Hi -

Has anyone used Fish4Dogs as a food to wean pups onto?  I see they do a salmon mousse.  Their breeders' club also sounds excellent.

Has anyone used this and what have the results been?  Any problems or runny puppy bums?

Still on the hunt for a good quality food which doesn't cost the earth.

Thx.

I'll let you know in a few weeks. 

Yep I used it last year for a litter of 11. Cant revommend it highly enough
Diane

Yes, I've weaned quite a few onto it and it's fantastic.  I do however start them with raw (frozen then thawed) mince but use fish4dogs for mum and pups.  I switched from another (very expensive) food which gave my pups horrendous runs - the fish4dogs changed this and no more problems.  I haven't fed the mousse but feed the (soaked) puppy food.  I haven't had any problems at all.  The puppy pack is great - they get a bag of puppy food and some mousse and the chance to join the puppy club - and they are interested in the pups!  They do a big kibble puppy food now which is useful as the ordinary is quite small.

All my dogs are fed on this food, i think it is a great food.
You get a good discount on the breeders club prices.
I will be weaning my litter onto this food using the mousse too..  They do some good deals so watch the web site or facebook them..

After your last thread didn't you opt to join ProPlan?

As a puppy buyer I like fish4dogs for the reasons I've previously given here , and after several months of regularly ordering from them I haven't changed my mind.  Their food is consistently good, the delivery process simple and the breeder prices (and special offers) are excellent.

I'm a raw feeder but I've opted to keep the pup on 50:50 with this til he's 12 months and the adult dogs have a fish meal once a week too.  It's one food that seems to be good for breeders and puppy owners alike.  I have to say that their Crufts offers were pretty impressive too :)

Better than rc? If so anyone got the we site details plz? Ta

Must admit I prefer RC, one of my older pups I gradually changed her over to F4D's and it completely scours her every time, after seeing what it does to a 9 month old pup, not sure I would personally risk it on weaning pups......maybe I've just got one with a sensitive tum but nothing else affects her like this.

RC now also do a puppy mousse, which they loved and no upset tummies.

Ok, great thanks, I will look into Fish4Dogs a bit more and definitely try it on my adult dogs now and make sure I'm happy.  I was a bit worried about feeding so much salmon, but see they do foods without it.

I did join ProPlan, but can leave if I find a food I prefer. 

I like the sardine for the adults (a partly cost based decision) and the puppy food is cod.  You can buy a 4kg trial size of Sardine which might be worth a try but do join their breeders club first for the best prices.

Mine are predominantly raw fed but they aren't keen on fresh fish so this fits my fish needs for them!  I had tried Challenge but one of my dogs wouldn't even look at the bowl and would actively choose a route around the room as far away as possile.  Most odd!

I weaned my 2 pups on this.
They did well, TOO WELL and grew like weeds and their legs did not keep up so I have to change them on to a different food.
Mine is a giant breed so that might make a difference...

They liked the food, poops were fine but their weight gain was too too much for my liking, they definitely were not fat e.g. over fed but were putting on loads every week and that started to show on their legs...
Once the food was changed the weight gain leveled out as did the legs.
I feed my adults F4D among few other foods but would not wean to the puppy again because of my experience.

Isn't the puppy food quite high in protein?

Puppy food is 30% protein, but I'm not worried by that.  My other idea is Orijen, which is 38% protein (I think).

it is similar to that of RC and many other G.puppy foods on the market at the moment.
Calorific value is actually quite low compared to many...
I did loads of research around different foods as the one food we have fed for years went bad(loads of people had issues with their litters) and the other I have used more recently is not available in UK...

I changed mine to lower protein food, which is what was advised for years for giants but the view seem to have changed lately...
Don't fix what is not broken I say now :) and will stick with lower protein food for my pups from now on.

I wouldn't wean Munster pups onto a 30% protein food.   This breed is far better with lower protein, higher fat.    Not that I have any pups nor plan any with a just a solitary male dog now :-(

I joined their breeders club at Cruft's 2010.  I bought the cod and salmon, in normal, and small bite, as I have toys and Collies.

When I had a toy litter born in June last year, I ordered my free puppy packs.  I was very impressed with both the packs and the service.  By the time I had pups, they advertised their special offer on the salmon mousse, and I got 90 sachets for around £20.

