Am I Doing This Right?

[Guest AlaniJoi]

When we brought Bella home, we had her on a lot of things, too, after reading tons of threads on here.

 

Here's what we found -

Olive oil did nothing except give her loose stools

Salmon oil helped her coat and gave her loose stools - in the end, I'm not sure what helped her coat the most - the kibble we chose, good brushings, or the salmon oil. When our last bottle of oil ran out, we didn't replace it - she still has a great coat and much, much better stools

 

Pumpkin is something she loves but nothing that she seems to need

 

We put some warm water in the kibble so she can lap it up and doesn't choke on the dry food - we also put a spoonful of plain yogurt because it really does seem to help with the gas. Case in point - on days that we've run out, we do notice a difference!

 

For kibble - we feed Earthborn Holistic Adult Vantage. We started with ProPlan (which she was on when she came home), moved to Nutro (which she was perfectly fine on, unlike some others here) and now we've settled on Earthborn.

 

I almost drove myself crazy reading about all of the foods, ratings, etc and we just had a store open around the corner that carries a lot of good brands (Taste of the Wild, among others) but Earthborn seems to be really working for us. At $48 for a 28 pound bag every 6 weeks, it better be! Although now that I just did the math it works out to about $0.50/meal (plus some in Kongs) - huh, when I look at it that way, it's perfectly fine!

 

You will hear a lot on GT about grains/grain-free. Bella is just fine with grains so we haven't investigated any foods without them. She also gets cooked oatmeal in her Kongs and seems to be doing just fine.

 

Some of it's trial and error, as others have mentioned, but I'll second the thought that you might want to cut out all of the "extras" as a starting point.

 

Good luck!

 

PS - GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS pup!!!!

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for the advice! Bella is quite the cutie too! Please continue blogging because like I said earlier, I get a kick out of Bella and even though you're just documenting everyday life, it's helping newbies like myself out!

[Guest AlaniJoi]

I also wanted to add that Laddie had a tough time when he came to live with us and had soft stool for several months and it just turned out to be his stress. I remember taking paper plates with us on walks when I was getting desperate because we couldn't keep wiping up the sidewalks. It was suggested that he may have giardia because it hides and flares up. In the end, he just needed the right food and a little more time to adjust and get through the stress of his transition. He was originally on Merrick TurDuckEn but I think the duck was too rich for him, we've been Eagle Pack lamb formula fans ever since.

 

And I also agree with previous postings that perhaps he has too many add-ins. Kibble mixed with water and warmed a little usually wins over most dogs, and fish oil of course. I think they will always welcome a scoop of sweet potato, pumpkin or low fat yogurt but its not nutritionally necessary. I do use Missing Link as recommended by my adoption group.

 

 

Thanks so much for the advice! I think I'm really going plain jane for Sir ByeRun! I think I'm going overboard with trying to make him happy!

[Guest greyhound9797]

Oh and one more thing! If anyone out there actually has their grey on a raw diet, I'd love to hear from you too. I've been very curious about it and I've read a couple of articles on it, but I'd wanna make sure I'm fully informed before I give that a try!

I'm a huge lover of the raw diet! Piper turned 13 last month and she's been on raw for a little over 3 years. I created a "Raw Feeding Basics" thread that you can view here http://forum.greytalk.com/index.php/topic/242512-raw-feeding-basics/ Lots of information but it's a great read for beginners. Feel free to email or IM me with any specific questions.

 

Sandra in FL