now 4 months, in the 5 weeks i have had her i have been feeding ped chum puppy , plus mixer,,,, is this ok? or enough?

Chum is primarily water with little or no suficient nutritional benefit , a complete dry food would be better , plenty of previouse threads on here talking about food , have a read through and see if you dont change your mind , any change must be over a period of time preferably a week or so gradually reducing the old food in favour of the new never just swap . Also feed by recommended guidelines on the pack for your dags age and weight but only as a guide , reglar weigh ins at your vets will keep your dog from gaining too much too quickly .

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i agree with them you should consider giving alternative food for your pet...

thanks guys i will change the food. hope i havent damaged her health in any way? is IAMS any good?

You have almost certainly not caused any ,ong temr problems feeding pedigree.

Before I knew much about feeding dogs, mine were fed on Iams, as I believed it to be very good and my girls breeder thought (Still thinks) it was the best dog food going. I have to admit, she did look pretty good on it, but her breath STUNK and her teeth were disgustingly filthy. I, like many others, thought this was pretty normal for a dog.

I am sure you're dog would do OK on Iams, and it is better than Pedigree, but there are, in my opinion, better foods on the market. The best, if you can afford it, being Orijen.

The reason I say it is 'best' is that it doesn't contain any cereals, just meat and fruit/veg. Dogs weren't evolved to eat or diggest cereals, and so cereals in dog food, some more than others, can cause some problems and allergies. Rice is the best of a bad lot really, where cereals are concerned, and because of this a lot of companies use it, and they might cite 'fibre' as the reason. However, it is little more than a cheap filler. Some companies use whatever cereals are cheapest at the time, so on the ingredients it simply says 'cereals' rather than being specific. Some companie sdo list the type of cereal, but as seperate ingredients so that they can list meat as the first (greatest) ingreident, when the product actually contains very little meat.

Also, some commercial foods contain as little as 4% meat. Look for a high meat content (although other than Orijen, 30% meat would be the maximun really. Orijen has 70% meat) and dogs should have around 70% -90% meat/bone in their diet. Also look for meat that is listed specifically as meat, and not 'meat meal'.

So, I guess the upshot is, look for meat as the first ingredient, and that a % of meat is mentioned, look for any cereal to be named, and preferrably rice, and look for as few additives as possible. That said,a lthough no commercial dog food is likely to kill your dog (at least, not directly! ) an dis not the mother of all evil, I would chose not to feed most.

You could look at raw/BARF feeding, but DO look into it thoroughyl, it is becoming th e'next big thing' and too many people go into it without the proper reasearch or knowledge, which is especially important with a pup.

Sorry, ask a question and get an essay!

I give my dogs a mix of raw and Orijen and my cat just Orijen (all she will eat now)

Overall the price isn't to bad as they don't waste and have stopped being fussy. I started with sample bag to try and have both my younger dogs on puppy - 12 weeks and 10 months old. Doing really well

It's the best food I have found.

So I'm really pleased and have found a UK based website.

What website do you get your Orijen from?

catanddogtreats.co.uk - send out quickly,
hope this helps

Have a look here: Orijen Dog Food on Sale now at zooplus It's alot cheaper there!

They don't always have in stock and my previous order took a while to arrive, but then the price ..........