Treats

[GoEmGo]

Hi all

Just a very quick question regarding feeding treats. Monty is a beautiful bouncing 16 week old pup now and is doing really well. We love him to bits.

I just feel that his tummy is so delicate and won't tolerate anything other than his kibble and Lily's Kitchen chicken treats or pieces of cooked chicken breast. We tried giving him a tiny piece of cod the other day and he threw it back up within a couple of hours. And yesterday I gave him a sweet potato chew (only a small one to help with teething) and the same thing happened. He is absolutely fine in himself still bounding around, eating his regular meals and playing. He has all sorts of leaves and sticks in his mouth on walks which I try to fish out when i can, but this doesn't seem to do him any harm at all.

I don't mind him sticking to what I know he enjoys, but I just wondered if it was common for mini schnauzers to be so seemingly intolerant to even the tiniest morsels of different things?

Thanks

Emma

[zeta1454]

In my experience puppies (and dogs) do have a strong vomit reflex which is protective in that they are scavengers and may need to rid their system of anything toxic they should not have eaten. At the same time, because they are scavengers, they should have a robust digestive system to cope with the random poo and other unpleasant things they often eat.

Puppies will be less able to cope with eating random rubbish and may also not take well to certain foods either as they are growing but, in general, I have not found mini schnauzers either as puppies or adults to be intolerant of different types of food. Our dogs are all weaned on to raw meat and, as adults have a variety of different meat (chicken, turkey, duck, venison, beef, lamb, kangaroo) including tripe, offal and minced bone as well as muscle meat but they do also have raw pieces of certain fruits & vegetables, tiny training treats of kibble, cooked meat, fish skins, dried chicken feet and other food stuff and have no problem eating or digesting them.

Monty may be a picky puppy as some pups can be and that could change once he is adult and / or he may have an unusually sensitive digestion but it is not typical of miniature schnauzers in my experience (7 mini schnauzers in the family over the last 20 years and many more puppies as we have bred mini schnauzers in the past). If you have found food which Monty does like and which is keeping him happy and healthy, just stick with it at least for the present. He may well broaden his appetite as he matures

[Oscar 12345]

Emma, in my experience of two schnauzers/3 dogs they had good stomachs until some sort of event whilst being on highly processed food. In the case of Oscar my first he had to have a stone removed from his stomach and also contracted hemorrhagic gastro enteritis and then he developed colitis and I had to be very careful after that. With Otto he had hemorrhagic gastro enteritis and then on and off runny poop until I fed him raw. Now he can pretty much eat any protein, any fish, fruit without a problem plus if he scavenges something grotty I rarely notice. Can't believe (said with fingers crossed behind back) that after nearly 4 months no vomiting and no soft poop. I realised my problem with Otto at Christmas when for a dog of 18 months I was starting to buy digestive supplements which at that age just seemed crazy. Knowing what I know now I wouldn't hesitate to try Monty on a raw diet to see if it better suits him and enables him to tolerate a much broader variety of foods. I just think it keeps idle strong acids in a dogs stomach busy. It is probably easier than you ever thought.

[GoEmGo]

Thank you both.

I think raw may be a consideration at some point in the future, but for now we will probably stick to the Barking Heads. He loves it, the ingredients seem of a high quality and he's more than happy having these as training treats too. His health is great apart from this one issue, so I just need to stop getting so worked up about him missing out on some gourmet doggy gastronomic fayre He loves his grub, so we will stick to what we know for now.

[mikegoodson1]

My two tend to get cooked chicken breast cut up in small pieces as their main treat, so I wouldn't worry about what else is out there, treat-wise. As long as Monty is happy with the treats he does have, then that's all good

It does make me smile though when out shopping, that they get a pack of 4 (or 5) chicken breast fillets for their treats but when you get so many treat bags out of them to stick in the freezer, it probably works out cheaper than buying official 'dog treats'

[Riesen16]

We cut bread that has become a bit dry into cubes and when they are hard, they make an ideal treat. All our dogs used to love bread crusts, etc.

On my way home from a walk with my Landseer, a number of neighbours would call Ben and give him bread crusts.