what should I feed her?

I usually just give my cav some dog nuts mixed with soft dog food from a tray, should I be giving her some vegtables or somehting like that? She doesnt really like the hard dog nuts and usually picks around them so I was going to just change her to tins of pedigree or something?she's 8 months old btw but im just not really sure what I should be feeding her.

Hi Katelyn,

This is a good link for ideas for feeding your dog.

http://www.dogsworldwide.com/drdog/infofile/if_vs1.htm

They do love variety and cavaliers especially enjoy meat and chicken that we eat.

I would give your puppy his fortified puppy food with some variety. I asked my vet about Murphy as he is a very fussy eater and she said that it is good to try to encourage him to eat his puppy food for the vitamins, as he is a fusspot and doesn't eat very much. I mix cooked chicken and the chicken broth in with the puppy kibble with some cooked vegetables. He loves that.

He loves munching on carrots and pieces of apple. It's so easy for them to put weight on if you don't keep a watch on their weight.

Mary

When you say dog nuts do you mean a complete food? If yes what is the name of the food?

Nanette

I know that the link I gave is for vegetarian feeding. I'm not suggesting that you turn your dog into a vegetarian.

I just thought there were some nice ideas on there.

What are dog nuts? I've never heard of them...There are plenty of good dog foods out there, but I wouldn't recommend feeding Pedigree. Stay away from anything that lists meat by-products and/or corn. I found the list of Pedigree ingredients online, and the first 3 ingredients are: water, meat by-products and chicken by-products. The by-products are the really gross parts of the animal. The first 3 ingredients should have at least 2 good meats (ex: lamb or lamb meal - I believe a "meal" is okay, just not a "by-product"? Someone should confirm this...). There should also be veggies listed near the top of the ingredient list. You can also add your own veggies. Mine like baby carrots, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes and fruits like apples.

There are several people on this board that feed Royal Canin, Orijen, Burns, Merrick, just to name a few. Some people feed only grain-free due to allergies and other issues, I personally feed raw and add grain to their diet. I feed The Honest Kitchen "Preference" line in the morning, which is a dehydrated raw vegetarian food. I add a few things to this (such as tripe, yogurt, pumpkin, oils and canned Merrick food) plus I feed meat in the evening. If you do a search for "food" on this site you will find lots of information. Just remember to switch gradually so she doesn't get sick...Good luck!

Did you mean kibble when you said dog nuts?

by dog nuts i mean complete dog food like the food pellets!

I'm with "cy1266" on this - Pedigree is not a good quality food and I wouldn't recommend it. There are many good quality foods out there - Royal Canin, Hills Science Plan, James Wellbeloved, Orijen (to name just a few) - and most are available reasonably easily (many vets also stock various good quality foods too). If you can't find them locally then www.zooplus.ie do a great range of good quality brands and deliver to your home. I know some of these brands have both dry and wet complete foods so you can mix them to create something your dog likes. From experience though, often dogs who don't like the supermarket foods will have no probs eating the good stuff! The dry food is improtant for crunch and dental health but many prefer wet. But, of course, it's up to you if you want to feed dry, wet or a mix.

Since she is 8 months, she should prob be on adult food (I tend to take mine off puppy food around 6 month but many people do it later and many do it earlier, some don't feed puppy food at all, this is just my opinion). If you are feeding a good complete food there should be nothing else (nutritionally! ) you dog would want (of course, what they want isn't always the best for them ) but if you want to add a few veggies to the diet then this is great for the dog, and most of them love munching on them!

Dog nuts is the Irish term for kibble.

I'd certainly not feed tins or food that you can get in the supermarket. Anything from the supermarket is very mediocre quality.

In Ireland I'd suggest Royal Canin (either small breed or the cavalier food), James Wellbeloved, Arden Grange, or Burns, the first two being the easiest to find at most pet shops but some vets carry Burns.

There are lots of previous threads on feeding plus information in the Library section, for other ideas to supplement, too.

I

Can I also recommend Nutram, we've being feeding this to Ossie because he was having trouble with his anal glands. Nutram has eased this and his coat improved too, the pellets are smaller than a lot of other foods and I think thats why Ossie really took to it, the bag lasts for ages works out about 2.50 for food a week! Along with pedigree being full of additives that will make your dog hyper it will work out a lot more expensive buying tins, Nutram is harder to get but you can get it in Ireland.
I thought Ossie was fussy too but I was talking to his breeder recently and he was saying that what he was eating was enough for him I just thought he should be eating more! His weight is perfect too. Why don't you try feeding more or less often (either once a day or three times a day) see if this helps also only leave food down for short while (I was recommended 15 mins but I leave it for 20/25 mins) don't make it available all the time.
We sometimes mix natural yoghurt with his kibble its good for their digestive tract and wets the food a bit but we only do this every third day. Good luck

We feed ours James Wellbeloved dry food with either some peas, green beans or broccoli (or whatever veg we have for our tea) or sometimes we get the James Wellbeloved wet pouches or Naturediet wet food. We try to give a variety of food. I like Naturediet wet food but think it might be high in calories and fat as Sally did get a bit chunkier on that. I'd highly recommend James Wellbeloved though.

thanks everyone for all the great advice!