Dog problem

[story]

I'm still finding this unbelievable.

I find it equally unbelievable that people feed their children Macdonalds and similar shit.

First dog I had was a tri-colour border collie. Lived ages (16 years) and only ever ate cheap tinned dog food mixed with a bit of dry meal and water. Plus the occassional piece of brocolli or, whatever else found it's way from my plate to her mouth. Plus all the after dinner and after pudding leftovers. Plus the boiled down bits from the slaughter house that us humans couldn't quite manage to put in a suasage. Never hungry but, ate anything. Finally had to take her to the vets because she was being crippled with obviously painful arthritis.

Second dog was pretty much exactly the same but, developed some degenerative, genetic illness. Nothing to do with diet.

Those cheapo dried complete meals have everything a healthy dog needs.

Consider that long-term degenerative illness in humans is one of the risks associated with a junk food diet, or as it is sometimes called, the SAD (Standard American Diet).

 

[rocketman]

First dog I had was a tri-colour border collie. Lived ages (16 years) and only ever ate cheap tinned dog food mixed with a bit of dry meal and water. Plus the occassional piece of brocolli or, whatever else found it's way from my plate to her mouth. Plus all the after dinner and after pudding leftovers. Plus the boiled down bits from the slaughter house that us humans couldn't quite manage to put in a suasage. Never hungry but, ate anything. Finally had to take her to the vets because she was being crippled with obviously painful arthritis.

Well, my first dog - and I miss her still very very much, I guess I spent some time since she died thinking about what I could have maybe done differently, as she died of bowel cancer (she was 14, so not awful early) - all I fed her was dog food, biscuits, and scraps, but I did something wrong there, potentially, so I feed dogs differently now - no leftovers, no salt, definitely never any chocolate (causes diabetes in some dogs, though they love it), and never let your dog turn down some healthy greens.

 

[longdog]

My two live on tesco complete. At £3.50 a bag which lasts both of them for a week I don't think that's too bad.

Luckily they are very un-fussy eaters but that's probably due to Badger being used to bland racing kennel slop for the first four years of his life and Noodle having been emciated when I got her.

I think it's probably easier when you have two dogs as there is a certain amount of competition for the food.

I agree with the people who have said that they will eat pretty much anything after a day or two.

 

[Spion]

I put food down twice a day and pick it up again after 10 minutes, whether he's eaten any or not. He soon gets used to the idea that he'll go hungry if he doesn't get stuck in (as long as Mrs Spion isn't feeding him titbits all day, grrrr)

 

[Pingu]

I put food down twice a day and pick it up again after 10 minutes, whether he's eaten any or not. He soon gets used to the idea that he'll go hungry if he doesn't get stuck in (as long as Mrs Spion isn't feeding him titbits all day, grrrr)

quite a good way to start tbh.

Reet food wise.

His diet wil be a lot healthier if you feed a complete food. I recomend Burns or Nutro due to the food balance being good. A good starting one is Burns fish and rice as its quite smelly (but not unpleasantly so). You will also probably find your dog food bill comes down too. We have 6 big dogs and our food bill using burns is about £50 a month if we were to feed tinned food it would be about 3 or 4 times that.

start by doing the restricted feeding times thing and then after a couple of weeks start introducing the burns in small amounts to his food once he has got his head round the "i need to eat this or I will get hungry" thing. then gradually increase the ratio of burns until hes totally switched over. Main reason for doing it gradually is twofold. Firstly if he likes the chum hes still getting some of it. secondly a total change of diet can casue problems with the digestive system and this way is less messy IYKWIM.

re chocolate.. its poisonous to dogs (especially dark chocolate)

tinned food wise btw Chappie is one of the best you can buy, which given its also one of the cheapest is strange

 

[Pingu]

Fair enough. I'm afraid I take a hard line approach to dogs - they shouldn't be in kitchens, on beds or sofas and they eat what they're given. In fact, they're lucky to be allowed inside at all I'm slightly softer on children.

our dogs sometimes allow us on their couch...

 

[avu9lives]

ah King Charles! try spaghetti bolognese, maybe more exercise! work up that appetite.
(My Jack russel enjoyed this)

 

[bikergrrl]

Dogs get treated with a hell of a lot more care, compassion, love or respect than most animals, but they're not humans and I'm not going to treat them like a fussy child.

But surely if you bring a dog into your life, then you would probably feel the same way (or at least similar) about it as you would a child? If you don't, you probably shouldn't be a dog owner.

