Hi,

We have a 4 month old cockerpoo and he's been on dry Science Plan (the hills?) food at the vets recommendation for a while now. He was quite happy with that for a while however he had a bout of diarrhea recently so we switched to chicken and rice for a couple of days - fantastic, done the trick. Problem is now he won't eat his normal food unless its got some chicken in it. I've heard some bad things about this food so decided to switch him to something else. He's had quite a bit of trouble with bloody diarrhea and a bit of vomiting in the past so naturally I'm anxious to get his new food right.

I've heard Barking Heads and James Wellbeloved are supposed to be great, does anyone have any opinions please?

Thanks in advance!

We changed Betty onto JWB when she was 12 weeks, as the royal canin she was on started to go straight through her. Never looked back they do a puppy and junior food and a small bite so she will hopefully be on this for ever. We give her one meal a day of a JWB pouch wet food and she has added vegetables to keep it interesting.

I like Barking Heads, good price for the quality

Also, look at Applaws, Fishmongers or Wainwright's (especially the trays) - all available in PAH.

Or if money's not an issue, Orijen or Eden are about as good as they get x

Personally, I take my vet's food recommendation with a pinch of salt, they get A LOT of income promoting certain brands (Hills usually)!

Another vote for James Wellbeloved here. My 7 month JR has been doing great on this. He has a mix of dry & wet. Loves the duck flavour especially. My only complaint is that they don't do a chicken flavour, My pup adores anything chicken flavoured.

Going against the train, tescos finest small dog foods have been the best for my jrx, his coats in great condition, he's healthy and most Importantly his digestion is much better on them. He has one tray a day with dry food left down all the time (I vary the brand, usually jwb) on the occasions I think I'll try him on something else his tummy gets really upset, even if I do it gradually. He was ok on natures diet but had horrendous wind, same for jwb wet foods. I'm not saying you have to go for tescos own, but just remember that expensive may not always be best for your dog, so it's a case of trying them out and seeing how your going. Archie pup is on nature diet, but am trying to get him on to jwb as its easier to source round here!

Thanks everyone. I might try the JWB then.

Mine get on well with Burns mini bites but for a young dog like yours i'd recommend Purina Pro Plan. I did a lot of research into puppy nutrition when my bitch had pups and it seems to be the best quality out of the popular brands by far. They have a puppy food for sensitive stomachs too. Try mixing dry food with Applaws if you want to use chickeny stuff.

Just bumping this - bought some JWB dry turkey and fish and a wet turkey. Just wondering if I mix them together or just give him a bowl of dry or a bowl of wet?

pro plan is a pretty good food, my friend has a GSD, pickiest dog you'll ever meet.
as a pup she was fed on bakers, while she ate this, my friend wasn't happy with the colours in the food, so switched her to JWB, which was great at first, but she started turning her nose up at it. she went through a few other brands and got the same reaction, then her mum brought her some pro plan home from work and she's never looked back, goes down very well with her dog.
she had her on large breed puppy, and she's now on their large athletic adult food.
her teeth are beautifully clean, coat in good condition, bags of energy and generally in good overall health. she is still very fussy and will only eat on her terms, but she eats this food and that's a plus!

another friend took on a chihuahua, also on bakers, she switched for the same reason, colours.
he is now on small & mini breed pro plan and loves it.
the small biscuit size is great for him as he's missing a fair few teeth, but still manages well with the food.

i'm tempted by a few foods for when we get our border collie down to his ideal weight (he's on PVD OM at the moment), pro plan light is definitely on my list, experiences of the dogs i know who are fed it being one contributing factor
but it is also recommended as a follow on food to the OM.

i would say that's personal preference
but you could see which your dog prefers

my boy won't eat kibble that is wet of has any kind of wet food added to it - he'd rather starve himself.
but he'll eat them separate (depending on the wet food, he doesn't have a taste for it generally)

in contrast, the GSD i mentioned above won't eat hers unless there is some kind of wet food added to it.

another dog i know is given a dry food meal in the morning and wet food meal in the evening, another again just gets wet food as a treat a few times a week, so it's however you want to feed.

When our eldest dog was a pup he was started on Burns but that gave him runny poo. We changed it to Arden Grange lamb and he's been on it now for years. They always have half dry half wet and seem to be okay on it. My only bugbear is that all the dry foods have rosemary oil as a preservative (even the most expensive) and as one of mine is epileptic, and this is rumoured to cause problems, it's very annoying.

Bumping an old thread rather than starting a new one......

We picked up our new puppy yesterday, he's 8 weeks and been fed on the Hills Science Plan up to now so that's obviously what we've bought. But he doesn't seem to be interested in it in the slightest! I'm soaking it for 30 mins to soften it, as per the breeder's recommendations, and I've tried adding a drop of warm goats' milk which was also recommended but he just doesn't seem keen. I know it's still very early days but I obviously don't want this to develop into a problem. Any suggestions?

