I love your website, I am THRILLED to find someone who is advocating a natural diet. We have recently become the new family of a beautiful black labrador puppy, Daisy. I have seen the benefits of a natural diet firsthand as this is what was fed to our Rottweilers when i was growing up. However Daisy is my first dog as a ‘grown up’. It has been quite hard getting advice that is positive about this type of diet. We have been attending puppy school where the trainer seemed horrified by our choice of diet and proceeded to tell us all the harm we were doing our puppy. She was a great advocate for Royal Canin on the basis that the people who make it spent time analysing how different breeds eat. She did however also alert us to the fact that our dry food contains beet pup which I now know is not so positive. As a result we really want to finish using the supercoat now. (It had always been our intention but originally I would happily have finished the bag!) She (the puppy trainer) also made a big deal about puppies /dogs only needing a teaspoon of wet food each meal.

When we picked up Daisy the breeder had been feeding her, ‘Supercoat’ – we live in Australia. We decided to keep using it in conjunction with a natural diet to try and help her assimilate. We are ready to stop using it, my parents seem to think it is responsible for her continual scratching, is this a possibility? Anyway we cut it out for a whole day but she seemed to become constipated and we wonder if perhaps we should wean her off it instead?

I would love some advice about the diet we are following please.
We feed Daisy – chicken/beef mince, raw chicken necks, sardines (twice per week), a raw egg (x2/week), I cook the mince with some olive oil, garlic, vegies from a frozen bag (broccoli, cauli, carrots, potatoes, peas and corn -there isn’t much corn), I add frozen spinach and fresh celery, fresh purple cabbage, a small amount of brown rice and whatever vegie scraps I have eg. carrot peelings, spinach stalks and so on. For a snack she has lamb flaps (just small pieces), bananas, apple, watermelon, strawberries and she occasionally has a lamb shank or neck. I am wondering about how much we should be feeding her, she eats the portion we give her quite quickly but I am unsure about how much weight she should be gaining on a weekly basis. She is now 3 months old is approx 10 kgs. Should I be feeding her puppy milk or could I just add some yoghurt or cottage cheese to her diet, if so how often? Lastly, (sorry, I am just SO excited to finally find someone that I think will answer me positively about Daisy’s diet), a breeder told me I should also add cod liver oil, salmon oil and flaxseed oil – should I add them all or just one, and how much should I add? The same person said powdered vitamin C and tablet form vitamin e were vital for good lab health – where do I purchase these from, can I just used the human form and if so in what quantities and how often?

Sorry for so many questions as I said I feel like I have finally found someone I can ask without being told to purchase a premade concoction.
Thanks
Sue

Your site is fantastic, I am SO glad I found it. We are the proud “family” of a three month old labrador retriever puppy, Daisy. We had decided that from the outset we would feed her a ‘homecooked’ diet rather than processed food. The puppy school trainer tried very hard to convince us that we were doing a terrible thing for the health of our puppy, but having grown up with 2 rottweilers who were fed exclusively on a similar diet I have seen the benefits this type of diet can produce.

As our puppy had been fed ’supercoat’ (we live in Australia) by the breeder we purchased some to help her assimilate. We are really ready to cease giving it to her – my parents seemed to think it might be responsible for her passion for scratching – do you think that is possible? Anyway, I am keen to stop sooner rather than later. Our puppy trainer did alert us to the fact that it contains beet pulp which I now know is not a positive. We stopped adding the supercoat for a day and she seemed to be constipated, is it therefore better to ‘wean’ her from it?

Her diet consists of chicken or beef mince; chicken necks; brown rice (only a small amount), garlic, vegetables (I usually use the frozen mix – broccoli, cauli, potatoes, peas, carrots and corn) – there is very little corn in it – spinach, then fresh celery, some purple cabbage and my carrot peelings and other vegie offcuts. (I cook all this) She has sardines twice a week and an egg about the same, she has lamb flaps, bananas, watermelon, apple as a snack – not all at the same time! I am unsure though about the portion size, what is a healthy weight gain for my puppy on a weekly basis? The puppy trainer wasn’t that helpful as she insists all dogs should have only a teaspoonful of any ‘wet’ ingredients and recommended ‘Royal Canin’ because they had researched how each dog chews its food!

My other question is should we have been giving her puppy milk? Or should I give her yoghurt on a regular basis? Lastly (sorry, I am so excited to find someone who sounds so positive about this style of dog food) a breeder I spoke with recommended Vitamin E tablets, powdered Vitamin C and essential fatty acids such as cod liver oil, salmon oil and flaxseed oil but I am not sure where to purchase this (the vitamin E & C particularly) and in what quantities it should be given, do you have an opinion?

Thanks so much, I love your site!
Sue

Sorry I missed your comment until now (not sure how that happened).

Glad to hear that Jordi has done so much better on the Eagle Pack. Probiotics also are a great thing. So many dogs have problems caused by medications and other toxins, and Probiotics seem to work wonders in many cases.

Regards,
Brigitte