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Can pet food affect pet behaviour?

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As per thread title really. 5 month old pup can be a real handful when he’s eaten behaviour wise. Making quite good progress otherwise. He’s on a combo of dry and wet (he was on dry only when we got him, but he doesn’t really fancy it). His “innards” are totally fine though. Previous hound was on raw tripe but we didn’t get him as young - he was over a year old when we got him and was just less excitable from day one.

 

Not sure if it’s just a pup being a pup (never had one this young) or it’s triggered by processed food. Vet didn’t think it was a good idea to feed him tripe at all let alone at 5 months. 

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I've always been a believer that food affects their behaviour. Although some think not. (but then again i follow pack theory training)

Puppy food can be like the sugar rush for kiddies, so all i did was find one with a lower protein level, it did work with our boxer.

Ours then went on to half dry and half chicken mince(obviously mince is protein but the right protein).

 

Many vets are big on complete food and nothing else being the way forward. even my dogs physio(who is a dog agility trainer as well) only uses dry food.

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Funnily enough we did chicken and complete today rather than complete and puppy food and he seems a tad calmer today. It's odd that vets are pushing for pet food that processed within an inch of its life but doctors are pushing fresh and unprocessed for people.

 

The internet hasn't helped dog ownership - ask a question and you'll get every conceivable answer. That's why I asked here - at least it will consistent!!!

 

But many thanks for the input, every little helps!

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Tinfoilhat - the link between hyperactivity and food is, AFAIK unproven. However, my opinion is the same as Willman’s. If you want more advice/information it would be useful if you could say what brand of food you are using. 

 

Dogs digest animal protein far easier than protein that is derived from other sources eg plant/grain. Clear labelling is essential. The better quality foods will always have a named protein (meat) source right at the top of the list of ingredients. A puppy needs a minimum of 30% protein due to their rapid growth. Anything in the ingredient list with the word ‘derivative’ behind it is best avoided because you simply don’t know what it consists of. You should be able to recognise all the principle ingredients so you know exactly what is going into pup’s body. 

 

A dog doesn’t have a great need for carbohydrate but most kibbles contain a lot because it is needed to form it in the extruder. The better carbohydrates are brown rice and sweet potato because they have some nutritive value to the dog. 

 

You can check your current food on the Dog Food Directory  of the All About Dog Food website. Lots of other information on there too. 

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Royal canin at the moment but we’re getting to the bottom of a bag. He was also on butchers wet. Apparently there are two sorts of butchers wet puppy food. He seemed to get on with the more expensive grain free stuff, the cheaper poundstretcher purchased stuff didn’t do him any good at all. But we’re on the RC and chicken and he’s doing alright. He’s sleeping more and that seems to benefit everyone, especially him. He still has his moments - to be expected - but he’s much less wired.

 

Royal canin doesn’t do well on that website though.

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Dry dog food is a minefield, i've just moved mine onto Beta,simply because its 20% turkey protein and comes in different size chunks which slows my lot down a little bit when eating it . Morrisons tripe mix is relatively kind to most dogs(without gravy) it was a staple additive for our spaniels as pups.

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1 hour ago, willman said:

Dry dog food is a minefield, i've just moved mine onto Beta,simply because its 20% turkey protein and comes in different size chunks which slows my lot down a little bit when eating it . Morrisons tripe mix is relatively kind to most dogs(without gravy) it was a staple additive for our spaniels as pups.

It's the first dry dog we've used that hasn't had an adverse reaction to any of our dogs innards over the years. 

 

Still undecided on whether we go on to tripe in the future .

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Quote

Quote Willman:

Dry dog food is a minefield,

You have a point and much of it is because there are so many products to choose from. However, if you take a few minutes to get comfortable with reading the ingredient list then it all becomes clearer.  Beta dog food is made by one of the big four (maybe five) companies who manufacture dog food and IMHO you are better sticking with smaller companies who are actually interested in canine nutrition.  Take a look at Beta Adult formula and you will see the problems with it.   

 

Some of the Royal Canin varieties are reviewed on the linked website and it can be clearly seen why they don't score very highly.  There are better and cheaper products that are worth seeking out. Additionally, paying a bit more can be cost effective because dogs sometimes need less of it.   It's worth finding a decent quality food that suits the dog as it often pays dividends in terms of health and well-being.

 

Tripe is thought to be good for dogs but as part of a balanced diet, not in entirety.  For anyone who is feeding extruded dry food, it could perhaps be suitable as a topper. 

 

 

Edited by ccit

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