nutrition

[Duchess]

hello everyone.
i am new here.
i have a jack russel (misti), a jack russel cross staffi (steffi) and i am getting a boerboel tomorrow.
what i would like to know is......what exactly is a dog supposed to be fed. my vet says that the pellets are the only thing that a dog needs. i just feel that pellets are something that a dog nibbles on during the day when he needs something to fill that empty hole in his tummy. my husband insists on just feeding pellets.

[lv4dogs]

Welcome! Sounds like you have some cute dogs. I love jack russells!
I'm sorry I can't help much as I do not know what pellets are. Do you have a website I could look at or do you have the ingredients?
Here in the U.S. most feed a premium brand of dog food, some feed a home made raw &/or cooked diet.

[Duchess]

hi l4dogs
thanx for responding.
basically pellets are like little round dry balls (for lack of a better word).
it just seems so dreary and boring to be eating this day in and day out. the same old dry food and water.
if dogs are only supposed to eat this then why are there so many different cans of pet food?
ooooh i got my boerboel today. he hasn't got the usual colouring. his coat is so velvety and smooth. i have named him Thomas.
are we allowed to post pictures of our pets here?
Duchy

[countrycowgirl]

WELCOME TO PET TALK!!! YOUR DOGS SOUND PRECIOUS !! I OWN A RAT TERRIER NAMED LIL BIT AND TWO MUTTS NAMED CHEWIE AND ROXEY :D I CAN'T HELP YOU MUCH ABOUT YOUR QUESTION MAYBE IF YOU POSTED IT IN DOG GENERAL SOMEONE MIGHT KNOW OH AND OF COURSE YOU CAN POST PICTURES!:D

[Duchess]

thanx countrygirl i will sure go to that thread and ask away there.
my puppy is soooooo boooootiful. he seems to have such a tenderness about him. of course the jack russell and jack russell cross staffi are on about this pecking order lol.

[jillian]

I'd have to know what kinds of dog foods your can obtain?

Your other choice is to feed raw, or home cooked meals.
I have a few friends who feed this and once you get use to doing
it, its fairly simple.

My first advice would be to get yourself some books
Switching to Raw
Throw your dog a bone
or some pet nutrition books either at a book store or on-line.

Some of the things you will be using in your raw diet is fresh chicken, ground beef, veggies raw, eggs etc.
You also will have to supplement these raws foods, but thats fairly simple to since you can buy mixtures on-line that are already pre-mixed with what you need you just sprinkle some on thier food.

The other choice is a better quality dog food along with some can. What sort of dogs food do you have access to in your area?

If your just looking to add some more choices to your pellets, per say. Try scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, veggies all kinds except onions. Carrots make great snacks. Fresh fruit, bananas, apples grapes, just make sure there are no seeds or things they may choke on. Boiling up some rice with chicken broth added to pellets can add some flavoring to a food that may seem bland.

Remember to add things in moderation, small amounts are best especially if your pets are small breed. Watch their weight, feeding smaller meals several times a day can keep them more satisfied. I always keep a bag of carrots in my fridge for my gang to munch on.

Hope this helps.

[Kathleen]

We own two Jack Russells dogs and since they are so active they need lots of protein.

We buy stewing chickens and cook those up and take the meat off the bones. We use the broth to pour over their food they eat.
My mom buys this huge bag of carrots and puts them in the food processor and grates them up, we put them into baggies and into the freezer. They love the carrots alots.
We also do ground up hamburger and a bit of pork. ITs well cooked.
We also cook up bones for them to chew on, good solid beef bones and get them sliced up small for our size dogs. And the broth too is used to pour on top of their food for flavour.
I now cook up and give htem broccoli too as our female has beginnings of osteoporsis.
Then I take a whole tablet of gluscomaine and break the chewable up and puts into their bowls of food.

And then we give them a really good dry food but they don't like much of that so we give them just enough to help fill them up with the good food.

Dry food is just a filler up, they aren't good to eat alone.

Oh, yes, we now give them rice too as the vet said that is good.

You can also give them peas but our female it reacts on her and gives her the runs so we don't peas then.

They don't like plain dry food, ugh,they won't eat it.

Also once in a while give them an egg which is good for their coats.