Hello- new bully mom with a food question.

[petee2]

Hi, would like to get Petee off of Eukanuba large breed puppy food
( what he was eating before I got him) and switch to Wellness. Is this a good
food for Bulldogs and if so, regular puppy or large breed puppy. Or, just go straight
to grain-free????? Soooo confused! Help!

 

[BrooklynStar]

Hi, would like to get Petee off of Eukanuba large breed puppy food
( what he was eating before I got him) and switch to Wellness. Is this a good
food for Bulldogs and if so, regular puppy or large breed puppy. Or, just go straight
to grain-free????? Soooo confused! Help!

As far as food goes its more of what food works for you and your bully. See this link for dog food ratings:

http://www.englishbulldognews.com/forums/content/dog-food-ratings-219/

Start with a 5 or 6 star food and make sure you transition your bully to the new food very slowly. Many people have different opinions on how to do the transition. Typically you will want to give some new food and some old food with the new food superceding the old food over a duration of 1 to 2 weeks. It's what works for you and your bully. goodluck and welcome!

 

[ChanelnBrutus]

[MENTION=4581]petee2[/MENTION] First welcome to the site! How is old is he? I would definatley switch from current food. The llink posted above is the best place to start for finding a good food! What works for some doesnt work for everyone. Does he have any allergies that you know of? Tear stains, licking paws, etc. ?

 

[ChanelnBrutus]

BTW others with more advice, experience will be by allso to give some tips

 

[petee2]

Petee is 14 weeks old. Would have liked to try Fromm food, but stores in my area do not carry which is hard to believe because they carry just about every other food. That's the problem why it's so confusing- to many choices! He is starting up with tear stains. Tried 21st century tear stain remover from Petsmart, keeping it at bay. Ordered Eye Envy- will give that a try. Switched water to bottled filtered, spring water. Thanks for your help. Anything else I should know?

 

[ChanelnBrutus]

What I used for food bowl and water was stainless steel , if he is a drooler try to keep his mouth dry after drinking...I switched to the Fromm beef and wish I did it sooner! You could always order online at Petflow as other members do as well. There are alot of other good brands as well on the ratings forum. Brutus is 9 months and starting to show some signs of allergies nothing serious but at 12 months we are going to do allergy test just to know if there is anything. The first thing to do is get a good quality food and figure out if there are allergies..When switching make sure you do it gradually to avoid upset tummy..Our bullies have very sensitive tummys ... What works for some dogs doesnt work for all so its gonna be trial and error until you find the right one! Let me know if you need anything else ... There will be more advice also from other members

 

[aprilemari]

Lola was on wellness puppy when we got her, but she didn't like it very much so we switched, a few times, to Natural balance alpha lamb and rabbit something. (lola's a picky eater). It doesn't matter if it's grain free unless your bully is allergic, although grain free for sure indicates that meat is the first ingredient and not corn. just choose a food that you have access to that is rated highly on the article. there are many options and hopefully your pup will eat it up!

 

[rainyruth]

Hello and welcome to you and Petee! I always feed mine the large breed kibble, as far as which brand, the above link should have a rating for the Wellness brand. Good Luck

 

[Vicaroo1000]

My dogs love a little snort of Wellness Duck/Sweet Potato canned food in their kibble (with hot water to make gravy). My little old 17 year old cat is now eating it too. She loves the stuff.

 

[2BullyMama]

Petee is 14 weeks old. Would have liked to try Fromm food, but stores in my area do not carry which is hard to believe because they carry just about every other food. That's the problem why it's so confusing- to many choices! He is starting up with tear stains. Tried 21st century tear stain remover from Petsmart, keeping it at bay. Ordered Eye Envy- will give that a try. Switched water to bottled filtered, spring water. Thanks for your help. Anything else I should know?

You can order Fromm online ... Petflow is one of our site sponsors and you can get free shipping using a code, which I think is 'englishbulldognews'. Also, for the tear stains, try witch hazel on a cotton pad once/twice a week.

 

[BruceP]

to EBN....Thanx for joining but you must know we LOVE pix!!!!!I use Photobucket and copy/paste the link. That works best for me. ... Anyway, I think, and it is only my opinion, that Petee is a little young for most foods. Fromm Puppy food is excellent and there are at least two breeders on here that use it til the pups are about 6 months. They then transition them to Fromm all stages food. Whatever food you go with a slow transition is needed.

Doing a slow transition is so their tummy doesn't get upset from the difference in ingredients in the old and new foods. It basically is feeding 1/4 new food mixed with 3/4 old for for about a week, then mix 1/2 and 1/2 old and new for another week. Then 3/4 new food and 1/4 old food for another week before feeding 100% new food. Along the way, if your bullie starts to get loose poo you may want to back up a little on the mixture for a while longer before preceding.
Also, I had a discussion with a rep from Earthborn a few weeks ago and he said that whenever he transitions from one food to another he adds a couple tablespoons of canned pumpkin to the mix. Said he never has a soft poo issue doing it that way. Hope this helps.

There is a wealth of info here so ask away whatever questions you may have... Thanx again for joining...... Now,,,,, about those pix???

