Dried dog food

sullivlo

Apologies for the simplicity of this question...

I have a puppy. She is a border collie and 15 weeks. She is a bundle of energy and enjoys eating anything she is not supposed to.

She had to go to the vet last week because she was vomiting and the vet gave me some royal canin puppy gastro food. She wolfed it once she got her appetite back.

She was previously eating the gain kindness puppy grain free, but since she had the RC, she won't go near anything else. I think it's the kibble size because if I wet the gain for a Kong or whatever, she will eat it.

I'd rather she had dried kibble in her feed rather than softened, for her teeth etc. I think it might be the size of the kibble that attracted her to the RC.

I went to the pet shop today to get some non-GI RC puppy food and the sales assistant was very much against RC, saying how bad it is for the puppy and how poor quality it is. She suggested starving the dog for a few days and give no other food options to force her to eat the food I want her on, and said that vets only recommend it because they get paid by the company. I ended up going to a different pet store and buying the RC because she hadn't eaten all day, and she horsed it in to her. Before I put the RC down I tried the other food but she was barking at it and trying to hide on it.

Anyway, to make a long story short - is RC really that bad a dog food? Should I persevere with a different food? She is only tiny (6kg, up from 1.8 when we got her) but is literally a bag of bones.

Appreciate any advice, I just want to do the best thing for the puppy.

Obligatory photo attached.

FileNotFound

If you want her to eat anything, just do a mix (literally mix the kibble with some wet food) it will wolf it down and teeth get advantage of dried food.

We have had collies for years - didn't matter what they ate always lived full healthy lives, One of our was obsessed with whiskas (used to climb up and steal the cats food and the acts ate its.

You'll be doing well to do the dog harm, they are tough as can be.

sullivlo

FileNotFound wrote: »

If you want her to eat anything, just do a mix (literally mix the kibble with some wet food) it will wolf it down and teeth get advantage of dried food.

We have had collies for years - didn't matter what they ate always lived full healthy lives, One of our was obsessed with whiskas (used to climb up and steal the cats food and the acts ate its.

You'll be doing well to do the dog harm, they are tough as can be.

I tried the mix but it didn’t suit her gut. She was doing farts that could clear the room and her poo wasn’t pleasant.

I’m not sure if I am just overthinking it or trying too hard. The wet food I tried was high meat content and grain free and puppy age, but she really struggled with it.

FileNotFound

Have you tried basic dog food?

Down to the supermarket and get some off the shelf stuff.

A collie is a tough build and not really predisposed to anything you'd need to counteract with fancy food.

Just a thought and a cheap trial to be fair - pedigree chum puppy

DBB

The pet shop assistant said to starve a 15 week old puppy until she ate? Jesus swept.
I know people do the whole "vets recommend foods they sell" line on forums, but I'd be really annoyed to be ranted at like that by a pet shop staff member. If it's levelled at vets that their training in foods is at at a certain level, you can be pretty sure yer wan in the pet shop's training is below that level.
Look, RC is not the best, but it's not the worst either. If it works for you and works for her, just give it to her. Maybe you can gradually change her to something else as she gets older. Plenty of pups fed on RC doing perfectly well.
Try not to stress about it op I understand it's worrying, but you don't want her picking up on you being overly concerned around feeding time!
Just for the record, the research doesn't particularly support the effectiveness of dry kibble as being much good at keeping teeth clean

sullivlo

DBB wrote: »

The pet shop assistant said to starve a 15 week old puppy until she ate? Jesus swept.
I know people do the whole "vets recommend foods they sell" line on forums, but I'd be really annoyed to be ranted at like that by a pet shop staff member. If it's levelled at vets that their training in foods is at at a certain level, you can be pretty sure yer wan in the pet shop's training is below that level.
Look, RC is not the best, but it's not the worst either. If it works for you and works for her, just give it to her. Maybe you can gradually change her to something else as she gets older. Plenty of pups fed on RC doing perfectly well.
Try not to stress about it op I understand it's worrying, but you don't want her picking up on you being overly concerned around feeding time!
Just for the record, the research doesn't particularly support the effectiveness of dry kibble as being much good at keeping teeth clean

Yes. The alarm bells were ringing when she suggested starvation. She said 3 days would be grand for the puppy not to eat for.

