Soaking puppy food

[SallyandPippa]

Hi,

I stopped soaking my 8 week old puppys food a couple of days ago, oops BIG mistake, although she ate the dry kibble the first morning she barely ate a thing for the next day and a half, after speaking to a friend she advised me that it is because the dry kibble expands in their tummy she advised me to go back to soaking which I did this morning and thank goodness she ate half of it! I am hopeful that she will now start eating as before but to be honest she hasn't been a big eater since I got her, she drinks fine and has solid but soft stools but she only goes for a number 2 maybe twice a day, is this normal? I am afraid that I cannot afford to throw away a whole pack of Hills but as soon as its gone I am switching to a natural human grade food that I have found, its called Naturaplan, its a foil wrapped food and all in all looks (and tastes I hope!) much more appealing!

Any advice is always much appreciated!

 

[moe]

Its true that the dry food expands more or less twice its size once it gets mixed with stomach moisture, if your puppy is happy eating its food wet then I would continue with that. and if you decided to introduce new food to your puppy do it over a few days adding just a little bit more of the new food and less of the older one, this way there is no sudden change which can upset a pups tummy.

Mo

 

[Gempress]

How are you feeding Pippa? Do you leave the food bowl down for her all the time, or does she have set mealtimes? When you give her the dry food, feed her only at certain times of the day, and measure the portions carefully to prevent overeating. At her age, four small meals would be best. The food you're feeding should have guidelines on how much she needs.

It may not be that the food expanded in her stomach. It may be that she decided she likes soaked food better, and was just being finicky. A day and a half of turning up her nose is certainly not uncommon for a picky puppy! She may like soft food, but I encourage you to try to eventually get her on dry food. It's much healthier for Pippa's teeth, and will keep them cleaner.

 

[Fran27]

I mix a teaspoon of yoghurt with their food, and they wolf it down. You might want to try, plus yoghurt is good for them, as long as your dog isn't allergic to milk of course.

 

[Renee750il]

Good thought, Fran. And just so you know, many times dogs (or people for that matter) who don't tolerate milk do very well with yoghurt.

 

[SallyandPippa]

Thanks for your advice, I feed Pippa 4 small meals a day doing my best to stick to the same times, i.e 7.30am/1pm/6pm and around 10pm. I am changing her food this weekend as I am not happy feeding her Hills Science after reading comments on this and other forums, so I am not too bothered about getting her liking it. She just sniffed at the soaked kibble at lunchtime so I made up some wholemeal rice, tuna and peas, which, needless to say went down very well indeed! If I decided to make up her food from now on does anyone know of where I could get suitable recipes from?

Thanks!

 

[Mordy]

i definitely recommend continuing moistening the kibble. don't soak it for too long, but add some room temperature or tepid water - that's much healthier for the kidneys than letting the dogs eat the food dry, not only in puppies but also in adult dogs.

if you want to switch to home prepared food (great idea by the way!), stick with some tried and proven recipes until you learn about the important things like a proper calcium-phosphorus ratio and so on and feel confident enough to come up with recipes of your own.

a great book to get started is dr. pitcairn's complete guide to natural health for dogs and cats. it's sold on the UK amazon site here, i hope the link works. if it doesn't, go to amazon.co.uk and do a search for 157954973X under books.

 

[juliefurry]

I moisten both my dog's food. Maverick because he is so young still and Hannah because I have been doing it since she came home and just never got out of the habit. I don't know if it is true but I heard it is good for bloat.

 

[Manchesters]

Too Much!

Thanks for your advice, I feed Pippa 4 small meals a day doing my best to stick to the same times, i.e 7.30am/1pm/6pm and around 10pm. I am changing her food this weekend as I am not happy feeding her Hills Science after reading comments on this and other forums, so I am not too bothered about getting her liking it. She just sniffed at the soaked kibble at lunchtime so I made up some wholemeal rice, tuna and peas, which, needless to say went down very well indeed! If I decided to make up her food from now on does anyone know of where I could get suitable recipes from?

Thanks!

