Are Wheatbix Or Porridge Safe For A Dog?

[Loraine]

I agree with the others that she needs a balanced diet. As for cooking mince, she will eat raw if it is offered. (I feed BARF). If you must cook the mince you can cook it up and then freeeze it so that your family don'e even need to cook it for her. Tell them that you are going to be training her to only eat on command, and only from people you approve of. Saves dogs from picking up rotten or poisoned foods.

At her age she will be mouthing (and will continue to do so for a while). She is working out how hard she can bite things. It is a habit best stopped as soon as possible. Carrots will keep her busy and when she does start to teeth, they will help her too.

[spottychick]

If you must feed tinned food the Nature's Gift ones are actually pretty good. Made up of good quality chicken meat (no offal or rubbish bits) and either rice or oats and some veggies. It actually looks sort of nice and not at all like other canned dog foods. I actually think that would be better for the dog than supercoat dry food - but that's just my view.

I don't know about the other varieties coz I cant feed my dogs beef etc but I was told by people who visited the Nature's Gift factory that the tinned chicken stuff was made with high quality ingredients and very healthy.

There's nothing wrong with sometimes giving the puppy some weetbix or oats (oats are better) - but they should be good quality rolled oats. Quinoa and millet are also good alternatives.

[Erny]

I'm just curious.

There's often discussions about preferences towards not feeding grains to dogs; discussions that suggest they aren't good, cause allergy symptoms etc. etc.

So how come is Wheatbix "safe" ?

[spottychick]

Hey erny - I don't know if it's "safe" - but I've fed it to my dogs and not had any issues and I'm just giving a purely personal non-expert comment

However, it's not something they get very often (in fact almost never, only when it's an emergency and I have absolutelynothing else to give them - oh and once when my dog was recovering from being poisoned as part of transitioning her to normal food she got weetbix and vegemite as part of her recovery diet).

I remember years ago it was recommended when I bought a puppy from a breeder and I think it was fairly standard at the time. But there are better things to feed them

Personally I don't have a problem with feeding some good quality grains (not wheat) to dogs as part of a balanced diet as long as they aren't allergic to them.

[persephone]

erny- I took 'safe' literally as in not toxic.....

[Erny]

erny- I took 'safe' literally as in not toxic.....

LOL ..... I took 'safe' meaning good/not harmful in any way.

I'm not completely opposed to some grain in the dog's general food either - but I know that wheat is often avoided, which is why I wasn't sure if Wheatbix would be such a good idea.

I have a personal interest in knowing/clarifying this (which is why I posted) but won't go into the why's and wherefore's as that will just spin another thread around and onto my own dog (and he has enough of his own threads to last a lifetime, me thinks ).

Cheers

Erny

[Erny]

LOL ... thanks Spotty. Didn't notice until you pointed out double post.

Silly gremlins.

Edited June 3, 2010 by Erny

[spottychick]

LOL SO good you wrote it twice

Oh go on - I'm curious now. Or PM me I love discussing doggy diets - I'm so tragic

[Erny]

LOL SO good you wrote it twice :D

Oh go on - I'm curious now. Or PM me I love discussing doggy diets - I'm so tragic :D

Honest - it is a huge long story if only to explain why I even fleetingly thought of Wheatbix for my boy. If I told you the looooong story you'd probably say "oh ...." and consider it quite boring. It relates to sloppy poo and a digestive system that isn't functioning as it should and a dog that won't eat many of the foods that he used to.

[APBT]

Thanks!

She's only tried a bit of porridge and seemed to like it (although right now it appears she'll eat anything). She may have eaten it because it was warm.

We give her biscuits in the morning - sometimes moisitened, sometimes dry/hard and some puppy millk.

Other people in the house always want to feed her this and that instead of sticking to the diet sheet i got from the breeder! They keep wanting to feed her on tin dog food too - the my dog one. They dont come in a puppy version, and my vet said they are fine but s long as its a puppy version.

Dont let anyone mess around with the feeding plan, if its what the breeder gave you then i would stick to it.

Also if its your dog, you should really be the only one to feed it. And forget about the tinned dog food, its rubbish.

The dry biscuits are good, no need to soak them aswell, they need to learn to chew, and it will do wonders for teething.

soak some kibble in warm water if you really need to, scrap the wheat bix and oats.

[GoldenGirl85]

Goldee are 'the others' family? parents and siblings? or are they flatmates?

