Feeding Your Pups

Robotack

Not strictly a shooting topic I know But I'm putting my question here as I want the opinions of working dog owners.

I picked my my first new pup for many years last weekend. A Jack Russell. He's now 10 weeks old and I'm out of touch. I picked up Tesco pwn brand puppy food but one of my buddies called today and was horrified that I hadnt got red mills or similar.

Is this brand snobbery or should I pick up the "better" stuff???

jap gt

Robotack wrote: »

Not strictly a shooting topic I know But I'm putting my question here as I want the opinions of working dog owners.

I picked my my first new pup for many years last weekend. A Jack Russell. He's now 10 weeks old and I'm out of touch. I picked up Tesco pwn brand puppy food but one of my buddies called today and was horrified that I hadnt got red mills or similar.

Is this brand snobbery or should I pick up the "better" stuff???

can you post up the ingredients, im feeding my latest pup red mills mother and puppy, 13.90 a bag isn't going to break the bank

Spunk84

Are you going to use it as a working dog ? Terriers will eat anything so food wise if he has a full belly and running around happy I wouldn't bother buying the more expensive brands . If your set on buying red mills a big bag will do a JR as good few months, up to yourself but unless the dog is needing more protein and oils from working there's no real reason for the extra money

doyle61

i always use red mills breeder. 15kg bag will be in around 22 quid. saying that, a bag that size will last you forever with a jr:p. as spunk said its entirely up to yourself

Longfellow

If the dog be thriving on the Tesco food then leave him on it. Give him the odd bit of meat as well when he on the nuts that will help the dog.

Spunk84

if you feel the dog is lacking go into lidl or aldi and buy meat and tuna;) was in their tonight and there was a chunk of ham for 4e:eek: plenty of cheap meats in there.

Longfellow

Spunk84 wrote: »

if you feel the dog is lacking go into lidl or aldi and buy meat and tuna;) was in their tonight and there was a chunk of ham for 4e:eek: plenty of cheap meats in there.

Ya can't beat the fresh meat. One of the local young lads shoot plenty of rabbits and gives me a few when he has spares. Full of good protein and viatmins for the dogs and they thrive powerful on them

blackstairsboy

Longfellow wrote: »

Ya can't beat the fresh meat. One of the local young lads shoot plenty of rabbits and gives me a few when he has spares. Full of good protein and viatmins for the dogs and they thrive powerful on them

Dead right, dogs as carnivores should be getting as much meat in their diet as possible. Simple rule for carnivores they eat muscle to build up their muscles, eat bone to strengthen their bones and eat morrow to strengthen their morrow. Now that I am around full time in the summer I feed a diet of about 85% meat (protein) and then the remaining 15% is of vegetable scraps etc.
Most dog nuts contain in the region of 20% protein so it is obvious which is the better diet for a working dog. This diet has in my experience a range of benefits including increased stamina and healthier digestive system obvious by the production of solid stools and no scuttering that you get from feeding nuts.

Ronnie Beck

I wouldn't buy a 15kg bag of dog food for one small dog as it will be open too long.

snipe02

pedigree chum do a really good quality puppy food come in 3kg bags and i would strongly recommend welpi or lamblac soak the nuts in the welpi \lamblac but nothing wrong with the tesco stuff if it suits the pup you could also give em a little liver every so often best of luck with em

SureHowBad

jap gt wrote: »

can you post up the ingredients, im feeding my latest pup red mills mother and puppy, 13.90 a bag isn't going to break the bank

Hi jap gt, where in Cork are you getting Mother and Puppy / Breeder for €13.90????? I've never found it for less than €20 anywhere and I have reared the last few litters I bred on it!

With regard to feeding puppies, for litters I've found the Red Mills Mother and Puppy to be excellent. I would also mix through mince beef as well which really drives them on! The only thing you need to keep in mind if you are feeding alot of raw meet is that you need to keep your dogs wormed regularly, nuts are a cleaner feed in this sense but if you can get you hands on mince beef, tripe etc it's great stuff!

DogsFirst

Spunk84 wrote: »

Are you going to use it as a working dog ? Terriers will eat anything so food wise if he has a full belly and running around happy I wouldn't bother buying the more expensive brands

There's definitely very little difference between brands, only marketing. They all contain bugger all protein and nutrients "at the minimum required for growth". It's not an ideal start for any animal. You want lots of the good stuff.

But lots of people believe a dog with a belly full will be grand. It doesn't matter what with. Hence cereal based dry food in the first place. But if you've got an athlete you feed him high quality food. If you have a race horse you feed him high quality feed. If you have a car you put in high quality oil. Best in, best out.

The fact they look grand is what vegans say about their vegan dogs. Appearances are so deceptive. I got a friend, the picture of health, plays for Dublin. Happens he smokes. What does that say about smoking? Nothing at all. The truth would out if you compared the work rate of 50 cheap dry fed dogs and 50 fresh fed dogs.

Blood value comparisons show fresh fed dogs are immunlogically fitter, more robust. With the increase in vitamins and good protein they will have better focus and vitality. Safe to say the more fresh meat (whole chicken bits, oily fish brilliant for focus) and other high quality ingredients you get in there while developing, the better your pup will be, body and mind. If it's high performance you're after, go with BlackStairBoy