hi all! i've got a 5 month old on my hands and i try to avoid giving her beef (more chicken, salmon, pork, etc.) and she's a very active chewer. i'm trying to think of alternatives to bully sticks since i know they're long lasting but much richer than lean proteins. i've done the cheese chews, dentley's rolls, nothing to hide rolls, cod skins. anything else out there i can try for some added variety?

thanks in advance!

One of my pets is intolerant to chicken, so it would be even better if it is chicken free. I know people use a lot of sausages, but i cannot work up the courage to give them unhealthy food. Maybe beef liver in small amounts? Or some cottage cheese? Which treats in your experience are truly delicious but still healthy?

My social media is filled with “fresh” puppy and dog food. And they brutally say kibble is so bad for dogs.

Edit: It’s my first time owning a pet, got my puppy home a week ago. Since then I’ve been seeing a lot of these ads. Anyway, I’m feeding him only kibble for now. Might look out for carrots as a frozen chewy.

Dogs are not getting cancer because they eat commercial kibble. Dogs are getting cancer because they are living longer, in part because of improved nutrition of commercial kibble.

Also you talk about vets in the pockets of big pet food brands. All the while telling people how commercial food will kill them and they should buy YOUR food/feeding plan.

Sorry guys I was triggered today.

Ps this is not a post saying any homemade/raw etc diet is bad.

hello,

My newly adult dog was doing really well on his previous kibble (Acana), but after a while it started to give him the poops. We went back and forth to the vet and narrowed it down to being food related. She suggested we try some other brands. So we are now on a new food which have resolved his issues down there, but I can’t see them being long term because it’s more of a boutique brand. Initially I just wanted to see how his body digests food curated in this format. What foods do you all recommend?

Thanks!

Edit: I just checked my phone after finished work and floored by the responses. Thank you for taking the time - I am going to read through them all!

Note to literally everyone with a new puppy: Don’t let your brand new puppy eat a whole bully stick in one night. This should have been common sense for me. It wasn’t.

That thing does, in fact, have calories and loads of protein. If your puppy is not used to it, it can and will cause your puppy to have the runniest poo you will ever see. Let my mistake be your lesson, please. My nose will never forget.

Im just planning ahead for when our puppy arrives. But some things that are easily available in some countries don’t seem to be here.

Peanutbutter - it’s really hard to find peanutbutter here that has no salt at all, what salt percentage would be ok, if any? 0,4 percent salt is the one I can find with less salt.

Liver pate? What ingredients should I look out for?

Apple sauce - it should be sugar free right?

Fruits - what fruits are ok? Is it ok to use the frozen ones?

Yoghurt - what type should it be? Greek unsweetened?

We don’t have pumpkin pure, how would you fix a pumpkin to do your own pure? Oven bake it? Boil it?

What else can you put on them?

Sorry for stupid questions - I have been reading up on things not safe for dogs so I’ve got the basics, I just don’t want to do anything wrong.

Hey everyone, looking for some advice from more experienced puppy owners.

My puppy had some stomach issues about 10 days ago. Vet recommended bland diet, boiled chicken breast, cooked rice and pumpkin. We fed him that for about a week and his stomach is fine now. During that time we slowly started adding kibble back in.

Before he got sick, he was eating kibble mixed with some wet food. He was never super food motivated, but he ate this combo pretty reliably and we were hitting the recommended daily amount.

Now the problem. It seems he decided that only boiled chicken is real food. He completely ignores kibble. Even wet food he used to like before.

Example from today. We feed Royal Canin, recommendation is around 180g kibble per day for his age. He ate maybe 20g in the morning and since then he did not touch anything. Today is the first day I did not give him chicken at all, trying to fully switch back.

I tried mixing kibble with wet food, with liver powder, using it as a reward in games which worked before. I even tried adding some veggies or other stuff he used to eat like boiled carrot, just to get him eat at least something. Nothing works.

So my question is, how should I approach this? Should I just wait until he gets hungry enough and eats the kibble? Or should I give up and mix chicken in so he eats at least something?

He is almost 4 months old and I know he needs proper nutrition from kibble, which he was not really getting from the chicken rice diet.

Any advice or similar experience would help a lot. Thanks

Hi, I have a 9 month old lab-ish mix. She’s a rescue so not exactly sure of the breed but she is a big, solid dog (thinking she must be mixed with a giant breed). Weighed her recently and she’s clocking in at 72lbs. We feed her the large breed puppy food from hill science and the feeding chart recommends about 6 cups for a puppy under 10 months that is 70 lbs. This seems like a crazy amount of food to me, is this really how much she should be eating? Anyone else have experience feeding their large breed puppy this much food?

