Hi, Having some troubles with the diet of my Dogue. We rescued him at around 18months. He was on a raw diet and after a few weeks managed to ween him onto biscuits and tinned meat which is much better then the raw diet. We just couldn't keep that up. However, he eats it fine and 9 times out of 10 his stools are fine but about once or twice a month he will have a bout of diarrhea. We use tails.com (hypoallergenic) for the biscuits and Rocco for the tinned meat. Although we did use Chappie before Rocco and he liked that too. Over the Christmas period my Dogue got severe diarrhea and sickness out of the blue. As usual we switched to rice and chicken to calm his bowels down plus the Protexin Pro-kolin + paste from the vet. After a couple of days of the diarrhea not clearing up and him being in pain when going to the toilet we decided to go to the vet. He had bloods taken which came back all good (thank god!). We are awaiting the results for his stools which have been sent off to the lab. The vet seems to think he might have an irritable bowel or colitis but yet to be confirmed. I know their bowels are very sensitive so we do not feed him human scraps and he only has rawhide and dental sticks as treats which he enjoys. Nothing that I have noticed seems to "set off" his bowel it just randomly happens. I was wondering what food others feed their Dogues and if anyone has had the same/similar experience. He is reacting well to rice and chicken but it has only been two weeks and I am not sure that is a good enough diet for him long term. Also he doesn't seem to be gaining weight even though we feed him quite enough every day and isn't too active. About 1 hour walking a day. He did weigh 45KG but since last load of diarrhea over Christmas he has dropped down to 42KG. He looks quite lean but not a typical large Dogue. Any advice would be great?
In all honestly I have never liked the raw hide chews, they gave all my dogs the runs. Nix those from his diet and give it a couple of days and see.
Ok i will give that a go. I have heard from many dog owners that they do not give rawhide as they can swallow whole and get stuck. He hasn't been having them for the past two weeks while on a bland diet advised by the Vet.
I agree about the rawhide chews, have you ever seen how they are made? I would try feeding your Dogue on a grain free kibble. Pick a variety that has an unusual protein source. Duck or lamb are usually well tolerated meats, but salmon or white fish are also good choices.
Rawhide chews are some of the worst things one can give to dogs. Search on the internet about how are made. You should be looking at the food' content. These puppies usually grow fast and they need food that supports their growth without getting them fat (overweight) to not put too much stress on their joints. I've got my dog when he was 10 weeks old. This was 2 weeks after the date when I would have been allowed to pick him up. I wanted to leave him another couple of weeks with his mom and dad as well as with his siblings, as that was important to him. I felt guilty when I saw what food he was on. His pee was so unbelievably stinky... I have never felt such smell before, so I could only imagine what nasty stuff was in that food. Without any transition I started to feed him Acana for large breed puppies and within less than two days that nasty smell went away. He never truly liked the taste of it, but he did very well on this food. Other dogs that I know really liked its taste, so it depends... Anyhow, he grew up nicely, shiny coat, not fat, no ear infections (yes, good food may help preventing ear infections), and at 10 months his weight was 60Kg. I also gave him grinded egg shells to help with the bones growth. Please note there are many articles on the internet about how to feed large breed puppies and how to (not) exercise them. I agree with some of them but disagree with some others. I do not intend to give advice, I only tell how I raised my dogs. I hope this helps.
Welcome to the forum Kay, but we need more info. Is your puppy thin? What type of food are you feeding him at present? Are his poos firm?
Firstly..... Why did you take him off a raw diet? It’s the best diet a dog can have! Also....feeding rawhide is a huge no no. Rawhide can cause lots of problems as it doesn’t digest properly. I would suggest firstly doing a lot of research into the breed you wish to become part of your family.
Hi I am get a DDB from a kennels in Wigan and she's 6 years old, she's currently on Harringtons dry food but I want to put her onto raw food is it best to gradually wein her off her dry food? And what raw food can anyone suggest?
Hello Gregory, welcome to Breedia. I know that it is usually recommended to change a food by gradually weaning the dog off their current food, but when I changed over to raw feeding I did it almost overnight. That was with Pereg, the dog in my avatar. I had only just bought a 13kg sack of holistic kibble for her and after a couple of meals of raw meat she would not touch the kibble at all. There are companies that sell ready prepared packed raw dog food, various meats, bones etc, but I am not in the UK so cannot help you with that - probably someone else can though. Pet quality raw is not available here so I feed human meat - in fact Pereg and now Tikva had/have the same food that I have - the only difference being that I cook mine! I hope someone will see your question and be able to give you the information you need.
Hi am I new member here but I have a female dog de Bordeaux she is 4 years old I have had her 2 and a bit years. I had her given as she had been passed around from pillar to post and we believe she was being mistreated . Before her I had a female Japanese akita who sadly died due to old age. My dog de Bordeaux bowls have been raised up for her to feel more comfortable eating it. She has been on the same type of biscuits and sometimes tin meat for some time now and has been really good it is the co op wheat free complete I was advice by a friend to only give this type of bread little but often bits of food instead at all at once. My dog hardly ever has bad wind etc. I also found that I was feeding her a abit too much at one point as you could actually hear the struggle In her when trying to just move around. I prefer dogs not to have any of our leftovers. Apart from sometimes on a Sunday then she will have meat and potatoes with gravy
