What do you feed your small adult dog?

[Bigoldhag]

Hi all,

I have a 2 year old Cavachon girl and I’m looking to switch her food and still keep on a decent budget.

She can be a right fussy mare! She is currently on two meals a day, a mix of Pedigree Jelly pouches and Iam dry chicken biscuits mixed together - I know this is nutritionally utter crap - believe me. I sometimes top off with a small handful of fresh (cooked) chicken breast.

I’ve tried Lilly’s Kitchen and Burns (south Wales Made brand, but apparently high quality) for the wet food - she turned her nose up at it completely. She mostly eats the Pedigree but some days just ignores it too.

For dry, she came to me on Pedigree but turned away from that, then the Burns dry, which she refused even to try. The Iams is eaten now about 40-50% of the time.

I’m keen to try other things and get her diet better, but I can’t afford to cycle through lots of high end brands that I end up donating/throwing! however if there’s one you think she’d go for, please share!

I’d like to be able to get it in Pets at Home or similar, for ease - especially so i can try one or two at time rather than order whole slabs of food that will be wasted.

i’m noticing that Pedigree seems to be disappearing from supermarkets and is harder to get hold of, not sure if there’s a reason or if lots of people are no longer able to afford anything more expensive, but now seems like the perfect time to switch to something better.

Canagan small breeds biscuits
then I add small amount of toppers so scrambled egg, kippers, sardines, yoghurt etc

if she doesn’t eat it she doesn’t eat it but usually does, i used to chop and change all the time which actually just made her fussier.

so now it’s just the same biscuits offered twice a day and I just mix up what i mix in (and that works out so much cheaper!)

I have two Shih-Tzu. They eat twice a day and get Pooch & Mutt small bite complete food. I used to add a small tin of Encore dog food to each meal but it's become so expensive that it's actually cheaper to get the very cheapest stewing beef (£3,35 a pack) and cook it in a little water. The water makes a gravy and the meat is just enough for toppers for both of the dogs at both meals (they don't get much but it's enough). They love it and eat all the Pooch & Mutt which has had some "gravy" tipped on it.

Sometimes I do chicken but not often because they tend not to eat the Pooch & Mutt as the gravy isn't very nice I think. I can't think of anything to add to it which isn't salty so I leave it that chicken is best for poorly tummies.

Interestingly, one of mine had absolutely gross breath. (Teeth are fine according to the vet). Now that she eats fresh cooked meat and not tinned her breath isn't offensive at all.

Mines slightly larger but he has Nature Diet wet , they do a small breed variant ( smaller packs ) , good quality and very economical.

Another vote for Canagen. My little girl also came on predigree and was fine with the swap. Tried 2/3 other foods and she wouldn't touch them. Order mine through Fin & Fur online as very low free delivery threshold.

Purina pro plan with half a sachet of Hi Life luxury chicken breast and peas to try and entice her. Used to buy Taste Toppers from Pets at Home but they are rarely in stock, if you can get them they seem to be tasty! The purina is expensive, I have fed previous dogs on the Pets at Home own brand and it went down well.
I can empathise with having a fussy dog-have you tried microwaving her food for about 15 seconds? Failing that, try feeding her just once a day at teatime.

This is what our Cavapoo eats. And loves Canagan. She was a very fussy pup but never had any issues with Canagan

I feed my terrier on Jack Wolf raw food. It's delivered straight to my home address. He loves it. I sometimes add left over veggies to get rid of them but the raw food has veggies and tiny ground bone anyway.

Aldi tin of meat in gravy morning and Morrisons puppy kibble evening. They are small dogs and prefer smaller pieces of kibble. Sunday lunch times they have a roast dinner with either chicken, beef or pork and gravy. They love it.

I have a cavapoo and a cavachon. Cavapoo was fussy and hard to feed till we got the 2nd dog, who is a hearty eater and would happily snaffle all his food.

We cycle between Lily's Kitchen and Butchers - currently on Butchers Joints and Coat which they love. They get a small bowl each of wet food morning and evening and I use dry food for treating on walks.

If you are feeding a kibble there is no nutritional benefit in adding a topper or wet food. Your dog will be getting way too many calories and hence not eating all their food.

