Puppy Food

[Gracesmum]

I'm confused with conflicting advice about what to feed my puppy. She is on a mixed diet of wet and dry food. Wainwrights chicken and rice wet and Royal Canin kibble. I have been told by a nutritionist at a pet store that I should be feeding her dry food only as wet food isn't good for her. Now she loves her wet food and tends to leave her kibble unless she is really hungry. She has it mixed in the same bowl but will just eat the wet. I don't know whether to carry on as I am or to switch to completely dry. Added to this, I've read on-line that Royal Canin is not a great dry food. So I'm unsure again whether to change her dry kibble. She doesn't seem to like it much anyway. Does anyone have any advice please, about what is best for a puppy.

[Gracesmum]

Sorry to answer myself, but I decided to try to different dry kibble and bought James Wellness Puppy Kibble today. Grace really enjoyed it although I only mixed a little in with her wet food. If she continues enjoying it, I'm going to try and change her over gradually to completely dry food.

[Parrotsandpups]

Royal Canin isn't a bad food, but it's not super premium.

I'm in Australia so we have a different range to you, but I'm feeding Holistic Select puppy. You guys have it over their I do beleive, and it's an excellent food :)

He is fed on dry kibble, but he also gets a chicken neck every morning (since he was about 12 weeks old).

He LOVES the fresh meat!

[*Caro]

Royal Canin isn't too bad, there is better but the question is, are you happy with it and is the dog doing well?

The statement by the pet store 'nutritionist' is, to put it nicely, hogswash. Wet food is not worse than dry food. It's an old wives tale from years ago when there wasn't a lot of quality commercial dog food around.

I went to an interesting dicussion on managing dogs in summer by vet specialists recently. Most vets actually switch their own dogs to moist food in summer and reduce the amount of dry food or remove it all together in the warmer months, they also recommend more moist food for active dogs. The reason being that dry food actually requires dogs to drink more than they ordinarily would. In a natural diet dogs would get a lot of moisture from their food so what happens in active dogs and in summer is a dog fed solely on dry food will often be dehydrated and many people don't realise. And given dogs cool themselves by panting, keeping their mouths moist is really important.

Just another interesting point mentioned was many vets found their longest living clients were fed on a mix of some kibble and home cooked human quality meals. That was based on anecdotal evidence but I thought it was interesting, esp as Australia tends to have one of the highest dog longevity rates.

[Chinchi]

Darla wasn't keen on Royal Canin either so I changed her to Pro Plan and she really likes that. She is also on wet and dry but my vets recommend an all dry diet (probably so I buy more Pro Plan from them :p).

[seashel]

Epic was raised on Royal Canin and I kept him on it for a few weeks with me, before gradually changing him onto Naturediet Puppy, which is just what I prefered to feed as the others are on N/Diet too.

However I know a lot of sheltie breeders in the UK feed Royal Canin and swear by it. One thing to remember with dry food is that the water intake will be higher so you will need to ensure that she has access to water most of the time if she needs it. Do you mean James Wellbeloved? I have fed that in the past with no problems and it is a good food.

Given the choice most dogs prefer moist to dry food and some manufactures produce 'toppers' for dry food which defeats the object IMO. I wonder if the nutritionist meant it wasn't good to mix wet and dry, as that means the nutritional balance she is getting isn't correct.

It is not so much whether the food is dry or wet as to what goes into it that is important. Generally, the better foods are more expensive but the flip side is that in the long run it could save money on vets, suppliments etc. Not all foods suit all dogs either. Mine do well on Naturediet but different flavours for different dogs as Yogi struggles to digest Chicken. Merlin cannot eat Naturediet as it gives him an upset tum but he is thriving on Chappie original (a cheap, plain food that suits a lot of dogs with digestive issues) so it's horses for courses. It's also what suits your pocket and lifestyle. Much as I would like to give raw feeding a go, I haven't the space or time to commit properly to it. A lot of people who compete and travel need something that doesn't go off quickly and is easy to feed and transport so dry food is their preference. When I did a lot of shows, I would have mine on dry food during the peak of the show season then back to moist when things quietened down.

If you want to try moist food, the ones I would recommend that mine and other shelties do well on are Naturediet and Nauuresmenu. There are other similar varieties available too but these seem to be the most suitable for shelties. They are very easy to feed as come in plastic trays which you can just divide up with a knife to the quantity required. I think Epic was eating about 3/4 of a pack of Puppy at about 8 months. Natures Menu also do raw nuggets which is an easy way of feeding a raw diet. Fish 4 Dogs makes dry food which could also be worth a go. As a puppy, Revel had tripe and mixer, old fashioned but he did fantastically on it. It was cooked until he was 7-8 months then I fed it raw. I don't have them on it now purely due to storage and the smell is a bit off putting in large quantities!

Shelties don't seem to cope well with 'rich' food so those tiny trays with gravy are probably best avoided though.