Hi. my 5 month old Cav puppy is fed on JWB but for the past few weeks, he's been turning his nose up at it. I've tried soaking it, leaving it dry, adding a little wet food - hi life pouches (he eats the wet but leaves the dry food) I changed the flavour from turkey to ocean white fish but he's still not interested He has been teething so I put it down to that at first. I know that many people say that fussy eaters are made but I don't want to feed him something that he isn't over keen on and only eats because nothing else is on offer, I want him to enjoy his food. Before JWB I tried him on Nature Diet and he did like it but after 10 days developed a very upset tum with watery bloody poo's - looking back I put that down to me over feeding as he was eating almost 1 full pack per day and weighed 2.75kg at the time. I don't know what to do for the best, do I give Nature Diet another try as he seems to prefer wet food, do I stick with JWB (for the sake of his teeth) but feed 50/50 with wet food.....any suggestions?? He is quite slim and could do with filling out a bit.

Also, does anyone have an opinion on the hi life pouches? Here's the ingredients Chicken (min 26%), Turkey, Pork, minerals. Typical analysis: protein 11.0%, oil 9.0%, fibre 0.5%, ash 3.0%, moisture 76%, Vit A 5,000iu/kg, vit D3 200iu/kg, vit E 16iu/kg.

Thanks

Hayley

Hi Hayley

I think this is your call.  If you want to feed a dry food (which some people do, since it's more convenient), then persevere with the JWB.  If you keep putting it down and picking it up again if he doesn't eat it, and are REALLY strict - not adding any extras - then he will eat it.  Honestly, when I was a kid I wouldn't eat my sprouts if I knew I was going to get Angel Delight for dessert.  But if I hadn't eaten for 2 days and then was given sprouts, I'm sure I would have wolfed them down.

Don't add any extras, don't give any titbits - just the JWB food - take the food away if not eaten after 10 mins.

On the other hand, if you want him to eat something else, then you can give the Nature Diet another try.  I would very much doubt if the bloody poo was related to the NAture Diet - quite a few puppies have "colitis" incidents and it's just a phase they seem to go through sometimes.  So you could try that again.

The Hi life pouch ingredients that you listed sound fine, but I don't know any more about them than that.

Thanks for your reply onetwothree - you always seem to help me! I tried putting just the JWB down and nothing else, taking it away after 20 mins ect but he didn't touch it, tried this for 3 days but then I began to worry because he is quite slim. I don't mind feeding a wet food so long as Harvey enjoys it. How would you say the hi life measures up compared with nature diet? ND supplies are still very unreliable here at the moment. He has a lovely shiny coat but very dry skin and a lot of dandruff.....wondering if JWB is agreeing with him.

Hi

I just had a look at the Hi Life website, which is here in case anyone else is interested: http://www.hilifepet.co.uk/dogfoods.aspx

Looking at this page, their "Dog Food Pouches" look pretty good.  My one little quibble on the "Dog Food Pouches" would be that they say "Chicken and Rice (30%)" or "Lamb and Rice (30%)" - which means that the COMBINED meat and Rice is 30%.  So the Rice could be 28% and the meat just 2% for all we know.  Having said that, there seems to be no artificial colours, preservatives or nasties and generally it looks like a good food.

Their "Special Care Cans" also look very good.

But stay away from their "Complete Moist Dogfood" on that same page - that has all kinds of boonarnies added to it, colours, preservatives and looks pants by comparison. 

If you're going to switch to Hi Life totally, you should probably still be feeding their Puppy foods if your pup is 5 months - I don't know if you've been feeding that until now.  You might also want to email them and just double check they do not add BHA or BHT to their foods.  (And ask them where they stand on the fact that a supplier could add these to the food before it got to them, and they could then legally not disclose it on their ingredient lists.)

You might also want to think about cost before you decide whether to feed ND or Hi Life. 

Well, at lunchtime today I gave Harvey 34g of JWB and 1/2 pouch of hi life and he devoured itI'm thinking now, if I give him 100g a day of JWB and 1 1/2 pouches of hi life then I might be on a winner.

Thanks for the help again onetwothree

Hayley