rocco one for the ladies

[JoanneF]

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Raw chicken bones won't splinter, cooked ones will. I agree with Kara that Royal Canin is far more likely to be giving him gas - it's not a great food. If you are going to continue with raw, a ready made will give him the nutritional balance he needs - from memory I think chicken wings are about 38% bone; a balanced diet needs only 10%.

I just noticed @JudyN has posted while I am writing my reply and I agree with all she says - possibly with the slight exception of whether it's safe to put your fingers in his mouth. It's safe for him; whether it's safe for you is something you will need to judge for yourself.

 

[dean1963]

thankyou for your advice , we got him on the 29 nov 2019 he was not messing indoors then but is not every night , as the husband i had a dr appointment and left wife and rocco indoors wife said rocco was wineing as soon as i left , no matter where i go he seems to wine he will follow me around every where even if rocco is a sleep one minute hear me get up and he will follow , at the moment we have not left him on his own , when we saw him he was in the kitchen with a female french bulldog we are not sure if she was his girlfriend etc , when we have dinner he does try and sniff and beg as soon as we have finished he will eat his biscuts , when we told vet they said to scatter his food but it did not help he was not intrested only in our food with cleaning his teeth we was thinking of a tooth brush as we have looked at www and seen people have died from dogs licking them due to bacteria from the dog

 

[Kara 1]

Personally i wouldn't take much notice of the vets advice re diet ...he will push you to continue using royal canin if you are buying it from them ...
Start getting Roco used to being left by leaving the room and coming back in leaving each time longer ...he may have always lived with another dog so as he has only been with you 9 days its early days yet ....
You will be suprised once you have him on a regular raw diet the difference in him ....
Ready prepared raw for dogs by natures menu can be bought in most pet stores ...they sell raw rib bones which will help his teeth ...
I remember getting our frenchies teeth cleaned by the vet and within 4 mths her teeth were horrible again ...i wouldnt start poking your fingers in his mouth until he has been with you a bit longer ....

 

[DixD]

Rocco does seem a solid chap. Maybe it’s a muscle thing as our sighthound, 24” at shoulder, 26” shoulder to tail, weighed 18 kilos for ages, perhaps around 20 kilos now that he is 13 and not so energetic. How much food does Rocco get? I’m not a raw food person but I know there are lots on here who could advise amounts, incase his digestion is being overwhelmed a wee bit.

 

[dean1963]

thanks for your advice the royal canin dry food came with him in a big bin with no idea on how much to feed him , at the moment rocco is in my wifes bedroom sleeping on her bed as soon as i get up he follows , i did have alook on natures menu website at the food , all though rocco seems very friendly with people and dogs he does let me look at his teeth but i dont go in his mouth the vet did say about a dental for rocco i looked on pets for home www about raw rib bones and it says to make sure you use a bone suitable for your dog and they should be supervised , how would you know what bone is suitable, we are unsure of exact food amount in dry food as last owner did not say in grams just said a bowl full twice a day , with the food that came with him there was no feeding guide or measure

 

[JoanneF]

Non-weight bearing bones are good for crunching, knuckle bones are good for gnawing.

 

[DixD]

You’ll find feeding charts on internet for most dog foods, and I think you feed according to the weight you would like your dog to achieve, though up or down it slowly. Look up the breed standard weight for French Bulldogs, though, of course, you do get the odd smaller or larger dog. Our male smooth collie, for example, was the size of a smooth collie bitch, and we couldn’t get him above 18 kegs, though males are usually mid-20 kgs. I have the large sighthound and a small dog, and they get just under 2 portions of Nature Diet at 390 grams a portion a day. You can feel their ribs easily, but tgey are well covered.

Hope this helps.

 

[dean1963]

many thanks for your replys rocco is 19.25 in weight which is around 3 stone 3 pound , our vet said that he is not over weight we have looked around the net for feeding guide we think we have found the right one for the food he is on at the moment we have just noticed that he seems to be pink around he face , ears , not sure as we was in the kitchen at the time

 

[Kara 1]

I would still look at changing to a complete raw diet and get rid of the royal canin ....bet you his pink bits would be gone within a week ...
If he came with a large bag of dry kibble that kibble could well have mites that can live in bags of kibble ....

 

[DixD]

The dog food could also be past expiry date. I’m not sure if mould would actually show, zi know some do.

 

[JudyN]

He doesn't look overweight in the photos, though it can be hard to tell.

He's been with you hardly any time at all, and also has a possibly iffy tummy and he's itchy. Personally I wouldn't push for him to be separated from you in the house, I'd let him follow you if he wants. As he gets to feel more secure, he will be less likely to bother following if you nip into another room... particularly if you ensure that he's had a good long walk, is dozing in the sunny spot, and/or has something interesting to chew on. When my dog was a pup I tried someone's suggestion of moving from room to room continually, so he'd end up getting fed up of following me. Two hours later, guess which one of us was most stressed out and exhausted!