My 10 week old chi was a pain for about 5 days. Fed him royal canin as per breeder, but he would not eat from his bowl. I hand fed him to a degree as I was concerned about hypoglycaemia, but as I started to supplement him with maple syrup to boost his blood sugar and stopped the hand feeding he soon got hungry and now eats well from his bowl. One thing I was sure not to was to force him, or stress over him, as that can make them fearful of feeding in itself. Just popped him in his crate, give him 10 mins, not eaten? Out he comes for a couple of hours and then try again. He now asks to be fed in his crate when he gets the munchies. Having a Stafford x dyson in the house I can't let him free feed!
Time and patience will prevail, but don't try tempting him with more interesting food or he will become a fussy feeder. Stick to his kibble!

^^ Thanks valeter, that's good advice. He's had some scrambled egg today so won't starve but I think I need to concentrate on the kibble tomorrow.

The breeder was adding raw mince to it though apparently! I didn't want to go down that road, as my understanding was that these complete puppy foods like Science Plan cover all bases nutritionally (and they're not cheap!) but maybe the lack of it is another reason why he's not so keen.

the mince will taste and smell a lot better than the kibble, which could be your problem!

you are right that the kibble has all he needs in it, but supplementing him for a short while if he's used to it is fine. it will also help him settle into your home a bit more easily as well, that's one thing that won't be completely different right away, a small comfort to him.

persevere with him.
if he still flat out refuses to eat, you could give in and add a bit of mince, but gradually reduce the amount until he's just on dry food alone.

i prefer dogs to be on dry food diets, looking at my boys teeth who has only ever had dry food for meals, compared to how our old, wet food fed, dogs teeth were when she was the same age, it's a world of difference.
(the less bulky, less malodorous poos are a bonus too )

Try not soaking it as long, a quick splash of hot water and pop it down, so there's still some texture, their wise its like mush which can't be nice! Hills is a complete food but there's no reason you can't add a little puppy meat (I'm talking a spoon ful) to add taste, you can then reduce that slowly. Don't use highsstreet brand pup food though, it's full of crap generally, try natur diet or pets at home science diet one (good food, reasonably priced)

^^ Thanks all, tried mixing in a bit of raw mince earlier and it seemed to make all the difference so I'll carry on doing that for a while.

Now - anyone got any tips on getting him to settle at night?!

I so agree with that. I would encourage everyone never to buy every day food from their vet. It's another money spinner for them.

Our dog has Wainwright's dry and wet food, he gets a little raw turkey mince added to dry as well. Another good product from PAH is the frozen raw nuggets (that's if you want dog food in your freezer, we keep ours wrapped up in a plastic bag) just top quality chicken and veg in little blocks so you can defrost exactly what your dog needs.

A little left over gravy added to the dry food is a nice change.

http://www.petsathome.com/webapp/wcs...0601&langId=-1

Hope this works.

I think we have been V lucky with our wee Chi pup, he's been no bother at night bar a little whinge here and there. We started of by having his crate in the bedroom so he wouldnt be too alone, and had a ticking clock by the side of him. One thing we DID NOT do was go to him when he was crying. A week down the line and we have the crate downstairs and no noise or complaints at all.

Sorry 3rd post

Settling at night. Is he in a crate? Our dog started off having his bed in the kitchen and something with my smell on put in with him. He settled very quickly as knew it was that time. As boring as it is a routine works wonders.

I will object to that. I am a Veterinary Nurse, Ive no vested interest in promoting a food unless I feel its a good one, and for me, Royal Canin is the top end. Its what I feed across the board to my dogs. Only other food I'll consider is not sold in Veterinary practice, and that is eagle pack holistic. But that is cost prohibitive for me.
At the end of the day, if a food suits, then feed it, just try and not let it be the c*** the supermarkets sell like Bakers or Pedigree.

Oh I agree about Bakers and Pedigree, anything sold in a supermarket is rubbish. People need to read the ingredient list and what meat content the food has, Bakers is something like 2%. If its got animal deravities (sp) in then leave it on the shelf. It's just junk the slaughter house don't use.

My vets pushes dried food as a money spinner though.

He has a crate, which is placed (open) within a pen. He was in a pen at the breeders so I bought the same one, thinking he'd be used to it, but it's not quite panning out like that! He hasn't been put in the pen during the day up to now, only at night, but last night he howled all night. He's been really tired today (as have I! ) and no wonder. Should I give up with the pen and just shut him in the crate instead? I don't really want to take him up to our room if I can avoid it, I don't really feel that's the way forward.

On the plus side - the housetraining is going brilliantly! He gets taken outside every hour or so and wees to order.

Our crate lasted 2 nights and we had howling, it was like having a new born again. First night we brought it in our room but we both said never again as did not want a dog in the bedroom. So he then went in a big comfy dog bed in the kitchen and never looked back. Never used the crate since. He has about 3 teddies in with him as well.