Some feeding advice please?

[Mel]

OK Niki, back in the 80's and 90's was basically on Pedigree Chum  and mixer with all sorts thrown in for good measure - chocolate, curries, hamburgers, pasta, you name it, he had it! (The curries were not courtesy of me, I may add!)

Then Keli was sent home on Beta Puppy and very soon when on to James Wellbeloved, but he always phaffed with his eating and mum started giving him Ceaser 

As soon as I could 8 years ago, when he was a mere 5yr old, he was changed to Burns and to be honest, it did him a treat! However, he still phaffed about and would often eat either at strange times or leave it holding out for treats. He could eat rice but as much as he loved pasta, he would throw it up within 10 minutes of eating it.

So when a new pupster comes home, I want to give him a better start than both Niki and Keli had.

The breeder has him on Royal Canin, but I have heard of the dreaded beet pulp filler and would love to change him to something else for his puppyhood. Because I am not an expert BARF feeder, I would be more than happy to go the kibble supplimented with BARF and raw fruit and veg until he is older because I want make sure pupster has all the correct ingredients for a health start, healthy bones, and overall health and fitness.

I've looked at Orijen - I don't know much about it but have heard it is good, I also would be happy to put pupster on Burns Puppy or something similar. I also know people who have great success with Natures Diet.

All advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks.

[Sheryl]

There are complete raw foods for puppies.  This for one http://www.naturalinstinct.com/

[MUDDYBOOTS]

Hi,I fed Benson who is now nearly six months old on Puppy Orijen until  a few weeks ago . However it has a very high protine level in it 42% and my vet said because of this it is unsuitable for puppy's .I have also seen this mentioned on a few web sites as well so i have decided to play safe and changed him to JWB which he loves  .

Its cheaper and easier to buy as well

[Hurtwood Dogs]

One of my dogs (and I've since heard of a number of others) have had problems with JWB - allergic reactions and it's put me off it to be honest. Both my dogs (a cocker and a Weimaraner) lost a lot of condition on Burns - they lost weight and their coats looked dull and they both got scurf. As they are very different breeds and different ages, I have to put it down to Burns not being 'enough' for the level of exercise they do - I was adding fish oils to their Burns but they were still struggling on it.

I then moved them onto Chappie after my Weim had an allergic reaction to JWB and they were pretty good on that for a few months but it's not a top qual food so more recently I thought I'd try them on Healthy Paws (which is rabbit based) and they are both looking absolutely brilliant on it. Healthy Paws do a puppy food too so that might be one you could consider also.... just to confuse you further!

[Mel]

Thank you all for the replies and sorry for not replying sooner.

Having spoken to the breeder about things, she is sending puppy home with the Royal Canin starter food which he can stay on for a few more months. I am conscious that the first year of feeding may well be where future problems and illness stems from, so I may look at Healthy Paws with a little BARF thrown in for good measure.

Oh it's such a minefield isn't it? 

[rwasinski]

Ours have been on Junior Royal Canin since arriving from breeder - I would say they are doing 'OK' on it, we have had tummy upsets etc, their poos have been inconsistent. I was tempted a while back to change Blod's food (before Welly was around) and we tried her on Burns and Arden Grange. To be honest, she wasn't at all interested in Burns and Arden Grange didn't really seem to appeal to her either so we switched back to RC and have kept Llewelyn on this too.

I have sent off for samples of Healthy Paws since it comes with such good reviews here. We'll see how it goes down in this house. 

[Mel]

Yes the upset tummy on RC Junior is something Sharon is concerned about. Hence puppies back on the starter.

I am very interested in Orijen but several people say this is too rich for a pupster and one should wait til they are about a year old and go on the adult.

I like the idea of no grains.

[*jen*]

We fed Ruby on Orijen puppy from about 16 weeks old with no problems. She is now on the adult version.

She had a really sensitive tummy which when we first got her and after a process of elimination we found the cereal based products were causing the issue. This is the reason that we chose Orijen.

Jen and Ruby