Food for puppy

[Michelle100]

Getting our puppy next week.
What do you give your Miniature Schnauzer to eat?
The breeder gives Natural Instinct to her dogs and pups.
Is the Royal Canin any good? As we're not sure whether to stick with the same brand.

[zeta1454]

Natural Instinct is one of a number of good quality raw meat foods for dogs. Royal Canin is a kibble with low quality ingredients so not really anything like the food the puppy will have been used to. A quick comparison of the ingredients will show the difference:
Royal Canin Puppy:
Dehydrated poultry protein, rice, animal fats, vegetable protein isolate*, maize, beet pulp, maize flour, hydrolysed animal proteins, maize gluten, minerals, fish oil, soya oil, fructo-oligo-saccharides (0,34%), hydrolysed yeast (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), yeasts extracts (source of betaglucans), marigold extract (source of lutein).

Natural Instinct Puppy:
British chicken with bone (80%), carrot, British beef liver (5%), apple, butternut squash, spinach, sea kelp, Scottish salmon oil & Brewer's yeast

One is a highly processed food supplemented with vitamins and other nutrients destroyed in the processing and the other a raw food using quality meat, vegetables etc.

If you want to continue to feed raw there is no problem continuing with NI or transitioning to another of the complete raw foods available nowadays but, if you prefer to go to a different type of food altogether, have a look at the All About Dog Food website which has a lot of useful information re branded foods as well as a general guide to explaining the ingredients and their meanings on some of the kibbles sold as dog food.
https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk

Personally I would always feed raw from puppyhood onwards as being the best form of food for dogs. We have weaned puppies onto raw meat and all of our 11 dogs are raw fed, the eldest being 11 years old this year. You are best using a "complete" prepared raw food such as Natural Instinct if you are new to raw feeding to ensure the quality of the ingredients and the right balance of nutrients but, as I say, if you want to move to a different type of food, do carefully check the ingredients of anything you choose which should be approximately 60% to 80% of named meat/fish and any additional ingredients those you can easily identify as food!

[Oscar 12345]

Hi Michelle, welcome to the forum and very exciting for you. Natural Instinct has a very good rating and I would be delighted if a breeder had brought up a pup on that so I wouldn't be changing from that without a good reason. Take a look at the allaboutdogfood website for more info, the link for Natural Instinct puppy is https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-f ... inct-puppy. I have only ever used RC Gastro food when I had to with a poorly dog. I bet Leigh can give more info on Natural Instinct, she is well versed on raw diets. We would love to hear more about your new member of the family...

[mikegoodson1]

Hi Michelle,

I'm not going to comment on the food currently being used or what you want to feed your puppy on (everyone has a different opinion), all I would say (from experience) is to keep your puppy on the food it's used to for a few months (or even longer), just to ease their transition into a new home. At the breeders home, your puppy is probably used to having siblings around, their Mum, other dogs/puppies and be comfortable with their food and environment.

You are taking them away to another home (albeit a new loving environment) where the puppy needs to get used to new surroundings/people/smells etc and so at least feeding the same food it's used to, will ease their transition.

For ours, we kept them on the kibble they were fed with the breeder, for six months, before slowly transitioning them onto different kibble.

Good luck and looking forward to seeing some pics, we love pictures of new puppies here

Mike

[Michelle100]

Thanks for all your help. Will post some pics of Monty very soon.