Please talk to me about dog food!

[BasilBuff]

We've recently got a ten-week-old Cavalier puppy. The breeder had her on a mostly grain-based dry food, plus some grain-free Butchers wet food which we've continued for the first two weeks (phasing out the dry food as I'm concerned about the grain and allergies, increasing the wet and introducing veg).

I'm keen that she has the most nutritious and appropriate diet for her health and breed, but I'm quite confused about the best thing to do. We'd assumed that raw food, plus veg, and maybe some scrambled eggs would be a good way to go, with a good variety of foods in her diet. However, the vet advised a dry food diet for teeth and solid poo (several friends feed their dogs exclusively on dry kibble too) and to limit variety completely so she isn't fussy (so feeding the same flavour/type of food three times a day).

I'm struggling to see how it's healthy for the dog to eat nothing but some dry kibble three times a day (it feels like feeding a child nothing but processed cereal), but I am a novice owner and would love advice on how we should be approaching this.

Any experience and advice very welcome!

Have you looked on allaboutdogfood.com? Some kibbles are better than others.

It you do want to do raw though then there’s no need for the egg and veggies except for fun as the majority of them are complete foods.

The vet saying kibble is better than raw for solid poos is a red flag for their knowledge honestly. Kibble tends to bloat whereas raw poos are small and solid (and weirdly don’t smell!).

Be aware that older puppies generally go through a picky phase with food so you’ve potentially also got that to come. It’s normal so no need to start swapping out foods and roasting them chicken to tempt them to eat, it’s just their behaviours and digestion changing and they’ll be back to eating their regular food before long.

Thanks @SBHon - it did make me question if she's the right vet for us tbh. When I've asked friends about the kibble diets the reasoning seems to be cost and convenience, rather than nutrition.

Would you say we can disregard the advice re limiting variety in that case, if we ride through the puppy fussy stage?

I'm looking at allaboutdogfood.com but the choice is overwhelming and it's a mix of raw and dry products (I understand you can't combine these). I don't really know where to start with making a choice!

My aging cocker spaniel is fed raw and has things like cows ears, chicken feet, raw bones etc to chew on as treats. He’s now 12 and hasn’t had any dental problems at all - hopefully I’ve not jinxed that now!

Made an error on his food on the last order and didn’t get complete so I bought a couple of bags of Natures Menu vegetable nuggets to mix in with it. Usually I wouldn’t bother.

@Iheartmysmart which raw food do you buy?

I hadn't realised the ecoli/salmonella risk (we have young kids that love licks!) so this may need to be a consideration.

Raw isn’t for me due to the various bacteria risks however I’m a fan of things like pigs ears/chickens feet for enrichment.
If you want the benefits of raw but to have freezer space and less health risks, look at cold pressed foods, not cheap but not more than most premium kibbles and often more dense so you feed slightly less anyway.

He’s currently on ProDog raw as I don’t have a huge amount of freezer space and can buy it locally. I previously used Honey’s which was excellent if you can store a months worth at a time.

In all my years raw feeding I’ve never had an issue with it but I don’t allow my dog to lick hands or faces but appreciate that’s not easy with small children. I use the usual hygiene standards I would for human raw meat.

We feed complete raw (Cotswold Raw - mine went off Bella & Duke fairly quickly. They have also had Paleo Ridge and Oodles which were fine and Natures Menu which they wouldn't touch) with some Gentle cold pressed pellets on top for the crunch. I haven't got the time to do "full" raw so the raw complete works for us and with a Cavalier, it wouldn't take much freezer space for a fortnight's food. We also complement it with raw bones which they love. When we go away, I take frozen blocks for the first few days and then they just have cold pressed pellets with whatever meat trimmings/veg we have going. Our breed is known for allergies and tummy problems and both had problems in that department when we got them - they were being fed on Royal Canin Puppy. We switched to raw very quickly and haven't had any of those issues since and their shiny coats get commented on all of the time! A lot of vets aren't great with canine nutrition and tend to shy away from supporting raw feeding but ours is very supportive.

If you are going for kibble then you want to go for the best quality - I would go for cold-pressed or freeze dried. It really is a case of you get what you pay for.

