Hi, Meena,
A balanced diet containg plenty of calcium is ESSENTIAL for a growing dog.
She clearly has not been properly cared for if she is such a picky eater.
You would not let a child dictate to you what it is going to eat.
Put down a small quantity of a proper puppy food three times a day, and lift what she has not eaten after a quarter of an hour. DO NOT give her tidbits between meals. She will eat when she is hungry enough - you are not being cruel to her doing this.
W

i currently have a puppy aged 12 weeks who was fed on a natural diet since reading this column ive changed her to pedigree chum dried which to make her eat i add a little about 25 gm of chicken breast cooked plus table spoon of sunflower oil is this ok advice gladly accepted

Hi, Chris
Nearly right, but by adding chicken breast (protein) you may have unbalanced the Pedigree Chum Puppy Diet, which is carefully balanced in terms of protein, fat and carboydrate, as well as a correct proportion of calcium ( a growing pup, particularly of a large or giant breed needs a large quantity of calcium for bone formation - compare how many times a pup doubles its birth weight by the time it is one year old, compared with a human baby!)
I suggest that you add the same weight of biscuit meal as of fresh chicken breast to bring the diet back into balance.
Walter

I think the fact you have to add some real food to the processed food to persuade your pup to eat it shows that dogs know what is best for them. I bet she ate the natural diet without any problems! Give her a break. Give her some real food. Just ask yourself, would you be happy eating nothing but dried food for the rest of your life?

Oh, come on, Richard!
Did you not see that pea and spinach flavopured ice-cream is now available to get children to eat their greens?
Would you allow a child to choose what it wants to eat on the grounds that it knows best what it needs in terms of noursihment? I am sure that many prefer a bag of crisps and a Coke, or even turket twizzlers, to a well balanced diet. Pups are much the same.
As one elderly lady client said to me in Glasgow many years ago - "You have to look after your dog - after all, they're only human"!!
Walter

I think the point is that feeding most processed pet food IS like feeding turkey twizzlers - it's full of 'meat by products and derivatives', it's got the colourings and flavourings, the fillers , the sugars. It can't be as good as real food. So, whatever dogs prefer (and in my experience it almost always is good real fresh food) a diet of real meat and veg and raw bones IS best for them. So - turkey twizzlers for your dog or real fresh food - which is it tio be?

Hi, Richard,
have you ever been to a commercial pet-food factory and actually seen for yourself what goes into the cans?
I have, and I think that you might get a surprise if you went and saw the quality of the ingredients (none of which have been condemned for human consumption) and the standards of hygiene - there is no risk of MRSA there!
Walter
PS You did not answer my question I asked if you never eat any 'processed' food. W

Greetings Walter

In my reply of 04 04 05 I said I had opened one can of tinned food in a week. I'm not suggesting I never eat processed food, or that dogsshould never eat processed food, but that I would never eat a diet composed solely of processed food, and neither should dogs.

The pet food factories may well be very clean, but that doesn't mean the food that goes in the cans and packets is as healthy for the consumers as real fresh food. Can you honestly say that you would be happy to eat nothing but tinned and dried food for the whole of your life?

Hi, Richard,
I can see that we are never going to agree on this.

My experience ( and I was veterinary superintendant of a quantine kennel for 20 years) is that dogs prefer to eat the food that they like, and are suspicious of frequent changes of diet. Hence a regular diet must be well balanced - and in my book a diet of 'raw meaty bones' is NOT balanced.
Commecial diets are as much 'convenience' foods as anything, and as long as they are complete and nourishing, and the animal likes it, where is the problem? They certainly make life easier for the owner. Keeping raw meaty bones and suchlike in the refrigerator or pantry along with food for the family is unlikely to be appealing!

I also suggest that human tastes are rather more sophisticated that are dogs'

If you take up my suggestion and visit a pet food manufactory, I think you will be surprised on two counts, first, the quality of the raw ingredients, and second the health and happiness of the animals kept long term for observation of the effects of feeding the prepared diets over the animal's lifetime. I have seen dogs in their late teens as fit and well as any pet kept in a home environment.

Again, I emphasise that my comments come from my own observations. I do not have, nor have I ever have had, any links with a pet food manufacturer.

Walter

Hallo again Walter

Yes, not a question of great minds thinking alike on this matter! I'll try not to bore on the topic again but I will reiterate - a diet based on raw meaty bones, which doesn't mean giving nothing but RMB, but includes offal, eggs, vegetables and other ingredients is perfectly balanced.

The problem with convenience foods (in my view) for animals or for humans is that they are just not as healthy and nutririous as real food.

And finally - it's simple to freeze a batch of RMBs (or you can buy them already frozen) and defrost as required - no need for unappealing storage in fridge/pantry.

With all good wishes

Richard

Hi, Richard,
I am not sure that I agree with your defintion of 'REAL FOOD', but I think that maybe this discussion has gone on long enought.
Walter

Yes, I think that's something we CAN agree on!

Richard