Delifresh food?

Hi all!

Ok, so a bit of history... Bella has just never been big on food. She's adopted the 'take it or leave it' philosophy :roll: She's totally a grazer. She'll take a few pieces out of her bowl, lay down with them, nibble on them for awhile.. she may go back a few times, but what she eats at any given amounts to nothing, really. Our vet isn't concerned, she's healthy and thriving, and according to him, she has a 'perfect' build for the breed. She's just over 5 months old and around 7.5 lbs. I think she's too scrawny. I'm not a vet, of course, but to me she seems very thin and gangly. She does get a couple of high quality biscuits each day, and the odd freeze dried liver square, which she has no trouble gobbling up :lol:

The breeder had the litter on Royal Canin Puppy, so we've kept her on that. Just to see if it was the food, we tried some Eukanuba Natural, but she was equally uninterested in that, too.

Today we were at Superpet and decided to try a small tube of Delifresh. (it's apparently a 'PAN' diet) I sliced off a chunk and cut up it, then DH and I sat there in disbelief while she inhaled it, ALL.

So, is this a bad thing? (usually something that goes well always has a downfall) :lol: I haven't explored too much about the 'fresh food' alternative.. though I would imagine eating some amount of kibble is necessary to keep her teeth healthy. Is this something we can supplement with her daily kibble diet, or should it just give it as a treat.. or, not at all? What is the current recommendation on this type of food?

Thanks for any input! :flwr:

/edit -- oops, I just realize this should have been posted in the Health and Diet forum... sorry!

i never heard of it before. i just looked it up on the web, it looks good to me, i wonder how it would be rated by the Whole Dog Journal. If i was going to feed it, i would rather it didn't have the added salt, otherwise if she likes it and she has good poops on it, why not? I've heard from vet sources that kibble is good for dog dental health so as you say, maybe you could supplement with it.

Zack has never been a chow hound, and rarely eats his food right up when it's put in the bowl, but he does eat a bowlfull all in one sitting, two times a day.

But when he was younger he used to just pick at it, and i had to eliminate all treats including bully sticks to get him to see the necessity of eating his food. before that, he treated edible nylabones and bully sticks like food. Apparently his food was more boring and he satisfied his eating urge by chewing those treats and breaking off tiny crumbs and eating them. When i removed the chew treats, then he started eating the kibble.

apparently bella is getting enough nutrition from what she's eating. i would say Zack has always been average cavalier size, and at 4 months he was 8 pounds.

Whether Bella is too scrawny would depend on whether her ribs or vertebrae are sticking out so you can see them, i think. I would like to learn more about how to tell if a dog is too thin because i'm afraid my daughter's cavalier belle is too thin. She's full grown at 12 pounds and she goes way in at the waist and you can sort of see her backbone in one area, there's no fat on her. She is not very interested in kibble. But she has been spending more time with me lately, and she is eating good here, obviously because of there being two dogs, and if one eats, the other feels like they must eat too. They eat out of the same bowl together and clean the plate twice a day.

I would like to get some suggestions of ways to help a too thin dog put on a pound or two. Maybe belle could put on a little weight if she ate delifresh?

Both my dogs have not been to interested in dried food alone and have just picked at it. Knowing how good it was for their teeth I was keen to continue giving it to them. Then someone suggested I give half dried and half a fresh food we have here called naturediet. This meat just contains chicken rice and carrot with no additives at all. The up side the dogs eat the dinner in seconds the downside once opened it only lasts a day in the fridge so if you only have one dog you would not use the whole pack.

What a good excuse to get a second cavi.

We've got the same problem, I think a lot of fellow Cavi owner have too. Our boy never wants to eat in the morning, and sometimes not at night. Tried the 15 minute rule, but he would go days without eating. We tried swapping food, we tried 3 or 4 different kinds, Murphy ate the lot for about 4 weeks then he goes off it. Even tried feeding wet in the morning and dry at night, he still would never eat in the morings
At the moment we're feeding dry mixed with a small amount of meat or fish for flavour. Been doing this for 4 days and he ate breakfast all 4 morning, until this morning so who knows :sl*p:
When we feed meat/fish, with veg and rice/pasta he wolfs it down, not even coming up for air. But we don't feel confident enough to feed like this all the time in case we got the balance wrong.

Thanks ladies.