Or should I say too often, rofl. Cut her back to 3 times a day feedings. And if she gets picky after a while, cut it back to 2 times a day.

Stick with a high quality puppy food. Home cooking is silly with all the decent foods available with all the proper vitamins and minerals, and with a growing puppy there is not room for screwups.

I believe it is only those dog food which are "extruded" that expand when wet. Others just form heavy lumps in the dogs stomach. I always soak food for pups in warm water, and add a bit of canned food as well as sprinkling dry powdered milk over it.

BUT, if you don't allow a puppy enough time between meals to become really hungry, you end up with a dog that won't eat at all.

 

[Mordy]

Home cooking is silly with all the decent foods available with all the proper vitamins and minerals, and with a growing puppy there is not room for screwups.

i don't think it's silly at all. especially if you are living in a part of the world where true quality foods are not available or outrageously expensive.

i've been preparing my own food for a year now and it's certainly not much more expensive than buying commercial foods. having full control over what actually goes into your dog (vs. buying a bag of food made with unknown, unnecessary and undesirable ingredients) is well worth the extra prep time it takes.

commercial food has only been widely available for about 60 years, and out of those 60 years, really good, well researched products for maybe less than half that. people have been keeping and breeding dogs for hundreds and thousands of years before that, and they were all fed home prepared food.

 

[gaddylovesdogs]

Stick with a high quality puppy food. Home cooking is silly with all the decent foods available with all the proper vitamins and minerals, and with a growing puppy there is not room for screwups.

Do you think that homemade food for a human baby is stupid?

 

[juliefurry]

Do you think that homemade food for a human baby is stupid?

Homemade human baby food isn't stupid. My mom made it for my daughter, it's really simple. On the other hand though I think that making baby food and making raw food for a puppy different. You don't want to give your dog too much of something and not enough of something else. I don't mess with raw food yet because I'm still researching and my dogs are still puppies. I don't want to mess anything up especially seeing as they are puppies. Human baby food you can just take stuff and put it through a processor and into a jar. Infants get plenty of nutrients from their formula as well so you don't really have to worry about them not getting enough of something.

 

[Mordy]

julie, it's pretty much the same with dogs. we've just been listening to the claims of the pet food industry for wayy too long, telling us that anything that is not specifically designed and manufactured for dogs is a huge health risk.

as i told sally earlier in this thread, if you feel insecure, stick with tried and proven recipes, such as for example the ones in pitcairn's book. they are formulated to meet or exceed the AAFCO recommendations (which you see on every food bag), so the standard of nutrition is the same. if you are not quite sure about feeding raw, cooke the food.

once you get more adventurous, use the NRC nutrient tables and come up with your own recipes. www.nutritiondata.com is a fabulous tool to utilize.

another myth the pet food industry is propagating is that every single meal has to be "complete and balanced". that's total hogwash in more than one way - not even a wild animal will find two "complete and balanced" meals in a row, and we humans don't eat that way either. if you aim for balance over the timespan of a week or two, that's perfectly fine.

 

[Manchesters]

Well..........

Do you think that homemade food for a human baby is stupid?

Excuse me, but HOMEMADE is designed for humans of whatever age. What FORM they get that food in is up to the adults. Human food is already processed and contains those vitamins and minerals, etc that the goverment has decided we need to eat.

If you are trying to make a "homemade" diet for a dog, just how do you tell exactly how much vitamin A or D or calcium or anything else is in it? Or do you just add those vitamins to their daily ration?

Dogs are much healthier than they were 60 years ago, have larger litters, with greater survival rate, etc etc etc than 60 years ago. As to what is a "quality" food, that is totally subjective.

Considering the average pet owner does not know the meaning of calorie, or amino acid, or enzyme, I think the dogs are safer if fed a "commercial" diet.

If some parent feels better about pureeing food in a blender for their kid.......great. Goodie for them. Just that there is a slight difference in human and canine nutritional requirements, lol.

