Hi,

We have a 9.5 week old red/white male boxer puppy who is just fabulous. His breeder had him on Beta, mixed with tripe/tinned variations/tuna. We eventually want to change him on to either James Wellbeloved or Arden Grange but I'm reluctant to do it whilst he is still settling in. I don't really want to use the tinned food and would prefer to use food that has reliable ingredients. So far we have been mixing the following with his beta; tuna/salmon/boiled turkey but I want to vary it a bit. I think he may be having a bit too much fish so can anyway offer some other choices. I'm thinking of chicken/raw eggs/pork/beef/mackrel - is all this okay for him to be eating at this age?
Any advice is greatly received.....thanks!

If you run a search using the search facility at the top of the forum page, you will find many past threads on this topic :)

>I'm thinking of chicken/raw eggs/pork/beef/mackrel - is all this okay for him to be eating at this age?

I think it is.This is the way i have reared all of my dogs from day 1(large variety of different foods) and all have lived long healthy lives with cast iron stomachs.Variety IMO is so very important it ensures your dogs digestive system gets used to different foods which means you can usually feed them anything without any problems.
I have found the dogs that have the most digestive type problems are the ones who are fed nothing but the same dry food every single day,which would throw up greater problems than just digestive upset in the long term IMHO...

Laughing dog do a great wholemeal mixer that is baked. It is ideal for mixing with tripe etc.

IMO - and I have no supporting evidence - the age also makes a difference. My GSP's breeder used to feed them on multiple foods from weaning, and he's always suffered from a sensitive stomach - I think he was sensitised to the different foods from being fed them young when his gut was still more permeable to absorbing mother's antibodies etc. But one dog doesn't make a case study. :D

That's interesting, Munrogirl76.  My opinion is just the opposite :) :)  I wean my pups on to a variety of foods (including dry, tinned, real meat and bones etc) and I hope it helps to promote a tolerant gut.  I wonder if there have been any studies on this?  They'd probably come up with contradictory results and conclusions anyway :)

Yep I am with you on this, and all my lot have caste iron guts.