In the post 'to soak or not to soak' people wrote that they won't feed complete food dry as it can cause tummy problems......why is this and what can happen? My 9 week old CKCS is on pedigree puppy complete and I have been feeding it dry mixed with a dessert spoon full of pedigree puppy meat - he seems to eat all the meat but not much of the dry as it takes him forever to crunch the peices. What would you suggest? We are at the vets tomorrow for Harvey's first health check so will discuss his diet when I'm there.

Thanks

Hayley x

Hayley, why not run a search on 'BARF versus Complete' using the facility in the top corner of the forum page? You will find many past threads on this topic with advocates of both diets expressing points of view. This is a subject that causes mass friction and opposing ideas depending on which side of the fence you sit on. 

will do thankyou

When I got my boy he was on Royal Canin, but the breeder told me to soak it first, presumably partly because of his baby teeth having trouble crunching, and partly so that it didn't swell up in his tummy.

Baby teeth can crunch, I know my breed are a bit bigger but I give my pups chicken wings/carcass to play with as soon as I start weaning them and they can generally eat them by six weeks.

Jed has had a frozen chicken piece a day since we bought him home at 8 weeks, he has never had any trouble eating it :)

my concern is not so much the 'crunching' (although it takes him forever then gets bored so doesn't eat much) more the thought of him eating a large quantity of dry complete food then it swelling in his tummy after drinking.......read something about that been a problem and how some owners will NEVER feed dry because of this?? I suppose everyone goes about things in thier own way.

Hayley x

Hayley,
Not all dry foods swell,you will have to do the water test,pour some warm water on a few kibbles and wait and see,give it a good 1/2 hour.It seems the cheaper grain laden foods are the ones that swell to super sizes and are usually the ones that cause problems in the health department,where as the super premium foods stay about the same size when water is added.

I changed to raw feeding two years ago after my dog was poorly with blood streaked D+V which I believe was caused by dry food. It had very sharp pieces in it, like rawhide that had gone brittle. The bag stated that it could be fed wet or dry. When I complained to the supplier they changed it for another bag.... that had sharp pieces in it too.  :-(  I decided it was safer to feed her a homemade diet so I know exactly what she's getting.

Kath.