If you have a fussy dog give them less than the required amount at each meal. Pick up what has not been eaten and then offer a small meal at supper.

Getting the dog into the habit of eating at morning and evening and not overfilling them will help them look forward and want their meals. then you can gradually increase the amount of food slowly.

(Works for most but not all dogs!)

Our JRT was fussy and we were giving him eggs, chicken, gravy etc... then tried "he will eat when he's hungry" as it was just not reasonable to be making special food for the dog!
He gets Hills Science diet as he has a jippy tummy but that is literally all he is offered (kibble).
He turned his nose up at first but sharp cottoned on to eating it once he realised there was nowt else! He did not like it but he had to lump it.
He is healthy as anything and approaching his 12th year now. He doesn't eat all his food every day but he isn't offered an alternative.

Obviously if your dog is not eating at all then it's a problem but could be worth trying the "like it or lump it" approach! Hope you get sorted

We have some of the above but our 3 ( Border terriers ) will eat Tescos dried food with a tin of Butchers between the 3 of them. So not terribly expensive & they have been to vet for check up and she said they were fine.

Over 14 years we have found if a dog is hungry it will eat . So not to say ours always have Tesco dried food but it makes up a meal with either leftover chicken or beef etc or a tin .

The vet did say that as dogs get older their teeth deteriorate and dried food earlier on can mitigate this

Not sure if that helps @Bigoldhag - but 3 pretty healthy dogs here

Small JRT gets Red Mills Engage, same as the spaniel. Reasonably decent, reasonably priced. They don't get the luxury of being fussy and twatting about refusing to eat Orijen hand caught Candian wild bison until it's top dressed with finely sliced Wagyu and caviar.

As my old boss used to say- I've never seen a dog lying starved to death beside a full bowl of dog food. Any dog food. OTOH, if I had a pound for every obese "fussy" dog I'd ever seen waddle into the clinic, I could afford to buy Orijen for mine ;-)

My boy Westie( slightly bigger I know does well on Dr John Titanium kibble topped with 150g of Forthglade wet food

Oh, they get a Purina Dentalife stick each most days as a treat. VOHC accepted and better than Pedigree dentastix in my opinion, though the Pedigree Dentaflex are also good.

My dogs are on Butternut Box. One of my girls, a cavapoo, is so fussy. I was used to throwing other food away. But she eats their food, loves the lamb dish 🐾

Our cavalier loves Orijen which does very well on the dog food comparison website . You can’t get it at Pets at Home but it’s good quality and our dog turns her nose up as anything from the pet shop! We also give her sardine and egg and veg sometimes

Butternut Box - various flavours to avoid all our Cavapoo's allergies.

Mix of Fish4Dogs Salmon weight management small bite (with some kept back for treats) and Lukullus cold pressed in various flavours. Both dogs 6.5kg. We weigh their food as it's all too easy to overdo it.

Have a look at www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk ,you can search by lots of criteria and it gives you a nutritional breakdown of everything.

If you are feeding a kibble there is no nutritional benefit in adding a topper or wet food. Your dog will be getting way too many calories and hence not eating all their food.

They'll only be getting too many calories if you don't reduce the amount of kibble though, surely?

Most people feed kibble and wet food mixed together as it's more interesting and enticing to a dog. Dry biscuits is (for most dogs) boring as hell.

Thank you everyone, some interesting suggestions to look over.

for the person who mentioned over feeding - i reduce the amount of wet/dry food to the appropriate percentage. My dog is not overweight either.

i also have a set routine for feeding and remove left over food etc

I have a Phalane,he's now 16.5 has got very fussy,as was DH first dog when we met, she lived to 18. He's got rotten teeth, but vet won't operate at this age. All my dogs had Aldi or Lidl. I buy in bulk then he decides he's not eating it anymore. So it's titbits,cheese, chicken. Noticed the items mentioned on here were all protein, which is not good for dogs, but at his age,glad he will eat,he does have veg

Butternut box, my cavapoo loves it

Barkingheads or
Nature's Variety dry freeze (his favourite)

Small JRT incredibly fussy eats Harringtons Turkey dry food for small dogs. He's enjoying it and is well on it.