Morning guys,

We are picking up our new springer pup next Sunday, she will be 8 weeks old. I am looking for advice on what food we should be using for her and how much/often do you feed them daily?

Locally we have a harbro dealer, a vets and a pet shop for food, so what food is best to use for them when very small, I’ve read alot of foods contain salt. As you may be aware from the daft questions, this is our first puppy so any hints/tips regardless how obvious they seem will be appreciated..

Cheers

Stick to whatever the breeder is feeding them and the same regime – prob 4 meals a day. If you are going to swap foods, don’t do it in a hurry – last thing the pup needs is a new diet along with everything else going on with new home etc. And introduce new food gradually over about 7 days. But if she’s healthy and doing well on the original food then why change??

Quantities – again stick to what the breeder is feeding but you’ll easily know if you’re feeding too much as excess will be deposited in a right old sloppy mess!! Aim for nicely formed stools and you know you’re feeding the right quantity!

See if you can pick up a copy of Shirleys Dog book – out of print now but very handy reference book covering all the basics: link

Link doesn’t seem to work – ebay item 370750314256

Stick to whatever the breeder is feeding them +1 (for now) My wife breeds dogs and we always provide food.

they ought to give you lots of info about diet and shouldn’t mind you calling them if you aren’t sure.

breeders will have tried most foods that suit their breed, but there are some working type dog foods that could suit a springer that are VAT free

one thing to be careful of is when you change a food do it gradually it should have guidelines on the pack

I dont think dog food contains salt as its very bad for them as they cant digest it.

Chances are the breeder is using Beta Puppy. It’s well known and used widely.
Regarding volume the breeder will be feeding multiple pups at once so just go with what it says on the packet. Just put half the daily ration down in the morning and the rest of it in e afternoon/evening.
When pupster gets bigger you can look at other brands if you like – we use James Welbeloved with is pricey but Jasmine seems to like it as much as a cocker can (generally quite fussy eaters).

Chances are the breeder is using Beta Puppy

Thats a huge assumption!

Yep also make sure whatever you choose you read the label, some are more concentrated than others so quantity can vary.

Also time to make friends at the vets, look out for puppy pre-school type things to get the dog socialising etc. They will also stock food.

As my other half is a vet she normally goes for Hills or one of the other higher end brands.

Yeah, follow the breeder’s regime to start with (3 times a day for our springer/lab cross).

We struggled finding a good food. Stay away from bakers, sent our dog loopy. James Welleiloved is good. We settled with Pedigree in the end (after trying everything under the sun).

Just be patient and have fun & get a training book.

Would disagree with sharkbait – feed at regular mealtimes rather than let your puppy “graze” during the day. If it’s a good eater and you put half its food out in the morning then it will eat it all in one go – too much food in one go for a 8 week old pup. Prob not a problem for cockers that are often very fussy about food and prob wouldn’t eat the whole lot in one go. An 8 week old puppy certainly needs more than 2 meals a day – 3 minimum, more likely 4 for the first month or so.

i was under the impression you feed for the desired weight of the dog, not the current weight if you follow the 3% rule…. i’m sure others will correct me on that though if i’m wrong 🙂

we feed raw… dried foods full of sugars and carbs, dogs cant process carbs but have the ability to process fat and protein into energy so keeping in line with what makes sense from an evolutionary point of view we started giving the BARF (raw meat with a little bit of certain veg mixed in to simulate what they would’ve got from preys stomachs) diet a go a few weeks back. since then our dogs been calmer (no sugars!) his stools have been firmer and less smelly, less volume and less frequent… there’s been other benefits including nicer coat and stuff but calmness and quality of pooh is the most noticeable!

not for everyone, and i’m trying not to preach 🙂 mixing raw beef and offal with raw lamb + crushed bones at 4:55am this morning was not a pleasant experience lol.

Also don’t ever feed cooked bones or leave sweetcorn cobs around.