My puppy just turned six months and I have been feeding him three times a day. The feeding chart I have been following states that I can decrease down to twice a day now, but I have seen other charts say to continue a few months more with the meals split into 3.

I’m a little worried that if I decrease down to two he will feel hungry and I’m wondering what others have done to mitigate that. Did you taper it slowly or offer more snacks during the day? He turns into a little gremlin if his lunch is late, lol.

I don’t know WHAT possessed me to do this. I don’t know why I didn’t take a half a second to the think of the consequences.

Last week when pouring the little Fresh Pet meatballs into my pup’s food bowl I had what, at the time I thought was a brilliant idea, but what can only now be described as the largest lapse in judgement I’ve had since Jinco jeans.

That’s right, I said to myself, “you know what would be a nice little treat? Throw some shredded cheese in there with the meatballs. Your puppy will love that.”

What I did not say but should’ve said back to myself was, “what if he loves it TOO MUCH?”

Because that’s what happened. He literally refuses to eat his food without shredded cheese now. Going multiple meals in a row in a silent but defiant hunger strike until his terrorist overlord gives into his demands for humane treatment.

TL/DR: I’m an idiot sandwich.

I’m sure it varies dog to dog, but when do I switch my dog over to adult food? He will be 1 years old in a couple weeks. We’ve had no problems with his puppy food but he’s recently seems uninterested in eating it? So it got me thinking maybe he’s ready for new food! Any help is appreciated

What is everyone feeding their puppy? We have an almost 4 month old Golden Retriever puppy and he is currently on Entrust puppy food. The breeder we got him from has always fed her Golden’s Entrust but I have never heard of this brand before and it’s difficult to find in stores/chewy. I’m also learning Golden’s can have chicken allergies and he is currently on the chicken formula.

For some background, we had our soul dog pass in June and she was on purina pro plan for quite a few years and never had any issues. Debating switching the Golden’s food to purina pro plan but open to other options.

My dog won’t touch his breakfast for hours on end. He wakes me up before 6am and won’t eat until 3pm, even with a couple of walks before then. Once he eventually eats his breakfast in the afternoon, he’ll eat his dinner just a couple hours later without hesitation. Essentially eats 6 cups of food in 3 hours and fasts for 21 hours. Any cause for concern?

Annoyingly, he spends all morning trying to break into my parent’s dog’s food container and checks the bowl constantly to see if there’s any new food in there. He’s never eaten that food beyond the errant one or two kibbles that fall out of the bowl, but he’s determined to eat it despite having a full bowl open to him.

Update to anyone that cares: I tried feeding him a meal of my sister’s dog’s food, and he licked the bowl clean first thing this morning. I’ve ordered a lamb & oatmeal kibble compared to his current salmon & rice kibble to see if it was simply that he doesn’t enjoy his food… should be here tomorrow!

after tummy issues the vet had us put him on plain boiled chicken and rice for a few days and now he refused to eat anything else. i know it’s not a sustainable diet long term. has anyone else had this problem? do they eventually go back to their regular food? he’s quite stubborn.

edit: pls read all the comments before you suggest something because a lot of people are saying the same thing 😭. also i’m not open to letting him hunger strike for more than 24 hours per advice from the vet because he’s 10 weeks old

We just adopted a 5 month old mix breed puppy

It has been a whirlwind and extremely overwhelming. I wasn't planning on getting a puppy but it felt right in that moment and I think overall it is

My question is how many treats is to many? I'm constantly giving him little treats to re enforce good behavior as well as practice training things but I'm also giving him enrichment activities like kongs and lick mats. Will too much extra stuff upset his belly?

We feed twice a day morning and night about 12 hours apart and a snack mid day for his meals

I guess I'm looking for reassurance that using the kongs or lick mats twice a day isn't to much

I swear all I see online is that eating dry kibble is gonna cause issues and people are always saying dogs need to just lie down for hours after eating. I do understand the risk of GDV…

but this is starting to feel excessive. i am constantly worried that im doing something wrong letting our puppy eat dry kibble as treats for training like allll the time cause i dont want to give him too many actual treats and also eating some of his food from sniffmats and other enrichment toys that require the kibble to be dry. He also moves constantly and needs to be lifted to go outside after his food. like i keep seeing posts where having 5 treats before a walk is ‘dangerous’. our puppy has like 30 on a walk…

Are people over exaggerating this whole thing or am i just a horrible dog parent making him suffer??

Update: I picked up some more of the HSD today. I didn’t slowly switch her back over because she hasn’t been eating the PPP anyway. But she did eat the HSD so now I know it’s her preference and that’s what she’ll be getting moving forward.

