what best diet for boxer puppy

podgie · #1 04-05-2009, 08:24 PM

i have my two boxer pups on burns pet food (nuts). i would like to know is this the best diet or is there a better diet. i google "best diet for boxers puppies" and got heap of different ones so i said i join here and get the right facts.

laila is 11 months old and ally is 4 months old. ally is small about the same size as a terrier which has me wonder are they on the right diet. ally parents are really big in size.

any advice would be greatfully.

p.s would ya explain in simple terms.

thanks

podgie.

**gmacleod** · #2 04-06-2009, 04:02 AM

Burns is a reasonably good food. That is, it doesn't contain anything nasty. It is, however, pretty low in meat content. With any dry dog food, you're feeding your animal mostly on plant matter (be it grains or vegetables), rather than meat. Dogs, however, are actually carnivores, and should be consuming a diet that is predominantly if not exclusively meat (meat inclusive of bone, fat and organ meat, that is). Conversely grains/cereals of any form are a totally alien foodstuff...

Dry dog foods are also highly processed diets, and tend to be extremely dehydrating (naturally). So personally, I would go a long way to avoid feeding that as the sole thing in your pup's diet. Real, natural, normally hydrated food should be fed as well (that is, meat

).

A pretty reasonable option for you then, would be to continue feeding the burns kibble as a part of the diet, and topping it up with real meat.

If you wanted to look into a higher quality kibble (i.e. one containing more meat and no grains (though it does have large amounts of vegetable matter still)), I think the best one available to you would probably be Orijen. You can get that online from http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food

podgie · #3 04-06-2009, 08:45 AM

would it be raw meat or cooked meat you are on about..e.g hearts and livers etc..

**gmacleod** · #4 04-06-2009, 08:58 AM

It could be either

Raw is easier, and generally better (you can also get it commerically prepared - which is generally very cheap in this part of the world). But cooked is fine also.

Only small consideration with raw: if you choose to feed raw, then its generally best that it is fed separately from foods containing a lot of carbohydrate (as all dry food does). That's really no big deal though - plenty of people give a dry breakfast and a raw food dinner, or give raw food on the weekend, or whatever arrangement happens to suit them the best.

podgie · #5 04-06-2009, 09:15 AM

hearts and livers are the best to give as they are richer in blood...am i right..

**gmacleod** · #6 04-06-2009, 01:20 PM

Hearts and livers are good for your dog certainly: but not in unlimited amounts! Like most things in life, even if a little is good (or even outright essential), it doesn't always follow that a lot is better

With liver, in particular, you can certainly overdose the dog on that and end with very loose stools or even vitamin A toxicity.

So I guess the answer there is that yes, in moderate amounts, those are excellent things for your dog to eat

You can also feed things like green tripe (that's a superfood for dogs) or things like chicken portions, bone and all.

BxrMommieNAZ · #7 04-06-2009, 01:31 PM

Also personally whenever I purchase a whole turkey to bake (I do this about once a month all year long) it always comes with the organs and neck. We do not eat any of this personally, now the neck I choose to throw away, but the organs I cook up and cut up and divide between my two dogs. I've started buying cornish game hens with the gizzards included as well for this purpose. I'm purchasing them anyway and it is very much more cash wise to get the ones with the gizzards included. So if you eat anything like this look around and see if you can find brands that include the gizzards and that can help you out also.

podgie · #8 04-06-2009, 01:46 PM

ok thanks you..

podgie · #9 04-10-2009, 07:37 AM

so is hearts and livers the best sourse of raw food to give or is there a better sourse..
?

BxrMommieNAZ · #10 04-10-2009, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by podgie

so is hearts and livers the best sourse of raw food to give or is there a better sourse..
?

Make sure if you feed any raw food that you do not feed it in conjunction with kibble at the same time. So feed the kibble and then hours later give the raw food.