Puppy survival thread! All welcome!

[VanGoSunflowers]

Running on from our last one…

I won’t tag people because I will forget someone and then feel awful 😂

@VanGoSunflowers I keep saying that 🤣 he’s not puppy like at all!

That’s a good tooth to find! I’d keep it although I’d probably end up losing it 🙈. It’s funny the things you’re proud of them for, I remember Billy doing his first big boy wee, I was so proud I had to ring DH to tell him 😂. Rory still pees like a girl so we have that to look forward to 😂😂.

I spent what felt like hours last night researching kibble 😂 (I think that’s because it was hours)
After I had removed-
The ones that say they are lamb but contain more chicken than lamb
The ones that aren’t specifically puppy or junior
The ones that don’t list calcium content
The ones that you can’t order online and have to drive miles to find
The ones that cost more than what I spend on food for myself every month
The ones that have hardly any meat in them
Plus a million other criteria - it seems that the kibble he is on now is about the best option FFS! (He is on Burns Puppy Lamb and Rice kibble)

So instead, I ordered him some forthglade wet puppy food trays to try and supplement what he has now so he is getting additional meat in his diet and will get some fish oil, too.

I was so tired by the end of it that I couldn’t remember why I wanted to switch from what he has now - other than wanting something better quality with a higher meat content!

@VanGoSunflowers That is exactly what we do with Vinny. He has his Millie’s Wolfheart kibble and top it with Wainwrights wet food trays (pretty much the same as Forthglade) plus some salmon oil for one of his meals. He loves it!

@YorkshireFelix something tells me that Pablo will be over joyed with it 😂

Worth keeping an eye on forthglade's website and checking supermarkets for offers. Tesco seems to reduce the wet food trays to 1.30 ISH fairly regularly. Forthglade themselves often have quite large percentage discounts at certain times. I last did a big order when I got 30% off everything.

It is very difficult @VanGoSunflowers

After weeks of research, this is the one we went for. There is a small medium breed version also. I buy it from VioVet if they have offers. She still has it now at 17 months, she's done amazingly well on it but we now also feed MW and Essentials alongside it.

https://calibrastore.co.uk/collections/all-dog-food-treats/products/calibra-dog-life-junior-large-breed-lamb?_pos=4&_fid=226dbf12d&_ss=c

It does contain chicken fat though so if you want to be completely poultry free you will be limited to Burns or James Wellbeloved.

I'll add some more food recommendations to the other thread, which is not as active as this one currently 😊

I’ve found it very challenging to find food/ treats that are guaranteed to be chicken free. Most list ‘animal’ derivatives/ meat and I would hazard a guess that as chicken is cheap meat, then this would be chicken!

I do sympathise - we've had poultry sensitive dogs.

Forthglade have treats which are chicken/poultry free
https://forthglade.com/products/natural-soft-bite-treats-with-lamb

Millies Wolfheart do treats that are chicken free.
Millies Wolfheart also do dry and canned food options that are chicken free.

Jollyes Lifestage also have chicken free kibble and trays.

None of these contain the "animal derivatives" ingredient listing.

Lamb is an excellent option for dogs with sensitivity to poultry.
I have some links on the other thread or you can pm me if you want and I will try to help. Our previous dog was reared chicken free.

Thanks so much @Aubrielle - I will check the other thread out too! That’s honestly so helpful!
I don’t think I need to avoid chicken altogether but I wouldn’t know unless I tried one with just a small
amount of chicken fat in - I think it’s more of a sensitivity to it than an allergy. I was getting annoyed last night that a lot of the foods I was looking at would say they’re lamb flavoured but have more chicken than lamb in them! The burns food is only up to 9 months (so it says) so I will need to be switching his food by then anyway so I will check this one out. You’ve saved my brain so much work! Thank you!!!

I'm very happy to send you a few handfuls for him to try rather than you forking out. Bag has only been open a few days so it's very fresh. DM me if you want but no pressure x

@Aubrielle that is so kind of you! I had it narrowed down to either Calibra or Millie’s and if you are sure you don’t mind I will PM you?
I have also emailed Millie’s to ask what they would recommend so I will go with one or the other. You’re an angel!