Im only asking because it makes a big difference, especially if she is 'your' first puppy, and your parents have trained dogs before

I was 16 when I got my JRT, Id read a lot on newer training methods and I wanted to train her myself (my dad was still in the old school "rub the dogs nose in it to teach it") there was also a lot of other behaviours I was trying to avoid in her, such as agression, she isnt an aggressive dog by far, but my dad used to always stir her up and make her 'protect' me, even when I told him to stop he wouldnt listen to me, as a result I now have a snappy dog, she is extremely friendly, but she can be snappy

When I got my GR (I live 1500kms from 'home' now) and I was going home for a visit I gave my dad a lot of rules (no stirring her up, no commenting on how skinny she is, she is lean for good reason, no feeding her at the table) just to name a few, and this time he actually obeyed the rules

All Im saying Goldee is that if this is your situation, you need to lay down rules NOW while she is still a pup, have one set of commands for her and everyone must use those commands and those commands only, she is going to be yours for the next 12 years or so and you need to make sure she has stability NOW

When my GR was that age she was on supercoat and pal (breeder) I soon got her off the pal thanks to a bit of advice on DOL, I slowly put her on pet mince and then sardines and chicken frames (she cant have necks because they go down whole) a while ago I decided to put her on a food formulated for large breed puppies, I want to do agility with her so I want to give her growth the best start possible so she is now on Royal Canin Labrador Jr

And no you dont want her to get fat lol, I was a bit worried about Lexi because there is someone else on the GR thread who has a male the same age as Lexi and he was nearly twice as heavy. they soon told me that Im best to keep her lean and grow her slowly, so dont be worried about keeping Ava up with Oscars weight, just keep an eye on her condition and feed her the amounts you feel are right, roly poly puppies are cute, but larger breeds dont need the added stress on their joints

[goldee]

Dont let anyone mess around with the feeding plan, if its what the breeder gave you then i would stick to it.

Also if its your dog, you should really be the only one to feed it. And forget about the tinned dog food, its rubbish.

The dry biscuits are good, no need to soak them aswell, they need to learn to chew, and it will do wonders for teething.

soak some kibble in warm water if you really need to, scrap the wheat bix and oats.

Thats what i was thinking - they reccomended this for a reason!

I got a free Eukanbua (?) puppy book and even in there it says that tin food is 80% water and kibble is about 10%. Its clear whats better for them, but i still couldn't get it through!

I dont mind having a few tins of food as back up just incase, but i dont like it. I opened one up and it was a paste that smelt like cat food. On the feeding plan it also suggests a few vegetables and fruits, i'd probably be better to add those to the buscuits than tin food!

Our old dog never got tin food (she would never eat it), so we never fed it to her.

[goldee]

Hey GoldenGirl85,

Yeah, parents/family. And she is my first puppy/dog. We got a JRT when i was 7 or 8 (dont remember her when she was a pup), and while she had a great life, spoilt like hell, she could also be snappy because there we no boundaries for her. Sometimes they didn't have the patience with her and was never properly trained unfortunatly, so im trying this time to do things right!

I might have to make a list of do's and donts for them! Not just for parents but also for other people who may look after her.

How much does Lexi weigh?

I have been feeding her supercoat, but have been looking at the other brands such as Royal Canin. Id rather go middle/top range.

[GoldenGirl85]

Hey GoldenGirl85,

Yeah, parents/family. And she is my first puppy/dog. We got a JRT when i was 7 or 8 (dont remember her when she was a pup), and while she had a great life, spoilt like hell, she could also be snappy because there we no boundaries for her. Sometimes they didn't have the patience with her and was never properly trained unfortunatly, so im trying this time to do things right!

I might have to make a list of do's and donts for them! Not just for parents but also for other people who may look after her.

How much does Lexi weigh?

I have been feeding her supercoat, but have been looking at the other brands such as Royal Canin. Id rather go middle/top range.

I havnt weighed Lexi for a while but she was about 15kg a month ago when she got desexed, she has also been sick right before that so she gained a couple of kilo fairly quickly, I wanted to feed her up so the vet didnt hate me for starving my dog! lol, I might take Lexi for a drive to the vets to weigh her again tonight or on the weekend, she is getting too big and awkward to do on my scales at home lol

Im happy with Royal Canin, Lexis coat has been so much better since taking her off SC, when she was on that it was soooo dry, now she gets RC for brekky every day, then a chicken frame for dinner, once a week Ill give her RC and sardines for dinner, and occasionally I give her an egg with brekky

Definitely write out the do's and donts, that way there is no confusion, and that way they wont affect Ava's training for the rest of her life, remember, she is YOUR dog, YOU paid for her, YOU buy everything she needs, so YOU have EVERY say in what she eats and how she is trained because otherwise YOU will have to deal with the consequences as she grows older and you move out