Otherwise you will find how expensive after hours vets are

+1 cooked bones can splinter and hurt your dogs insides. i’m always a little frustrated seeing “roasted bones” in pet shops for sale.

most butchers will sell chunks of beef leg bone smoothly cut up with the marrow still inside, usually frozen for convenience. great for dogs teeth and little/no risk of bone shards slicing up your pup.

also, those pure white ‘bleached bones’ you can get for dirt cheap in pet shops tend to crack and break off into painfully sharp looking shards too sometimes 🙁

My Springer has Beta Puppy.. which she seems to get on well with. As she’s almost 10 months now she has two meals a day and half a can of wet pedigree food in it too for a bit of interest. I wouldn’t claim to be an expert but we’ve had very few issues with upset tummy so I’d recommend it. If you’re feeding dry food (like Beta puppy) it can be worth adding a little hot water to it.. Mine likes a bit of gravy (like her dad!) with meals.
Never managed to get her on to strict meal times.. she’s a social eater and tends to eat when we’re pottering around the kitchen doing stuff rather than when the bowl hits the floor.

steer clear of bakers complete! it full of colourings and nasty ingredients!

Do some research on dogs and wheat intolerance, and then look at how much wheat is used to bulk out most dry dog foods.

I think most people would be surprised at how bad most popular dry dog food is. Take a look at this website http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php if you want a bit more info before deciding on what food.

I feed my springer on Skinners Field and Trial Hypoallergenic after realising how unhealthy foods like Bakers, Wagg, Pedegree, Eukanuba, Iams etc were.

You’ll find with a cheaper food that you will need to feed them more in order for them to get the nutrition, so it’s sort of false economy. A £25 VAT free sack of Skinners lasts my Springer about 6 weeks.

That probably doesnt help you at all with your original questions about puppy stuff but that’s just my thoughts on dog food.

steer clear of bakers complete! it full of colourings and nasty ingredients!

+1 and also Wagg is just as bad.

Cheapest place to get food is from a farm suppliers, Mole Valley Countrywide etc. get a working dog food it’ll be VAT free and just as healthy as the likes of James Wellbeloved but at 1/3 of the price.

As others have said – stick with what the breeder has given you for a while unless you feel strongly that it is not the right food. Even then, move the pup over slowly to whatever you select, and try to keep them on that. Chopping and changing is bad.

The most important thing with food is that you’re happy with it and the pup is getting on fine with it.

Take a look at this site: Which Dog Food. It gives loads of reviews and details on foods, and gives information on some of the ingredients and things to look out for.

Personally, I’d never feed anything with added salt, or anything with cheap fillers like loads of grains or chicken fat. That means pretty much anything you can buy in a supermarket is off limits for me. You can get plenty of good food by mailorder, so don’t feel constrained by what you can buy locally. It’s just like everything else, you buy too cheap and you get crap. (Literally)

Also agree with the above, don’t let them graze, meal times help you bond with your pup. We found the most powerful training tool we had was his food bowl.

I would definitely ask the breeder if you are worried unless the dog is from a puppy farm 🙂

Thats a huge assumption!

Let me put it another way… I’ve not met a breeder yet that doesn’t use Beta Puppy (and I’ve met quite a few). It’s good stuff for little ones.
I’m not saying it’s what you should change to – just what it’s likely to be on now.

Mine was on Beta Puppy.

Also consult a vet….

nahhh vets earn like 24grand a week and all drive aston martins lined with the hamster fur fresh from the clinical waste bins. save your money dude and take advice of strangers on american internet forums 😉

I wish Phil or I wouldn’t even be bothering working (I do know one with a DB9 but she is an uber specialist and single)

adding to sharkbait’s body of evidence, mine was on Beta Puppy when we got him.

However – I think it’s horrible stuff that I would never ever feed out of choice. We took ours off it as soon as we could.

However – I think it’s horrible stuff that I would never ever feed out of choice. We took ours off it as soon as we could.

Exactly. Seems very good when they’re very little but as they get bigger there’s better stuff out there.

steer clear of bakers complete! it full of colourings and nasty ingredients!

It even contains some stuff that is banned in other countries due to links with cancer 😯

My two Heinz-ers loved cooked rice from tiny, and still do. Mix in whatever I’m eating, or a bit of canned food. No expert but works for me and the Mutts

If your feeing died complete food pay the cash for something like Orijen or similar . Do look at whichdogfood before you decide.

The bottom line is that dogs are carnivores and need that diet not the crap you get in most dog foods.

I started mine out on Orijen and switched at around 18 months to Markus Muhle (it’s much cheaper) both excellent foods.

