Hi we have a 7 month old whippet who we currently feed Beta puppy/junior at what age should we switch to an adult food? he's never been a dog that will eat a whole bowl of food at one sitting and tends to go back and forth to it and we've always wondered is this just the way some dogs are or isn't he too fussed on this type of food?

Steve

Hi,

Beta is a cereal based food and is full of stuff which is not very tasty and not digestable, this is probably why he is not fussed with it.

If he was mine, I would change to either Nutro puppy, Royal Canin puppy or Naturediet puppy and would change him onto adult at about a year old.  With these foods there is much less waste (poo) and he will enjoy it a lot more. :)

manda
x

oops is Beta really that bad then ?? its what the breeder was feeding thats the only reason we've fed it.

Steve

Some dogs are just "grazers" no matter what you feed them, particularly sight hounds it seems.  I used to have Afghans who were fed on tripe and mixer who would just pick at their food, they would eat it by the end of the evening but it would take them all that time to get there.  My families new Lurcher is the same, she is on Hills but mother mixes all sorts of goodies with it and she will take a whole day eating it :D

I agree with manda.  Naturediet is a great food and at 7 months your pup could have the adult variety.  naturediet is a moist food with only natural meat rice and veggies gently steamed in the carton.  Most dogs love it.  My cocker spaniel pup was on it before I changed over to raw feeding and she always licked the bowl clean.
good luck with whatever you choose.
Linda

My 11 week old puppy was on Nature diet before we got him but it is a dry form. I didn't see the bag as the breeder gave me a clear plastic bag but she said it was Nature. She told me to mix 1/2 and 1/2 of my other 11 month old dog's food as to get the puppy used to it if that was what I would buy, but the puppy got soft poop today. Should I stick with what it's used to for now? Is Iams a good food?
Renee

Hi I would stick to what the breeder gave you for now as new pups get stressed by moving home and often go off their food and have some gastric upset.Give him time to settle in then consider changing. HTH Gillian
Edited to add it could be Natures  Best by Hills which is a dry complete

Hi Steve,

It's not REALLY bad, but there are much better foods out there.  I don't see any reason why you shouldn't change him over now,I would always recomend anyone keeps to what the breeder fed for a couple of weeks after getting the puppy or dog, but after that, do what you want.

manda
x

Our puppy was on Beta, we've (gradually) switched over to Burns
and she seems to be defecating about a third less......or should that
be a turd less??? :)

Same here with Dizzy and I really don't mind the lack of poop to scoop :D

We have a parsons terrier and were looking to find a Jack Russell puppy,  we have always given our dog    pedigree [white meats, only]. But now, that I am learning more about dog care giving and health I wonder if we are giving our dog the best type of food, proberly we are not, but you seem to know a bit about diet, any suggestions? Needless to say any new diet would be introduced very slowly.

What is pedigree white meats?

Basically the best diet for your dog is the one that suits it and keeps it healthy.  Just as with us animals benefit from having all the correct nutrients keeping all additives, colourings, humectants, plasticisers, emulsifiers, preservatives, salts, sugars etc to a minimum.

At the moment two of the foods that probably fit that bill most in the UK are Burns, a complete dry diet and Naturediet, a complete wet one; both only contain meat, rice and veggies (although one of the Burns versions also contains sugar beet pulp).  These can be fed to puppies and adults and can reduce the incidence of skin and gastric problems.

HTH

please excuse my ignorance but at what point did dogs start eating rice and vegies ?  i cant think of any of the wild dogs running the planes of africa stopping at there local rice paddy (china) for a snack, over nutrition in animals is the same as over nutrition in humans give them there meat food and some buiscuts for them to nibble on at hungry times between meals as long as the dog is happy and its digestion is going ok there should be no need to chop and change its diet.

well they wouldn't go out and look for it, but they would eat herbivores,
who would no doubt have veggies in digestable form still in their system,
so indirectly they've been eating veggies

In the wild the canine would probably not eat much cereal, but would eat vegetable matter from the stomach contents of it's prey thereby getting the vitamins not found in meat and bones.  it would also get a lot of roughage from the ingested fur and skin.

Cereal is used in dogs diets (biscuits are cereal) really as an alternative cheaper energy source to expensive meat protein.  It is also a way of using the byproducts of humand food production.  Is it any wonder that the major Pet Food Manufacturers are subsiduaries of humand food processing companies???

You are quite right they would not eat rice in the wild because it was not commercially grown or cooked.  Neither would they be eating bicuits in the wild which are also made from cereals.

They do however like to graze on various herbage and growing corn etc and being opportunistic would eat windfall fruit etc.

Thats excellant Kestrel, just show you how much waste there is in these "cereal based" foods such as Beta. :)

Good luck with your turdless dog. :D

manda
x

""Good luck with your turdless dog. ""

Thanks Manda, she's one more to add to the "jobbieless" statistics ;)