Mixing meat with tinned food and mixture.

Alright people,

My Staffy is coming 3 this July and a few people recently are shocked at that fact and still thought she was a pup. She's not VERY small but I think she could fill out a bit more... So last week I decided to change her from tinned food/mixture to complete dry food due to the protein content. She ate the dry food for a few days but then got bored of it and won't eat it anymore.

The tinned food and mixture doesn't give her as much protein as the dry food, so what I'm wondering is could I mix in proper meat along with it? For example, feed her tinned and mixture + some chicken slices.. just to boost the protein?

Ps. Sorry if this sort of thread has been made before, I'm new .

Hi & welcome.

I'm not a fan of tinned food, even the better ones as they're about 80% water, so you have to feed far more of it to get the right level of nutrients.

I'd stick with the dry food if I were you (which brand are you feeding?) and maybe add something like a raw egg or a couple of sardines in oil to make it a bit more appetising for her.

P.S. Why not come and introduce yourself here..........

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Hi and thanks for the reply,

I tried to add some gravy to the dry food, but even at that she only eats about 1/4 of the serving (very slowly too.)

Gravy's not so great - a lot of dogs don't like it & it has high levels of salt.

Try a raw egg or half a tin of sardines in oil & see if she likes it!

Hi & welcome from Darcy & me Darcy is feed dry food with a teaspoon of salmon oil on with the occasional raw egg & sardines.

Caryll wrote:Gravy's not so great - a lot of dogs don't like it & it has high levels of salt.

Try a raw egg or half a tin of sardines in oil & see if she likes it!

It's not proper gravy, it's chicken flavoured dog gravy I got from the pet shop .

She ate the occasionally raw egg with her food before I put her on dry food, haven't tried it with dry food yet though...
Also today I have went back to tinned & mixture, it wouldn't do any harm to her feeding dry food with egg to try it? Since it's 2 different types of food going back and forward and all that.

Moo is quite a fussy eater and went off her kibble, as mentioned try sardines (moo went off them) so I just mix a very small bit of wet food (I know its crap but 1 can does 3 meals) into a good quality kibble

Blue was the same for on dry food. Tried a few brands which he would eat for a little bit then go off it again.
Just make sure if you do change her food you do it slowly. Big and sudden changes will upset her stomach and may put her off future meals

Thanks everyone I think I will keep her on tinned food for a while then gradually add a bit of dry food to it un till its complete dry food. She had been very moody this past week too and I'm near sure it's to do with the food maybe...?

As well on the other hand would adding chicken slices etc to the tinned & mixture fine to do?

Depends what you mean by chicken slices? If you mean the processed chicken you get in packets, then I wouldn't. A few slices cut off a joint would be ok though.

I was thinking more cut off a joint, or maybe some raw meat from the butchers?

A cut from the bone is fine, but if you want to giver her raw meat, I wouldn't mix it with the commercial food. They have different digestion times (commercial takes about 10-14 hours to digest, raw takes about 6-8 hours) and it could upset her stomach.

Thank you as well as the raw egg option, do I put 1 egg in her bowl daily or every few days? Also can you tell me the benefits of raw eggs, I know it gives them a nice coat

Raw eggs have various vitamins/minerals/oils/protein so have a lot of value! They are quite high in fat, though, so about 3 or 4 eggs a week will probably be enough. Just break it over her food & let her coat the dry food as she licks it.