 

[bridey_01]

I'm with Royal Canin now, and a roll called "pro peak" with pretty much human grade ingredients, but I make sure I supplement that with raw chicken wings/necks, big meaty bones, some fruit and vegetable chunks every now and then. I would never just go out and buy a bag of kibble and feed my dog that exclusively,and I would rather have a totally homemade diet, but it isn't as convenient for training as kibble is. My dogs only have on set meal a day, and the rest they work for periodically whilst we are out training.

 

[Mordy]

If you are trying to make a "homemade" diet for a dog, just how do you tell exactly how much vitamin A or D or calcium or anything else is in it? Or do you just add those vitamins to their daily ration?

today it is easier than ever to analyze averages of what you are feeding, thanks to charts made available by the USDA, which are also used for example on sites like www.nutritiondata.com. whatever is in short supply (depending on the ingredients you use) can be supplemented. dr. pitcairn provides this information for all his recipes. if you make a point of feeding a varied diet, that's hardly necessary tho.

Dogs are much healthier than they were 60 years ago, have larger litters, with greater survival rate, etc etc etc than 60 years ago.

you mean dogs who are fed a commercial diet are healthier now than they used to be, and yes, that is true. i wouldn't attribute the overall better health and larger litters strictly to commercial foods. much has been learned about nutrition in the past 60 years, concerning humans as well as dogs, and these findings apply to animals that are fed a home prepared diet as well. i know people who have raised dogs on home prepared foods for decades and their animals were just as healthy 50 or 60 years ago as they are now, and their litter survival rates have always been excellent. yeah, i happen to know about this because it's one of the topics i've done quite a bit of research on. one of the breeders i talked to is a lady who is a good 20 years older than you are, and her family has been involved in the dog world for generations. she also happened to be my vet for over 15 years.

As to what is a "quality" food, that is totally subjective.

of course it is. one person might consider kibbles and bits, pedigree, purina or some knock-off product a great food, in my opinion there is quite a number of criteria that a food must meet before i consider it a quality product.

Considering the average pet owner does not know the meaning of calorie, or amino acid, or enzyme, I think the dogs are safer if fed a "commercial" diet.

i agree with you where the "average", ignorant dog owner is concerned, but not someone like the person who started this thread, who is obviously an intelligent person willing to do the necessary research.

If some parent feels better about pureeing food in a blender for their kid.......great. Goodie for them. Just that there is a slight difference in human and canine nutritional requirements, lol.

yes, there are of course differences, but unlike many people believe, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to feed a dog. if someone is uninformed about nutrition, they are just as likely to make serious mistakes feeding their kids as they would be feeding a dog - and hopefully they won't try it without studying some good literature beforehand.

 

[Zoom]

Human food is already processed and contains those vitamins and minerals, etc that the goverment has decided we need to eat.

Yeah, and look at how the obesity rate has risen in this country since we decided to let that happen. Those nutrition labels lie through their teeth and most foods are packaged in such a way to fool the consumer into eating the entire thing when in fact that label says that one of it's products actually contains four or five servings. Look at frozen dinners sometime and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Manchesters]

Mordy, you would turn over in your grave at the number of dogs down here in the south that are fed Field Trial, Hunter's Choice, and the like that flourish on the stuff. They are healthy....have great coats.....produce fat healthy puppies, and so on and so on. You tell me!!!!!!!??????????????

 

[Renee750il]

On the other hand, my Dad almost killed one of my dogs feeding him that excrement. The vet correctly diagnosed that even though Purdue was being fed ample amounts of food he was suffering from malnutrition . . . We went to a high quality food (as I'd said we needed to do from day one, but what did I know, I was just a kid ) supplemented with good table food and he flourished.

Never, ever again . . .

 

[Whitedobelover]

I cook my dogs food everyday... they never eat anything but stuff i cook and then i feed science diet as a secondary when i cant cook (like im at work or gone) but more often than not i try to cook before i leave and then make sure my hubby knows where it is so he can give it to them... i would like to put them on a holistic or raw diet..

those are great and good for coat and health... also did you all know tapwater can cause skin problems because of chlorine and other chemicals can cause allergins... hmm just thought id let yiou know..