They also sent me a free large sack of small bite puppy food.  I can't fault the service, or the very good discounts for breeders.  I have a lot of dogs, and had just found that RC were pricing themselves way out of my pocket.  For what it's worth, my pups thrived on Fish4Dogs.  No problems or runny bums.

Customer service is great.  I had emailed enquiries on several occasions, and been helped by Fiona.  When I went up to the stand at Cruft's this year, and asked where she was, so I could thank her - she flung her arms round me as if I was a long lost friend!!  I can't tell you how different this is from the experience with RC, who don't appear to have heard of Customer Service Training!

rabid - if you're thinking of giving them a try, I would recommend.  :-)

I have a friend who always fed raw, but since the pub closed (where she coudl get soem items from the kitchen) and her butchers prices for chicken wings etc went sky high she tried this food and swears by it.

Ive had exactly the same experince. Their customer service is second to none.

Diane

Seems along with Arden Grange to be a favourite among people in my breed.

Just raised my litter on it and everyone commented on how great they looked..brill food!!

> I changed mine to lower protein food, which is what was advised for years for giants but the view seem to have changed lately...
> Don't fix what is not broken I say now :-) and will stick with lower protein food for my pups from now on.

which brand of food is this ?

We are using Golden Eagle now and the pups are doing great growth wise.

My last puppy was brought up on a 29% protein food and she did well & I also know many people whose pups do fine with similar levels so I was not worried about the protein level in F4D... I just thought I must have out dated info when it comes to what is seen as right protein level in puppy foods as I had my last puppy from a baby 10 years ago, my current adults are imports.
Obviously with my babies the F4D did not agree, which is a shame as I do think F4D is great and would have loved to keep them on it had it suited.

Thanks Noora - :-) xx

I havent used it to wean pups onto but I use it completely  and have done for a pup that has been sensitive to all else we tried and hes flourished on it and the mousse is fabulous stuff too. The kibble is hard to soften though so would need lots of time to preprepare but is worth it for the quality but would use the mousse anyway so not a problem.

Thank you whoever started this thread, I feed all my dogs F4D and was wondering about the pups when they are being weaned (due any day now)

I had problems with Burns with my last litter and used Beta which was what another breeder recommended and they settled down

Now I feel happier about using it for them

I have been considering ordering from Fish4dogs and after reading the comments on this thread will be giving it a go.

Checked out the prices and they are very good so hope my lot like the taste of it.

They have got salmon oil on offer so may try that too.

I am waiting for a fish4dogs delivery, my 5 week old puppies are so fussy with their food and i have bags of different brands all over lol. I am hoping that I can get all of my dogs onto this.
Which food do I use to wean? Is the salmon mousse ok for the first week or so? And how long do I need to soak down the puppy complete? I have heard that it is very slow (I am used to the arden grange which soaks in minutes). Or do I need to mix the salmon mousse with the soaked complete right from the start or not use the salmon mousse at all?
They were fantastic on the phone whereas when I spoke to Royal canin last week they were all ignorant and couldnt wait to get me off of the phone!

The mousse they say is an extra and needs to be used with the complete. RC didn't mash down easily at all, may have been easier if I'd used boiled water but that ruins some of the content so had to plan ahead for each meal.

My pups loved scrambled egg with a touch of strong cheddar once a day, they drank goats milk and yogurt for variety and had at least 3 meals a day of complete.

Fussy eaters are awful, my first dachsie was one till he had competition and realised he had better eat up or it would be gone.

Let us know how the new food goes down

> touch of strong cheddar once a day, t

I'm so happy to see you did this.  i nearly did the other day and changed my mind thinking it will be too strong.  Off to the shop for mild today.

Someone said it makes them grow like weeds so not used my bag of it yet, don't want leggy dogs lol.  loved the service off them and puppy packs came as they said, very nice.

Really pleased so far with the fish4dogs - puppies seem to like it and not too much mess either

fingers crossed things continue like this

Ive just received my free bag and its very fishy (obviously!) my frenchie pup likes it so i shall see what the puppies think of it next week when we start to wean. Must say im very impressed with their breeders club as i had to order 75kgs worth of JWB if i wanted to join theres and they said they wouldnt accept receipts for the past year of the 4 bags a month, i would have to order from them direct which i bet the bags are £45+ instead of the £37.99 i pay