Dry Dog Food

[fruitsalad]

I add some wet food to my dogs complete dry food only a small amount but was wondering if he's having to much, hes nearly 9 months.

[Tilly2]

Dried dog food is a complete food. You don't need to add anything. What food are you using?

[woofgang]

I add bits and pieces to my dogs' bowls as well. The only real way to tell if your dog is having too much food is how he looks/feels. What breed/size is he?

[fruitsalad]

James wellbeloved Tilly

[fruitsalad]

He's a shipoo woof I add a small amount of wet food because it's looks so dry and boring

[Tilly2]

Don't. Your dog doesn't know boring.

[fruitsalad]

Hope I haven't spoilt him now, and when I just put dry food down he turns his nose up.

[Tilly2]

He will eat it when he's hungry. Don't mess about with his food. The occasional bit of something extra is ok but not every day.

[woofgang]

So at nine months, he's going to be pretty well full grown.....so presuming he has a coat and you can't see his ribs, can you feel them? can you feel his spine? Is he lively and active? Coat shiny and healthy looking? It genuinely hard to say a dog should have "this much" food. I have got two dogs who are litter brothers. One needs to be given around a third more food than the other to keep condition on him. He is an idle devil whose favourite thing is to kip. His bro, who is more squarely built (takes after Mum not Dad) is constantly on the go and would spend the whole night out in the garden hunting if I let him, can get chubby quite quickly if I am not careful. Both weigh a lot more than the vet's chart says they should yet I can see the ribs and the spine on idle boy and his bro is solid muscle. Seriously the only way to tell how much food to give is to know your dog and how they should look/feel. If he looks and feels fine, enjoys his food, runs and plays without wheezing or limping and doesn't make masses of poo then you are golden.

[woofgang]

Mine get tasties in their bowl every day :) It pleases me and them and does no harm.

[EDDIE51]

Try adding water to the dry food. My sons two dogs who I look after when he goes on holiday will eat the dry food but only if you put water with it to make it wet.

[Ratty2E]

It's not a problem as long as you alter the amount of dry to compensate for the extra he's having with the wet . I never go by the amounts they say on the packs, it's nearly always too much. I feed what looks right to me and if they start to put on or loose weight then you adjust accordingly. As Woof says you should be able to feel their ribs and they should have a waist when you look down on them.

[anthro-nerd]

I wet my Willis' food, and use the dry kibble as treats - for some reason it tastes better if he has to work for it! But wetting it, and adding some frozen peas or carrot peelings always does the trick. He's a fussy lil thing, and plain dry kibble never seems to please him unfortunately.

[murraymints]

anthro..your wee dog looks like Spit the dog !!

[ladybirder]

I give my dog a bit of wet food with the dry and compensate by giving a bit less dry. He loves the wet food and always digs it our first, tossing bits of dry out of the way onto the floor to get at it. Eating the same dry food day after day, year after year, not for my dogs.

[murraymints]

[anthro-nerd]

Murray, hehe yes I get that a lot. He's a Cairn. I also get stopped by children shouting 'It's toto!'

[lankeela]

I have six small and one large dogs fed on complete dry food, but I put one tin of wet food in with it and mix it up and share it between them all. At 9 months he should be on two meals a day still up to a year, then its up to you whether to feed once or twice a day. Mine only get fed once a day. If mine leave any (not often!)then I reduce it slightly or if they look like they are putting on weight. Be careful restricting a puppy as they need more goodness than adults to grow properly. JW is a good quality food so doesn't need supplementing but mine prefer their food with the small amount of tinned meat in even if its only about a tablespoonful each.

[lankeela]

Also I don't 'cook' so they don't get leftovers, apart from when I bring something home from work - tonight they have the leftover beef casserole poured on their dry food from last night's tea at work. I guarantee there won't be any left!

[ladybirder]

James Wellbeloved scores 3.5* out of 5* so not too bad.
https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0006/james-wellbeloved-adult

[ethandron]

We feed our twelve month old pup Canagan dried dog food. Once a week I cook either a chicken breast, open a tin of salmon, or cook a couple of frozen coley portions for him and give him a third if whatever in his evening meal, so three days a week he gets chicken or fish along with the dried Canagan.
He gets a slightly heaped cup measure of the Canagan twice a day. He never gets fed anything else, we used to have a golden retriever who was very greedy and sat and salivated while we ate so we decided this little chap was never going to have anything other than his own specific food. That's our personal decision and we're happy with it. So's he :)