Sorry in advance for the long post... lots of info, which may or may not be relevant... My working cocker pup is 12 weeks old now, she is my first dog and is completely gorgeous (yes I'm biased!). However, she doesn't really drink very much water (although I always ensure it is available and fresh) and I am aware that cockers can be prone to kidney problems and therefore wet food as part of her diet is probably a good way to ensure she gets plenty of fluid.

When I first brought her home she was on beta puppy, and home cooked which she loved but again the poos were quite sloppy, and I was told that JWB would help with this. So, currently I feed her a mixture of james wellbeloved, and home cooked food and it has definiately helped.

However, she is not that keen on the JWB and will only really eat it if mixed with something else. I have tried moistening it with water or gravy as well as serving it dry - she's just not that keen, so I don't want it to be her only food. She will eat it if encouraged or if it is mixed in with the home cooked stuff, but even then at times she will eat all the food around it and leave the kibble. I have a massive bag and it has definiately helped with the poos so I'm not prepared to give up just yet. But, I also find the home cooking can be a bit time consuming and so am looking for a good quality wet food to supplement the dry as at times it would be much more convenient than constantly cooking her food from scratch!

I have tried on occasion to give her winalot puppy mixed with the JWB, and she gobbles it down but again, it makes her poo sloppy and really stinky! Great when you are trying to scrape it off the grass it the park!

Having done a bit of research I understand a bit more why and I think her tummy may be a bit on the sensitive side so I am now looking for a good quality wet food to give to her, in addition to the dry, which won't break the bank. I will still give her a certain amount of home cooked, I just don't want to do it all the time.

I am just really confused as to what I should be looking for in terms of ingredients (what are good %'s to look out for, what to avoid, etc) and which may be the best for her. If it says meat derivatives, is this bad? Because the images it conjures up don't seem great

I know that arden grange and james wellbeloved have good reputations but they seem very pricey for wet food, and arden grange don't do a wet puppy food - does this matter? What about naturediet? or James Wainwright? AAARRRGH - confused!! Please help...

Also on a side note - she seems to have started sneezing alot the last couple of days - it's definitely sneezing not coughing so am not worried about kennel cough, we've all had colds recently, do dogs get colds too?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give

From others on the forum - I think Nature's Diet is a good choice - we use Nature's Harvest which seems to be similar and our Rocky enjoys it (he didn't really enjoy dried food either)!!

Nature's harvest is 79p a pack from Pets at Home and it lasts 2 days for Rocky - altho he's a Yorkie so with your dog he may need a bit more.

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Proud owner of Rocky the Yorkie, born July 2008, who came to live with us at 8 weeks old

Maybe you could get on to some of the big names and ask them to send you some samples. My dog was a bit like this over his food. But he now eats Burns lamb/rice kibble mixed with a bit of their lamb/rice moist. ( this is expensive ) but I make it last 5 days.

I would always recommend Chappie for any dog with a sensitive tum, the vets always used to recommend it before all these dry foods were produced.
also our Chessie who nearly died because of tummy problems, survived because it was the only food he could tolerate.
If you are mixing it with JWB I don't think you need to worry too much about content.
My Goldie gets an upset tum if given too much Nature diet but is ok having it as half his diet

I feed raw whenever I can but as the convenient alternative I use Butchers Tripe. It's £1.25 to £1.35 for a 1200g can and that's enough for 3 days for an adult Springer with a corresponding amount of mixer. In my lot there is one greedy one, one that has to be tempted to eat and one that just gets on quietly with eating and they are all fine with this.

I think the suggestion to ask for samples is a good one but don't make too many changes trying them out if your little one has a sensitive tummy.

Sgurr

I don't know if this is the right thing to suggest, if you think it's a good idea I reckon you should ask a vet, but how about adding some beef stock to a little water to increase the fluid intake

One possibility for lobby stools is that it is going through too fast. I had that with my 10 yr greyhound - it was the biscuit not agreeing whereas the mixer had been fine.

As one person has already suggested; fish is ideal easily digestible - i'd try chappie or a tin of pilchards and see how that goes. Again the trouble with kibble is you are not quite sure what is in there. Could be a biscuit allergy?

Use some rice to bulk it up before you try mixer. See how that settles.

I've had dogs all my life and Chappie is i reckon the best commercial dog food. Alternatively go to a butcher and see if they do a pet mince - they'll tell you exactly what they put in it.

Fish and rice are good stomach settlers for dogs. Once their tummy is settled you can introduce and gradually change to what you want. For health reasons i believe in plain meat, little veg and mixer biscuit. It doesn't cost more than commercial dry foods.

Vets are not nutritionists - they'll recommend some dry food. Dry food contains ethoxyquins (HDT, HDA) these preservatives are responsible for a lot of health problems. google ethoxyquin
The Problem with Ethoxyquin

To be honest there is so much variety out there with different ingredients that it is difficult to suggest a suitible alternative. What one dog thrives on another has issues due to the ingredients. As already mentioned Chappie, Butchers Choice, HiLife and Nature Diet are the ones that initially spring to mind.

Others that are ok but may be pricy are Almo Nature, Applaws, Grau, Nutro, Schesir, Bozita and Porta 21, Some of the supermarkets high meat content own brands are ok.

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Karen

www.kiskasiberians.co.uk - The home of Hypoallergenic Siberian Cats


www.rawfed.com - Information on Raw Feeding

Burns have recently introduced an excellent wet food, but for value and ease of purchase, chappie is very good, and was always recommended by vets in the days before they sold these expensive diets

Gave my dog a tin of Chappie earlier to see if he would eat it(after reading the stuff on here about it)Unfortunately he wont touch the stuff,he just turned his nose up at it and looked at me as if he was saying "Where`s my Pedigree?"