[shaneyraepage]

My little guy seems so skinny. We are started him on innova but have now moved to purina. I get a lot of crap about feeding him purina hard food mixed with soft food but he actually eats IT. I would love to feed him something that would be healthier.

What does everyone feed their poodles? (OH.. by the way... he is a mini)

 

[mercymoon]

My dogs actually prefer hard dog food, they like kibbles and bits, and Ole
Roy...and they eat healthy foods too such as vegetables...they can't
get enough of them!

My poos are defiantely not picky eaters!

 

[CurlyDog]

My guys eat Fromms Surf & Turf and Orijen puppy.

 

[Cardi2008]

Cardi is eating Evo Small Red Bites. It is high in protein, a nutrient that carnivores need. He loves it.

 

[Purple Poodle]

Some dogs have a high matabolisem (sp?), my Toy mix Cher won't put on weight for nothing, I even tried giving her wet food in addition to her dry but all that did was made her gassy.

I would say keep him on the dry and only give wet once a day by its self and see if that helps.

 

[SECRETO]

I would try to atleast get your dog on a better hard food and you can always mix in something for additional flavor. Some use chicken/beef broth, canned salmon and sometimes I even buy the ground beef pedigree as a mix in. I will only use a little bit of the pedigree canned food. Just enough for some added flavor.

I guess Im kinda a dog food snob. I really think premium food is much better for your dogs like eating healthier is better for us. Just my opinion. :tongue:

Oh, Im a Natura Dog food lover. Thats all I feed now.

 

[Blue Fox]

I must be a dog food snob too then secreto! I am feeding Advance but also going down the raw food path. T gets Advance rehydratable for breakfast with puppy milk and/or yoghurt or cottage cheese or egg. Chicken necks/wings/carcasses, lamb bones, sardines, the list goes on LOL. I won't feed him tinned food of any variety, I think it is expensive tinned water and fillers - like takeaway food for humans.

 

[SECRETO]

I must be a dog food snob too then secreto! I am feeding Advance but also going down the raw food path. T gets Advance rehydratable for breakfast with puppy milk and/or yoghurt or cottage cheese or egg. Chicken necks/wings/carcasses, lamb bones, sardines, the list goes on LOL. I won't feed him tinned food of any variety, I think it is expensive tinned water and fillers - like takeaway food for humans.

We did th raw diet with our Amstaffs. They loved it but we found after a while it just didn't work with our schedules. Prep'n the dogs food and the babies dinner, bath and etc was just too much. Im just happy that we have a dog food that we ALL can agree on (dogs and people). They like it and Im happy to feed it. lol

 

[Blue Fox]

And I think that's the end answer to all the dog food questions - if your happy and the dogs are happy and healthy then that's the dog food for you.

I know we fed our first GSD and the BC on cheap dry food, tins and bones, and they didn't have any health issues. Our current GSD does really well on Bonnie Working Dog Formula which is half the price of what the poodle gets, so it is not always the $$ that make a good dog food for any particular dog.

Edit to add - we don't have any kids except the furkids so they kinda get all our spare time and money LOL!

 

[Sam I Am]

If you want to get a little weight on him you can feed him either raw or cooked meat. We had a yorkie that was always really skinny and I started feeding him the fat I trimmed off our cuts of meat (beef, chicken, pork, whatever we were having) as a treat. I fed it raw, not everyday, just when we were having something that would work, that way he didn't stop eating his dry food completely. It doesn't take long for little ones to put the weight on though so you have to monitor it closely. I got a pound on him in about a month, he went from 3.5lbs to 4.5 which was perfect for him.

 

[marepalmer]

How many of you do the BARF diet? Some of you talk about a raw diet, I guess that's a do-it-yourself barf diet?

I read up on the BARF diet and the prepackaged meat patties come with ground up bones. That sounds strange to me to feed a dog bones, but I guess it must be good for them, or something.

 

[Kaybeegenie]

Same thing. Most people just don't call it BARF anymore. You might see "prey model diet," too.

