Nutrition

There are a huge number of dog foods available, all of varying degrees of quality and expense. You will be pleased to know the most expensive is not necessarily the best. We recommend a complete dry diet. Our recommendation is to pick a good quality fixed formula complete food such as Hills and stick to it. We recommend the Hills Vet Essentials range which is balanced to provide all the nutrition your dog needs in a highly digestible and palatable diet. 

Pups while growing and maturing require very different levels of nutrients to adult dogs. They require more energy, calcium and phosphorus than an adult but conversely too much of these nutrients can cause harm. Excess energy and calcium can lead to skeletal problems. Your puppy is only ready to change to an adult food when it has reached 90% of adult weight. Such maturity is reached at 8—18 months of age depending on the breed of dog.

Once your dog reaches 7 years of age it is considered to be a mature adult and should be on a food designed to meet its changing nutritional needs. Diets for older dogs contain lower levels of protein and have a higher fibre content. This is important for  maintaining gut health and reducing workload for the kidneys.

Your dog’s feeding pattern, especially the frequency of feeds, will change as it gets older. As a general rule:-

• 4-6 weeks = 6 meals a day
• 6-8 weeks = 4 meals a day
• 8-12 weeks = 3 meals a day
• 12 weeks onwards = 2 meals a day

Diet changes should be kept to a minimum and similarly it is not advisable to feed your dog a lot of treats as these can upset the balance of nutrients achieved in a complete diet. Where necessary a change in diet should be done gradually; mix the new food in increasing proportions into the old food over a period of 7– 10 days.