The Dogs Dinner

 

For a giant breed of dog, it is essential to provide a complete balanced diet to enable the young joints and bones to grow evenly over time. We have tried many different foods and brands over the years  and the food we give our dogs is extremely important to us, we have done much research in to which diet is best for them and for us.
Many complete dry foods contain many ingredients that dogs do not digest well and are not necessary in the daily diet of a carnivore. Dogs need meat in their diet, if a person is vegetarian or unable to prepare meat they should not contemplate feeding  a dog without meat content, personal preferences cannot be applied to the diet of a dog.

From 2006 we have  incorporated raw food in to their diet but alongside raw we feed Gentle kibble and this works well. 

We feed a combination of raw chicken, tripe, beef and lamb, hearts, liver, duck necks, chicken feet & furry rabbit ears are also given. Vegetables and bones are given freely every day and our dogs can eat as much as they need. Some eat more, some eat less but they are never hungry.
We also feed all our dogs together with no problems, we don't get fighting over food as they are used to feeding like this from young puppies, even bones are given to them in a group.
Our puppies are also reared on the Barf diet and with great success however, we feel that this diet needs careful monitoring and not everyone has the time to feed total raw. Supplements also need to be given to provide the balance.
We also realise that not everyone is happy to feed raw and for this reason we also give our puppies a dry complete food so that owners have the rightful choice. This doesn't require extra supplements so much easier to feed.
We have found that many people set out with the good intention to feed their puppy the best way, which is raw, but eventually, they will feed dry food for convenience. We have done the research in to what we feel is the next best option to raw.
 

 "Gentle" is  cold pressed and a completely different concept to any other dry kibble on the commercial market today. It is completely natural and is the next best thing to feeding a dog raw food..On price, it is about the same as a high quality kibble but with much better ingredients, a higher meat content, added vitamins and minerals and the company claim that it is free from animal experimentation.

We have monitored the health of our dogs for many years and we feel that overall, our dogs have all had very good health, good teeth, good coats, no skin problems, allergies, sensitive stomachs, hyper activity problems and all have healthy appetites. We put this down to the way that we have fed them, a balanced diet of various foods but with no dramatic changes. It is a well documented fact that it is  not good to continually change  a dog's diet.

For this reason, we recommend that our puppies are not changed on to any complete kibble other than Gentle for at least one full year. If it needs to be changed at all, this food can be fed for life.

 

In recent years, scientists have found a connection with grain free foods and Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM)

For more information from Beate Rothon at Gentle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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