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Best Food For Shelties?


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My friend has recently got a sheltie puppy and I am getting one soon too, have been to our local petbarn for some preparation today before bringing the puppy home, and got too overwhelmed by all the brands available.

At the moment we are considering Royal Canin and Nature's Gift, but Nature's Gift only have canned food that is specifically for puppies.

Just wondering what our shelties on DOL are eating? which one is better for shelties?

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The advice I would give is to follow the breeder's recommendations for the first week or so-puppy does not need to cope with different foods ,as well as a new environment ) !

then....gradually change puppy over to whatever food you decide on..whether it be a good quality dry, or a raw diet, or whatever :)

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Nikitaken,

As Persephone said follow the breeders advice for the first week or 2 and change the pup over gradually to your preferred food. The best food is whatever your pup does best on. If you want to buy before you pick the pup up, contact the breeder and ask what the pup has been on.

My last 2 litters of sheltie pups were raised on Advance puppy food (dry kibble). I switch them off the puppy food by the time they are four months as I find it promotes too much growth and then I switch them an adult kibble. Many of the breeders that I know feed Advance and get quite good results on it. Most of the breeders that I know do not feed tinned food ( trying to clean a shelties rear end when tinned food has gone right through them is not pleasant. I generally add about a tablespoon of monce to the dry kibble and also feed the tinned sardines once or twice a week along with a raw meaty bone once a week.

TB

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We had always fed Nutro prior to the US product being pulled from the market. We are now feeding 1/3 Nutro (the Australian made product) and 2/3 a mixture of chicken mince (frames which we get from Lennards) which includes long grain white rice, natural yoghurt, V8 juice, livamol, linseed and garlic.

The only tinned food we have fed has been Ziwipeak.

Suggest both you and your friend pop into the shelties thread, noticed you were there yesterday evening :)

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We had always fed Nutro prior to the US product being pulled from the market. We are now feeding 1/3 Nutro (the Australian made product) and 2/3 a mixture of chicken mince (frames which we get from Lennards) which includes long grain white rice, natural yoghurt, V8 juice, livamol, linseed and garlic.

The only tinned food we have fed has been Ziwipeak.

Diet is NOT breed specific.

As has been advised, you need to continue the diet the breeder has been feeding rather than start up with something completely different so seek advice from the breeder - they should supply a diet sheet, then consider changing gradually at a later date if you feel the need.

Edited by gareth
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I feed my sheltie a prey model diet (raw meat, bone & offal). I also give him 4-5 raw eggs a week and Salmon Oil most days.

He is a sheltie that suffers from dermatitis (skin conditions can be problems in shelties) - and although I used the same puppy food that the breeder gave me for the first couple of weeks - I altered to several premium foods in the first few months - never with any success! He didn't like them - all he scoffed was the raw food (meat & chicken necks) each day. It was at that time that I started to look at other diets...and finally ended up settling on PM diet.

I don't give him any dry/tinned food or any treats that have preservatives, colourings, etc.

I agree with the others though - diet is not breed specific. But - if you find that your sheltie suffers from skin conditions, you may want to steer away from products with grains as these are often the culprit.

Best of luck with your new furbaby!

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Am not sure why Gareth has quoted my reply :( no way was I implying that diet WAS breed specific. I merely stated what we fed our shelties, which is what the OP asked, and indeed was what TashaBailey advised she fed her shelties and her last 2 litters.

As with koolietas when we feed dry food we look for one that has no chemical preservatives, added colouring, wheat and corn.

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Am not sure why Gareth has quoted my reply :(

Because no matter what the question, you are always trying to flog your Nutro/Ziwipeak etc and it may not be the best or easiest option for some puppy owners.

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Gareth, you are somewhat behind the times with my so called flogging of both Nutro and Ziwipeak :thumbsup:

Some (nearly) 12 months or so ago before Nutro (the US product) was pulled from the market in Australia, it was in my considered opinion (and not mine only) one of the better dry food products on the market at the time. If you wish to contest that fact then do so at your leisure and prove it :confused: AND prove that with Ziwipeak as well, if you care to.

