New Addition to the Family!
Long story short, the other half has wanted an oes since she was around 3-4 yrs old. So after a lot of research and looking around for a pup/mama dog that we are happy with...we are happy to announce we will be picking up our little oes pup in a few weeks time, she'll be a touch older than 8 weeks, around 10 weeks old. Seeing mama dog was very important to us, slightly more so than the pup as we could use this a gauge of the temperament of the litter. Mama dog was truly amazing, nothing but a credit to the owner! Meet Ponyo  apologies for the size of the photo. One thing I would like to ask, the only thing we are really struggling with is what to feed out little one. Currently she is on Nature Diet wet food (Puppy Junior) with a mix of Beta (Purina) and she appears to be very healthy and enjoying her food. However, with us being in a highly digital age reading reviews for Purina are quite shocking, to say the least. Even with working for the parent company of the business I'm in talks with some people i know there wondering how they can dismiss such bad reviews of their products. Some of them not even getting 1 out of 5 across so many platforms. Anyway, without getting sidetracked too much, I am curious to know what everyone else feels regarding puppy/adult food and what other brands of food people are feeding their oes? Joe & Kass |
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| Congratulations!! We fed our girls Purina Pro Plan large breed puppy, then as they grew up we moved to the Pro Plan large breed. What does your breeder suggest? It is good to keep your puppy on what the breeder suggests, at least until they adjust to being in their new home. The food thing, I found, was challenging. Contrary opinions everywhere so we just stuck with what our breeder suggested. I know some folks do a rotation of food (if you search on the word rotation here on this forum I think you will find information on that). I am intrigued by that idea. But for a puppy, I would stick with the breeder's recommendation. |
| Thank you Mady The breeder has suggested we stick to what she is currently having until she can move onto real adult food. Whilst we are happy to do this currently, Kass is a little reluctant to stick with Purina in the long run. I think after an entire plethora of evenings reading bad reviews and comparing ingredient lists and so on, she got a little worked up by it all and even drafted a letter to Purina...little pedantic but she felt she needed to vent The rotation of food sounds a very good idea, might have a look into that, thanks again |
| I feed my two boys Purina Pro Plan. I wouldn't use the other Purina brands, though. |
| Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on the new addition! I understand your concerns about Purina - I've had issues with that brand over the years, and personally avoid it. HOWEVER - if your puppy is currently doing well on that, I'd suggest staying with her current diet for at least a few weeks after bringing her home. When and if you do decide to change her food, do it very gradually. We kept Benson on Innova, until they had a recall a couple of years ago, when we switched to Merrick. (There's an explanation of how to "rate" your dog food here: http://www.pawstoadmire.com/index_files/RateYourDogFood.htm) Bear in mind also that she may tolerate different formulas in different ways, even from the same manufacturer. Benson normally gets Merrick Classic Chicken formula. We brought home a bag of the grain-free Buffalo formula, just to give her some variety - and she developed horrible diarrhea. So it's back to Classic Chicken! So, do your research, but also remember that some of the really high-rated foods might actually be too rich for her as well. The best food for her is going to be the food she enjoys and digests well, that keeps her healthy. (And post lots of pictures, please! We LOVE puppy pictures!) |
| Welcome, and great pic! |
| Thanks Jonsey & Ron, there will be more pictures, promise Benson looks incredible! We checked out your facebook page for her, such a lovely looking dog I'll have a look at that rate your food website, looks very good indeed. Bit of a sucker for creating spreadsheets so i'm sure I can formulate it somehow. It does appear that Merrick is only available in the states, would be £125+ to get some over here in the UK for a 25lb bag! Scores very highly on that website though, will look at some of the stuff available over here and see how that scores. We are going to keep her on the current diet until she is settled with us at home. Ideally we'd want as little discomfort for her in the first few months until she is totally settled as I can imagine, she may be a little lost without mama dog and her litter, then we'll perhaps think about switching her diet and following very closely to the transitional plans that the dog food suggests. I've got a few sample orders from some places coming, Eden Foods, Millies Wolfheart and also thinking of going down the raw food diet provided by Natural Instinct. It looks good on paper but the transition for a puppy may be harmful in the short run on her digestion so I'm not totally 100% on that idea yet. As long as Ponyo is happy, we'll be even happier. |