There's a long post I wrote on another dog forum about separation anxiety here: https://positively.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20143

 

[dean1963]

thanks for your replys the food is in a black bin liner thats half full there is no date , we have just tried to put some hibiscrub on him and he did not like it one bit, the vets have said he is not over weight, i had a look at your post about seperation anxiety we both have not gone out and left him it seems that when i go out he seems to wine alot no distruction at all

 

[JudyN]

we have just tried to put some hibiscrub on him and he did not like it one bit

How did you apply it? Wait till he's settled and forgotten about it, then try applying warm plain water in the same way. If he doesn't like that either, you'll know it's not because it's Hibiscrub but a dislike of that way of being handled.

 

[Kara 1]

I would get rid of the food and buy another small bag if you are keeping him on that food ...

 

[DixD]

I think what that seems to be indicating is that a dog more than 16 kgs and less than 20 kegs, should get 198 grams to 260 grams a day depending on activity levels. So, you could feed 260 a day, but, if your dog isn’t very active, it will put on weight, as that is more than a low activity dog over 20 kgs should get. I think wet and raw food are heavier portions, probably because of water content. Dry food is more concentrated, which is why there should ALWAYS be water available.

I’m with poster above, I’d buy food that is definitely within date.

 

[dean1963]

we took advice from vet on hibiscrub use warm water 10 to 1 used cotton wall to apply he was thinking it was food quite excited, i dont know what food to put him on as it seems everyone has there own opinion , what we dont understand is that when you have a pet you seek advice from your vet and find out the advice is misleading or wrong so whats the point of vets , with his activity he goes out 1 hr walking and 4 x 30 minutes through the day we have bought him toys but he seems to sleep / rest than play with toys

 

[JoanneF]

Vets are like doctors, they can diagnose and treat illnesses but they get about a half day of nutrition training, usually provided by one of the big companies who supply them. If you want an independent review, have a look at www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk

It is an independent site that reviews and scores dog food.

 

[DixD]

The nutrition bit is very difficult, it can take a while to settle on something that suits you and your dog. I use dry food solely for treats, as I don’t like the fact tgat it is so grain based and very processed and dehydrated. Raw food is not something my husband likes about the house, so I use Naturediet - very simple ingredient list. I also add a little water so they have a sort of little gravy to lick up at the end. I’ve got a thing about keeping the dogs hydrated. They love it. You get Naturediet at Pets at Home, and their own make of wet food, Wainwright's, seems ok too.

I’m not sure many vets are that up on nutrition. My vet wanted my little dog to put on a kilo, ie., a fifth of his body weight so that he had something to fall back on, if, say, he had a bug. But, when he put the extra kilo on, he stopped buzzing about, or playing, and picked at his food. Spent a lot of time sleeping in his crate. And he developed muscle problems. It took him a while to get back down to his usual weight. Now he’s back to buzzing around and throwing his toys all over the place. The vet was well meaning, but it was the wrong thing to do.

Hugo used to do agility shows and training, so would be at one time very active ++. He’s 13 now, and gets about an hour’s good walk a day, and a good distance, but he’s quite sedentary the rest of the day, as old sighthounds are, so not that active at all. Che does the same walk, but buzzes around with his toys at home, so I would call him active +.

That would be my estimation of activity. A youngish dog resting a lot would worry me a little, but I have no knowledge of French Bulldogs. This may be normal.

 

[JudyN]

what we dont understand is that when you have a pet you seek advice from your vet and find out the advice is misleading or wrong so whats the point of vets

Think about it... There haven't been long-term scientific studies done on just about any aspect of dog food - I think for a food to be declared safe, it has to be tested on dogs for a matter of weeks, and if they don't fall ill, it's safe. If you ate nothing but pizzas for a few weeks there might not be signs of illness, but it doesn't make it a good diet. Vets base their advice on what has been the norm in the recent past (i.e. kibble), and maybe the odd case where a dog has been given a poor raw diet. Some people decide to do raw but don't research it, which would be pretty much like going vegan but only eating the bits you like and making no attempt to balance it. And vets will occasionally see a dog who has had a problem from eating bones and blame the bones, but dogs can also choke on kibble and sticks.

So all you can go on is opinion and other people's experiences. I made my decision because over a number of forums I read so many people say they had switched their dogs to raw and would never go back to kibble, and hardly any say they tried raw but went back to kibble.

Vets may well advise against raw because kibble is 'tried and tested' and because they simply don't know enough about raw feeding to happily advise otherwise. Oh, and a final thought - dogs' digestive systems aren't that different to those of wolves, and wolves have evolved to eat raw.

 

[JoanneF]

dogs' digestive systems aren't that different to those of wolves.

Apart from amylase - as I understand it, wolves dont produce this but dogs do; which is why dogs can digest starches that wolves can't.