Border Collie Puppy Diet

[renetta]

My partner and I are getting a border collie puppy soon and I was just wonder if anyone could help me with his diet?

How often to feed him and what's the best thing to feed him?

[Guest Tess32]

Your breeder should be giving you advice on diet....have you asked?

[renetta]

No I haven't, but I'm a bit of a worry wart and his my first dog and want to have everything ready for when we bring him home.

Thanks for your help

[Guest Tess32]

Would you prefer to feed dry food or RAW? Your breeder should be a good source of knowledge

[renetta]

I don't know that's the problem. I don't know what's best.

[wylie]

Renetta

Please wait until you have your puppy home and settled in. Any breeder with any of the CCC's must supply a diet sheet when a puppy goes home.

In the meantime you can do plenty of reading on DOL as to diet ie BARF, RAW, premium kibbles etc.

Talk to your breeder now so that you have food available for your pup when it comes home.

[Guest Tess32]

No one really does It's really up to you - there is no "right" answer with food as everyone has a different opinion.

I just got a Collie pup (rough, not border) and he was being fed 3 x a day - 7% of his body weight. He was having a cup of eagle pack dry, chicken wings, chicken frames, chicken necks, some offal, mushed vegies and fish.

I prefer raw food because I can see the dogs enjoy it more, they seem healthier to me, plus it's physicall and mentally more interesting for them to eat.

When he's an adult he'll be eating what my adults eat - about 2.5% of their bodyweight with things like raw chicken frames, chicken quarters (drumstick and meat), lamb necks, lamb ribs, beef, fish etc, plus some mushed vegies, an egg once a week.

[JulesP]

Definately a good idea to find out from the breeder what they are feeding as you want to feed the same thing when you get the puppy. Changing the diet can cause upset tummies (at a time when tummies can be upset anyway).

Then you need to decide if you want to go the raw or processed route. Lots of reading in the Health section about this. If you want to go the raw way then I suggest buying one of the books that explains how to do it.

If you want to go the processed food way then I do recommend going for a premium dry food (so not Pal, super coat etc that you get from the supermarket). If you go to somewhere like Petstock you will find premium foods, they actually end up costing about the same as the supermarket ones anyway as you feed less. Good brands are Eagle Pack, Pro Plan, Advance, Royal Canin. If you go this way then it is a good idea to also feed puppy some bones. Chicken wings are great for puppies. You don't want the big hard marrow bones but rather softer meaty ones. These are fed raw btw.

I feed my border puppy with a base of premium kibble and then add other things - eggs, bones, sardines, cottage cheese, mince, veggies.

Baby puppies then to get fed 3 times a day.

[Lolly]

I fed my puppy the same food as the breeder fed the pups. He had dry biscuits in the morning wth egg and cheese, dry food for lunch and dry food for dinner with vegetables or raw chicken or sardines. He still gets the same thing but only has morning and night food now.

My B/C was fed 3 times a day until 8 weeks and then 2 times a day since then.

Good luck with your puppy - I'm the same as you - he's my first one and I'd never had a dog before. It's really daunting at first - actually, in the beginning, to be honest, I thought I'd made a huge mistake. But it gets easier the more you both settle into it.

[persephone]

Renetta..

contact the breeder before you collect your pup.

get them to tel you what food it is eating, then you can have everything ready

Once pup has settled, THEN you can slowly change the diet , if that is what you wish to do.

The puppy will have so many changes in its first week or so, a constant diet is a very good thing.

Change of diet should be gradual...if yoyu DO decide to change

So..give the breeder a ring, or send an email, and get some info

looking forward to puppy pics!

[DeltaCharlie]

I fed Delta a prey model (RAW) diet right from the first day (8 weeks). I fed her everything frozen so she couldn't gulp it down and she had no issues with chicken frames etc. However, I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing that for someone who has no idea about raw feeding. Adults can handle the experimentation stage (when you are working out how to feed raw) much better than puppies can. So, if you want to feed RAW make sure you speak to others who feed it and check out some of the good books around.

I would speak to the breeder about what they have been feeding them. Delta's breeder had been giving a mixture (kibble in the morning, raw for lunch and dinner) so it was easy enough to change her to raw.

One thing I will advise though is to steer clear of "puppy" food. Cody had so many joint and growing problems as a puppy, he was always in pain and having trouble with his muscles growing at a different rate to his bones. I took him to a different vet at about 8mnths who told me to stop feeding puppy food immediately. He said it causes them to grow at an unnatural rate and he sees so many puppies with the same problems as Cody had. After getting him onto adult food his body eventually settled down and his joint pain disappeared. Dogs will still grow to the same size, they just take longer to reach their full height on regular food.

I was told by one nutritionist that puppy food was basically invented by someone who saw an opportunity to make more money out of uneducated dog owners wanting to do the best for their dog. "Here feed this special puppy food, its specially formulated to make your dog grow"- dogs will still grow, they dont have access to "high protein prey" in the wild, they eat the same as the adults.

[renetta]

Thanks all for your reply's. It's been a great help.