I've done a bit more reading on this Delifresh, and apparently it's a balanced diet alone. Per their FAQ:

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Q. Can I feed my dog Deli Fresh™ every day? Is it complete and balanced nutrition?
A. You can feed your dog PAN diets like Deli Fresh™ every day because they are 100% complete and balanced for dogs in all life-stages. In fact, Deli Fresh™ significantly exceeds AAFCO’s minimum standards for canine nutrition.

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More ingredients:

Fresh Ingredients
Deli Fresh consists of 70% fresh meat mixed with carrots, peas and brown rice to form a complete meal. While they are healthy enough to feed to a human, they are 100% complete and balanced for a dog’s diet.

Deli Fresh™ never uses:

* Known allergens like corn, wheat, soy, or by-products
* Chemical preservatives commonly found in dry, canned, or semi-moist foods (i.e. BHA, mixed tocopherols, sugars, glycerin, & propalyene)

Gentle Cooking Process
The fresh ingredients are gently cooked to maintain the essential proteins and amino acids dogs need from their diet. Deli Fresh goes through significantly less processing and none of the ingredients are pre-processed. Dry and canned dog foods are cooked at high temperatures and exposed to harsh thermal processing which depletes the food of its nutrients.

The Puppy ingredients include:

Ingredients
Fresh chicken, fresh turkey, liver, fresh carrots, peas, rice bran, chicken broth, dried egg product, brewers rice, carrageenan, salt, dried kelp, flaxseed oil, garlic, taurine.
Vitmains
Choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, niacin, D-calcium pantothenate, manganese proteinate, riboflavin, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin B12 supplement)
Minerals
Zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, copper proteinate, thiamine mononitrate, manganous oxide, vitamin D3 supplement, calcium iodate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite
Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein (min) 11.0%
Crude Fat (min) 9.0%
Crude Fiber (max) 2.0%
Moisture (max) 73.0%

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In the pet stores it's kept in a refrigerated cooler, and it must be used within 10 days of opening. (kept covered up and refrigerated)

Sounds good to me!

I have seen this at our local petstore, but it is always out of the refridgerated section. Is this a different version of the food?

Interesting...but what the heck is a PAN diet?

MathisGreen said:

I have seen this at our local petstore, but it is always out of the refridgerated section. Is this a different version of the food?

Click to expand...

It could be. I'm in Canada.. and we always do things a bit differently here :lol:

Mic -

Q. Deli Fresh™ is a PAN diet; what is a PAN diet?
A. Pandean or PAN diets stand for Pasteurized, All Natural, and Nutrient Dense.

PAN is a scientific descriptor for fresh pet foods that adheres to the principle of minimal processing to retain nutrient value, is fresh meat-based and contains all natural ingredients (fresh vegetables, brown rice for fiber, etc.).

Did they give you any idea how much to feed if you wanted to mix it with a kibble. I have always used half kibble and half canned simply because all dry to me doesnt look appetizing! I'm not an expert whether it makes a difference nutritionally between canned versus kibble its just a "human" food liking that makes me think this way :lol: I noticed the puppy is 2lb package so how long do you think that would last? Being in Canada too how did you find the cost for it?

Kody - they have deli fresh here at petcetera and I think they might sell it at petsmart?? There is a petcetera here in the durham center if you didn't already know that. They have it on sale right now too. www.petcetera.ca

Chelle - how long can a tube of that be kept open in the fridge, does it say?

Judy: see the Satin Balls recipe in the Library section if you want something to put weight on a dog. A waist should go in though and there shouldn't be much fat. See Laura Lang's food page and check the pic of her ideal weight dog -- to the typical pet owner, that's probably looking pretty thin! Jaspar is about that build.

http://roycroftcavaliers.com/manualfeeding.htm

Also: I would be willing to wager your daughter's dog eats better at your house because it is you feeding her and not your daughter. Often they have all sorts of food games and tactics they use at home to get attention -- one being the old "I'm not eating" ploy -- they usually get LOTS of attention with that one and most people seem to have puppies that try this, and it can continue for the life of a cavalier if not dealt with. You are not part of her dog's normal feeding routine and very likely don't respond in the same way -- probably ignoring her when she eats -- plus she has competition -- all that focuses dog attention pretty fast. Lots of people with problem eater dogs find that when the dog is boarded or stays with friends, lo and behold, it eats normally every day! :lol:

Which leads me to Bella:

Chelle: I would be willing to wager that if you don't *allow* Bella to eat in thes leisurely way, she won't. One thing to consider, rather than changing food, is simply changing feeding tactics. You are describing a typical food game of a puppy of that age (Jaspar used to do a variation of it).

