Messages

1

Feeding dogs with health problems / Re: Diabetic Puppy

« on: Oct 19, 2020, 21:27 »

Hi Shearer thank you for the update. I am glad your puppy is enjoying life again. Diabetes is not nice  at all , especially as she is so young.  Is she having insulin now,it is all very daunting at first  isn’t it ? but the FaceBook group are very knowledgeable and there is always someone to help. If we can help on here in anyway just give a shout and we will do our best to help.

2

Feeding dogs with health problems / Re: Diabetic Puppy

« on: Oct 18, 2020, 17:04 »

You are very welcome Dottie. Hopefully we will have an update on Shearer's puppy. The Facebook group has been so helpful to me because there is a lot to learn when you have a diabetic dog or puppy. 

3

Feeding dogs with health problems / Re: Diabetic Puppy

« on: Oct 18, 2020, 07:50 »

Hello Shearer and welcome to the forum. It is indeed rare for a puppy to be diabetic. I have a diabetic dog but she is 12 years old. She was diagnosed in May during lockdown so I was not able to go into the surgery with her.  I cannot advise on food as my dog is a senior, but Tasha is on Burns Original which does have a lot of brown rice in it, her and her sister were always raw fed but once Tasha was diagnosed as being diabetic this diet was too fatty for her so I had to change. The nutritionists at Burns Pet are very helpful too so may be able to help you, and as Dottie has mentioned other people such as Gentle and Guru will be good to talk to as well.

I have found an exceptional amount of help and guidance on Uk Diabetic Dogs UK  Facebook page  and maybe there could be someone in your position with a diabetic puppy.
 Keep us updated with how you are getting on.

4

General discussion / Re: Help with my dog with Anal Gland issue.

« on: Nov 05, 2019, 07:49 »

Thank you Dottie that was a very useful article . I shall refer back to it when ever there is a problem again - hopefully won't be. I shall continue to use Gentle, it contains Brown rice and if the problem re-occurs then I will look at food again.  I may also have a chat to Gentle as she was very helpful before.
 Thanks again Dottie much appreciated.

5

General discussion / Re: Help with my dog with Anal Gland issue.

« on: Nov 04, 2019, 17:44 »

Thank you Tinyplanets. Yes her stools are very firm. If I am honest I would rather use up the Gentle as I still have quite a bit left, obviously not at the risk of her being poorly again. She was scooting and air licking a bit this afternoon and the vet did say it may take a couple of days to get right again and if not better to go back again.
I did read somewhere to add a bit of Bran to the food so I may try that as Gentle is lower in Crude Fibre than some other Cold Pressed foods.
Thank you again for the advice Tinyplanets it is much appreciated.

6

General discussion / Help with my dog with Anal Gland issue.

« on: Nov 04, 2019, 11:33 »

Hello everyone can anyone help me please?. On Friday I had to take my Shih Tzu to the vet as she looked like she was suffering with full Anal glands. This was confirmed by my vet when she emptied them .
On reading all sorts of advice it seems she needs more fibre in her diet and a single protein. I recently changed her and her sister to Gentle Small Bites Cold Pressed food. There were on raw previously. I have found that Cold Pressed has suited them very well and really would like them to stay on this as it suits them and us.
The one thing I notice is that Gentle is not grain free ( not recommenced for Anal gland problem- which I did not know at the time)  but it is also very low in fibre - only 3.%. Could anyone help me to decide what I should do . I know that Tribal have just brought out a small breed  food but is lower in fibre and not single protein and also Forthglade do cold pressed too. Does anyone have similar issues with their pooches and works for them.? 
I would be very grateful for any advice.
I should mention this is the second time she has had this problem in 8 months and never in her 11years previously.

7

Dog foods / Re: Puppy on adult food.... advice

« on: Sep 26, 2019, 21:39 »

Hello Pugmomma and welcome to the forum. It is a very exciting time with a new puppy. I may have  been inclined to wait for your puppy to settle into your home and then change her food gradually if it were me. You don’t say which food you are feeding her but if say you are feeding a raw food diet there is no or little difference whether it is the puppy or adult food. I cannot  say about  kibble as I haven’t fed kibble to my dogs. I feed Coldpressed Gentle food in the morning and raw in the evening which is suiting my girls  but mine are in their senior years.

8

General discussion / Re: Gentle dog food

« on: Sep 22, 2019, 18:13 »

I am giving my two Shih Tzus Gentle with a tiny bit of  Forthglade in the morning and then at around 5pm I am giving them raw. They are doing really well on this regime that for now I will keep them on it.
I spoke to Gentle before ordering a big bag and indeed as Dottie said she was prepared to let me buy a 2kg bag which I am a little bit sorry I hadn’t taken her up on that. I bought the 5 kg bag and because I am feeding them raw at night it is taking a while to use it up. They have 25 grams and 20grms respectively in the morning and because they are small dogs I hope it will still be fresh by the time they get to finish the bag, which has a best before date of March ‘20 on the bag. I probably bought it about a month to 6 weeks ago.  They are both doing so well on it and their poohs are really good and now do two good ones a day  unlike when I tried Another brand was more like 4 times a day. Glad I tried Gentle.

