I Know Its Been Asked Alot But...

[charlies_mum]

hi everyone i have two chis Charlie (13 months desexed male) and 11 week old Molly. they are both being fed science diet charlie has the adult small bites and molly has the puppy small bites. they both happily eat it but i did a search on here a few weeks ago re science diet and one person said they noticed their dogs were growing lankier on the science diet. i have noticed this with molly her legs seem to be growing faster than the rest of her (maybe i am just being paranoid) should i change foods? which is the best for chis? the breeder (who is the same for both of them) was feeding them all homemade stuff but i dont have the time to do that and worried i might mae a mistake with the recipe. i like science diet because they need such a small amount to get all the nutrition they need as they both have such small stomachs. the vet reccomended science diet or royal canin should i switch to that one? they are both a healthy weight by the way. cheers

[puggy_puggy]

I don't know about the science diet effecting thier growth rates but if you want to get them onto a differnt meat and bones based diet you could just buy the BARF patties instead of having to make it all yourself.

Not sure what state your in but the BARF Australia webite has a list of distributors in each state. http://www.barfaustralia.com/

Many people will feed the patties and chicken necks.

[Guest Tess32]

It really doesn't take that much time to switch to a natural diet. If someone has the time for a dog, they definitely would have the time to defrost some meat and bone

Have a read and good think about it :p

[puggy_puggy]

It really doesn't take that much time to switch to a natural diet. If someone has the time for a dog, they definitely would have the time to defrost some meat and bone

The time is in the preperation but once that is done it is as easy as taking things out of the freezer to defrost. And the dogs will thank you for it.

[Guest Tess32]

And that's only if you feed BARF or vegetables. Mine do get vegetables but other than the time in shopping and doing vegetables once a month...it really isn't as time consuming as people think.

[puggy_puggy]

And that's only if you feed BARF or vegetables. Mine do get vegetables but other than the time in shopping and doing vegetables once a month...it really isn't as time consuming as people think.

If I only have my two pugs my veggie slops will last them nearly two months. If I have a few extra pugs here then they will last a month. So basically for my own two dogs it takes me about 3 hours every two months to make up the veggie slops then maybe an hour or less to do the meats and bones once a month.

[puggy_puggy]

Sorry double post

Edited July 24, 2008 by puggy_puggy

[Echo]

I would not be worried. This is a natural stage of any pup's growth.

Pups go through different stages as they grow.

Typically, 11 weeks is a leggy stage for most pups.

You will find that this will alter, as the rest of the body will catch up, and the leginess will disappear.

Julie

[Blues and Boots]

I was super paranoid about feeding the wrong food with my wei puppy as they are fast growing large breed dogs. I switched between Science diet, Eukkanuba, Iams and Eagle pack and fed him raw mince of different kinds, bones and sardines in oil oh and yoghurt. I also gave him ester C as well. Actually come to think of it I'm extremely paranoid about growth issues and never settle on one diet or brand of dog food so he got a hell of a variety (changed over very slowly of course!).

Now I'm feeding my new pup Eagle Pack and Orijen as well as the stuff mentioned above. I'm still hell paranoid about the protein % in orijen even though I've spent hours reading about how protein % isn't what causes problems as once thought.

Good luck!

[luvsdogs]

All the American forums I've been on say that Science Diet is the worst food you can have your dogs on. Eukanuba, Iams & many others aren't much better. Youre far better off to feed Innova, California Natural, Oriijin etc. Look for foods with little or no grains especially corn. Meat needs to be the 1st few ingredients.

And as far as a natural diet goes, I have all of Ian Billinghurst's books, is to just feed all types of soft raw bones, meat & organs. According to this site dogs are carnivores & weren't built to eat veggies. http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html

Edited July 25, 2008 by luvsdogs

[LoremIpsum]

My pup at nine weeks is starting to look leggy, in that the ration of leg to body is different to when she was six weeks. Pups grow fast, and look leggy at different stages, I think. I worry about growth spurts too but in the end, as long as you happy with the food you're providing, they're perfectly natural.

But even though I think her growth is normal, I am on the side of those who wouldn't feed Science Diet. After an enormous amount of research, I choose to feed my girl Orijen puppy food. It depresses me how many foods are stuffed with corn — Science Diet included. It's expensive though, and I feel the same as Blues & Boots — even though I'm persuaded that the protein

Having said that, I'll probably switch over to a BARF diet at some point.

[Pixie's mum]

We feed barf. I process the vegies once a week while I am cooking dinner. It takes about 10mins and lasts our 2 dogs for the whole week. I used to do heaps at a time but I found it more convenient to do it weekly.