Best Dry Food

[♥dragonfly♥]

My bc pup is currently on supercoat puppy dry food which she is not enjoying. Her coat is dull and her poo's can be sloppy. So i am wanting to change her dry food and am after some recommendations.

Cheers

[hainjo]

My bc pup is currently on supercoat puppy dry food which she is not enjoying. Her coat is dull and her poo's can be sloppy. So i am wanting to change her dry food and am after some recommendations.

Cheers

Hi Babydol my BC pups are on Optimum but also with a mix of raw meat and vege their coats are shiny and my older girl who used to hate any dry will make sure she eats the whole bowl now! If her poo can be sloppy though there may be an ingredient not agreeing with her

[Faolmor]

What does her breeder recommend? I'd start by asking them - unless they recommended the Supercoat? Either way, talk to the breeder and say that you are concerned your puppy might not be doing as well on the Supercoat as you'd like, and what premium kibble would they recommend?

If you do wish to change your puppy's diet, but want to stick to kibble, I would recommend one of the premium kibbles, since they use more meat and vegies and less "bulk" - ie grains etc. They are more expensive, but you get what you pay for. I would also look at introducing some raw meaty bones (such as raw chicken wings). Your puppy will appreciate these, and they help to keep the teeth clean. You could also consider adding some fish oil to her diet - I do this by adding some sardines added to the kibble meal a few times a week. A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar added to a litre of her drinking water will help bring out a lovely shine in the coat, and also has added health benefits. If she balks at the smell at first - and some do - just lower the amount you put in the water.

Any change to your puppy's diet must be done slowly - over the course of a week or two, with little amounts of the new food being added each time. A completely change will cause diarrhoea, as puppies' digestive systems are very immature and their guts must slowly build up the flora required to cope with new foods.

[♥dragonfly♥]

What does her breeder recommend? I'd start by asking them - unless they recommended the Supercoat? Either way, talk to the breeder and say that you are concerned your puppy might not be doing as well on the Supercoat as you'd like, and what premium kibble would they recommend?

If you do wish to change your puppy's diet, but want to stick to kibble, I would recommend one of the premium kibbles, since they use more meat and vegies and less "bulk" - ie grains etc. They are more expensive, but you get what you pay for. I would also look at introducing some raw meaty bones (such as raw chicken wings). Your puppy will appreciate these, and they help to keep the teeth clean. You could also consider adding some fish oil to her diet - I do this by adding some sardines added to the kibble meal a few times a week. A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar added to a litre of her drinking water will help bring out a lovely shine in the coat, and also has added health benefits. If she balks at the smell at first - and some do - just lower the amount you put in the water.

Any change to your puppy's diet must be done slowly - over the course of a week or two, with little amounts of the new food being added each time. A completely change will cause diarrhoea, as puppies' digestive systems are very immature and their guts must slowly build up the flora required to cope with new foods.

The breeder recommended supercoat. She is having raw chicken wings, I will try her on the sardines and the apple cider vinegar. Thanks for the advice

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Hi babydol1977

I recently changed my puppy (blue heeler x) from Advance Puppy to Nutro Natural Choice puppy. Both are a lot more expensive than Supercoat. I think Pedigree are made by the same company as Advance and Nutro (parent company is Mars), food made in Australia (near Bathurst I think) under licence to the American parent. Ie Pedigree might be the cheap version of Nutro NC but I'd be checking the ingredient list.

Anyway, puppydog was having the runs every two weeks or so and since changing up - no more runny poo - hooray! touch wood (taps own head). I also feed a home made chicken casserole. I've heard Eukanuba can be good for dogs with sensitive tummies but I've never tried it. A friend feeds it to her boxer.

This website has a lot of info that can help you decide what you want in a (dry) dog food.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

When using a dry product we feed Nutro or Ziwipeak

[Poodle wrangler]

Adding more raw meaty bones will help resolve the sloppy poo problem.

I had the same problem with our standard poodle.

He's better on Bonnie. I still add some raw.

What's your budget?

You'll find people recommending some expensive brands.

Other brands in the Supercoat pricerange include: Bonnie (Purina).

Bit cheaper: Coprice, Uncle Albers/ Great Barko.

Basically, transition to the new food gradually and see what works best for your dog.

