I have a new labrador puppy who is now 9 weeks, my breeder gave me an excellent diet sheet and he is doing very well on this, but sheet says to start him on a holistic diet around 12 weeks, I was too embarrassed to ask what this was, Please help, he is an absolute angel, with the occasional demonic streak, sorry he is a demon with a halo, whatever, love him to bits

Kay

hiya
don't take my word for it but i think he/she is saying ' put him on a complete food '
louise

hi

burns complete is an holistic food whatever that means?

j

Still none the wiser, but thanks anyway, I am feeding him fresh food at the moment, he is on tripe, mince, heart, marrow taken out of the bone,egg custard, rice pudding, porridge, a little lactol and eukanuba puppy food, but he is also only on two to three meals a day, I let him feed when he wants to, he does not alway finish a meal but goes back to it on and off until its finished. Is this ok, I have always know labs to wolf a meal down as if it was their last.
Kay

A holistic diet is basically a diet of natural foods with no artificial preservatives or additives.

My mother was kind enough to buy me a book about home remedies written by vets practicing holistic health.

Hate to disagree but a holistic diet is as Jakalyn and Boxerluv said, holistic just means complete.  Can be natural but not necessarily. :)

I always thought a holistic diet was made from natural foods with no chemicals or preservatives,i would continue feeding as you are but replace the eukanuba with a more natural dry food,such as burns as euk. is definatly not a natural or holistic food!
I would bite the bullet and call your breeder and ask her to clarify what she means by holistic(tell her you are getting differing opinions on holistic ;) It sounds as tho you are feeding a holistic diet,except for the euk.   I'm sure your breeder will be more than happy to help you and your pup,thats what they are there for,you certainly wouldnt be the first buyer to call and ask questions,i bombarded my breeder with phone calls when i got my first pup,she was happy that i was asking her questions :) And not just going on guess work.

christine

Hmmmm, always thought  holistic meant relating to the *whole* so in this case whole food, I`d take that as meaning wholesome foods not complete food, maybe it`s got different meanings :D
I`d deffinitley ring the breeder just to make sure :)

Christine, Spain.

Holistic is one of those words that are bandied about with no real understanding of the TRUE meaning; a bit like "biological" was in the 70s :D

Holistic is a term that is usually combined with Health and means instead of looking at say symptoms of something and treating them independently of anything else it is about looking at the WHOLE picture to determine the factors which may govern the way you feel; eg diet, environment, relationships, medications etc; none of these work in isolation and most illnesses do not respond well to a system which ignores other issues which may exacercabate or have a synergistic effect with others.

HTH

As for the diet, Burns is advertised as a holistic diet :D

Thanks everybody for your replies, have decided to ring breeder, she did say to contact her if anything was bothering me, just a bit embarrassed about something so silly, thanks again,
Kay