 

[Blue Fox]

How many of you do the BARF diet? Some of you talk about a raw diet, I guess that's a do-it-yourself barf diet?

I read up on the BARF diet and the prepackaged meat patties come with ground up bones. That sounds strange to me to feed a dog bones, but I guess it must be good for them, or something.

Because I live in pretty much the middle of nowhere I don't have access to the prepackaged BARF diet. I followed the "Give Your Dog A Bone" book way back when the GSD was a baby, but we actually found he didn't do so well on it. I like the idea that the pup gets a range of foods so that he doesn't become a fussy eater. We have always feed raw meaty bones, again it seems closer to what a dog would normally eat and when you see them eating a bone, they actually use muscles to hold and chew rather than gulping down some sloppy tinned mush.

 

[Pamela]

My vet doesn't want our poodles to have bones or rawhide chews or anything like that. We feed IAMS mini chunks and some wet pedigree mixed in. They all eat the same food but two are just right and two are overweight - go figure!

 

[Blue Fox]

My vet doesn't want our poodles to have bones or rawhide chews or anything like that. We feed IAMS mini chunks and some wet pedigree mixed in. They all eat the same food but two are just right and two are overweight - go figure!

So they don't get any bones what so ever? I understand no cooked bones but I couldn't imagine not giving them any at all. We run a small boarding kennel and all dogs get a bone each night unless the owners request otherwise. Have only had one ask for no bones and that's because the dog has a stomach ulcer.

 

[SECRETO]

I limit the raw hide chews or bones for my dogs. I have a breeder friend that did research on rawhide for a animal health class she was taking and it takes a long time for raw hide to digest. I do raw hide bones maybe once every 3 weeks if that. There is Hertz Chew'n clean bone and another pure white one made for large dogs that I pick up from walmart. They last until I through them away, they're that good. I also get the steralized bones that are filled at petmart. They can eat the filling out but never can break or eat the actual bone. Those last until I through them away also and never any raw hide stuck on the coat. Yea!!!! lol

Anyone else heard of issues with raw hide?

 

[Pamela]

The minis definitely can't digest them - our minis anyway - they end of throwin up. Ginger I have given her some but she doesnt always digest either - its sad because they love to chew! I give them milkbone dog biscuits and I had given them the nyla bone but Teddy manages to break pieces off of those too. Teddy wrecks all the toys - he is a chewer -He woudl love a pigs ear wouldn't he? ha ha - my old dog loved those - but this vet says no so I dont' give. The bones with filling sound interesting - I'll have to check it out.

 

[Poodleroni]

We had many problems with our standard, Shadow eating. He finally starting eating Blue Buffalo consistently, but even with that, he wasn't really ready to eat his breakfast until around 12 or so. We feed him twice a day. Our mini puppy has no problems eating anything...Blue Buffalo, no problem, cicadas, grasshoppers, and spiders...the more the merrier (gross, I know. BTW, we do not encourage this. I have actually had to pull whole cicadas out of his mouth!) All this just to say that we recently switched them both to Orijen...the puppy formula for our mini. Shadow (the standard) actually wanted to eat at 7 this morning when I fed Charlie (the mini)! Even Charlie, who will eat anything, is even more eager to eat Orijen. It's based on what dogs eat in the wild. We also put 2 tbsp of tripe in the standard's food and 1tbsp in the mini's. This is to help with their digestion. It is so exciting to finally see our standard eating like a real dog!!!

@Secreto - We have heard that about rawhide too, which is why we only use bully sticks...they are all natural and fully digestable.

 

[SkatMonkey]

All this just to say that we recently switched them both to Orijen...the puppy formula for our mini.

Just too clarify for a beginner (since this isn't the only time I've read this), do you feed an adult mini poodle Orijen puppy formula? If so, what's the reasoning?

 

[Poodleroni]

Our mini is still a puppy and that's why he's on the puppy formula. We haven't heard that you have to feed them puppy when they're adults. We were actually planning on switching to adult for him too in a couple of months.