I’m no expert - new puppy owner here too st 15 weeks - but we’ve stuck with the Bella and Duke raw food that the breeder used as he’s in such good health and his coat is lovely.
It is delivered frozen as often as is convenient depending on your freezer space.
I’m not sticking religiously to raw as I’d like him to be flexible and when we go on long car journeys- three day drive to Europe for example - raw isn’t going to be practical.
so I occasionally include a bit of something else from a tin. And a bit of cooked chicken or cheese.
Again, I’m not experienced but I’d have thought feeding them on nothing but one type of food day in day out would be more inclined to make them fussy not less?

Lastqueen can I ask what cold pressed food you use please?
I’d like to persevere with introducing small amounts of alternative food to raw; that sounds a useful possibility.

I like Huntland
I also know people very happy with Wolftucker and Wilson’s

Thanks for all the advice so far. Can anyone tell me about grain and allergies? I'd understood grain was best avoided but I see that many of the highly rated foods contain rice.

By grain they generally mean cereal

Ah OK thanks @Lastqueenofscotland2

So, if I went with a cold-pressed dried food, I'd then add cooked veg and the odd healthy treat and that would be nutritionally good quality for her?

Cold pressed is complete :) so you wouldn’t need to add veg. However could of course, most dogs I know love a carrot!
Have a look at JR pet supplies for some really good crap free treats

I do find it hard to get my head round feeding her the same thing three times a day, day in, day out! I'm heavily conditioned by trying to get loads of different fresh foods into my kids!

@Lastqueenofscotland2 thanks for the recommendation!

My breeder said she never uses natural chews due to choking risk - any thoughts on this? I'm not a huge fan of my dog ingesting plastic particles from chews so natural would be my go-to choice!

It can seem complicated but it's not all that complicated if you look at it like this.

The higher the meat content the better the food is, go for grain free so no wheat, rice, cereals also aviod things like peas, lentils ect opt for ingredients like potato or sweet potato.

Raw is great but definitely do some research its not a case of throwing raw "complete" mince down and that is it.

As for the dental aspect kibble is no better than raw mush mince! It's good decent chews that will keep the teeth in tiptop condition things like 1 ingredient NATURAL chews no crap like dental sticks these chews are perfect for dental health
Dried Trachea
Fish cubes
Tripe sticks
Pizzle sticks
Chicken feet
Duck necks
RAW meaty bones
Dried ears
My collie is 11 and has the best teeth!

I would have a kibble based diet and add fresh to it things like
Tinned fish in spring water
Fresh cooked or raw veg
Fruit (avoid grapes)
Fresh or raw meat
Seeds and nuts
Dried herbs and supplements (again have a little research)
And hydrate the kibble with either some goats milk, bone broth, warm water.

.... Ps this is what I do for a living and is what I always advise my customers with pups

I've never had my dog choke on anything she might give it a cough back up if your worried go for things like feet, and necks first to teach them how to chew properly and hold the other end gently for them.

Avoid pretty much anything in vets or supermarkets. Lilys kitchen were bought by nestle and are terrible now. I feed Carnilove and Butternut box. You can filter on all about dog food, so you can filter out raw if it doesn't appeal to you.

Our Labrador has Butternut Box. He was raw fed but this all comes in the post and is so easy. It’s real food but cooked so you don’t have as much bacteria risk as with raw food. You get a good choice of flavours too, his favourite is duck with chicken. It’s quite expensive but he didn’t get in with kibble at all and had runny pops and he didn’t like it. If you’d like to try it you can use my discount code

butternutbox.com/Cat89?share_source=copylink

(disclaimer we’d both get 50% off a box and I’m not just posting to try to get people to use my code!).

I don't hydrate the kibble, but apart from that, we pretty much do all of this ^^

Our two dogs are on Orijen Six Fish and both love it. I know what you mean about variety, but honestly, once they like something they greet every mealtime like it's the best thing ever

It's not the cheap option but worth it as good for our older spaniels joints, and the younger ones skin and ears (prone to ear and skin dryness)

@LauraSaidIShouldBeNicer that is SO helpful! Thank you!!

@LauraSaidIShouldBeNicer - is goat's milk a good option for puppies? The breeder mentioned this but not cow's milk. I have a milk-allergic child who also can't have goat's milk so I wasn't sure about it.