[lappiemum]

We feed ours on proplan, which is one of the more expensive ones, but we are quite happy with the quality and they really like it. We stick to the salmon, as it really helps with their coats and doesn't have the corn fillers. We did have them on the natual for a while (half/half to see if they liked it) - their preference was definately for the proplan.

We buy ours in bulk (17kg bags) which lasts us several months. Its far more economical if you do it that way.

[Pug Hugger]

I have a pug (Louie) with a rather sensitive tummy.

When we first got him he was on Science Diet he went okay on this but we soon moved him onto eagle pack puppy which he did well on. When he was about 1 year old his breeder switched her dogs to Advance and they looked great, as a result I moved him onto advance as it was cheaper than eagle pack and working for her dogs. However, he went back to shocking wet and runny poohs and even vomiting after meals so we were soon back on Eagle Pack (holistic now instead of puppy).

I find that Louie, while he loves sardines, will often end up with liquid pooh the next day if he has more than one as well. I control his sensitive tummy by keeping him on Eagle Pack Holistic with fresh chicken necks and sometimes some other fresh meat (e.g roo tails or beef or lamb flaps from the local BARF shop).

My other dog has a tummy of steel and will eat anything and everything quite happily!

So my experience has been Eagle Pack is best for my situation. However it is at the expensive end of the spectrum. OHs cousin is buying Uncle Albers and swears by it.

[Jetty]

My pup has a bit of BC in him we think. Btw your pup is adorable. I feed him purina pro plan. I also heard of a trick to keep there coats clean and shiney by putting oil in there food. this can be any real sort of oil you use in cooking.

[Kyra]

Advance, my dogs used to be fed Eagle Pack but after a while they simply wouldn't touch it, same with RC, I don't trust buying another more expensive food again, i had to give the last couple of bags away

[Faolmor]

What does her breeder recommend? I'd start by asking them - unless they recommended the Supercoat? Either way, talk to the breeder and say that you are concerned your puppy might not be doing as well on the Supercoat as you'd like, and what premium kibble would they recommend?

If you do wish to change your puppy's diet, but want to stick to kibble, I would recommend one of the premium kibbles, since they use more meat and vegies and less "bulk" - ie grains etc. They are more expensive, but you get what you pay for. I would also look at introducing some raw meaty bones (such as raw chicken wings). Your puppy will appreciate these, and they help to keep the teeth clean. You could also consider adding some fish oil to her diet - I do this by adding some sardines added to the kibble meal a few times a week. A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar added to a litre of her drinking water will help bring out a lovely shine in the coat, and also has added health benefits. If she balks at the smell at first - and some do - just lower the amount you put in the water.

Any change to your puppy's diet must be done slowly - over the course of a week or two, with little amounts of the new food being added each time. A completely change will cause diarrhoea, as puppies' digestive systems are very immature and their guts must slowly build up the flora required to cope with new foods.

The breeder recommended supercoat. She is having raw chicken wings, I will try her on the sardines and the apple cider vinegar. Thanks for the advice

Forgot to add, with the apple cider vinegar, make sure it's a good brand from the health food shop, not that clear, useless crud they sell in the supermarket

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Science diet - read the ingredients - put me off.

Purina/supercoat owned by Nestles - and I have ethical objections to Nestles (nothing to do with their dog food). Also feel Supercoat is like the Maccas of the dog food world - My dog likes it but I'm not sure it's good for her.

Raw meaty bones.

I'm still working on that one.

Raw chicken wing with skin on (looked very fatty) - upchucked later - can never look at pink cake frosting again. Bleah.

Raw beef neck bones from supermarket - had splinters - and got upchucked, I had to get up in the middle of the night to let her out and clean up the mess from not being quick enough for chuck number one.

Raw beef marrow bone - blessed - chewed small bits off with sharp edges and swallows them - about the size of a 20 cent piece - and upchucks later. Sometimes they go all the way through. I take the bone away as soon as she starts crunching up the shaft bit. If she stayed with the joint bit - it doesn't seem to splinter the way the marrow bit does. She can and has chomped a marrow bone to nothing and this did result in/concide with runny poos.

Raw lamb leg bone - chomped until started making splinters of the shaft and then I took it away and put it in the bin.

Sardines - no problems eating two in a feed.

So I've still got no idea what kind of raw bone is good since she has a nasty habit of swallowing big pointy edged bits.