Our new little girl will be 7 months old when we get her after Christmas :)  She was originally on puppy food (dry with a bit of wet mixed in to make it more appetising) but about 3 weeks ago decided that the adult bitches food was much more palatable!  Since then she's been on Burgess Supadog Lamb & Rice with a bit of Pedigree Puppy tinned food mixed in (the breeders could not convince her to go back onto the puppy dry food cos she's a stubborn little thing bless her).  My concern is that she won't be getting the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that she would be if she was on complete puppy food.  Am I right in thinking this?  Also, I've heard that Pedigree tinned food is pretty poor cos of the 78% moisture content (:rolleyes:) and was wondering if I should wean her onto Naturediet mixed in with the supadog?  I would do this over about a 14 day period when she's been with us several weeks to ensure she's settled and eating properly in the first place :)  Thoughts and advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks :)

I believe the Pedigree Puppy food is a complete too in which case using two completes together still makes a complete, if you follow me :)  The moisture content isn't important, she will meet her own fluid needs by drinking more or less depending on what you feed her.  Every food has it's advocates and objectors :) there is little to choose between them, in my opinion, other than what is dictated by any intolerances (rare), dogs preference or budget requirements.  As long as your dog thrives I would not start the treadmill of trying this or that, personally.

Thanks for the advice Isabel!  I just asked as sooo many people have been telling me completely different things :rolleyes:  I personally was just going to keep her on what she knows, then when she's about 12 months old start cutting out the tinned food and just leaving her with the dried as she seems to be thriving on what she's on now :)

>sooo many people have been telling me completely different things

I doubt they have finished yet :D

>I doubt they have finished yet :-D<

I doubt they've even got started!

From my experience with the same variety of Superdog, stick with it if she's looking well  as my large breed pup has been on it since he was 5 months and he's a year old now. He looks marvellous, though I'm sure I'm going to be told I'm slowly killing him! I'm not a fan of pedigree because I've never had a dog that the food didn't give a bout of diahorrea to. But it does suit some dogs. Naturediet is undeniably better quality than pedigree, so if you feel better swapping your pup over, go for it. I find it hard to get Naturediet, so sometimes he gets Butchers or Hi Life (NOT the stuff that looks like plastic mince, but the proper meaty food). He only gets a tablespoon or two at a time anyway and I'm sure it's more for my peace of mind than his. :)

stunning advice Isabel!,Kate Moss looks stunning still i bet shes not concerend about what she puts in to her body , still if you look good a thrive on that life style good luck-JO

Actually Kate was looking decidedly ropey before she signed up for rehab :)  I would want my dogs looking considerably better than that :D.  If you are not confident to judge if your dog is in good condition or not you can always turn to the studies which show that the dog population is looking pretty good too :)

Some more than others:rolleyes:

Exactly! So you will be able to judge if your dog is not amongst the many good ones :)

Not difficult surely :)  As long as there are one or two ropey ones you will have something to compare to and be confident that yours is in good condition.

you will have to explain ,those dogs fed on a quality food will benifit long term than those fed on cheep mass produced rubbish -Jo
 

The studies show that the dog population does very well and the majority of those are fed on the commonly found foods (of course :p) so I suppose your statement has to mean you agree those are the foods worth feeding.  I doubt any dog would do well on rubbish but it certainly appears mass producing has no damaging effect at all. 

Also, I've heard that Pedigree tinned food is pretty poor cos of the 78% moisture content

LOL peewee mostly ALL canned foods have between 75-85% moisture,that's why they are often recommended for dogs/cats with kidney probs or who do not drink enough for one reason or another.I beleive good quality canned/moist food is far better for our pets than dry food which has an unnatural moisture content of 10%,wet foods mimic closer their natural diet which has a high moisture content also. There are many other reasons why pedigree is a poor food,moisture content not being one of them ;)

>LOL peewee mostly ALL canned foods have between 75-85% moisture,that's why they are often recommended for dogs/cats with kidney probs or who do not drink enough for one reason or another.