 

[petee2]

What allergy signs was Brutus showing?-just so I know what to look for. It's been 7 days so far of switching his food to Wellness. Stool is soft, like soft ice cream but not runny. I will still do a slow switch for another week probably and watch his stool. puppy biting is brutal! I have two kids (4 and 8) so this is hard. "No bite" doesn't work well and neither does giving toys when he bites. He's not interested in Nylabones but likes the kong ONLY when I fill it with treats. Any other suggestions on the biting? He likes to go after the cats, especially the one that will fight back. I think that's what may be making the biting worse plus he starts growling.

 

[Meggs19]

I have (and still have) issues with Tonka's puppy biting too althought it's gotten much better. I tried everything and oddly enough what worked for us what putting him in a "time out" situation. When he would get really fired up we would put him in the kitchen (used baby gates to keep him confined there) for five minutes or so and ignored him. We did this every time he was really naughty and biting and would say "you're going in the kitchen" when we put him there. Now all we have to say is "do you want to go in the kitchen?" in a stern voice and he calms down haha. When we let him out he always looks guilty and sorry, it's so cute.

His bed is in the kitchen area and he stays there during the day and when we aren't home and never is upset with us when we leave (which is a good thing since I suppose he could have started to view being there as a negative thing/negative place) but he is not happy to be in there and gated in while we are home so it works for us to threaten him with going in there for a calming down/time out.

Maybe it's worth a try....nothing else worked for us. The bruises on fleshy part of the arm and the biting of the heels is NOT fun.

 

[Cooper11]

What allergy signs was Brutus showing?-just so I know what to look for. It's been 7 days so far of switching his food to Wellness. Stool is soft, like soft ice cream but not runny. I will still do a slow switch for another week probably and watch his stool. puppy biting is brutal! I have two kids (4 and 8) so this is hard. "No bite" doesn't work well and neither does giving toys when he bites. He's not interested in Nylabones but likes the kong ONLY when I fill it with treats. Any other suggestions on the biting? He likes to go after the cats, especially the one that will fight back. I think that's what may be making the biting worse plus he starts growling.

[MENTION=4246]ChanelnBrutus[/MENTION] she was asking bout Bru

As for the biting.....Coop was so so bad. It is just puppy play but those baby teeth OUCH!!! I have a 2 year old and 7 year old and my 2 yeard got the brunt of the puppy biting. He drew blood I don't even know how many times. He will soon lose his baby teeth and you will be thanking the lord the day that happens! The adult teeth are nothing compared to those sharp daggers. The advice I give you for right now if pt your hand around his mouth and close his mouth shut and say no biting. But the best resolution is when hes playing and biting and he gets too rough with you or the kids just get him out of the situation and kennel him until he calm down. its best just to do that because he is too young to understand that his playing is too rough. Coop was so so bad and i even has second thought about him cause I felt bad for my little boy but now at lmost 8 months Cooper is the biggest lover, cuddler, sensitve Bully ever! he is SO good with my kids! So he will grow out of it. Tell the kids NOT to run from him....he will think they are playing and will chase and bite and as he gets bigger he will be able to take your kids down. Make sure yo kids make a noise or say no when he bites to so he knows it's a Hang in there I totally know what you are going through! Around 5 months he should be over the biting or close to it anyway!


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[ChanelnBrutus]

What allergy signs was Brutus showing?-just so I know what to look for. It's been 7 days so far of switching his food to Wellness. Stool is soft, like soft ice cream but not runny. I will still do a slow switch for another week probably and watch his stool. puppy biting is brutal! I have two kids (4 and 8) so this is hard. "No bite" doesn't work well and neither does giving toys when he bites. He's not interested in Nylabones but likes the kong ONLY when I fill it with treats. Any other suggestions on the biting? He likes to go after the cats, especially the one that will fight back. I think that's what may be making the biting worse plus he starts growling.

Brutus was having soft after the slow switch, he was licking his paws ALOT, the paws were red and his face started to get red as well! I spoke to some members who suggested a food switch to no grain and all stages at 8 mnths...It took about 1 mnth to see a difference from the food. It will take time for you to see a difference after the switch. We know he has some allergies but they arent bad..We were told to try and wait until at least 12 mnths before allergy test which is ok b/c he is sooo much better now! Its going to be trial and error on the food until you can find something...While you are doing the switch try to give him things that are in the food as treats...What I did was looked at the ingredients and gave him that as treats..For instance the Fromm Beef has fruit so the fruit that is listed is what he gets as treats until I know there are no allergies with food. Basically it will be easier to narrow down if you arent giving all different foods...Hope you understand my ramble...I am no expert in allergies...lol ---- As far as the ice cream I would add some canned pumpkin into his food to help with his stool...The food switch took me about 3-4 weeks to complete..I know some poeple are done in 2 weeks but I wanted to be sure I didnt upset his tummy and took longer so you can do that as well but def give the pumpkin a try!

The biting is something I think every owner went through...They will grow out of it once the baby teeth are gone..I have a 2 yr old nephew and Brutus would bullie him bad! I made my nephew part of his training and llet him walk him give him treats and taught him to correct the bad behaivor it was hard but we got through it! BRUTUS HATES CATS HATES THEM TO DEATH! Dogs he is great with but anything like squirrl, bird, cats forget it!!!!! Your kids are a little older so make them part of the training process and letting him know they are above him in the pack!

Sorry took me so long to answer back! Hope alll goes wel and please keep me posted