of by All about dog food) with half a tin of Butchers - with a bit of added sunflower oil, oats and yoghurt for breakfast. Tuna/sardines twice a week. The occasional raw egg, leftovers, bit of his own block of cheap cheddar. Plus dog biscuits and then small meaty treats out walking/training.

All that (plus on and off lead walking) keeps him and his coat in prime condition and a good weight.

@Sparrowfeeder

She will also refuse most biscuity treats, only eating the jerky type ones. Refuses veg and anything sweet. Meat only, sadly, she’s definitely put herself on the Atkins diet.

Try and introduce new foods very slowly. We used to foster and managed to get all our foster dogs on all the stuff ours also eat. It's a case of taking your time. With carrots for example, we start by grating them and adding a teaspoonful of it to their meal and slowly increasing until they eat whole carrots.

This is a natural, easy to make, high-reward treat: www.hearingdogs.org.uk/training-our-puppies/dog-treat-recipes/liver-cake/?source=ADWORDSG&gclid=CjwKCAiA8ov_BRAoEiwAOZogwauJQ1HyFH0ytyZadzY3_ArTk46ph_8r09O01gpA-bfIO71GHAKpfRoCv2EQAvD_BwE We make it without milk. Then we let it cool down, and chop it into small squares (approx the size of kibble) and freeze it. We take a few out to use when training.

Only kibble. This is already a balanced diet so any additions are unnecessary. But they get tiny pieces of treat for rewards and a biscuit before bed. All have (or had till death) shiny coats, clean teeth and poo twice a day, wich is well-formed and easy to pick up(tmi...). Ancient Labrador is on Chudleys Senior, working springer the same brand but Working Crunch. Both around £20 for a 15 kg bag from our local farm shop.

Our have skinners grain free kibble, and love the sachets of wet food from Natures Menu (Country Hunter) so usually share one of those. They also love scrambled egg, tins of sardines, carrots/broccoli, and any leftover meat or fish from sunday lunch just for a change! I'd hate to eat the same meal every single time, x2 a day.

They both have really sensitive tummies, so they never get dog treats. And both have glossy shiny coats with good teeth.

Mine just has her wet food, in winter I add a fish oil capsule and some turmeric and olive oil (heard fish oil and turmeric can be bad long term)
Sometimes I give her plain Greek yogurt too and the occasional egg yolk.
She doesn’t really like fruit, only apples and bananas.
I have tried adding veg before but she hates most vegetables and tends to spit them out.
She does usually get the last bite of whatever junk food I eat through the day, bacon, buttery toast, biscuits, crisps, croissants etc

Middling-quality kibble, with plate scrapings, leftovers, sardines in tomato sauce, cheap wet dog food, puppy milk, veg peelings, yesterday's gravy, fat drained off tinned fish... Whatever is available, though not all at once.

They seem to do well on it.

Nothing the kibble I feed is complete it needs no additions. It is difficult to quantify the calorific value of additions and this is one of the major causes of the huge level of canine obesity I see.