| Hi Where in the UK are you? Elvis is 5 and we have given him Pero gold with pasta for the last 3 years. Its great quality and competitively priced. Its made locally at Betws Y Coed but you can buy on line. http://pero-petfoods.com/ Elvis was a very fussy eater but loves this. Its dry food but I add water.  |
| This is a good site for checking on food :- http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/ mine are raw fed but if i had to put them on a dry food it would be canagan . |
| Hi TrayzaandFin, we are over in York so just a couple of hours away. We were in Betws y Coed a few weeks ago for my birthday biking such a lovely place. I'll have a look at that one, at the minute I have figures and stats coming out of my eyeballs with all these foods. Quite over whelmed by it all but I'm not one to be beaten by numbers. Thanks Sixpence, I've got that one bookmarked and have already spent a few hours there. 8 days to go, excited is an understatement! |
| What a beautiful baby!!! Love the pic, big is fine! All pics are fine, please keep them coming LOVE pics! I have 3 dogs, all eat Blue Buffalo Chicken and Brown Rice Large breed Adult now but just switched Steel over from the Puppy Large breed a little while ago. Transition was smooth and easy. Still took it slow to prevent any tummy upset but no problems at all. All love it and do well. I was concerned with protein content in switching - I'll stop. I could go on for days... just like everyone else, I wanted everything covered without having to add supplements for a growing pup and didn't want to over do it for the older dogs. I wanted them to like what they were eating. I wanted them all to be healthy. This was what the vet and I agreed on. Maybe you could check into this? It is available to you? It works well for my situation. |
What a great picture of your new baby.  We do LOVE pictures....So happy for you on your new addition to your family.....  So much fun and laughs are going to fill your lives now. Please keep us posted on all the cute puppy antics Ponyo? does. |
| Haha yes, I've done that much research into pet food now I've actually switched what my cat (molly) is eating! I did however manage to spend 2-3 hours in the pet store looking at ingredient lists, taking photos, writing down price per kilo's...the Mrs was not happy but she was playing with the bunnies so kinda win win there. That food looks very good on paper, however as I live in the UK there doesn't appear to anyone that stocks it, and from Amazon its incredible pricey for just a small bag  , will keep searching though. Kind of like yourself, just want Ponyo to be super happy and fed the right foods without having to supplement anything.There will be a little update on Monday after we've picked her up this weekend with some photo's, if I can tear myself away from playing |
| Evening all, So we picked up Ponyo on Saturday morning and had an adventurous drive back home. First thoughts, wow those teeth are sharp and boy shes got talons for claws, someone has given us a furball with pointy things!! Besides the jokes, shes is awesome and already part of the family, even if the cat hasnt willingly come back into the house just yet...shes a stubborn old thing but shes slowly coming round   She was straight into the garden after arriving at home, thought she might like to wee after almost 2 hours in the car (she slept through most of the journey except for 15 mins where she pretended to be a parrot and actually drew blood with those claws. Good job we were stuck in traffic. Things soon calmed down after that). Anyway, first night she stayed in the crate in our room next to the bed but as she could see us and was missing mama dog she whined all night, we thought the following night we'd try her downstairs in the living room where the crate will be 99% of the time. She was out like a light and after two trips to the garden during the night, she was totally fine. Think we're on to a winner with this one. Although for some reason, like our cat, she prefers sleeping on the floor and newspaper to sleeping in a comfy bed...she must be mad   Cheeky pup crawled up onto the sofa when we weren't looking! Little concerned with her food though, we are feeding her the foods the breeder was and the correct levels according to the product. However, feeding her two "complete" foods seems a bit bizzare to me. Shouldnt one product be enough once transitioned onto it? Currently, we're looking into the next foods when the stuff we have runs out, and despite being 100% sure on what I wanted to give her, the Mrs doesn't like the fact it has above the recommended levels of calcium in it...I understand minerals and protein levels are very important to puppies but how much does it really matter? Anyways, Ponyo is looking at me rather odd now so best see whats up! |
| oh my gosh,,,,she is soooooooo cute !!!!! congrats. |
| She is adorable and sounds like she's making herself right at home. |
