Two of the questions I am most often asked are, “what are you feeding the puppies?”, and “what should I feed my puppy?”
This post will address the second question first.
I feed my own dogs a homemade raw diet, and supplement that with a pelleted dry food. I have been feeding raw since the early 2000’s. I made this choice after reading a book by Dr. Ian Billinghurst called The Barf Diet.
The book made a lot of sense to me. It was quite “revolutionary” in its day, and met with attacks from all fronts. Most veterinarians either were not familiar with it or were skeptical of it. Pet food companies were not happy. Undaunted, I started using the diet. I saw amazing changes. Coats became shinier. Shedding decreased. Teeth stayed clean, even in my then old rescue dogs some of whom were in their mid to upper teens. Stools became smaller.
It made sense to me to continue to use this diet with moms and pups when I started breeding.
Now for the first question. I found that buyers were not as comfortable with the idea of a raw diet as I was. At that time, there were not so many (if any) mixes one could use to make the food. Nor were there the multitude of pre-made refrigerated or freeze-dried raw diets. So, over the years, I tried to use various kibbles with the raw food. The pups thrived with the combination, and ate kibble in their new homes.
However, I was still not happy with the whole kibble idea. Even with the improved dry foods you find today, the fact remains that the kibble is cooked at high temperatures. This process of extrusion destroys or significantly reduces availability of vitamins in the food.
One day, while once again researching dry dog foods online, I came upon the Doc’s Choice website. I was impressed. Since Doc’s Choice is not a kibble, but a pellet, it is not exposed to the high temperatures needed to make kibble. It is still the food I supplement by adults with, and that I use to wean our puppies. I have it delivered by pallet! It is available from the Doc’s Choice website, or from Amazon.
I still recommend that at least a part of the diet you feed your puppy or dog should be raw, either homemade, made with a mix, or from a prepared raw diet.
Here is a link to an article about the best diet for french bulldogs.
I highly encourage you to watch the movie Pet Fooled. It is an eye-opener. It is available on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Youtube, Google Play, Vudu, and iTunes