Oskar the black Cockapoo Puppy

[Mike S]

Hi, my name is Mike, I found this place through cockapooclubchat
This is a fascinating website, quite apart from being helpful to the likes of me.

We will be picking up Oskar, a black Cockapoo puppy on 14th April. My partner grew up with Spaniels, but they were looked after by parents. We looked after the adult dog for a few weeks at a time. That is the total of our experience.

We would like to gradually change Oskar's diet to Gentle Dog Food. I will calculate how much from this website, though the changeover is complicated by the fact that the breeder feeds him Smart Nutrition Puppy Food, which does not figure here. How do we make the changeover?

Next, although this website gives the amount to feed on a daily basis, for some foods very small amounts are considered satisfactory, but will the dog be satisfied or are fillers toppers required?

Also, if during training he gets lots of treats, should we reduce the food, how would that be calculated?

Thanks for any help

[Dottie]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Congratulations on acquiring your first dog. The best thing to do is to keep him on the existing food until he has settled down. This could be for a week or two.

Gentle dog food is a good choice but is quite different to kibble so you are right to be thinking carefully about transitioning. I fed cold pressed food and recall that the recommended daily allowance was 1% to 1.2% of the dog’s ideal body weight but for puppies it is more - IIRC it’s in the region of 2.5%. You can contact the company for more information and I am sure their staff will advise. The Guru website  also has some useful information about the RDA and the transitioning process. They have a ready reckoner on there. Be aware that cold pressed food is dense and compared to kibble the amount required looks small. Don’t be put off by this. You should get into the habit of weighing the food, at least until you are confident with the amount required.

Gentle is a complete food and should meet all the nutritional requirements of the dog. However, some variety is helpful so suitable toppers can be included in the diet if you wish. You would need to reduce the dry food a little to take this into account. I used to top up with home prepared food including fresh chicken, sardines, white fish, scrambled egg, blueberries, suitable cooked, mashed vegetables. Rodney Habib has made some videos about this and they can be found on YouTube.

We have a thread on cold pressed foods here.

[Mike S]

Hello Dottie and thank you for your helpful reply.

I must admit, I am surprised by the wide variety of food that you can feed to a dog.

Years ago, the lovely Fudge (Orange Roan Cocker Spaniel) that we looked after was fed a tin of dog food each day with a little dry food on it and that was that. I went down so fast it didn't touch the sides, and I doubt he tasted much of it.

Remembering this I had decided to get a bowl that would ensure that the food goes down more slowly. However, such a wide variety did not occur to me.

I will follow your advice and contact the manufacturer, as well as taking a look at the thread that you have kindely included in your reply.

Regards

Mike

[Dottie]

Thank you for returning to this thread. Yes, there is a huge variety of foods these days. Fortunately the Dog Food Directory is enormously useful in assisting us in making a choice.  There is lots of information on this website and we have a thread about the basic principles of selection here.  I feel that good nutrition makes for a healthy, happy dog and it’s well worth putting in effort to secure this, especially right at the beginning when they are puppies. I wish you well with your new companion.

[Yorkshiregirl]

Hi Mike

I wondered how Oscar is getting on with Gentle we too have a cockapoo and had not appreciated the amount of choice there is available, would be interested to hear how you are getting on and what additions you feed him if any.

Many thanks