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Changing Feeding for Blue

BlueBear

BlueBear

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Hello

Blue will be 16 weeks old on Thursday 21st December and weighs around 15Kg. We feed him approx 120g of dry mix 4 times a day so in total he has about 500g each day

Would you recommend feeding him 3 times a day once he is 16 weeks old and increase the amount of dry mix to about 180g each feeding time ?

He has treats between meals too and the odd slice of beef, and maybe a small cube of cheese if he is especially good ;)

Thank you
 
My boys are 23 months and 19 months large breeds ..they still have their meals cut into 3 meals ...they have raw beef or lamb mince for breakfast...sardines and natures menu biscuits for lunch and raw meat at 5/6pm ...they used to have ewes replacement milk for their bones until they were 18 mths old now they have goats yoghurt twice weekly .....
If he seems happy I would personally keep him as he is for longer being such a large breed ...
 
Tinytom said:
My boys are 23 months and 19 months large breeds ..they still have their meals cut into 3 meals ...they have raw beef or lamb mince for breakfast...sardines and natures menu biscuits for lunch and raw meat at 5/6pm ...they used to have ewes replacement milk for their bones until they were 18 mths old now they have goats yoghurt twice weekly .....
If he seems happy I would personally keep him as he is for longer being such a large breed ...
Click to expand...

Thank you for your help, TinyTim.

I'm starting to think that having a 50/50 raw/dry mix diet might be the best for Blue. I've read that raw is far better for dogs than dry mix but I wouldn't know where to start. I checked out Natures Menu and their products look really good and not much more in price than the Purina Premium Robust Puppy dry food we are using now.

I would even be tempted to go 100% raw if you think it would be a good idea, especially for a growing puppy. Are you able to point me in the right direction on how to go about this please ?

Thank you
 
I use natures menu free flow mince and sometimes the odd fruit and veg nuggets they sell...I use natures menu mixer which is great it's a larger size kibble biscuit just in their lunch meal ...natures menu do a fab range of frozen meals too in 400g packs ...Personally I think Raw is the best especially for larger breeds ...;)
Regards kara
 
Tinytom said:
I use natures menu free flow mince and sometimes the odd fruit and veg nuggets they sell...I use natures menu mixer which is great it's a larger size kibble biscuit just in their lunch meal ...natures menu do a fab range of frozen meals too in 400g packs ...Personally I think Raw is the best especially for larger breeds ...;)
Regards kara
Click to expand...

Thank you for your help.

I'll get some raw puppy food (beef or chicken) and give him one raw and 2 dry mix meals a day and go from there. I'll get some natures menu mixer too and put some in his afternoon meal.

Thanks again for your advice, I really appreciate it.
 
JudyN said:
Have a read of this, BlueBear: Raw feeding
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Thanks JudyN that article was really helpful.

I definitely think raw is the way to go for Blue, so I'll get clicking away on the Natures Menu web site later today.

Out of interest, the raw meat is cubed in nuggets but the pack is sold in Kg. Does anyone know (roughly) how many nuggets are in a 1Kg bag ? According to the instructions/info on the back of the bag of beef raw, Blue will need about 30 nuggets a day (over 4 meals) but I don't know if thats a whole bag, half a bag or 3 bags LOL.

Thanks and sorry for all the questions
 
According to the Nature's Menu website, there are 55-60 nuggets per 1kg bag.

Do keep asking questions - that's what the forum's for!
 
I've come across a company called Primal Raw who are not far from me and offer delivery to my door. Their products that I think Blue would like are the Birmingham Raw bulk buys of Beef, Chicken and Lamb and Beef Complete. They are all classified as 80.10.10 so look like they have everything he needs.

Blue weighs in now at about 20Kg (he is just under 18 weeks) so will need about 1200g per day according to the web site calculator. That would be 3 x 454g trays per day which works out more expensive than pure kibble so I wondered if there is a vegetable biscuit that could be recommended so I could cut down the meat to just 2 x 454g trays a day to save a bit of money and give him some veg in his diet (he loves blueberries by the way) ? If I can't it's no problem I'll just buy bulk and freeze it in the spare freezer.

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just finding the raw food really difficult to get my head around at the moment.

The web site link is below if you need it, and thanks for your help.

Bulk Buy Deals - Primal Raw
 
A 20kg dog would be 600g a day ......
 
If this helps:rolleyes:
Our Cockers vary between 10kg in weight to 16 kg. They are all fed raw diets and get about 250 grams or 1/2lb each per day, adjusted up or down as required.
 
Tinytom, my understanding is that you should feed according to the expected adult weight, not the current puppy weight. Based on that, and having a look at the average weight of OE sheepdogs and St Bernards, BlueBear's calculations look about right.

Dogs do vary, though, and if you're lucky, BlueBear will be a 'good keeper' and do well on less. People often do mix kibble and raw with no problem, so you could 'bulk up' with a good-quality kibble if it helps with the cost.

Another thing you could try is sweet-talking a local butcher. Some will be happy to give you 'waste' bones & offcuts, or sell them at a low price. Two-for-£5 supermarket chickens are also an option.

It's scary when you realise you're spending more on your dog's food than the rest of the household's put together!
 
Having 2 large breed dogs and having fed raw for 20+ yrs my pups have been fed 2% of their body weight with no problems....
I always feed less or more as needed same as @excuseme ....
 
JudyN said:
Tinytom, my understanding is that you should feed according to the expected adult weight, not the current puppy weight. Based on that, and having a look at the average weight of OE sheepdogs and St Bernards, BlueBear's calculations look about right.

Dogs do vary, though, and if you're lucky, BlueBear will be a 'good keeper' and do well on less. People often do mix kibble and raw with no problem, so you could 'bulk up' with a good-quality kibble if it helps with the cost.

Another thing you could try is sweet-talking a local butcher. Some will be happy to give you 'waste' bones & offcuts, or sell them at a low price. Two-for-£5 supermarket chickens are also an option.

It's scary when you realise you're spending more on your dog's food than the rest of the household's put together!
Click to expand...

Thank you, JudyN I think I might mix kibble with the raw then. We have Purina Robust puppy kibble which is a good one I think
 
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