Dog food - help!

[Benji13]

Our rescue pup Rosie is just hitting 8 months, we have had her for 3.5 months. She was a foreign rescue.

She’s come on brilliantly in lots of ways - has learned people are nice, life is good and is settling well. She’s even this last couple of weeks started to be a good girl with the 2 resident cats - huge relief although I darent speak too soon.

Food wise I’m at a bit of a loss. She came on royal canin puppy food, we changed to James well beloved grain free with some butchers grain free on top - both reasonable listing on all about dogs food site. She then went right off both after a nasty tummy upset in November - ever since that cleared up she’s been picky.

We have now tried butternut box - she’s not keen on this at all and our vet is now recommending raw. We have never fed raw - our beautiful old lad Ben who we lost a year ago was kibble and wet fed.

Any thoughts folks - I know this is a contentious issue! But I didn’t expect her to be so blooming picky. She’s not picky with treats like chicken by the way!

I recommend Canagan grain free.It is more expensive tha JW,but well worth it.

Our pup was like this. She would hardly touch her kibble, even when topped with something tasty. So we switched to Guru cold pressed on the recommendation of a friend and she absolutely loves it!

It's more expensive than James Wellbeloved, but you don't give them as much so the price difference isn't as big as first appears.

My Romanian rescue became like this at this age, she’s on Tails biscuit and trays and she loves it.
I swop it around with substituting cooked chicken sometimes. She also likes Forthglade trays too, I divide one between 3 meals.
I do think that some dogs like some variety in their diet 😊

Ours is on Bella and Duke raw. Dead easy, comes frozen bung brick in tupperware, keep in meat part of fridge. Easy peasy. Dog wolfs it down.

Second vote for Bella and Duke, really really easy and dog loves it

Forthglade dog dinners, come in trays - large and small. I mix mine with kibble occasionally.

If you prefer to feed kibble, then I like Arden Grange and Barking Heads - both reasonably high protein (so will be tasty), good quality diets. They do grain free versions (but if there’s not specific reason to feed grain free then it’s not ‘better’ - it’s a bit of a fad IMO and there have been some questions raised over grain free diets and certain types of heart disease - you just don’t want grain/carbs making up the majority of the diet.)

Raw feeding does seem to eliminate a lot of ‘fussiness’. It is not without its issues (mainly, the humans in contact with the dog are potentially at higher risk for ‘food poisoning’ type bugs, but also that a lot of the available raw diets aren’t particularly balanced), which is why some people have a big downer on raw. I’ve seen dogs really do well on it though.

If you want to feed raw then it’s by far easiest/safest to use a complete diet, make sure it’s marketed as complete (not ‘complimentary’) and the brand is part of the pfma (pet food manufacturers association).

If you keep swapping their kibble they will learn to be fussy, unless they are not thriving on a kibble I'd be tempted to tough love for a few days, food down for 30 mins then take it up, two days and they usually are back to normal. It might be though that she associates the food with being ill - just like some people cant stomach oysters after having a bad one- or like some of my mates steer clear of sambucca. Arden Grange, Barking Heads, Essentials, Millies Wollfheat or all good kibbles. If shes had a poorly tummy personally I'd avoid raw www.insider.com/raw-food-diet-for-dogs

I have a very fussy dog and the only thing she'll eat is butchers tripe tinned and she's absolutely thriving on this with harringtons dry mix.

Practically, I find raw feeding easy.
As a PP said, get out a frozen raw block in morning, feed in afternoon.
Do start off with a complete one, ie pre mixed to contain right proportion of bone, organ & meaty meat.
But my lurcher is not desperate for his raw feeds, wave a tin of butchers tripe however and he'd do somersaults.
But his breath, poos & farts are so much better on raw, he's lean & healthy with clean teeth. So it's doable for us esp as we're not a vulnerable household health wise.
Costs me roughly a quid a day for a 25kg ish lurcher.

We do forthglade trays mixed with Orijen fit and trim for our 4yo who is prone to a dodgy stomach.

We feed Eden, which is 90%+ rated on all about dogfood site.

Ours is thriving on it. He has a mix of their products, including the wet as an occasional topper but I mainly I use the wet to make dog treats. He sits at my feet whining and going crazy for it. Eats the kibble dry or with a topper like tinned sardines.

It looks expensive but you feed small quantities as it's highly nutritious. It actually works out cheaper than "cheaper" brands. For example my cocker spaniel is on 150gm a day. So a £65 12kg bag lasts me 4 months!

I looked at reviews on several dog food sites and now use Gentle dog food which is cold pressed kibble. I think its manufactured in Germany and comes in chicken, goat and a fish version. Our mini poodle loves their small bites in chicken. You need to slowly introduce a change in kibble/diet. When I started introducing the new kibble into the existing one, she managed to pick out the newer kibble on the 1st day! Clearly its been a hit.

www.gentledogfood.co.uk/

www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/