Neither were MY product as you care to emphasise :thumbsup:

Since the US Nutro product was pulled from the market here I have tried, Dick van Patten's Natural Balance, Orijen and Artemis and am sorry to say but have switched back to Nutro as made here, but am not 100% happy with it, hence am now feeding a chicken mix.

By the way if you are SO knowledgeable on what you feed your dogs, WHY haven't you recommended your "product", "ESPECIALLY" as you are NO DOUBT a sheltie owner and breeder and therefore have an inside knowledge on what to feed a sheltie, which is what the OP had asked about. :laugh:

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Thank you everybody for the great advice!!!! We definitely will follow the breeder's diet for the first few weeks and will see if we need to gradually change it to something else/better :thumbsup: but at least now we have a better idea as to what kinda of food we should be looking for

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Gareth, you are somewhat behind the times with my so called flogging of both Nutro and Ziwipeak :cry:

Really :) so why did you say this, in THIS thread? Direct quote..

We had always fed Nutro prior to the US product being pulled from the market. We are now feeding 1/3 Nutro (the Australian made product) and 2/3 a mixture of chicken mince (frames which we get from Lennards) which includes long grain white rice, natural yoghurt, V8 juice, livamol, linseed and garlic.

The only tinned food we have fed has been Ziwipeak.

By the way if you are SO knowledgeable on what you feed your dogs, WHY haven't you recommended your "product", "ESPECIALLY" as you are NO DOUBT a sheltie owner and breeder and therefore have an inside knowledge on what to feed a sheltie, which is what the OP had asked about. :mad

Gee you seem to know a lot about me :) Shall repeat for you, that diet is NOT breed specific (size specific in certain cases, but NOT breed specific) as you seem intent on rattling on about needing inside knowledge in order to feed a Sheltie pup :)

And, I would never mention MY product the way you do, as MY product would probably not be the right one for this particular pup.

OP please seek your breeder's advice as has been said, as this is the only advice worth listening to. Please don't go buying some fancy foods UNLESS this is what the breeder tells you to buy

Edited by gareth
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Gareth, the OP asked about feeding shelties, both myself and TashaBailey mentioned what we fed our dogs. :D

The OP has an answer to a question from two sheltie breeders, neither of us has said you simply must feed a particular product.

Yes I used to sell Nutro, and there are others who are members of these forums who sell and recommend their product, the importer of Artemis being one such person.

No I was never the Distributor, nor the importer.

End of story :p

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Gareth, the OP asked about feeding shelties, both myself and TashaBailey mentioned what we fed our dogs. :D

The OP has an answer to a question from two sheltie breeders, neither of us has said you simply must feed a particular product.

Yes I used to sell Nutro, and there are others who are members of these forums who sell and recommend their product, the importer of Artemis being one such person.

No I was never the Distributor, nor the importer.

End of story :p

end of what story?

So how does selling differ from distributing? And who suggested you were importing it? I don't think you need to be quite so condescending as it seems you are proving me correct with everything you post :(

can't say I have seen anyone trying to flog Artemis, so I guess they are actually adhering to the forum rules.

Edited by gareth
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Just make sure that you do not overfeed your sheltie pups either. Shelties love food & people seem to forget that under that coat is a small dog. If you have any questions, please refer to your breeder for advice. Am sure they will only be too happy to answer any questions you will have.

Don't forget to post photos in the sheltie sub forum when your pups arrive.

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Just make sure that you do not overfeed your sheltie pups either. Shelties love food & people seem to forget that under that coat is a small dog. If you have any questions, please refer to your breeder for advice. Am sure they will only be too happy to answer any questions you will have.

Don't forget to post photos in the sheltie sub forum when your pups arrive.

Thank you for the advice =) I was too thinking with the very beautiful thick coat how am I gonna know if she becomes overweight? :laugh: And yes we will keep in mind about not overfeeding her. Will sure post pics once she arrives.

I understand that diet is not breed specific and will sure keep reminding myself that.

And I posted the question hoping to get more knowledge on which brand is better in terms of nutrition, food quality, and food safety etc, so that I will have some idea as to what I should look for when buying dog food in the future. Just wanted to learn as much to get myself more prepared for our future sheltie :thumbsup:

Keep sharing your experience with me~ and let's do it in a happy and dog-loving way! :)

Edited by nikitaken
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