Canine Nutrition

We feed all of our adult dogs a home prepared diet consisting of both raw and cooked meat, raw and cooked vegetables, and small amounts of cooked grains. We also include dehydrated foods such as The Honest Kitchen and also pre-made raw foods such as the Nature's Variety packaged raw diets. We feed this way because we want our dogs to be in the absolute best possible condition. If you are interested in feeding a home prepared diet, there is a lot of reading material about feeding a raw food diet available. Kibble (bagged dog food) is actually a relatively new product and breeders in many other countries still feed home prepared diets to their dogs. We like feeding a home prepared food as it allows us to provide food to each dog as an individual and allows us to monitor the quality of the products included in our dogs' diet.

We realize that in today's busy society, few homes that adopt one of our puppies will feed a home prepared diet to their dogs. However, what you feed your new English Cocker puppy will play a big role in how healthy your puppy is for life. If your puppy receives good, high quality nutrition, he/she will live a longer life and spend less time at the veterinarian’s office. We recommend feeding a home prepared diet or feeding only kibbles that are considered “ultra premium.” These foods usually have a type of meat meal such as chicken meal as the first ingredient. These foods are also generally high in kcals, so your dog will eat much less than it would on a grocery store kibble and there will also be less waste product as the food will be more completely digested. A good rule of thumb, if you can purchase a dog food at a grocery store it is probably not something that is good for your new puppy.

We believe kibble is a convenient way to feed, but is by no means the best way to feed. How would you feel if you had to eat the same dry food every day? Do you think you would be healthy eating the same food every day? Dogs are carnivores with omnivorous tendencies. They are not meant to eat large portions of grains. Unfortunately, most kibbles are made of large quantities of grains. We recommend supplementing the kibble diet you feed your new puppy with whole, fresh, healthy foods. These supplemental foods should never make up more than 10% of the diet unless you are feeding a nutritionally complete home prepared diet. For example, you can feed whole eggs, cottage cheese, cooked or raw de-boned chicken, chicken or beef heart, or very small amount of chicken or beef liver. You may even find your puppy also likes an occasional slice of banana or a carrot to chew on! Feel free to ask us any questions about canine nutrition you may have. We by no means know everything, but have many resources available to help find the answers to most questions. Please also discuss diet with your veterinarian. Be aware than some veterinarians do not know a lot about canine nutrition and may avoid the subject, or simply tell you to choose a food such as Science Diet (which we DO NOT recommend.)

Adult dogs may benefit from a whole food supplement such as Missing Link. We also recommend giving 1000mg per day of fish oil to any adult dog. This healthy oil can be purchased economically in large bottles of capsules and will help give your English Cocker a soft and shiny coat.

The most important thing to do when you are choosing a food is to look at the label. Your dog will be eating this food every day. Choose a food with the first ingredient of chicken meal, turkey meal, or beef meal. This is a high quality meal made of a single meat with the water removed before processing. A food that lists several meat ingredients in the first four or five ingredients is a better food. We also like to avoid by-products as the first or second ingredient in a food. There is nothing wrong with chicken or beef by-products in a dog food, it is simply a lower quality ingredient and should not be the primary source of meat. Do not be drawn in by fancy packaging or commercials. The ingredients list is what will tell you what a food contains. If you have any questions at all, please call us and ask.

 

Dog Foods We Recommend

 

The Best

California Natural

Canine Caviar

Canidae

Eagle Pack Holistic Select

Evo

Fromm

Healthwise

Innova

Merrick (Both their canned and dry foods. Their canned foods are wonderful!)

Nature’s Variety

Origen

Solid Gold

Taste Of The Wild

The Honest Kitchen

Timberwolf

Wellness

 

Very Good

Avoderm

Blackwood

Chicken Soup

Eukanuba

(This is our least favorite, but is widely available and much better than most grocery store brands on the market)

Evangers

Kirkland Signature (Costco Brand)

Nutro Natural Choice

Pinnacle

Precise

(We like the Precise Plus for adults)

Purina Pro-Plan

(We recommend Pro-Plan only. Please do not feed any of the other foods made by Purina. This is available at Petsmart)

Royal Canin