Feeding your dogs

Good morning everyone, todays post is about feeding dogs. 
I was telling Darryl the other day one of the highlights of owning dogs for me is feeding a good quality diet and seeing how much they enjoy what I give them.  I really enjoy it but then I love cooking.  I actually have coeliac disease so make everything from scratch for myself,  not a single ready meal in this house.  But I wonder if this is why I enjoy time preparing dog food.  

I understand that a lot of people want to just feed and go.  Look at www.nutriment.co.uk for all ready made raw dog foods.  You can give variety through choosing different dog meats. Chicken one day, duck another, fish and so on.

Our dogs are started onto nutriment, then we start to mix in other meats because we are aware not everyone can afford nutriment, and prefer to go through cheaper companies.  This gets puppies ready to change to more course texture meat and bone if we start them around 7 weeks.  But if you do go to a cheaper brand remember you need to give variety still and add in the things your puppy may be missing.  A dog has 22 amino acids in its diet, and 11 are vital. The most vital is taurine.  A lack of taurine and your dog could develop dilated cardio myopathy.  So feed fresh foods with good nutriments to give it a varied diet. 

For example yesterdays dinner for our adult dogs and puppies.

Adults) Turkey/bone/offal and Tripe, Chicken Gizzard, Chicken heart, spinach, fresh egg, apple, sardine. herbs, wheatgerm oil, green lipped muscle, pro biotic. Krill oil capsule. 

Today we have Chicken/bone/offal and tripe, chunks goat meat with bone, paddy whack. herbs, wheatgerm oil, green lipped muscle, probiotic. krill oil capsule, enzymes. 

Our puppies this morning have had.  Duck meat /bone and tripe chunks, mixed with nutriment puppy, fish chopping into tiny pieces. half a mug of water poured on top. keepers mix. 

I alternative food groups every day, which makes our dogs really enjoy their food.  But I also know by feeding variety Im covering all the aspects of diet required.  But remember you can buy it already done and ready to go.  Just defrost and feed. The choice is yours. 

Remember if you feed Kibble you will see a difference in coat condition.  From a shiny coat the Vizsla coat goes drab and brittle looking. Skin is unhealthy. Then what it is doing to your dogs immune system is far greater on the inside hence why so many people have unhealthy adult dogs always at the vets, always have issues with skin.  When dogs eat dried kibble they are more thirsty, and their stools double in size, and they poo more than a dog fed raw.

Now some dogs do not hold weight on raw, but it is a healthier weight.  But make sure you do not follow food calculators.  If your dog is thin feed it more as it's that simple.  Dont worry yourself about exact amounts.  It must be look with the eye with this type of diet.  If you think your dog is thin it probably is, so feed it more.  Give half as much again and see what happens.  Puppies should have 10% of their body weight, but actually in some cases they require more.  Because some are more active than others.  Adults its 2-3% of body weight but same applies. A young teenage dog will require more than a 10 year old veteran dog.  Old dogs do not burn off their food.  Some may require a slight change in proteins also.  


Rachel