That's great. I never thought I would sit down longer than half an hour ever again. . Glad we had a puppy in the summer. Strangly enough no sign of children at 4am who swore blind they would get up every single day to help.

Make the crate fun, not a place he goes for bad times (which leaving him in it night is to him!) op so a king with something tasty in it is good, or hidden treats etc- use these during the day too so he never knows if he's going to be 5 mins or an hour etc.

You could also cover the crate completely, whe your going to bed, making it dark and safe/secure.

Thanks so much for the advice guys, I really appreciate it.

Well I've just realised that, not only has he not been going into the crate to sleep during the night, he's actually been going in there to wee! Ooops. So much for having a piece of Vetbed in there that smelt of his mum! I'm just relieved I didn't shut him in the crate tonight without realising.

So I've now taken the crate out of the pen and made him a makeshift bed out of a box, and if he settles in it tonight I'll buy a proper bed tomorrow. Blimey it's a steep learning curve!

That's probably why he won't settle in there, they don't like peeing where they sleep. Clean it out with biological washing powder and it'll be right, but I'd suggest getting up for a wee run about 3am. Not fun but helps them not mess the crate and get upset with themselves.

BIB - i'll never understand why people think keeping frozen dog food in your freezer is any different to keeping our own in there

i personally had to put my sadly deceased guinea pigs in the freezer over last winter as the ground was too hard to bury them - something which horrified our neighbours for some reason

the christmas dinner quite happily sat in the freezer next to them and didn't poison anyone, my snake feed is currently nestled next to our sausages and pork chops

it's not really any different to keeping a frozen chicken for future consumption IMO


also, gravy and wet food on kibble doesn't suit every dog, nor does soaked kibble.
mine will starve himself if there's anything other than a bit of dry meat on his kibble, so once your dog settles in to a way of eating, be wary of suddenly thinking "oh, putting this on tiddles biscuits would be a nice change"
some love it, others though will ignore it completely and you've just wasted what may well be a very expensive meal. (i.e. if you use applaws, acana etc.)

we had to freeze poor goldy the gold fish as my son wasn't 'ready to say good bye'

I agree but you know you have to cover all bases on forums as I expected some might shout that it's unclean and not the correct thing to do.

We don't keep meat in our freezer so the dogs food just gets put in a plastic bag. There could be a small chance a 22 year old returning son might see the words 'chicken' and have some fried up in a pan for a quick snack Mind you compared to things I bet he does eat, Pets at Home Chicken dog food would be gourmet.

that is true, it's just always puzzled me

Lol, I just love this thread - it just epitomises DS for me! How on earth did we get from "Switching Puppy Food" to storing dead guinea pigs in the freezer?!

Anyone heard of Royal Canin? Think it's supposed to be one of the best but is expensive, something like £25 for just 4kg.

^^ If you read the posts on the previous page Mike, valeter10 is feeding her/his pup Royal Canin.

And it's not one of the best, look up the ingredient.

Same with kids with any pet really, hamster, rabbit, guinea pig. A few weeks and the novelty wears off.

Yep, really cannot fault it. The ingredients are high quality, and do not get changed about.

Pound for pound it's not really much more expensive than supermarket foods because fed correctly, you don't feed that much of it. Cheaper feed is full of crappy fillers, so you have to feed more to get the required nutrition, and as a result more out the back end. Not nice :-/

I feed my 13 year old Stafford the mature medium dog, and my Chi pup the small dog junior. Both thrive on it, with no palatability issues.

I can safely say I am militant about what I feed my dogs, and I am also NO fan of raw feeding.

You don't end up feeding them as much though as the quality of the food is better...

I'm talking from my cats POV, but a 6kg cat only needs about 80g per day of the Royal Canin he eats. So whilst the initial expense is a bit more than a 12 pack of whiska's in jelly and a box of go cat, it works out a bit cheaper as that £24 will last my cat nearly two months. 2 months of pouches alone costs more than that....

Dehydrated poultry meat and animal fats are not really high quality ingredients.

are you GG in another form? royal canin is a superior food based upon the meat content and other ingredients, there are other better foods out there, there are plenty worse, but as a rule its one of the better ones.

You've got to remember its US that are pushing high quality ingredients - cats will eat, and thrive on any part of an animal, and fats are pretty damn important too. Just because we think they need to have the extra special rump cut piece, they don't. it is human snobbery that forces foods to increase the 'quality' meat content - not the cats requirements. (before anyone argues, I'm not talking about feeding a cat a load of 'off' meat, but off-cuts of non-premium meat or dehydrated chicken is perfectly fine for their needs when put into nutritionally balanced foods)

I know it's quite a old thread but thought i should post my findings I have a very picky eater (dog) but learnt that a healthy dog will not starve so if it doesn't eat for 2 days it's not going to harm the dog simply put the food down if no interest is shown make no fuss and pick the bowl up after 20 mins the dog will soon learn that you ain't giving in and it will eat It a simple as that! (a vet told me that) On the note of different dog foods I have tried many with little or no success. so found CSJ It does not have a long list of fillers bullking agents etc and no pic of a smilie dog on the bag either they have many out lets in the uk and these outlets will give you free samples (generous) around 1KG each for simply call your nearest outlet it's around £11.25 for 15KG or try Dr John's there's gold silver and bronze all with tasty chicken juices in the kibble around £10.50 a 15KG bag.