The starter packs from Millie’s are excellent. You get a 700g sample of the kibble, then 2x 250g bags of training treats (Vinny loves these and I buy the huge bags of them now!) plus £5 off voucher if you decide to order a bigger bag of kibble. I think it’s about 11 or 12 quid. I’m lucky that I live 10 mins away from the warehouse so can go in the shop and browse all the treats in person 😄

Totally agree. We've had 3 of these packs now, they are great value. When I buy a larger bag I chuck one in as an extra.

You're very lucky living so near!

The moist hearties millies used to do were amazing but they just disappeared without a trace. Mine wasn't a fan of their training treats.

@Nella68 - we're using eden semi moist kibble for training treats at the moment, I think it's chicken free but not poultry free.

@Aubrielle and @tizwozliz thanks for the recommendations. He’s fine with turkey and lamb. I’ve been giving him wild boar and goat pate for training, and he seems ok with this too.

I kept him on his puppy food until he was 18 months. His poos seem to be much firmer now he’s on the adult version of the salmon kibble which makes me wonder if he was being over fed on the puppy version.

I’ve been using Simpson’s Salmon & Potato Cookie Dog Treats as again recommended by the breeder. Quite large so I break them in half/quarters. They do smell a bit fishy but because they’re large, I make them just big enough to go into the Kong, but not small enough to fall out easily. Keeps her amused for a good while. Only problem with Simpson’s is it’s not commonly stocked in shops it seems, so I’m generally ordering online. Seems to keep her tummy/poops healthy though. Also adding a little wet food to the kibble now (Hills Science puppy) as I’ve always fed half and half previously. Last breeder said it helps with windy bottoms. 😃

Had an interesting walk earlier. Pablo bolted away from me for the first time.

We went over the field, he was off lead and ignored other dogs at my request - all great. Usually, when he gets close to the small exit out of the field I say ‘wait’ and he will wait there for me to come and put his lead on.

Not this time. Bolted out on the pedestrian walk way (it’s far away from any roads luckily) and what do you suppose lured him out there? Someone’s discarded bag of chips left on the ground. I ran out to find him stood right there having a good old feast 🤦‍♀️ this dog cannot control himself around food!

@VanGoSunflowers what self respecting dog is going to turn down a portion of chips??

Could be worse, my late female hound found a days old tuna pasta salad in a bush that had been sitting in the summer heat. Ate the lot before I could grab her. Then spent the next 24 hours exploding both ends!! Classy! 🤢

@VanGoSunflowers Well now you know what to use for high value training treats. 😂

It’s reassuring to hear everyone’s experience with finding the right food!

W has been fussy from day 1 (which I understand is the poodle in him…..) he soon rejected the kibble that came with him from the breeder, which I wasn’t too fussed by as I wanted to switch to something higher quality anyway.

Anything chicken based seems to really irritate his skin and tummy and so I too spent way too long researching puppy food and ended up with forthglade wet food trays. That went well for a while but then he started to reject them too 🤦‍♀️

I went through a phase of home cooking meat and vegetables to top his food with to encourage him to eat, but at a vet check up the lovely vet brought me to my senses and told me to stop spoiling him and just let him eat the food or not. So we are sticking strictly to the forthglade trays now.

He does get JR pate or cheese as a training treat, and absolutely loves any kinds of ears as a chew and Greek yogurt in a lick mat. His eyes light up when he sees that orange mat 😂❤️

Well, those chips clearly did a number on P - he was asking to go out at 3am this morning and he’s been out several times since!
Seems fine in himself, no vomiting and is eating and drinking ok. Is this a wait and see?

@VanGoSunflowers Yes I wouldn’t worry too much to be honest. He’s probably just got an upset stomach so as long as he seems fine otherwise just keep an eye on him.

V found a whole cooked sausage on our walk yesterday and gobbled it up in the blink of an eye. He once found a chicken nugget by some wheelie bins on the route we usually walk so now he has to check there every time just in case the magical chicken nugget bin is bearing fruit.

@YorkshireFelix thank you. That bit about the magical chicken nugget bin bearing fruit made me smile 😀

@VanGoSunflowers poor old Pablo. I hope he feels better soon.

I think the thing I would be mindful of is the amount of fat in deep fried chip (and salt). I don’t want to scare you unnecessarily but a friend’s cocker ate discarded fish and chips and ended up with pancreatitis. I think she was unlucky but if I was in your position I would ring the vet for advice.

Oh no - poor Pablo. Hopefully it'll pass through quickly, but if you think he ate a lot, heed what @Nella68 says; it's the salt you need to worry about with any takeaway food.