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Kibble size

shippers

Well-known member
I have been feeding both our cavs James Wellbeloved dry food since we first brought them home. Lois was on the puppy food until recently when I switched her to adult. She is 9 months now but she seems to be struggling with the kibble size. It is taking her a good while to get through the bowl of food as the kibble is so big for her. It's ashame as both dogs are doing great on it and Sally has no problems eating it. I'm considering looking for a good quality food that is smaller pieces and even switching them both to the new food to make it more economical. Or whether to just switch Lois back to JWB puppy food? Which food would people on here suggest? I'm in the UK.
 
I used to feed my dogs Burns Mini Bites, the kibble is very small and to the best of my knowledge, the food is good standard. However, I changed them on to a prescription diet a while ago, which in hindsight wasn't such a great idea, so now I have decided to give them Arden Grange , which I have heard great reports of. I can' t remember how long I took to do the change over, has anyone any advice as to how long I should take to introduce the new food. One of my dogs has a tendency towards soft stools, so I suppose I should take my time.
 
Royal Canin have a food spacifically designed for Cavaliers which has nice sized pieces for the smaller mouths. Hills Science Plan have a "mini" version of their adult food. As Charlifarley already said, Burns also do a smaller version of their adult food for smaller mouths. These are all very good foods. I find the shape of the food is the problem with smaller dogs - if the food is chunky some of them can have problems, where as if they are slimer (think shaped like a coin, flat and slim) they don't have probs. Arden Grange food is shaped like this, as is Origen. I find these two foods brilliant (one of mine is also prone to dodgy poos/colitis) and the dogs love them!

On introducing them to their new food, do it gradually. This helps prevent upset bellies. Maybe over a week to ten days slowing increase the amount of new food and decrease the amount of old food until they are totally switched over.
 
Thanks for your replies and advice. At the moment I am considering Royal Canin 27 Cavalier food or Burns Mini Bites. I'm concerned though that the Burns might put weight on them, especially my spayed 2.5yr old, as it says the mini bites can also be used for puppies. Arden Grange also seems a good food. I just want what's best for them but I can't keep feeding Lois JWB as she struggles with the biscuit size. Oh I wish JWB made a bag for small breed dogs.
 
My two both lost weight on burns so I wouldnt worry too much.

Cass my JR used to have issues with kibble size - years ago I used to feed her Bakers (before I knew better!) & Cass would take the big bits out & take them to her bed to eat them!
 
The different James Wellbeloved flavours are each a different shape. Some are smaller than others. Is she really struggling or just taking her time to eat it? A lot of people actually will feed larger size kibble to small dogs to get them to slow down when they eat and also because it is better at cleaning teeth -- the Hills kibble designed for teeth cleaning is a really large kibble! Keep in mind that most of us also give dogs dog biscuits that are very large and dogs have no problem crunching them down. I'd not worry a whole lot about her taking longer to eat her food if you like JWB or try some of the other shapes. Lamb I think is small and round...? If she needs more time, I'd feed her in a crate so the others cannot pressure her while eating.

I have found the Royal Canin for cavaliers gives all of mine soft stools -- no idea why but I won;t be buying another bag. Some others do really well on it and mine do fine on Royal Canin Mini for small breeds so not sure why the CKCS food doesn't agree with them. Jaspar in particular it seems not to suit.

Burns or Arden Grange are also good. I think JWB also do a juvenile food that might be a smaller size.
 
Just to echo what was said above - JWB comes in different sizes/shapes. I know duck is fairly large, but I'm sure someone can advise on the other flavours!
 
I have tried various flavours in the JWB and I think the Turkey flavour and Lamb flavour are about the smallest shape but she still struggles. Lois's mouth is so tiny and she is only 5.5kg. She's a gentle dog and takes ages to chew. Could this have anything to do with her undershot jaw? She is now swapped to Burns Mini Bites with no problems and is eating this better. My other dog Sally will eat anything and everything and eats too fast. They are both very different dogs.
 
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