So, try this for two weeks and see if the problem isn't solved:

1) Make absolutely sure that you no longer make any kind of deal out of mealtimes. Don't even LOOK at Bella, don't talk to her, don't come check how she is eating. This is very, very important. As far as you are concerned, she is invisible for the next 15 minutes once you place her dish of food on the floor.

2) Place dish on floor. Go do other things. Come back in 15 minutes, wordlessly and without looking at Bella, pick up the food dish and any remaining food and put away til next feeding time. NO TREATS AT ALL. Ignore Bella fgor the next 5 minutes or so so she REALLY has no no connection any longer between feeding, not eating (or eating!) and attention from you.

3) At next meal, repeat as above.

4) I will wager within three days, and more like 3-4 meals, you will have a cavalier that devours her food within 15 minutes. If she doesn't -- it is no big deal, puppies are pretty good at rationing their food to what they need. She is probably on just two meals daily by now, or should be, anyway. She will not starve herself, but she will sure realise it isn't an open kitchen operating at her convenience and the food goes away if she decides she's not eating; it is her choice.

5) Once she is eating normally, you can re-introduce treats (with a light hand of course and subtracting the total calories from her daily meals). And you can also start feeding what you want, varying meals as you like. What you DON'T want to do is introduce the idea, during the initial retraining, that you are trying new things to tempt her because cavaliers (and many dogs) see THAT as a great game, too, well worth not eating to see what might come next.

arasara said:

Kody - they have deli fresh here at petcetera and I think they might sell it at petsmart?? There is a petcetera here in the durham center if you didn't already know that. They have it on sale right now too. www.petcetera.ca

Chelle - how long can a tube of that be kept open in the fridge, does it say?

Click to expand...

Hope you dont mind me answering this Chelle but I was just looking over their website. It says refridgerate up to 10 days after opening. Its sold in lbs in increments of 1-6 lbs. For Kos about 1/2 lb a day. So I imagine its a pretty expensive if its all you feed. But they dont show how many calories in a serving, so I cant figure out how much to feed if your using it as an extra protein with kibble. Other than that the ingredients look really good. I'm thinking it might prove to be an alternative for those that like to add fresh cooked meat/veg to their kibble but are short of time occassionally.

Sara, ME not know all pet stores in Durham :roll: your talking to the new puppy shopaholic here! I even found a great store in B.C. that has fantastic prices and will ship anywhere in Canada (any size product) for $7. Since I want a bowser bed (they are huge) normally shipping would be out, but they sell it for $30 cheaper than the closest store at Mt. Pleasant and Eglinton. But alas, I dont see the point in getting the bed till at least 6mths so I shall wait.

Karlin,

My husband is sitting at his computer behind me wholeheartedly agreeing with your advice (though he's sparing me the 'I told ya so') :lol: He's suspected all along she's basically being a brat and manipulating me, lol.. and reminded me that vet thinks her form is perfect. So, what we really need to do is get her on a meal routine and not allow grazing anymore. We'll definitely give this a try.

I guess my big question now is, she's going in on Wednesday to be spayed, microchipped, a couple teeth extractions and a dewclaw removal (we'll get her back Thursday). Should we start this new routine now, or will she be too discombobulated after her surgery to remember what she learned? Would it be better to wait until she's recovered and 'start fresh' with this new routine?

She really does love this fresh food, so maybe once I get her eating properly, I can give it as a treat in small portions. My husband isn't keen on the idea of replacing her full diet with it because kibble does control plaque on the teeth, etc...

Kody/Sara - if I fed her what they recommend for her age/weight, she'd be going through a 2lb tube every day or two, and at $4.99/tube (2lb), that could get pricey. I was just so excited to find something she actually eats, LOL.

Anyway, I'm going to follow Karlin's advice, and I'll let you know how we make out!

Thanks very much!

Karlin advice is always sooo good - she needs to compile it into chapters for a book! Seriously, I read one of her replies to someones question and then later sort of remember it when I have a similar question. But when I try to search it sometimes I cant find the exact one i'm looking for!

I had a feeling it would price out like that - but between you saying your dog liked it and from looking over what it has in it, I think it has merit in a diet as a special treat when making a little fresh is too time consuming.

Perhaps she can have it for a special treat for having had ALL her morning feeding later in the day when you get her switched around!