9

Dog foods / Re: Gentle Dog food and other meats

« on: Sep 09, 2019, 17:58 »

Hello and welcome to the forum. I have fed my dogs totally raw for the past 7/8years.  For various reasons I wanted to try Cold pressed food and just wondering if anyone gave other meat such as Forthglade or Nature Diet added to their dogs meals and if anyone did give a bit of raw, only because I spoke to someone who does do that without knowing you shouldn’t. I know that raw is about the best diet but not always possible for everyone ie freezer space, biggish outlay, thawing out in time. And not everyone  feels comfortable handling raw.

10

General discussion / Re: Cockapoo with poo problems : (

« on: Sep 04, 2019, 07:51 »

I recently changed my two Shih Tzu's diet to Gentle cold pressed in the morning and raw in the evening. They have been totally raw fed for the past eight years and have done very well on it. But various reasons I wanted to change to cold pressed 1; my oldest who is 12 yrs was itching quite a lot and I felt that maybe was due to high protein in a mostly meat diet, I also started her on Yumega Itchy Dog which is certainly helping.
2; I was starting to forget to take enough raw out of the freezer in time and 3; it was starting to cost quite a bit at least £30 a month.

I did a lot of research and got samples for them to try and finally settled on Gentle. I couldn't be more pleased, their pooh's are nice and firm but not as solid as on  totally raw, output is more but now starting to settle down to two good ones a day. They are eager to eat it. And I always weigh it out.It is very easy to over feed and often the cause of runny poohs. When the raw is coming to an end I will gradually transition to Gentle completely. I was also very pleased with the help I got from Beate too, I think the owner of Gentle for her help and advice. She also put some samples of other varieties in with my order. With the order for Gentle Small bites I added Buffalo meat which they woofed down. You can also freeze it into icecube trays, which is useful especially for small dogs like mine. This is my experience hope it helps.

11

Dog foods / Re: Gentle Dog food and other meats

« on: Aug 27, 2019, 15:52 »

Thank you for that Dottie. I have placed an order for the Small Bites version which has brown rice in. My dogs are only small 5&9 kg, so I think the small bites one would be better for them. I also give Yumega Itchy Dog for the older one which seems to be helping. I have also ordered the Buffalo meat. They also have grated carrot which they enjoy.
Not sure when it will arrive but will update you when they have had a chance to try it.
Thank you so much for your help.

12

Dog foods / Re: Gentle Dog food and other meats

« on: Aug 27, 2019, 12:56 »

Thank you so much Dottie that is really helpful. I think I may buy the chicken and brown rice variety  as I am not sure if my older dog would eat the fish. The younger of my two dogs will eat anything.

13

Dog foods / Gentle Dog food and other meats

« on: Aug 26, 2019, 17:47 »

Hello some of you may remember a few weeks back I was trying out Cold pressed food (CobbyDog) with not a lot of success due to the volume of pooh they were producing.
About 3 weeks ago as I had quite a bit of food left I decided to have another try and this time it has been much better, except for one of mine who does not like CobbyDog Fish supper. I decided to then get some samples of Gentle to see if she liked that better and glad to say she does.
One reason I think is that the CobbyDog fish supper has 49% fish and seems to be a little harder to crunch. With Gentle Fish variety it has only 34% Fish so maybe that is the difference and a bit softer. Unfortunately it was the fish one I really wanted for her to stop her itching.
Anyway with that in mind I want send for a large bag 5kg and do Gentle morning and raw the evening meal.

Does anyone feeding Cold pressed add a small amount of meat or even raw with the dry food? Just to give a bit of variety. I see that Gentle do a roll called Gentle Pure containing Buffalo meat has anyone tried this or any other meat like forthglade or Nature Diet.?
If this diet is a success I may take them off raw altogether as it is getting harder to find space in my freezer for our food and don't have room for another one.
 Any help or advice would be very appreciated thank you. Apologies for going on a bit but just wanted to set the scene as it were.

14

Dog news / Re: Dragon's Den

« on: Aug 09, 2019, 13:17 »

Thank you for the heads up Seaweed. We love Dragon’s Den.

15

Raw feeding / Re: New to raw feeding

« on: Aug 03, 2019, 18:02 »

Hi Catflk and welcome to the forum. I am a raw feeder and have been for many years. I would guess your breeder should give you a menu of exactly what she is feeding your pup and at what times. At twelve weeks I think four times a day would be a good plan for a few weeks.
I find that feeding complete meals are the easiest especially someone new to raw feeding. There are several good companies on the market and they should give you a lot of help too. To name a few and ones I have used regularly are Wolftucker, Natural Instinct , Nutriment. There are also a few books on the market with lots of good advice too.
I am sure someone else will be along later to help.