Your Puppy's Diet

Your Puppy’s start

Stay Loyal Kibble (Chicken, Lamb + Fish All Life Stages Food) is an Australian made and sourced, grain free, high meat quantity kibble (78% meat based protein) which we have found excellent. It can either be ordered directly from Stay Loyal, or we can bring a bag with us when you collect puppy, or if you would like us to supply you when we come to Brisbane.

Home Cooked Diets

For a long time we fed a raw diet, which had been professionally analysed to ensure it met the nutritional requirements of our dogs. We found that owners had difficulty in consistently sourcing the wide range of ingredients required to balance the diet. We tried various top end kibbles over the years, and have gone full circle with using Lyka, a fresh diet, lightly cooked, but top quality. On this diet, dogs tend to have small, firm stools, as there are no fillers, and we don’t tend to have skin problems.

NEVER MIX YOUR OWN RAW DIET UNLESS YOU ARE A CANINE NUTRITIONIST.

There is a lot of misleading information online showing what to mix for your dog. Research has shown only 5% of homemade raw diets meet nutritional requirements, so please do not mix your own.

Bones

Once dogs have their adult teeth, we feed a raw, lean, meaty bone twice a week. We use kangaroo sternum or emu ribs. If you give your dog beef leg bones to chew on, scrape out and throw away the marrow as it is very high in fat and can cause pancreatitis. We never feed chicken, or sharp bones to any dog.

Dehydrated kangaroo sternums, tail bones, ribs are also excellent, and available at pet shops.

Frequency of Feeding (Adults)

A large study recently concluded that “dogs fed once daily rather than more frequently had lower mean scores on a cognitive dysfunction scale, and lower odds of having gastrointestinal, dental, orthopedic, kidney/urinary, and liver/pancreas disorders. Therefore, we find that once-daily feeding is associated with better health in multiple domains. Future research with longitudinal data can provide stronger evidence for a possible causal effect of feeding frequency on health in companion dogs.” Once your puppy has reached around 6 months of age (Minis and medium) reduce their feeding frequency to once a day. Training treats are fine outside that.

The Stomach

Dog stomachs are very acidic, with a pH that varies from 1.08 to just over 2 (research suggests that a lower pH is linked to longer fasting times prior to eating). This allows wolves to eat rotting carcasses in lean times, which are full of bacteria that would harm most animals, and usually remain unaffected. Not that we would ever suggest to feed meat in any other than excellent, fresh condition, but if your pup picks up a lump of horse poo in play, it is very unlikely to do it any harm.

The strongly acid stomach environment in dogs enables them to break down raw bones, leaving only a white colour in their faeces.

Humans produce enzymes in their pancreas, to assist in the digestive process. Dogs have evolved to utilise enzymes present in raw food to assist with digestion.

Most processed dog foods contain high amounts of grain; often maize or wheat. For the producers the inclusion of these is an economic decision. If you are using a kibble diet, look for one which is grain free, which is one of the reasons we like Stay Loyal kibble for dogs from about 6 months of age. We have found pups do well on Royal Canin Medium puppy while they are young.

TEETH

Eighty percent of dogs over 3 years of age have gum disease. This is linked to liver, kidney, sepsis and heart disease in dogs. Chewing on bones or toys developed to clean teeth goes a long way towards helping with this.

We also recommend, and supplement our dogs with A. nodosum seaweed. Clinical trials showed about a 50% reduction in plaque buildup when dogs were fed a small amount of this on a daily basis. We have this available, and can either post or deliver to you with your pup or adult.

Changing Diets

If you wish to change diet, do so gradually over about 10 days increasing the portion of the new food gradually, while decreasing the old one. Dont change the volume much at the same time. Please do not feed supermarket kibbles - they are cheap because they have cheap, poor quality ingredients or fillers. You may spend more on extra vet bills than you will save on food. Please do not add mince or other unbalanced diets to your pup’s diet. It is important that they grow with a balanced, nutritionally complete diet.

If you do wish to change to a kibble diet, your dog will still enjoy a meaty bone a couple of times a week.

FEEDING YOUR PUPPY

How much should I feed?

We will email diet information to you with your puppy paperwork. Your puppy will have an excellent appetite, and if fed as much as he wants, will eat far more than is healthy. It is important not to overfeed pups, as this lays down excessive fat cells, predisposing dogs to hip and health issues. Remember that a pup with a good appetite is a healthy pup.

When your pup comes home, the amount of food eaten will depend on whether you are continuing with Lyka Raw, or going onto kibble. Adjust everything up or down, depending on body condition. Weigh the food out, do not guess. Weigh the pup weekly to calculate feed for the following week, and check its body score here. Your pup needs to maintain a body condition of 3 on that scoring. You can see they have a slight waist when viewed from above, ribs are easily felt and hip bones are covered.  A puppy should not put on more than one kilo of body weight per week. As pups mature, their weight will stabilize, and by about 6 months will usually have reached full height and 90% of final weight. They are an early maturing breed, so the breed age / size guidelines for pure breeds dont tend to be accurate.

AAFCO Raw Diet- For interest only

So you can see what is needed if you choose to feed raw, please have a look at the following. This diet has been analysed against AAFCO requirements as meeting the levels needed for growth in pups. Raw diets should not be taken lightly. If you change a single ingredient, you will change the nutritional makeup of that diet. Do not fiddle with the diet. Either stick to it, or use a quality AAFCO compliant kibble such as Stay Loyal. Remember only 5% of raw diets meet the nutritional requirements of dogs - most are hit and miss at best. Do not feed an unbalanced raw diet to a pup.

Treats and Supplements

1. Ziwi Peak Dog Food We use Ziwi Peak Air dried lamb and tripe as a training treat once puppies are about 12 weeks old. Before that, they have problems chewing it as quickly as you need for training treats. It is nutritionally balanced, which dog treats aren’t usually. Consisting of air dried lamb and tripe, it is highly palatable as well as being good for puppy.

2. Edible Bones  Our adults enjoy a meaty bone twice a week. Usually this is emu ribs or a kangaroo sternum. Do not feed bones that will form hard splinters, or load bearing bones such as leg bones. Never feed bones to pups who still have deciduous (baby) teeth, as they can cause the teeth to break and may develop an abscess, so you wont feed bones for about 5 months.

3. Eggs: We feed an egg 2-3 x week to our adult dogs. For pups once their adult teeth are through, use a yolk only until 6 months, and about 2 x week. Eggs are high in Choline. Do not feed dogs more than one per day, as raw egg white can bind biotin uptake. We pop these in the blender, and they have a little each, including the shells which are very high in calcium and bioavailable. If you wish to give puppy a little egg, stick with just yolk, and not too frequently and if puppy is still young, then best to cook it to reduce the risk of salmonella.

4. Fruits and vegetables are enjoyed sometimes, in small pieces, especially refrigerated as snacks in summer. Some eat them, others play with them and leave them. There is no evidence that they are required by dogs, but we find it is another thing for them to do and play with over summer in particular.

5. Carrots Some dog will chew on these, especially frozen while teething.

6. Nori The dried seaweed that surrounds sushi. Can be bought in supermarket or asian food stores.

   NEVER FEED COOKED BONES