Hello All,

My other half appears to have been adopted by an old dog he rescued after being called out (Police Officer) to a sudden death.
  Poor old dog was left a long time in the house before discovery and has been in rescue kennels since, she's coming along nicely now and is settled so we're looking to improve her diet. (Came to us on basic tinned and mixer diet)
  Vets think she's about 9-10yrs she's a Heinz 57 Mongrel but looks like a strong Beagle/SBT influence in the mix. I think she may well be older... She's very sprightly though, Gave my Husky and Mum's Whippet a run for their money this week-end as they all did the screaming zoomies round the garden ;-)

Now as I'm just a mere child in age (;-)) I haven't had that much experience of my own being old dogs (only 2) and also as I feed a Raw diet I'm not 'hands on' experienced on what's out there for the 'Oldies' from the commercial feeds (Dry or Wet) sector at the moment.

OH scoffs at my Kitchen cupboard with an Array of Dorwest Herbs tubs! (Says the dogs have more variety than we have in the Kitchen spice rack! ;-)) So I'm looking for a good 'All-rounder' of a feed:

Anything you've used and like to recommend much appreciated....
(One dogs meat is another dogs poison of course so what suits others may not suit her, but it gives me  bit of a heads up to start from)
Cheers.

I use natures menu tins for my two dogs as I have one very fussy dog and am very impressed with it. It is quite expensive but contains a high percentage of meat and does not have additives in it. I also use Arden Grange mini lamb and rice for small dogs although they don't eat a lot of the kibble. I put it in kongs for them as they won't eat it out of a dish so as their diet is largely the wet food they eat what they want of the kibble afterwards.

Being somewhat longer in the tooth- I have fed quite a few old dogs!!

In my experience, you won't go far wrong with good old tinned Chappie.

It is a complete food and easily digested. Vets used to suggest it both for old dogs and for some with digestive problems.

I always use it for oldies, it is particularly useful if they have a few teeth missing.

Best wishes

I feed my oldie (13.5) nature diet (she'll eat most varieties) and recently she has taken to it being mixed in with Fish4dogs sardine.

As you probably know I lost Charlie at the beginning of the year (Goldie, 17+ years old) and I basically fed him the same raw diet + a small handful of Orijen (as a topper) as the rest of the gang (age range 2 to 10). They get lamb ribs 3-4 times a week and I made sure he had the softer, more bendy bones, rather than the heavy duty ribs. He still had all his teeth and coped well. They do occasionally get the odd pack of Naturediet thrown into the mix as well - variety is the spice of life!

If you are happy feeding the others raw, there's no reason not to feed the new arrival the same. Charlie was only introduced to raw as a 13 year old, so it's never too late to start!

I swapped my old Beardie Una to raw at 11. She did fine on it until I lost her at 14

We took an elderly rehome in at Christmas (he is 13 this year).His owner went into a care home and his family didn't want him.His breeder took him back but he was unhappy in kennels.So he has made our woo family up to 8!!!
When he came to us he was on Bakers!!!!!Owners choice.He had bad breath and tartar - lots of.Within a week he was on BARF.No issues,from a dog that would only eat Barf he is loving it.Now a healthy weight and bounces around.We also fed our 15 year old JRT BARF as well,swapping him over about 3 years ago.
Well done on taking in your new girl.

I think your right tinned chappie is what I feed my frenchie, ihad him on all the expensive dried food but he farted so much it nearly killed us we couldn't take him anywhere he smelt so rancid!
Moved him on to chappie andall is fine as long as it's not the chicken one stick to  the fish

Liv have you moved in with your OH?

Oh and if he wants another dog to join his current rescue i can point him in the right direction :-D

Sorry not a helpful post but being nosey.. hehe

> Liv have you moved in with your OH?

  ((((( ))))))) Heck NO! (sorry I didn't make that clear did I lol)

Anne,Jude and Karen:
I know I know!! I wish I wish!!
Were she with me I'd definately have no problems with bring her onto Raw (Northern Norwegian family so thats the only way we've ever fed dogs)

But problem is My Other half (for various fairly legitamate reasons can't... He's a bloke and clueless ;-) ) <- But I'm working on that!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.
Please keep them coming!

Because OH is fairly rubbish at all this, I'd like to know if anyone uses specific feeds for 'Older dogs' what I'm getting at I guess is, she could benefit from some Glucosamine & Chrondroitin for example and so does anyone find the feeds that have this supplement included of any value?? As he can't be relied upon to remember to add seperately additional supplements...

Hope that makes sense?

OK HG, now you've cleared that one up (lol) I'd probably suggest Naturediet or one of the other good quality wet foods.

Charlie was on ND for years before we went over to raw and I never bothered with supplements then. Initially when I started feeding raw I added fish oil and vit E to all the dogs diet but as I became more confident felt it unnecessary as their diet was very varied. The only dog now that gets any supplement is Hamish, coming up 11, with severe hip dysplasia and spondylosis, and he is on Cosequin. But if the new arrival doesn't have any underlying problems I'd probably not bother with any add-ons (don't want to tax the OHs brain too much!!!).

If you are going for wet food I would try Natures Harvest as has the joint supplements already in the food and probably as near to feeding barf without actually doing it - hence why I feed it plus they do a senior specific one.

I use natures diet and/or Forthglade Senior for my old girl.  I think alot of senior foods are lower protein too help to keep their weight down, lower fat and do contain more vits to help with joints etc.  Chappie is a good allround food too I think.  All are easily on the digestion too :)

I use chappie for my old dog,too,she has a sensitive stomach these days,but shes fine on that.Would have liked to switch to raw as i have with my young one,but her tum will only tolerate a tiny amount,and is very picky as to what!

I fed arden grange throughout my old dogs life,and although it contains glucosamine,she still developed severe arthritis,so I would use supplements,to be sure.

Liv I would recommend Nature Diet as well :-)

me too!