# puppy food uk recommendation



## sweets (Jan 15, 2015)

Hi what food do you uk owners give your pups ?

When i Picked my poochon up she was being fed bakers which I soon got her off as my vet told me it was basically junk food for dogs! I swapped her over to wainwrights which I get from pets at home.
Lately tho she seems to be going off it even tho I alternate the flavours, I'm also finding her coat isn't as shiny as other dogs I see. I'm quite sure there are no health issues with her tho.
I definitely don't want to go down the raw food diet and would rather use a mix of wet and dry food.

Any advice? Thanks


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Have you considered home cooking? I get the Durham Animal Feeds minces (90% meat, 10% offal, 10% ground bone) and cook them with a few vegetables. Mine do get some raw, mainly chicken wings and tripe, but the cooked meals, with eggs and sardines once a week or so, are a balanced diet in themselves.


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## sweets (Jan 15, 2015)

No I want to be able to open a tin or a packet and pop it into a bowl lol. I havnt time to be cooking smelly stuff lol


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## Scully (Sep 30, 2014)

Wainwrights is a good quality dog food from the pet store [we dont use puppy food only adult no matter the age] barking heads is another good quality one you can get in [email protected]
She may not be as shiny as ever other dog you see, but then no two dogs are the same and it may be that is her coat texture. How often is she bathed? Changing flavours too much causes fussy dogs. We take the method of putting down the food for 15 minutes if its not eaten its picked up until the next meal time, and if they didn't eat their meal no treats either. Our dogs soon learn its best to eat at meal times, and they happily eat whats given. It might be adding a little water to it to make it less dry/different textures is all you need to do to entice.


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## sweets (Jan 15, 2015)

Thanks. I do only use 2 flavours, they only do 3 flavours in the puppy food and she refuses point blank to eat the salmon one! Lol.. 

Can i ask tho why do you not uses puppy food and go straight to adult food, thought they were supposed to have puppy food till 12 months old? 
She is my first dog so still learning lol


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I rather disagree with feeding only one food and one flavour to avoid fussiness - it can backfire when that particular food changes, or you are stuck miles from anywhere that sells it, and your dog won't eat anythin else! Introducing a puppy to a range of different flavours, including useful stand bys like tinned sardines and scrambled eggs, can make life a lot easier in later years. If your pup is enjoying the Wainwrights I would stick with it, just giving her occasional tastes of other things as treats. I would stick with their feeding recommendations as to when to change to the adult formula, although the biggest difference between the two is probably in the packaging! The puppy formula is usually adjusted to give the right balance of protein, calcium etc for growth, but is a very recent idea - until the late 20th century weaned pups ate more or less what their mother's ate...


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## Scully (Sep 30, 2014)

Puppy food is a relatively new idea in the dog food world. In some cases comparing ingredients you can find they are the same only the puppy food has a heftier price tag. Its personal preference tho as to if you want to feed puppy food. 



fjm said:


> *I rather disagree with feeding only one food and one flavour to avoid fussiness* - it can backfire when that particular food changes, or you are stuck miles from anywhere that sells it, and your dog won't eat anythin else! Introducing a puppy to a range of different flavours, including useful stand bys like tinned sardines and scrambled eggs, can make life a lot easier in later years. If your pup is enjoying the Wainwrights I would stick with it, just giving her occasional tastes of other things as treats. I would stick with their feeding recommendations as to when to change to the adult formula, although the biggest difference between the two is probably in the packaging! The puppy formula is usually adjusted to give the right balance of protein, calcium etc for growth, but is a very recent idea - until the late 20th century weaned pups ate more or less what their mother's ate...


I agree, but my point was more if you feel a dogs not eating enough and then start changing food [when sometimes it may not be the food making them not eat it and other factors] dogs learn if they stop eating the get something tastier. We do try to only stick to one brand tho as they do well on it and if feeding more than one and they get a upset tum sometimes its hard to find which is the issue [although mine have sensitive tums so i may be different] They do get exposed to other things like sardines but they are more a special occasion treat than a regular thing. 

Sample bags of other dog foods are great as training treats tho!


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

fjm said:


> I rather disagree with feeding only one food and one flavour to avoid fussiness - it can backfire when that particular food changes, or you are stuck miles from anywhere that sells it, and your dog won't eat anythin else! Introducing a puppy to a range of different flavours, including useful stand bys like tinned sardines and scrambled eggs, can make life a lot easier in later years. If your pup is enjoying the Wainwrights I would stick with it, just giving her occasional tastes of other things as treats. I would stick with their feeding recommendations as to when to change to the adult formula, although the biggest difference between the two is probably in the packaging! The puppy formula is usually adjusted to give the right balance of protein, calcium etc for growth, but is a very recent idea - until the late 20th century weaned pups ate more or less what their mother's ate...



I also find that introducing a wide variety of foods, fresh and packaged makes for very solid digestive systems - dogs that are only fed one or two types if kibble tend to have very sensitive stomachs, always having problems when under the slightest distress or when they get one bite of something new. Knock wood, 15 months and counting, Timi had never had a soft stool since I got her at 14 weeks!


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Scully said:


> Puppy food is a relatively new idea in the dog food world. In some cases comparing ingredients you can find they are the same only the puppy food has a heftier price tag. Its personal preference tho as to if you want to feed puppy food.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Fussy eaters are a whole nother issue - for a dog who is a good eater, variety is great for them.
In addition to what I already said about sensitive stomachs , it also protects them from any nutritional imbalance that a particular food may have and it makes them less likely to be effected if you happen to be feeding them one of the many foods that winds up subject to a recall as they all seem to be at risk for these days.
You may want to consider if your dog's sensitive tummies are a result of the lack of variety in their diets - Timi is the 4th dog that I have fed this way, and not a sensitive stomach amongst them, but I have heard many people whose dog has a bad stomach say that they stick to only one food that their dog does "best" on.


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## eusty (Jan 5, 2014)

I agree with the changing of foods for both the reasons above.

Also think about serving some raw now and again, it adds to their enjoyment!

Although our dogs do get picky at times they will eat what we put out 90% of the time, and there is always dried food for them to eat so they never starve!

One thing which is strange is that if one of ours looks at the food with the "is that all there is? I don't fancy that" expression then the other is the same. Either it's just they like the same food, or they pick up on the other's dislike?


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I have learned to trust Sophy when she says Yuck!, and to remove the offending food and scramble a couple of eggs instead. Insisting usually means we all suffer at 1am, 3 am, 4.30am...


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## Desiree (Feb 14, 2010)

Howdy, UK folks. What are wholemeal biscuits? Eileen Gleesen writes that she feeds these to her dogs in her book "The Standard Poodle" Thanks!!!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I think you call it graham flour? Wholemeal is whole wheat grain flour, biscuits are crackers. But I would not feed commercial wholemeal biscuits to my dogs on a regular basis as they are very high in salt and sugar. It is probable that Gleesen was referring to a wholemeal dog biscuit mixer, which was traditionally mixed with cooked or raw meat.


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## Desiree (Feb 14, 2010)

Thanks! I just bought some non hybrid/low gluten, wheat flour (Eihorn) and I think I'll have a go baking some dog treats.


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