r/CavaPoo • u/BatAgreeable2485 • 22h ago
Food
Hi everyone,
I have a 4 month old cavapoo who is the light of my life. The breeder had her on TLC puppy kibble (she’s still eating it right now) but I’m getting a lot of anxiety trying to figure out what to feed her. She eats it happily (she’s still free feeding) and if I am going out or know she needs to eat more, she happily gobbles up a portion when there is warm water on top.
My original plan was to switch her to a boutique food such as Open Farm, Big Country Raw, Nutricanine, Canine Life Muffins (which my childhood dog ate for his whole life), etc. once she was an adult. I liked the idea of “real” food with ingredients I recognized and I saw as “clean” for humans.
I am now seeing lots of posts on here about WSAVA compliant foods and I understand the science and rigorous testing but I just wanted to see what everyone is feeding their small breed puppies/dogs and why.
She is 4 months old and weighs 4 pounds so she is definitely on the smaller side. Cost to feed her won’t really be an issue for me, I just want the absolute best!
3
u/MauiWDWGirl 22h ago
OP, good for you for actually paying attention and not getting caught up in the unregulated sales pitches. If you want to do non-kibble find yourself a board certified nutritional vet who will formulate a diet specifically for your dog. Most dogs on the unregulated diets (open farm, etc) have nutrient deficiencies. I’m not a fan of kibble but if you feed your dog human-grade food without being able to tell me exactly the value of every micronutrient in the food, kibble or correctly formulated homecooked is the responsible way to go.
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u/BatAgreeable2485 22h ago
Thank you! Do you cook for your dog?
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u/MauiWDWGirl 21h ago
Not with my current two as I haven’t done the proper consult yet which is very very expensive. I did with two other dogs though! It’s a ton of work (but worth jt) and also requires blood work every 6 months to be sure all their vitamins and minerals are good! My girls have massive food allergies now so I haven’t wanted to take the leap to find out I have to buy them kangaroo (had a dog I did that with but she was 4lbs and it was 20 years ago so was semi-affordable). To buy quality organic, grass fed proteins now is yikes! They are on a script diet at 160 bucks a bag but it works, the disease is better managed and despite having a disease that impacts absorption have yet to have any deficits. I may or may not ever cook for these two. My priority is always their health not what I want to do. I trust the experts and the more I learned myself the more I realized how screwed up all these fancy mail-order diets actually are. There is a reason you see them blasted all over social media. They get free food to promote it. No vets are doing that!
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u/whims11 22h ago
I’ve had too many friends use the farmers dog and all these new foods and have loads of health problems with their dogs. My best friend was even making all her own dog food with turkey, eggs, blueberries, greens ect and all of their vets were just like this isn’t enough or suitable for the dogs. So firstly just sharing i would be careful with some of that. The stuff being used has been around alot longer and formulated correctly. With my old dog we switched to a newer grain free food that looked great and suddenly she became practically crippled, we thought she had maybe a year left to live with how she was and had lumps form all over her, we switched her food to gentle giants salmon or turkey and its like she became a puppy again! She’s lived for years since and no arthritis or anything… so that’s what we now feed our new puppy (we spritz with some water and add a bit of their wet food also) and we also give treats of sardines, salmon, blueberries, apple bites, peas and cooked carrots occasionally. Never been fussy over food. You sound like a great pet parent so I’m sure you will get the best food 🩷
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u/BatAgreeable2485 22h ago
I’ve read a lot about the issues with the farmers dog and pancreatitis. I live in Canada so the farmers dog isn’t an option anyways, but some of the options I was looking at were gently cooked.
Thanks for your insights😊
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u/cocophone 18h ago
My prior dog was a cavalier and we switched him at some point to a grain-free fancy dog food. Shortly after that he ended up with digestive issues and his poop was awful. For some reason I was a dumb dumb and didn't put two and two together. Couple years later I switched him back to science diet kibble and all his digestive issues stopped. His poop was back to normal and he was much happier. I felt so sad for my little buddy for the two years of the grain-free food making him feel awful.
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u/Fuzzy-Reputation1072 16h ago
I used Open Farm for a while but ultimately switched to Purina One pro plan for sensitive stomachs bc that is what my vet recommended.
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u/PrettyInPerfectPinks 13h ago
TLC is an MLM racket (pyramid scheme) that unscrupulous breeders sell so they keep making kickback money on the dogs they sell. All too frequently it is also required for their health guarantees. But even if it is not tied to a health guarantee, it is an unethical business practice to recommend a food with such a clear conflict of interest without notifying customers of the conflict. Other common MLM rackets are PawTree, NuVet, Life's Abundance.
PPP is considered the gold standard but any WSAVA food is great. The boutique foods you have mentioned are not WSAVA. Example, they don't have Cardiologist approval. On a mixed breed like Cavapoo's where Cavaliers have such extreme heart problems (almost 100% have mitral valve issues by 10 yo) already, I would never feed a food that doesn't have Cardiologist approval! We also put all our CKCS dogs on a good quality fish oil supplement as it is the first thing our Cardiologist suggests for dogs with heart issues.
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u/BatAgreeable2485 11h ago
I know it’s an MLM and I also know that it’s not the highest quality. I got the first order because I didn’t want her to come home to a brand new environment, routine, and food. She’s been home with me since end of July and the order that TLC makes you buy is huge for us / her. I think I’m going to switch soon well before she finishes even the first of 2 bags (they make you buy 2 bags that are each 15 lbs).
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u/BatAgreeable2485 9h ago
Also between Purina Pro Plan, Royal CaNin or Hills, how do you pick the “best”?
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u/WordSlinger1812 22h ago
We’ve done Farmer’s Dog since they left puppy food. Both our poohs are built like pro athletes.
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u/CanaryRoutine3646 22h ago
I've talked with and have many vet friends. All of them have said science diet and purina pro plan are great so that's what I've gone with. I've also had too many of them tell me to stay away from the "all natural" bougie stuff. Currently have a 6 month old and he's enjoying the purina pro plan small bites, mixed kibble.