Confirmed my suspicions about RC. Will stick with it for the time being and then reassess in a few weeks or months. It’s a steep learning curve for sure in terms of her feeding. She seems to be doing well in everything else.

hamburgham

Why don’t you give her some proper food, mince or chicken mixed with rice, veg or potatoes. Something she’ll actually enjoy eating.

This is what our parents’ dogs thrived on until all things dog related became big business.

Do you realise that most kibble isn’t even made from meat or grain but from meat and grain derivatives ie the absolute rubbish that’s left behind and then coated in grease to give it some sort of flavour. Ever notice how greasy so many brands are.

I’ve had dogs all my life and they’ve only ever got real food.My dog also gets tuna and salmon. I love seeing them really enjoying their food rather than picking unenthusiastically at dried up bits of god knows what.

DBB

I think it's more constructive to not berate one food over the other. Some people have very strong opinions about how to feed their dogs... but how one person feeds their dogs doesn't suit everybody, and each and every owner should be let make an informed decision about what suits them, and their dogs, best, without being harangued one way or the other.

sullivlo

hamburgham wrote: »

Why don’t you give her some proper food, mince or chicken mixed with rice, veg or potatoes. Something she’ll actually enjoy eating.

This is what our parents’ dogs thrived on until all things dog related became big business.

Do you realise that most kibble isn’t even made from meat or grain but from meat and grain derivatives ie the absolute rubbish that’s left behind and then coated in grease to give it some sort of flavour. Ever notice how greasy so many brands are.

I’ve had dogs all my life and they’ve only ever got real food.My dog also gets tuna and salmon. I love seeing them really enjoying their food rather than picking unenthusiastically at dried up bits of god knows what.

That is the long term plan to self cook for her but any research I have done says that it’s best to wait until the dog is a little older. To do self feed properly you need to give offal like kidneys or heart and they’re not recommended until the puppy is a little older. She is only 15 weeks and she has a bit of catching up to do food wise. She was the smallest surviving pup of the litter.

She gets chicken or salmon as training treats. She was previously content with kibble but when she was sick the vet suggested RC, and since then she has become very fussy about the kibble and I think it is down to the size of it. I was only asking if the food was bad quality.

sullivlo

DBB wrote: »

Just for the record, the research doesn't particularly support the effectiveness of dry kibble as being much good at keeping teeth clean

Yeah I have heard that alright. The long term goal is to add some marrow bones to her diet but she is currently too small for me to safely give her one.

DBB

sullivlo wrote: »

Yeah I have heard that alright. The long term goal is to add some marrow bones to her diet but she is currently too small for me to safely give her one.

Great! You've probably seen somewhere at this stage that weight-bearing bones of anything bigger than chickens are not a good idea.
From the mammals, I believe lamb ribs are good as they're not excessively hard. The only bones I feed are raw chicken wings or legs, depending on the size of the dog.
Probably no reason why you can't let her have a go of a chicken wing tip? Just the tip Should be fine for a pup her age. Tk123 may be able to give some insight here as she has reared a pup on a raw/wet diet. I've done it too, but a combo of raw, high quality tinned, and kibble, eventually moving away from kibble altogether.

tk123

DBB wrote: »

Probably no reason why you can't let her have a go of a chicken wing tip? Just the tip Should be fine for a pup her age. Tk123 may be able to give some insight here as she has reared a pup on a raw/wet diet. I've done it too, but a combo of raw, high quality tinned, and kibble, eventually moving away from kibble altogether.

Yup I did. I think I started with duck necks probably because that’s what I had in the freezer at the time! But for a collie pup a chicken wing tip would be fine - I’d bash it with the back of a knife/rolling pin etc to break the bones up to be safe and hold it so she takes small bites. I’ve no pup yet but have been building up my stock of raw puppy mixes. Once I get confirmation (I’ve been let down twice ) I’ll be ordering Rocco Junior from zooplus.
For the kibble size OP - have you thought of changing to a different variety of what you were feeding eg if you wanted bigger do they have a large breed puppy kibble you could try? I wouldn’t get too hung up on keeping puppy teeth clean - they’re going to fall out lol!

Springwell

Vets don't get paid to sell RC and starving a 15 week old puppy for three days is tantamount to dog abuse. I'm glad you didn't take their advice. If RC is what your pup enjoys and you can afford it then feed that - we all have opinions on different foods but in reality the food the dog is happy to eat is the right choice usually!

irish_goat

Springwell wrote: »

In reality the food the dog is happy to eat is the right choice usually!

My little cavalier Penny would be happy eating chocolate all day though. :pac: