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 crcasses & furry rabbit ears are also given daily. Vegetables and bones are given freely every day and our dogs can eat as much as they need. Some eat more, some eat less.
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.
Raw is known to be the healthiest diet for dogs. We would like our feeding regime followed by our puppy owners. In an age where cancer has become the main killer of our dogs, it is more important than ever to follow our advice. To date, we have never lost a dog to cancer during 19 years of owning Leonbergers. We have lost several of our breeding to various strains of cancer, Osteosarcoma the most prevalent in recent years. We now know that spay/neuter can be responsible to this type of cancer so we would advise owners to think very carefully before considering this option. We used to say not before two years but Leonbergers are not fully developed until 3 years. We don't spay/neuter unless there is a medical reason to do so.
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.They are carnivores, they need meat on a daily basis. Please take our advice, look at our history with our own dogs, which in recent years are living to ages 9-11 years.
 

 "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 alongside 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. Most kibble on the market can cause bloat in deep chested giant breeds. Gentle does not swell in the tummy so dogs fed this are less likely to get bloat.

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 or similar cold pressed kibble for their lifetime.

We also give supplements daily; Glucosamine, Green Lipped Muscle, Taurine & Ocean Kelp. It all helps to keep our dogs healthy  while puppies, through growing stages and going in to old age. We hope that all our pups will live healthy and long lives, please help them to achieve this by the best with their diet throughout their lives. 

 

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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