I’d echo the above about sticking to whatever the breeder uses at first. But let’s face it for the first few months it will mainly be eating shoes, socks, tissues basically any household item it can get to before you notice, and probably any poo it can find whilst out on walks.

Ours go nuts for rice also. Egg, brown bread toast and fish are top treats also.

I took mine straight off Beta puppy as soon as we got him, over the stage of about 5-7 days he was put over to Iams as I thought it was better. By the time he was 9 months old he was put onto Skinners.

Bland stuff like rice, chicken and scrambled egg is great for when they get a poorly stomach after eating something dodgy on a walk.

Our springer is 9 mths now, at early stages she had 2 weetabix with a bit of milk/water to moisten first thing in a morning, a half hour or so later 2eggs scrambled then 3-4 small portions of kibble through out the day (this is because they have small stomach’s so little and often is best. We sometimes had to mix a bit of ‘wet’ food with the kibble but doesn’t seem to need it anymore

She’s now off the weetabix and eggs (still gets them as a treat maybe once a week) and has a larger portion of kibble 2-3 times a day

This is a picture of her a couple of weeks ago

seems to have worked well for her

Brilliant guys, really appreciate the input, plus the added hilarity always brightens up my day! 😀

I think the pup may be getting fed on burns puppy food, mixed with some sort of porage mixture, I will need to confirm this later on with a call to breeder. Once I speak to them, I will then order the food, I will heed the good advice and stick with what they are using, and also keep the same meal times too..

Breeders feed the cheapest food possible most of the time. If I were you I would feed your growing puppy a high quality, high meat content food without any cereals or grains. As I said above Orijen or something similar is very good indeed.

Compare these two

Burns Puppy
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=370&cat=all

Orijen puppy

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=2298&cat=all

Up to you what you feed but you have a dog not a chicken, they eat meat not rice.

Also as there are no bulking agents and crappy fats in decent food you will have an easier time clearing up after the dog and will feed much less than a lower quality food which makes them much cheaper than you’d think..

Breeders feed the cheapest food possible most of the time

Depends on what sort of breeder you buy from I suppose… The breeders I have bought dogs from have not been puppy farms, they’ve been working dogs and have been fed the best food they could to give their puppies a good start in life. My dogs are fed on Skinners – they thrive on it and have energy to go all day when working. It suits them nicely so they are sticking to it, although no doubt there is a website somewhere that says is contains unhealthiness and an ingredient banned somewhere in the world as it causes cat aids or something 🙄

Joolsburger – I don’t disagree. But i have to say picking Burns to contrast with Orijen isn’t the best comparison.

They’re approaching a healthy diet from opposite ends of a spectrum – but they’re actually both really good, and high quality foods. Burns chooses to keep protein content comparatively low, based on the belief that low-protein food is more digestible, and less likely to cause digestion-related problems. Orijen (and Acana, Canagan etc) think that high protein to vegetables ratio is the best approach, based on the natural diet of a dog.

I currently feed Canagan, a 60:40 protein to vegetable, cereal-free diet. But I’m coming to the conclusion that my Lab is actually sensitive to too much protein, and so if he doesn’t settle down on his current food I’ll be moving him to something like Burns.

I think the most important thing is to be informed, and to be happy that what you feed works for your dog.

Breeders feed the cheapest food possible most of the time

totally untrue, vast majority of breeders (not puppy farms) care about the health of their breed and lots probably look after their dogs better than themselves!

Our dog medicine/supplements cabinet is bigger than ours!

Breeders puppy food for starters then a bit BARF. Good bit of bone or a raw chicken wing seem to be much appreciated.

Helios I largely agree I feed Markus Mulhe which is something like 50/50 protein to veg but for a pup I think it’s better to go for high protein no grain and then wean them onto something else later.

However some of the foods I’ve checked out even the ones that are supposed to be decent are actually full of really poor ingredients, bulk fillers and grains and I’m not sure the owners even know as the labels are so misleading..

We’ve recently started feeding our dog Fish4Dogs, expensive-ish but no cereal fillers, carbohydrate from vegetables, only food which has agreed 100% with our lurcher’s digestion.

I got in contact with the breeder and they have been using burns puppy food, so just been to the vets and bought 12kgs of chicken and rice which amazingly was cheaper than the net!

Thanks for the advice guys, really appreciated. The cage came today also booked her in for first jag so everything is coming together nicely for D day (next Sunday!)