I've been feeding my 11 week old cocker spaniel dry puppy food 3 times a day. She's got a good appetite and isnt fussy atall but I've been thinking about adding some chicken or veg or something is this a good idea or not yet? If I do add meat should I put it into the dry food or substitute a dry meal for a chicken/veg meal once a day?

Hi,

It's not a good idea to add extras to complete dry food, because you unbalance the food. By adding extra meat, you will unbalance the protein and this won't do your dog any good.

If you want to feed meat and veg, I would suggest changing your pup to the BARF diet, which is raw food with bones (or calcium suppliment), fruit and veg. We feed this and have very fit and healthy dogs (touch wood :D ), it's the most natural way to feed.

If you don't fancy that, there is something called Naturediet, which is cooked meat with added rice and carrot, or Natures Menu, which is raw meat with added veg and both contain all suppliments etc.

manda
X

Hiya
The dog food you are currently feeding her is probably a complete meal. Which basically means it contains everything she needs. If you start adding extra food to that, it will be classed as overfeeding. The best thing to do would be to give her the other food as a seperate meal, but make sure she can handle it, and it isnt too rich, because she is still young, so wont be able to handle anything to rich.
have fun with her

You can certainly mix fresh food in with the dry complete. There is absolutely nothing to worry about if all you want to do is add a small spoonful of meat or veg in each meal. If you want to do more than that then you make sure that your added meat and veg are balanced.

My preference would be to mix the added meat and veg in with the dry food, only because you are less likely to turn your unfussy eater into a fussy eater. In addition, even if you wanted to give her an all fresh food meal, you should get her used to the new food by mixing with her dry and then gradually increasing the quantity of fresh for that meal.

Stacey

I have a 16 week old pup who I am feeding mainly on James Wellbeloved. However, her morning meal consists of half a rabbit. I asked a few BARF people I know if that was ok and they said it was.

Helen