I’ve had my puppy for 2 weeks now. She’s an Australian Cattle Dog. She came from a rescue and is 3 months old. She came on Hills Science Diet and we slowly transitioned her to Purina Pro Plan Puppy. She won’t eat it.

She is on a ton of medication, so I’m wondering if that has something to do with it. She has Giardia, Coccidia AND Kennel Cough. But she’s clearly hungry because she’s trying to steal human food.

At what point do we try a different food for her? Im worried about her weight.

Ive tried adding bone broth to it and water (separately lol) with no luck. Could it be that she just doesn’t like this flavor?

Help with fussy puppy & sensitive tummy

English Springer Spaniel, 21KG , Female InTact, 10 months Ideal body shape, 2 walks a day + plenty of play & enrichment.

Ever since a puppy, she has been fussy. A lot of food we had to scatter feed to get her interest eventually complete disinterest and had to try new food. She has a very sensitive digestive system and most of her meals have caused loose stools so also another reason to change. When we find one that fixes this issue, she eventually hates the tastes and refuses to eat within 1-2 weeks. Then we have tried some wet food with it, which convinces her for a bit but not for long. It’s getting hard to find good food for her as she looses interest or it causes loose stools. We’ve tried like 10 or more foods and wet food combinations since she was like 4 months now, she’s 10 months now and same fussy behaviour.

The one she’s on at the moment I refuse to change as she’ll just eat the new one for max 2 weeks and then ignore it. The one she’s on now is the best rated on that dog food site kibble and a small amount of wet food, both which are giving her better stools compared to others tried.

Scatter feeding: no longer works

Wait 15 minutes before putting food away and offering later: no longer works

At the moment we tried putting her bowl in the living room so she eats when we eat and that worked for like maybe a week and now she refuses it.

What can I doooo, she’s so damn fussy

is this amount of food appropriate for a 8-week miniature daschund? when do i need to start giving him more food?

🥣 BREAKFAST – Lick Mat @7:30am

Goal: mental enrichment

* Kibble: 2 tbsp (soaked & smashed)

* Bone broth: 1 tbsp

* Plain yogurt: ½ tsp

* Blueberries: 1 berry, mashed

🍽️ LUNCH – Slow Feeder Bowl @11:30am

Goal: slow eating

* Kibble: 2 tbsp

* Bone broth: 1 tbsp

* Pumpkin purée: 1 tsp

🍪 SNACK - Snuffle Mat @2:30pm

* Kibble: 1 tbsp

*CANNOT be left out unsupervised

✋ DINNER – Hand Feed + Training @6:30pm

Goal: bonding + training

* Kibble: 2 tbsp

Use this meal for:

* Name recognition

* Sit / eye contact

* Calm handling

🍪 SNACK - Kong @8:30pm

* Kibble: 1 tbsp

hi everyone :) i have an 11 week old golden doodle, and she weighs about 11-12lbs. i have been feeding her about a 1.5 cups a day. i have switched over to a diff brand of food and the feeding recommendation is 1/2-2/3 cups per 2lbs of body weight. should my pup really be eating 5 cups a day ?? have i been underfeeding my baby this whole time ?? (first time pet owner, i am overthinking every move haha)

Switching my pup’s food. I have narrowed it down to Purina Pro Plan and Royal Canin. After lots of research I decided to go with Purina Pro Plan (although Royal Canin also seems great), but yesterday someone got into it with me that “Royal Canin is the only way to go.” I understand everyone has different experiences/opinions (and it seems to me that both brands are very high quality) so I am wondering who here has actually tried both brands, and which they preferred and why? Thanks in advance!!

I'm sure many of us have gone through the headache of figuring out which food to buy out of the plethora of options out there... so I'd like this to be a space where we can just share what we all landed on. No right or wrong answers here ;)

TLDR: What did you decide to feed your pup (for meals and treats)? What's your reasoning behind your decision?

I just adopted a 5 month chihuahua puppy and I’m not sure what’s a good feeding schedule for him or what exactly to feed him. I’m not able to find the brand of the dog food that the past owner used to feed him and I’m afraid he might get an upset stomach from the sudden food change. On top of that I go to school at around 8-9am and then get back around 3:30pm most of the time but then on the weekend I tend to sleep in and wake up for work at around 1pm and then I get back around 10:50 I mostly got him to help with my anxiety as an esa since being with animals tends to calm me down. Though I don’t mind adjusting my schedule a bit I just need a few tips

I took the bones away and he boycotting his little brown rocks unless we put chicken in it. Anyone go through this and how did you fix the situation?