Puppy General Health

[iFrenchie]

Hi All,

Today marks a week that we've had our 8 week old Frenchie making her 9 weeks now and want to make sure we are doing the right things. Before even picking her up, food was my biggest concern. Breeder had her on Fromm Heartland Gold but after much research I decided to move her to Orijen Puppy when we took her in.

First day or so she wasn't eating much, maybe 1/4 cup or so. Recommend for 5 lbs was 3/4 cup (76 grams). About the third day she started to eat all of her food, spread out over 3 meals. Her oo: has been good since she came.

I weighed her last night and she was 6.5 pounds so I thought i'd up the food to 90g spread over 3 meals. Today she had her first 30g along with a new smaller bowl, she seemed a bit more into the food. About 4 hours later, a bit before her next meal she thew up twice, most of it mushy food with a couple of unchewed kibble. Could this be because she ate too fast or could the extra 5g be too much for her? Her activity level after was normal.

In regards to her food, Orijen, to my understanding this is one of the best but other brands seems to be more recommended on these forums. I don't think she has any allergies to the food, no bumps or rashes. She does scratch at her collar every once and awhile but I don't know if that's normal. Should I just stick to what shes having now or should I move to something like Zignature with a single protein to stop her form scratching at all? Fromm doesn't seem like the ingredients are on par with Orijen or Zignature.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cbrugs]

Welcome to you and Lola! Orijen is an excellent food as is Fromm, Acana and Zignature. There are other high quality kibbles as well.

She could have thrown up due to eating too fast. I probably wouldn't change her food just ate, maybe just play around with the amounts. Scratching at her collar could very well just be her going at the collar as she is just a baby and she is not used to it.

 

[iFrenchie]

Thanks for replying so quickly!

What are some signs that she is allergic to food? She does have some gas when napping through out the day. It seems like a lot of posts are about allergies due to multiple proteins and Orijen only offers multi protein puppy.

 

[Cbrugs]

Thanks for replying so quickly!

What are some signs that she is allergic to food? She does have some gas when napping through out the day. It seems like a lot of posts are about allergies due to multiple proteins and Orijen only offers multi protein puppy.

You can definitely switch to a single protein food and go through different proteins one at a time to see if there are any sorts of reactions. But if she is doing fine on the Orijen, you can stick with that. Some signs of an allergy would be licking paws, redness in paws (yeast), ear infections, little sores on belly/inner thighs (this happened to Jax when I tried turkey). Some people would say allergies in a puppy that young wouldn't show yet. For gas, you can definitely add in a probiotic to her diet. Some examples would be kefir, raw goat's milk, refrigerated sauerkraut, just to name a few. There are also dog specific powder forms.

 

[FroxerMom]

Welcome to you and Lola. She is adorable. I wouldn't change her food yet either. All the brands previously listed in the thread are higher quality. Maybe she just played too soon after eating or ate too fast that day.

I feed mine and then she knows she has to get on the couch with me while I drink my coffee and watch a little tv. She does this every morning so she rests at least an hour before any action. Most of the time she falls back asleep.

You are doing a great job! Just keep watching her and maybe toy around with the amounts you feed and then make sure she doesn't play too rough immediately after eating. I'd hope you wouldn't have to worry about allergies with just a cute little pupper. Mine will be 2 years old in December and has insane food and environmental allergies. Fingers crossed this won't be in Lola's future!

 

[Alice Kable]

Welcome to FBN. An old country vet we used back in the '80s told me feeding a puppy food with multi proteins may help prevent the pup from developing protein allergies as an adult!

 

[iFrenchie]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I will keep her on Orijen Puppy for now.

 

[2bullymama]

Welcome to FBN! The gang has you covered... keep the pictures coming and good luck with your new baby

 

[olouttt]

I am a happy owner of 4 month old Pitbull mix. I'm feeding him with Blue Buffalo and he does very good on it. He's getting big, 45 lbs already and getting taller. Just found a nice informative resource for dog owners here - https://goodpuppyfood.com/breeds/what-is-the-best-dog-food-for-pit-bulls/ . May be useful for you.

 

[GraciesMom]

Hello iFrenchie, welcome to you and your cute little Lola. I experienced something similar when I increased Gracie's food volume. It may just take a while for her to get used to the increased amount. In fact, she may still be adjusting to the switch from Fromm to Orijen, especially if she wasn't eating that much of it initially.