Re: pandering to it... I think a certain amount of pandering should be done, but obviously not at the expense of its health or your place as the "dominant" one in the household.

 

[PacificOcean]

I put food down twice a day and pick it up again after 10 minutes, whether he's eaten any or not. He soon gets used to the idea that he'll go hungry if he doesn't get stuck in (as long as Mrs Spion isn't feeding him titbits all day, grrrr)

I was thinking about this and thought that if I was fed at a certain time of day, regardless if I was hungry or not - I wouldn't eat, but be ravenous later.

I leave the food down for her and she eats it at some point during the evening.

As I said, my problem isn't with her not eating - just that all she will eat is crappy Pedigree Chum Original.

 

[Pingu]

I was thinking about this and thought that if I was fed at a certain time of day, regardless if I was hungry or not - I wouldn't eat, but be ravenous later.

I leave the food down for her and she eats it at some point during the evening.

As I said, my problem isn't with her not eating - just that all she will eat is crappy Pedigree Chum Original.

it is part of the problem though. Whilst free feeding itself isnt a problem the best way to encourage your dogto eat whats put down is to resctrict the food times so the dog learns to eat whats put down when its put down. Once you have got her to switch foods there is nothing stopping you going back to free feeding if you so want. Initially she may miss a few meals but she will soon cotton on.

 

[ice-is-forming]

I was thinking about this and thought that if I was fed at a certain time of day, regardless if I was hungry or not - I wouldn't eat, but be ravenous later.

I leave the food down for her and she eats it at some point during the evening.

As I said, my problem isn't with her not eating - just that all she will eat is crappy Pedigree Chum Original.[/QUOTE]

my dogs would think it was christmas if they got this every day....

am i missing something?

don't 9 out 10 dogs love pedigree chum??

my dogs eat fish, hare, vegetables and biscuit.
they love to play with their food.
bury it, guard it, start fights over it...keeps them happy
i'v got one who likes to guard any toast thats gets chucked out in the morning. doesn't want to eat it, just amuse herself with it...iyswim.

and i like to get them a bags of bones from the butchers too..once a week..

 

[Pingu]

feeding a purely "wet" food can lead to problems with dental diesases in later life. when dogs used to get bones etc this was less of a problem as the teeth were cleaned and "brushed" by the action of eating the bones. Also a lot of wet foods are fairly high in salts, sugars and have high protein levels. Teh salt and sugar bits are fairly self explanatory but too much protein can also be bad for a dog especially as they get older and has been known to be a contributatory factor in some behavioural issues.

modern dry foods are generally more balanced in their nutrition content and also help keep the teeth cleaner - but not by that much. So there is still a need tp provide soemthing for the dog to chew on to help keep the teeth clean and gums healthy

of the various wet food Chappie is one of the best with regards to nutrition and is also one of the cheapest

 

[ice-is-forming]

so are biscuits better than bones then .....

 

[Pingu]

depends on the dog and the bones.

bones are very good for helping to keep teeth clean but increase the rate of wear on the teeth. Biscuits are ok but wont help keep teeth that clean unless specifically designed to do so (some treats are meant to be designed to do so)

at the end of the day its very much what works for the particular dog but a balanced diet can mean a much healthier dog that suffer less joint and other conditions as it gets older.

 

[ice-is-forming]

i got given a very old guard dog a few years ago, a german shepard, and it had really bad arthritis in its back hips, so i fed her a lot of fish and swam her for miles in the sea every day and she got back to gamboling around like a puppy in around 6 months

i reckon all good dogs deserve bones too, its good for their mental health.
i'm trying to get mine to like prawns, cos theres net fulls of them to be had sometimes, i also bring them home fresh road kill if i come accross it.

but you know what !! the cat gets the same diet and has never been fed from a can YET it still comes running at the sound of a can opener.....!!!

 

[pinkmonkey]

Ours has a tin of Lidl sardines (in Tomato sauce) once a week. Only 25p and the fish oils make him really shiny. I sometimes break a raw egg over his dog biscuits too. If he could choose his own diet, I'm afraid it would be chips or crisps.

 

[dynamicbaddog]

I give my new dog Arden Grange, it's what he was given at the rescue centre so I thought it would be best to keep him on that, apparantly it's the best dry food there is, but it's a pain to find - none of the supermarkets sell it and I can't even find it in the local pet shops - I have to order it over the internet in 15kg bags but one bag of that lasts him well over a couple of months.
I also give him bits of left over chicken/turkey etc (mainly for training purposes.)