You are so rude!  You agreed with the statement so why laugh at peewe?  Everyone has their own beliefs why do you persist on trying to force your beliefs on others in such an arrogant manner?

Your research seems to be reading tins and googling, is this your only means of finding your "facts"?

Don't worry CherylS I didn't take offence :)

:p at you laughing Hailey ;)  Yeah I'm fully aware that most canned foods are half to three-quarters water content but was just stating about Pedigree as that is what our pup is currently on :)  And I know that Pedigree ain't a great food which is exactly why I'm asking for advice on what to change to if anything :)  I was thinking of gradually weaning her onto Naturediet mixed in with the dry when she's properly settled in (just cos she's used to dry and wet together) :)  My concern was the fact that she was only on puppy food for 6 months and I believed all small to meduim sized dogs were supposed to be on it for the first 12 months and larger breeds 18 months thats all :)

Peewee,

I wouldn't worry too much about puppy food or adult ;) after all until commercial dog foods there was no such thing as puppy food/adult food - people just fed their dogs whatever worked for them.  As I understand it the biggest problem is with feeding large breed pups highly nutritious foods which can cause them to grow too quickly ;)  A small/medium breed will often have finished growing by @ 7 months and will then just fill out, in this case puppy food might be too rich ;) 

As I understand it the biggest problem is with feeding large breed pups highly nutritious foods which can cause them to grow too quickly

I would replace 'highly nutritious' with high calcium/phosphorous levels which are the main culprits for making large breed dogs grow too quickly! All dogs need "highly nutritious" food,it's just that some need lower fat/protein content and the all important cal/phos ratio's must be taken into serious consideration before feeding any large/giant breed on a commercial food. :)

Just to claify something peewee,you said Also, I've heard that Pedigree tinned food is pretty poor cos of the 78% moisture content (rolleyes),this sounded as iff you didnt like pedigree because of it's high water content :) And i sure hope you didnt take offence to anything i said,because it sure was not intended to come accross that way :)

Peewee

The guidelines about how long dogs should be on puppy or junior food for differs depending on the food you feed.  For example, I think it's IAMs who recommend feeding their puppy food to large dogs until they are 15 months.  On the other hand you have Nature Diet who recommend feeding their puppy food until 6 months only.  So it varies and you have to look at what the manufacturer advises.

As for what to feed, I agree with your feelings that Pedigree is not a great food. 

Nature Diet is an excellent food, so why don't you feed that?  They suggest feeding their puppy food to 6 months.  If you feel uncomfortable with that, you could feed Nature Diet Puppy in the morning and Nature Diet adult in the evening. 

If you want to mix it in with dry food, I would advise either Burns or James Wellbeloved, not Supadog:

www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk
www.wellbeloved.co.uk

Thanks all for the advice :)

I've not actually seen any Naturediet Puppy Food in any of my local pet shops who stock other packs.  Where do you get it from?  I will slowly wean her off the Pedigree and onto Naturediet once she's settled as I originally planned to do.  With regards the Supadog the reason the breeder feeds this is that its the only food she's found to suit all her dogs and not upset their stomachs.  With our past experience of the breed we know they can have quite sensitive tummies so thats why I am going to stick with the dry food that she's used to.

Once again thanks for the advice :)

Hope you all had a great Christmas!  I'm just off to bed after being up at the crack of dawn unwrapping prezzies and 'building' the box contents for my young son :)

Hi Peewee

IMHO there is no need to feed a special puppy, junior, lite or senior diet to a dog, after all most animals, including humans manage pretty well on the diet they are designed for.  They just need more or less of it depending on their weight and stage of development.  

I would avoid pedigree tinned food  because it has added sugar (caramel) and salt, neither of which are necessary for dogs at best and at worst that can be decidedly unhealthy for them (just as they are in humans).

There is no reason that you cannot feed Naturediet alone and there is no reason to mix in wet food with dry other than most dogs prefer moist food as it more closely mimics what they would be eating in the wild.

HTH

Thanks for your response tohme!

