food for dog thoughts

I've written before on what people food Griffin gets from time to time, but never on what we feed him for his meals! We've been through a few different types of food, and there is definitely a bit of trial and error before you settle on something.

When you first pick up your pooch (be it from a rescue or breeder), you'll want to feed exactly what he was eating before. Dogs have sensitive stomachs, and sudden food changes can really upset their tummies. Our rescue group was feeding a raw diet (*shudders*), and Griff happened to have Giardia and Coccidia, so we didn't have the luxury of trying to slowly transition him. He was put on a low-residue food (mostly available through vets, this is a wet food that has little nutritional value but moves through the GI quickly and easily), and then transitioned to canned food. You'll want to transition the food over a week or two...going from 25% new/75% old...to 50/50 new/old...to 75% new/25% old...to all new.

When it comes time to start feeding your own food, you must first decide on canned versus kibble. Canned food is more expensive per meal, and since it contains water, your dog will have to pee more frequently. Kibble is easier to dispense, cheaper per meal, ensures more solid poops, and cleans the teeth a bit. Griffin barely chewed his food when younger, so kibble wasn't a great option for us. After feeding canned food for some time, we started the transition to dry food by soaking the kibble in water to soften it up...eventually soaking less and less so that finally he was only eating dry food.

Next decision is what kind of food to feed. This post on the Dogster.com forum is an EXCELLENT read before settling on a brand. Generally, it states that big-brand commercial types (Iams or Purina) have lots of fillers and aren't as good quality as the more expensive, smaller brands (Wellness, Canidae, etc.), which have more meat and meat by-products.

In our case, we started off with the low-residue vet food, and transitioned to Canidae chicken-and-rice canned food. We then transitioned to Canidae chicken-and-rice dry food...and then switched to Innova Adult Dry Food for small dogs (this is what we currently use). We tried lamb-based foods, but these were a bit too rich for Griffin - he would have diarrhea often and occasionally vomit. The chicken-based foods work well for Griff. When we want to give him a little taste of something different, we do it in the form of treats (the Wellness WellBites are excellent for this and have quite the variety).

In short, feeding your pup is a bit of trial and error. There are those who hail raw food diets, organic diets, etc. Some would never dream of serving kibble, while others do a mix of wet and dry food (a good option for picky eaters). You'll know it's right when your dog is at a healthy weight and shape, has a shiny coat and clear eyes, and has a healthy amount of energy.

A Summary of what we feed/treat Griffin:
Innova Adult Dry Food - Small Bites
Wellness WellBites (Griff loves all flavors)
Wellness PureRewards
Dogswell Breathies (for bad breath)
Dogswell Mellow Mutt
Old Mother Hubbard Extra Tasty Biscuits

Occasional Chews/Treats:
Zukes Dental Chew Bones (for bad breath)
Merrick Flossies
Bully Sticks (you prolly don't want to know what they really are, but pups love 'em!)