I have a Springer pup who is now 5 months old, he has been fed a real mix of puppy brands so far and I would like to be consisent with his diet, as he is really hit and miss with his eating.  I am thinking of Autarky uppy, but do I feed him fresh food as well (My old Irish Setter did very well for 14 years being fed tyke!) and if so what fresh foods.  Also how much should he be getting a day at his age?  I would like to know I am feeding him the right amount.  Any advice from springer owners would be very helpful.

Many thanks

Hi Scramble, when you say that your pup has been fed "a real mix of puppy brands so far" what do you mean?  Have you been changing his diet?  Why is this?  Has he become fussy? 

Any addition of  *fresh* food is a bonus. Just feeding dry kibble for ever more is not healthy for the dog,it would be like us eating t.v dinners everyday,but much worse!!

You can add fresh meat,tinned sardines,pilchards etc. in tomato sauce or oil,vegies,green tripe,yogurt,cottage cheese,the list is endless,you can replace one kibble meal with raw meaty bones such as chicken carcass,wings or necks and then move up to bigger bones that are totally consumable.Recreational bones are good to keep them occupied,these are ones such as marrow bones,that they cant consume entirely.

I cant help you with feeding amounts,i dont do measurements,i go by the feel of my dogs and their energy levels,if they're getting too podgy,i up the exercise and add more veg to the meal and less fatty bones or whatever.

How come you have changed his food so often?  I have the same questions as Spaniel-lover :)

Please reply with a little more detail and we can be of more help.

I,m gonna come in here and ask a question too.   My American cocker pup is 15 weeks old and i,m not sure how much or how many meals he should be on.   He is currently on JWB which he adores but how mjuch should he be on a day and how many meals should this be split into?
Also someone has recommended i give him evening primrose oil daily for his coat... any ideas how much is suitable for a pup daily ?

Dry food is certainly a healthy feed, the majority of dogs in this country are fed on it and live long and healthy lives, it has no relationship to human "tv dinners" which are convenience foods and not intended to be fed as a complete diet.
If you wish to treat your dog to other tipbits that is fine but be careful not to give too much to unbalance the complete diet and be aware you are likely to make him picky always wanting the treats and not always the sensible stuff :)

Gee i could of sworn commercial diets were devised as  *convenience* foods! Theres nothing much more convenient then pouring kibble into a bowl,and not too mention feeding a solely dry food overheats the body from the inside due to its lack of moisture,which surely cannot be a good thing???

Anyway i just wanted to give the OP my opinion,i do not want to get into another debate with you,i just dont have the energy or inclination!!We will never agree on this one. I just dont see the argument...Processed dry food or a predominately fresh whole food diet,i know which one i would choose every time :) We wouldnt even consider serving our kids a bowl of cereal everyday for every meal,why on earth do we think it's alright to do this to our dogs????

>not too mention feeding a solely dry food overheats the body from the inside due to its lack of moisture

What????? Why on earth would dry food overheat them, they drink water to the same amount of fluid anyway.
Yes complete dog foods are convenient but convenient human foods are not complete so you are right no one should feed them exclusively but I have never heard anyone, not even Macdonalds :) ever suggest you should.

I take it you guys have a 'History' take it easy your talking about dog food !!  And ....all take a deeeeep breath ahhh that's better!  Thanks for all the replies so far.  My dog has had 3 different types of dog food so far, the lady I rescued him from fed him cheap rubbish, we tried pedigree puppy very hit and miss and now Beta puppy.  To be honest he really doesn't like the Beta and it does smell fairly horrid so do I change him again and stick with it or....?  I was told a long time ago that feeding bones especially thin ones such as chicken bones was bad as they could get stuck in the dogs throat.?

Hi Scramble, :D  Yes, some people do like to have a bit of banter when it comes to certain subjects!  Anyway, first off I'm surprised you've had any trouble with your Springer when it comes to feeding-both I've had (a dog and bitch) would eat anything they came across if they could! :D  The main thing is to chose one food that you are happy with (cost, ingredients, availability etc) and either stick to it (i.e. the Beta if that was your choice) or introduce another food slowly so as to avoid upset stomachs etc.  Dogs are quick to learn that if they turn up their nose at something, it's likely that something tastier will be along soon thereafter!  However, it's important that whatever food you choose, both you and your dog are happy with the results- i.e. glossy, shiny coats, firm regular poops etc.  I personally wouldn't feed Pedigree etc anymore, however I have done, and my old springer lived until the age of 15 and had few health problems!  I find it's more a case of the more you learn, the more you worry! :)  Now I feed Burns & Naturediet, and I have fed Nutro in the past.  I have also heard good things about Autarky through this site, and I do believe it's a cheaper option that the others. 

Feeding bones is perfectly fine for dogs!  There are quite a few users on here who feed completely raw food, and others who just occasionally or supplement their dogs diet-my brood get the ocassional chicken wing/pork rib etc, and it's perfectly safe, provided that the bones you give are never cooked.  It's great for their teeth and overall health.

