Hi guys ok got 10 week old border collie who is extremely hyper I tried different types of foods but I’m not sure which is the best pro plan seems to make her very hyper and disobedient also burns Puppy Food she was still quite lively I know Border Collies are very hyper anyway …what food can she have without any additives or gluten or wheat that will cause any behavioral problems? Pets at home keep pushing Wainrights a lot then I found out they actually make it! Any advice experience appreciated:-) I read fish4puppies is fairly good
Hello and welcome to the forum,
you can find some general advice about feeding puppies here
Sadly it is not so easy to put it all in a nutshell. There are so many variables and each dog is different. Most have us have just settled on a food that suits through trial and error. It may be worth trying something which doesn’t have many additives. Fish4dogs has a small list of ingredients and a rating of 3.7 but I have only fed the small training treats and some of the tinned food before.
There is so much choice and if you want any information about a particular food, hopefully some members may have had some experiences to share. Also there are lots of threads about various foods to browse through.
You can also look at this thread to see how to search for a suitable food. It should give you some ideas. I hope this helps. Good Luck.
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Hi thanks for replying that’s good advice we’re going to try wainrights puppy food but I shall have a look at the threads regarding puppy food
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Hello and welcome to the forum. Well done on researching the subject of what to feed your dog. It is good to start them on a quality product from a very young age.
As you say, this breed is well known for being high activity and it might be more pronounced if your dog is from a working strain. You might have read about high protein being blamed for hyperactivity. There is a lot of conflicting information on the Internet. However, puppies need higher protein than adult dogs but more importantly it needs to be quality, digestible protein from a named source. There is a thread about what to look for in dog food here.
You asked about Fish4Dogs puppy food and the review for that product is here. It has a simple formula, no red ingredients and fish is digestible. Some years ago I brought my youngest dog up on this product and she was fine on it. The only thing that concerned me is the lack of variety so I reduced the quantity and gave a topper of a good quality wet food with different protein sources.
Wainwright’s grain free puppy food review is here. It scores 3.8 which is slightly higher than the other version - link. According to the directory, the grain free seems to have just the turkey variety whereas the latter has four flavours.
Remember that you don’t have to feed dry food. There are some good quality wet food products on the market but they tend to be a bit more expensive. Of the dry foods, there are three types: extruded (this is the majority of dry foods), baked and cold pressed. When feeding dry food it might be more palatable to the dog to soak the kibble in warm water first. This will help with digestion and will prevent the dog from becoming too thirsty after a meal.
Look forward to hearing how you get on.
Forgot to say that with a very active puppy the temptation is to give them lots of exercise to tire them out. To protect the joints of the pup, the Kennel Club recommends restricted exercise in very young dogs.
A good rule of thumb is a ratio of five minutes exercise per month of age (up to twice a day) until the puppy is fully grown, i.e. 15 minutes (up to twice a day) when three months old, 20 minutes when four months old etc. Once they are fully grown, they can go out for much longer.
Ok thankyou very much! That’s brilliant advice, I shall have a look at those links to the foods.
She is of working desent so obviously she will be rather hyper anyway very busy mind always eager to please us!
But every now and then explodes into a torrent of hyperactivity growling Barking full of mischief biting is a big factor which we give her time out sessions I’m sure that’s just her teeth driving her mad though.
Perseverance and patience is the key but once we get her diet sorted that’s the main thing
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