| Congratulations she is so sweet, I feel your excitement. Once we found a brand of good quality kibble for Monty that his stomach did okay with, we have stuck with it. The first year he got the runs with the higher protein kibbles. We feed NOW which is Canadian brand, grain free. We do not change brands but we do add either an egg or half a tin of salmon or sometimes leftovers. They get carrots and celery for treats, but Montys stomach couldn't handle the additions and treats until he was older - about a year. He eats everything Okay now. I am a little fuzzy about what dog treats they get, for training treats they get real meat like chicken or farmers sausage rather than processed dog treats. |
| OOOOO My goodness she is so pretty! I was all set with food and treats before Steel came...I had purchased some of what the breeder was giving him and some of what I wanted to switch him to so I could switch him slowly and I also got tons of treats in the same brand name so no tummy upset. Broke them into small pieces put them in tupperware containers all over the house so they would be easily reachable whenever needed for training. Yep, alll set! He HATED the treats. Awww man! How do you tell a puppy who is going potty outside every 15min "good boy" with NO TREATS?! I was scared to take him to the store with me because he was 9 weeks old so I carried him - didn't set him down once and had my kids open every package of treats they had in the store until we found one he loved. Of course he picked the nastiest, unhealthiest thing produced but we are all done with that now!!! Now, he is still picky as ever. Much healthier picky though. Salad is his favorite. Eats off a fork, not the floor....treats that is. His food of course is in a bowl on the floor. Cucumbers, carrots, apples. The other dogs look at him like he is a lunatic. He will spit out food he doesn't like and leave it for them to get! |
| Take those amount levels with a grain of salt........I've found they are a bit too generous. Pup will eat until full......and may skip a meal now and then, no concern. Growth spurts so varying need for food. Don't understand the two complete meal part of your question.......2 different foods? Yeah, those teeth and nails are wicked. Play with toes all the time so when time to nip those talons, she's is calm with toe touching, foot ticking. Kensie loves full body massages, down to the individual bones in her toes. Praise to her previous owner! |
| http://www.wholeprey.com/akela-80-20-do ... -free.html After looking on that all about dog food site (I blame you MRHOLMES ha!! )and seeing how low Elvis' Pero gold with pasta scores!! Ive changed him to Akela. Elvis is healthy and has a lovely coat though but now he's getting older i'm changing! |
Quote: Don't understand the two complete meal part of your question.......2 different foods? I meant that currently shes on two complete so they don't need supplements adding to them or vitamins, At the moment shes's on 3 meals a day consisting of a mix between Wet (nature diet puppy food) and Dry (beta puppy food). I'm waiting till the Beta runs out then just keep her on Wet until that goes, we have nearly 40kg of the stuff... I've taken your advice on the massaging, after a few hours of trying she now loves her paws being stroked and have finally got her to only mouth me when biting. However, she still uses her teeth with the Mrs and actually broke the skin yesterday which was a shock, clearly i'm winning on the alpha status of the pack. Quote: After looking on that all about dog food site (I blame you MRHOLMES ha!! ) Nooo you cant blame me :p I've spent hours on that website, so many work hours too  Its been very insightful but I'm soon learning if you look hard enough about anything, you'll find bad reviews/knowledge |
| Such a great puppy. Give her a squeeze and a rub behind the right ear for me please? Thanks |
How are things with new baby???? Think its time for more pics  |
| Hi Mable, things with Ponyo are going well. Shes getting a few commands under her belt, she can sit, come and stay quite well if I can keep her focus on me. Shes highly distracted by all the flowers in the garden and most of the time and only wants to go outside to try and eat them as well as the mud and dirt. Giving her a plant pot as a toy in the garden was so not a good idea! She's often brought full ones back into the house still with plant/mud in them so bit of a mistake on our behalf! She had a bit of a funny turn last night which worried us, shes normally exhausted by around 830-930 and sleeps through but from around 7 on wards she was running around with her mouth open, panting like crazy, drinking tons of water, weeing like a wee machine and wouldn't settle for more than 10 seconds before repeating the above. This lasted until around 11pm when she just zonked out went to sleep. She seemed ok this morning and woke up to zero mess and a happy smiley puppy In terms of pictures, I think we have an SD card full!! Will find the others halves Instagram account as a few of them are on there already, will try sort some out tonight |
| bringing you the potted plants is funny,,,,especially after you gave her one to play with ....we all learn from our mistakes, take it in stride....that's what is so great about puppies,,,,so innocent |
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