Basically, pick a food that you are happy with and so long as your dog appears to be thriving on it, which ever food you choose is entirely up to you, but make sure you are strict and stick to feeding it otherwise he'll soon learn to take advantage!! :)  Good luck.

-Kay

Now that's sensible advise,  spaniel-lover ;) although I'm not sure why you wouldn't feed Pedigree again if your dear old soul lived to 15 on it!

:) as I said Isabel, a case of the more you know and learn, the more you worry! :D

-Kay

a case of the more you know and learn, the more you worry [i/]

That is an excellent quote spaniel-lover and so very true. The more you find out about some things the scarier they are.
There are too many un-educated pet owners around who feed whatever's on special that week,if they took the time to LEARN about what they're actually feeding then they would start worrying too,im sure :D

Does anyone know why my whole post above came out italic?I put the brackets at the end of spaniel-lover's post and then wrote mine????

:) to end the italics you have to put the "/" before the "i" - maybe that was the reason? :)

:-) to end the italics you have to put the "/" before the "i" - maybe that was the reason?

thanks spaniel-lover :)

Well maybe, but when my dog lives to 15 I would tend to think no worries :)

To be honest, another reason I would now stay away from Pedigree is that prior to owning my own dogs in my own home, my sister was feeding it to her dogs, and I didn't like the condition it left their coat in etc-she has the same breed as me so in my mind, I didn't want the same results!  She has now changed their food with a marked improvement to them.  But, horses for courses, there was no problem with Poppy (old springer) before she suffered her brain tumour, and if I hadn't done any further research before getting my own dogs, I probably would have ended up sticking to that food as that was what I knew! :)  Just to stress, I have no gripe with anyone feeding any type of food to their dogs so long as that person and most importantly the dog is happy with it! :)

Well said.  I haven't always stuck with the same if I felt it wasn't suiting an individual and getting a new one is often the incentive to try out something you have been thinking about for a while.

I agree with you Rose about dry food overheating the body. Not all dogs do drink a lot. The one I have, which had the itchy skin problems, wasn't drinking very much at all, hence the skin problem IMO. After changing onto RMB everything has improved drastically, as I have said on another post. I feel I have to encourage her to drink more water, so by putting a drop of goats milk in it she will drink 1/2 pint at a time. I know they drink less on raw food but even when on dry kibble she only drank tiny amounts. Not good for her at all. I have even syringed water into her especially on fasting days!! She may think she doesn't need it, but her health certainly does.
Anne

I wouldn't call that overheating which I have heard more often associated with too high protein although whether they literally mean a higher body temperature I'm not sure .  What you experienced sounds more to me like an intolerance to something in the food which perhaps a different food would have been ok but as she seems reluctant to take water dry diets are definately not the choice for her :)

Taken from "veterinarian's guide to natural remedies for dogs" by Martin Zucker.

"Even if you feed a good quality,"natural" kibble ,that by itself can be harmful over the long term. One of the major problems related to pet health is the overuse of dry,kibble food. I relate kibble to macaroni or rice you would take out the box and eat without cooking it. It is dehydrated food,and it causes dehydrated animals. It is too dry,too processed,with too many chemicals.It contributes to chronic disease.In chinese medicine dehydrated food leads to what is called INTERNAL HEAT.This overloads the kidney's over time as well as the spleen,the organ that governs the digestive system.It starts to heat up the liver,and eventually you see burping,throwing up of bile in the morning,and upset stomachs.You see thick saliva,dry stools,an animal panting after eating it's evening meal even though the surroundings are cool.The animal is hot and has alot of heat in the body to eliminate.

A simple solution,if you still want to feed just kibble and dont have time for much else,is to make the food wetter.Add some chicken or beef broth to the kibble.I suggest a minimum of 30% moisture.
I see many animals with dry,coarse coats and flaking dandruff who are shedding volumes of fur just as a result of eating a wholly dry diet..I turn many of them around within a month,just by having the owner add broth to the dry food."

I have other books that also claim this,but it is too long and indepth to write here! And i gotta go to bed :o

I know my dogs have a normal temperature.  I have never seen my dogs react in the way he describes nor any of my friends or family who feed dry except where there has been a need to reduce the protein, not sure who he is either but I'm not really a believer in Chinese medicine :)

I know my Megan was not a 'typical' springer, she ate when she felt like it. As I was able to take her into work with me, food was left in her bowl all day and she picked at it when she felt like it. Same at home.  When Penny the puppy arrived I had to stop this and Megan would have starved herself. She had no food orientation at all. However she was protective of her belongings.  I bought her a treat ball, a large one, and filled this with her kibble, suddenly she was interested in food,  for 6 years this is the only way I fed her. The puppy learned not to go for the ball, Unorthodox, but it worked for Megan. I must stress that I had to resort to this as Megan became very ill and at one stage had to feed tinned meat from a fork just to get her to eat. It was not to pander to a whim.