Hi All,

The benefit of your wisdom please.  We currently feed our rather large Lab puppy on Hills.  for the first few weeks we stuck to the regime of dry food only as this is what I belived to be the right approach.  As time went by it became increasingly apparent that our puppy wasn't enjoying her meals at all - I literally needed to hand feed her to get her to eat it.  So, once she reached 15KG I figured she was big enough to have a bit of something mixed with the biscuits.  I looked in the local pets at Home and Kennelgate for something suitable - and in the end I settled on something called 'Davies original' which is in....well it's like a plastic sausage - it's 78% moisture and then the rest is Ash, Protein, 4% turkey, etc.  I was actually looking for tripe but I can't find it anywhere.  I only give her a couple of spoons (one pack lasts 6 meals) and she seems to really enjoy her food now.

Trouble is I'm worried that I'm giving her rubbish to eat!  So, my question is - what do you all mix with your biscuits and can anyone suggest a healthy alternative to what I'm doing already - such as take her off hills and give her something else?  (I wanted her to have hills as its crunchy, easy to get hold of and good for her teeth).  Our vet has advised against feeding raw meat but all other suggestions welcome.

Thank you
Nx

Really you shouldn't be adding anything to complete foods as you can interefere with the balance of it. However the Davies "sausages" as I call them are basically nothing much more than a taste, not much goodness in them, so I can't see a big problem perosnally with adding some of that to encourage the dog to eat. I used to when one of my dogs used to be a picky eater when she was younger (these days she'll eat anything at all).

HI Goldmali,

Thanks for the reply.  I figured I shouldn't really be adding anything which is why I went for the Davies 'sausages' - being 78% moisture and not much else I figured it would have a limited affect on the kibble - I've reduced the amount of Hills she has though to compensate - is that the right thing to do?
Cheers
Nicky

Hi Nicky,

There is absolutely no problem adding extras to a complete food.  You can certainly add another complete food, like Naturediet or any canned moist foods, with out upsetting any balance.

I personally believe that there is never any problem in adding another protein to complete foods.  After all, commercial dog foods now use grains because they are a cheaper source of protein - not because your dogs should necessarily be eating a diet with a large percentage of grain.  As long as you are adding it primarily as a flavouring you do not need to be concerned about upsetting nutritional balance.

I feed my dogs Naturediet in the morning and in the evening they get a smaller meal of leftovers - fish, red meat, chicken, veg - whatever is on the menu (no onions, no fatty sauces though - and definitely no pudding!)  About 5 times a week I also give them a doggy vitamin that I buy at the vets, just for my own peace of mind, not because I think they really need it.

If your dog does not like Hills, why dont' you switch to something she likes better?  

Stacey

I feed complete from when they are a puppy. The breeder also put on the diet sheet that it would be no problem to add a spoonful of tripe, some scramble egg or a half sachet of pedigree puppy. This I have done with all of my dogs (bcs) and have had no problems.

My pup went through a fussy stage. He came with Naytura (sp?) and tuckertime (meat package), but he never liked that, i suspect the shop just pushed their own brand. My vet gave us samples of Eukanuba which he liked for a while, but then went off. Tried Hills, didnt like it. Some other fancy natural brand whose name i cant recall, and finally went back to the Eukanuba which was all he would touch in the end (after disliking it in the first place...)

At 2 yo now he gets mostly eukanuba, about a third in the morning and the rest at night with a little 'doggy junk food' meat product (about a fifth of his total meal). Sometimes he wont eat the breakfast, but will always clean up at night.

On the crunchyness i put my small pup on the medium dog size up from the small dog as the vet said his teeth were getting a big dirty. And now he *will* eat the Hills tooth defence food as treats, but they are hard work so 2 or 3 is the limit... And his teeth look better after a few weeks. He is still a little fussy unless there is competition about (other dogs, cats...)

A friend just mixes a spoon of some really cheap can dog food that is like gravey with the occasional meat chunk into some complete biscuits.