Help me feed my new dog

PolarBearFitz · November 2013

melbelleup said:

aefitz29 said:

melbelleup said:

aefitz29 said:

@melbelleup thank you for the info! I've just always been told it is the best one by a few vets...so confused!

Vets love it because you buy it through them. It's not terrible, but it's not great either. My vet is actually the one that mentioned Blue Buffalo to my mom a few years ago. However, my pup (now 10 months old) came from a vet who also breeds and shows with me. She does Purina Pro Plan, but even that isn't the best.. that being said, she has 14 dogs, a chinchilla, a mini horse, cats.. it's good for it's buck.

Well that's really good to know. I've been told about blue buffalo a couple of times so I may make a switch myself. That's a lot of animals but really awesome!!!

My yorkie is a rescue from a show family that abused and neglected her She had a ton of stomach problems due to worms and mal-nourishment when I got her so I just fed her science diet (at the recommendation of the vet after chicken and rice). My second dog was rescued from a highway and no one ever claimed him. No one knew what he was eating and he also had stomach issues. They are both over their stomach issues so switching shouldn't be too hard.

Just remember when you switch to do it VERY gradual. It can mess up their stomachs by switching it. At first week do just a little of the new food. Next week do a 1/4th new then the week after that 1/3 then 1/2 then 3/4th then all of it. I would definitely recommend doing it very slowly since they have both had stomach issues.

Sadly, the bad show people give others a bad name. I'm glad you have rescued your kiddos and nursing them back to health . I don't do confirmation, but I do Agility. My dogs are "imperfection" for showing. Ruutu (my black boy, and the pup) is 19" and sheltie's can't be above 16". Gotta love beauty pageants

On a side note about the vet/breeder/shower: She rescues a lot. Some of her dogs are ones she bred, bought others are ones she rescued. She actually just took in a golden. Her mini horse came from rescuing. It had an eye that needed to be removed, but it was expensive and the owner wanted to just shoot it and call it a day. She said gimme it and i'll do the surgery and you won't see it again. He's an awesome mini horse. She had to build him a barn and a fence etc but they love each other.

I actually said the same as the bolded earlier to the OP! Definitely on top of the food switching being gradual! That is amazing that she did that for that little horse. What a wonderful lady!

My little yorkie was a lot of broken when she came to me but she's amazing:

melbelleup · November 2013

aefitz29 said:

I actually said the same as the bolded earlier to the OP! Definitely on top of the food switching being gradual! That is amazing that she did that for that little horse. What a wonderful lady!

My little yorkie was a lot of broken when she came to me but she's amazing:

Awe she's gorgeous. My mom has a male yorkie. We call him a "standard" yorkie. He's huge, though he had to put up with shelties which is why we were perfectly fine with a big yorkie.

OjitosVerdes · November 2013

Congrats on your new pup! We always have at least one rescue in the house and love them to pieces.

As far as foods are concerned, we've had a great experience with the Costco brand as well, and in the past have fed Blue Buffalo, Earthborn Holistic, and Wellness Core. The Costco brand, is IMHO, as good as those three much more expensive brands. The fewer ingredients the better, and avoid processed grains and sugar. Make sure the protein content is high as well - we always buy foods that are 20+% protein. We also stay away from poultry proteins, as our dogs have had allergies to them in the past.

You'll definitely want to figure out what your dog likes best, but there are foods that you should definitely avoid. Don't feed Beneful, Alpo, Purina, or Science Diet. Some of these are touted as healthy, "nutritional" foods, but the truth is they are full of byproducts, soy, grain, sugar, etc. Our dogsitter actually sent me a link to an article that claimed there was evidence that animals that had been euthanized (including other dogs) had been "processed" and were included in some of these brands. Even if it isn't true (although google it - there seems to be some truth to that claim), there is enough nasty stuff in them already that you should definitely steer clear of these brands.

FI and I use this website to research dog food before we try out new brands: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com

Best of luck and snuggles for your new pup!

Edited to add more info.

APDSS22 · November 2013

Since your dog is part schnauzer, I'll jump in here @kaos16 . We rescued our first dog from a schnauzer-specific rescue and we got some good tips that are schnauzer-specific. Schnauzers should not eat corn or anything with corn in it because they will develop bladder stones later down the line. My ILs have a schnauzer that this happened to (he's older but he's fine now that he's had surgery.) They fed him Science Diet mostly. The lady also said that a food with 2 animal proteins as the main ingredients is to be preferred.

She also suggested that wet food be an occasional treat because otherwise it will do bad things to their teeth. Mixing the food in gradually is also a good idea to prevent stomach issues. They can be grain-sensitive and are prone to allergies so you should be careful about shampoos, bowls, and other things. Ours is sensitive to plastics so we feed him Nature's Recipe dry food out of a ceramic bowl. I don't know what the cattle dog will do to the breed dynamic, but I thought I should share my knowledge with you. Our pit bull/collie mix will eat anything out of/off of anything and cattle dog might be similar. Your dog is adorable, I hope you figure out something good for your new fuzzy addition!

jcwrdh94 · November 2013

My dog only gets grain free dog food. Nature's variety Instinct or Merrick's. I will change brands every so often for variety. Dog treats are grain free as well & package must say Made in USA. She also gets chicken, turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, veggies, venison, eggs.

All the "popular" foods, Beneful, Purina, Science Diet, etc, all have fillers which serve no nutritional purpose and is not the best for a healthy canine diet. Also, if your dog has cancer, carbs feed the cancer cells.

thejucheidea · November 2013

We feed ours 4Health Grain Free. Our Golden Retriever has severe corn and wheat allergies, so we have them on a completely grain-free diet.

kaos16 · November 2013

Thank you all so much!!

Help me feed my new dog

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