Am I right in thinking that dry food is better for dogs teeth than wet?  She loves to chew a little rawhide bone which must be good for teeth too(?)  She is showing very little interest in toys (other than my giraffe slippers haha).  We were told she loved her toys and we were given her 'favourites' but maybe its just cos she's still not properly settled.  Is there anything else I could offer her to keep her teeth in tip top conidition?  We never 'brushed' our previous dogs teeth as they were kept in good condition with chews.  Are the 'dentastick' type things any good or do they contain a load of unnatural substances?

Once she's properly settled in I'll start to wean her off the pedigree tinned food and onto naturediet mixed in with her dried food :)  She's only eating about half of what we put down for her on a morning & evening and nibbles at it over a period of about 3 hours (usually only when people go into the kitchen and she follows but she still prefers to stick by you).  We know it should be taken away after 20 mins but as she's not settled in properly yet and doesn't want to be 'alone' we're giving her more time to eat it.  She doesn't even lick the wet food off which our previous dogs would have doen then they'd have left the biscuits haha  The kitchen (where she eats) is a cool place so it won't go off quickly :)

Dogs are scientifically classified as carnivores, because their dentition tells us that is what they were designed to eat; if they were scientifically classified as being omnivores (rather than being omniverous, which is technically different) they would have molars designed for chewing and grinding, which they do not.

Dogs do not chew, they are anatomically unable to do so as their jaws move up and down, not side to side like us, cows, horses etc etc.

Their teeth were designed to rip, shred, tear and gnaw.

Therefore if you watch (and time) most dogs eating, there is no added value to feeding dry foods over wet ones. Added to that is the fact that as all dog foods currently commercially available in the UK consist at the very minimum of 50% cereal, therefore starch and that the film of the latter leads to dental decay, one might say that the converse could be true IF wet foods did not contain lots of cereal (not to mention milk derivatives, sugars etc).

As for rawhide bones, personally I would not touch them with a barge pole as one does not know their origin (could be beef, could be dog, giraffe, zebra, rat for all we know) plus they have to be treated withsomething pretty caustic to obtain that pearly white colour) I would prefer to offer my dog a nice raw knuckle bone to gnaw on once a week which is ace at removing tartar and preventing its build up, and the bonus of these is that you know their origin, in the UK and they are free (from a lot of butchers anyway).

Dentastix, etc etc also contain starches, milk proteins etc etc etc so therefore could be seen to cause the very condition they were meant to prevent!  and very costly too.

If you cannot face raw bones then consider using a pet toothpaste and brush once a week or fragaria 6c a homeopathic treatment for teeth suitable for both humans and dogs!

>If you cannot face raw bones<

And whatever you do, don't be tempted to get the cooked ones. Not only are they harder/more brittle, a lot more expensive and give a lot of dogs diahorrea, but they are far more greasy and smelly than raw ones.

We'd never give any dog a cooked bone or a bone that wasn't a proper beef knuckle bone as we are very aware of the damage they can do to a dogs mouth so no worries there :)

The rawhide chews that I've got ain't pearly white and say that they are cow hide but I shall take on board what you said :)

With regards the dried food our little girl does seem to prefer that to the wet - she leaves the wet in the bowl and picks out the dried (and she chews it beautifully bless her).  So it may be best for her to wean her off wet completely and then at a later date onto a 'good' dry food.  I've read about Burns and our previous dogs had both Hills and James Wellbeloved (over the course of their lives that is).  What is Vitalin like as a food?  And I've seen an advert for 'Royal Canin' which says its a 'Vet Breed Nutrition' specifically formulated for different breeds - any thoughts?

:)

Am I right in thinking that dry food is better for dogs teeth than wet?

IMO dry food doesnt do anything to clean teeth.Ask any dentist and he will tell you that carby foods are the worst for teeth,as tohme eluded to, they stick to teeth and gums like glue,whereas wet foods,fresh or commercial tend not to stick on teeth as much because they dont include the high amounts of grain as dry food does.

i don't think that dry food does anything for the teeth - do your teeth feel clean after eating a biscuit?

a good uncooked chicken wing once a week seems to work wonders on my dogs teeth.