Hi I have a wire haired vizsla and like the idea of cold pressed dog foods . I have tried a few but he loses weight on them where he is quite active ( i have just come back from scotland where he did nearly 100 miles in a week). Could it be that because of the low fat content that’s not for every active / working dogs. I am on Markus Mühle Natural Dog Food at moment only been on for 3 weeks but as lost .7kg, hasn’t put any weight on with it , hes poo is firm i have tried increasing but no joy . Have reduced the amount again so less waste . Feeding 3 meals a day.
Some one recommended cobbey dog ocean cold pressed. As any one else had dogs struggling to put weight on with cold pressed ?
Hello and welcome to the forum. How much food are you giving your dog? Are you weighing it? For an active adult dog you need to be giving 1.2% of the ideal body weight.. Having lost 0.7kg you need to add that on when calculating the amount. I fed this type of food for some time but it was the ones made by Markus Muhle and at that time Cobbydog had not started making it. The fat content is not very much higher so I am not sure whether it would make much difference.
As you are using Markus Muhle food you can contact Beate Rothon of Gentle Dog Foods for advice if you wish. Her contact details are on the Gentle website or you can post on their Facebook page.
First of all make certain you are feeding the correct amount. Secondly, it might help if you hike up the protein/fat content by providing a topper once a day. Fresh, home cooked foods would meet this criteria eg minced beef, lamb, sardines, chicken, turkey. The first two have higher fat levels. This would also add variety. As mentioned in my last post, if you want to know more about adding homemade food as a topper, check out the YouTube videos made by Rodney Habib.
Edit: You didn’t say how much exercise your dog has. In the past we had a poster who was giving their dog an awful lot of exercise - several miles a day IIRC. It was not surprising that the dog was failing to gain weight. If you feel that this might be the case it might be worth lowering the exercise for a little while. Dogs need to be calm but it’s something that might need to be taught. Using their sensory organs eg smell is also good exercise.
Hi Dottie thanks for getting back to me . It seems that cold pressed is a grey area to a lot of people
I am on 380g (started on lower amount and pushed up to 410g ) Yes i do weigh hes food out. In total he has lost more weight but was told this would happen for the first 8 weeks or so from the person who i was using the previous cold pressed food with before i changed to Markus.
Have contacted Beatie before when i tried Markus Red deer and he lost weight and was told to add veg and cheese for fat.
Before i have tried these cold pressed foods i have contacted the company’s and explained my dog is active (he is a working dog and the problem with this is you need a dog that full of energy all time) and does about 11/12 hours a week about 50 miles , he does this all year round he is not one for sitting still and was told not a problem .
Was feeding Millies Wolf heart ultima which he did keep weight on but still had to watch as could loose it and had to increase it to suit , was told that millies isn’t a great food what is your opinion on it .
I have a clearer picture of the problem now. As he is a working dog and getting a lot of exercise I think he might need a product with a higher protein/fat content. I can’t comment on Millie’s Wolfheart because they have so many products but the nutritional scores can be checked on the Dog Food Directory or the Instant Review Generator. Their products are classed as working and they tend to score quite highly. Ultima has protein 31.5%, fat 21.7%, calories per 100g 389. The nutritional score is 75%. If it was a struggle to keep weight on with this then presumably you need to be going a bit higher. If you want to continue with MWH, perhaps have a look at their other products with higher protein/fat levels.
I have just done a search on the Directory ticking the boxes: type-dry, avoid ingredients - all red, protein - minimum 30%, fat - minimum 15%. It returned two pages of high quality foods. Unfortunately I can’t reproduce them here. Eden Sporting and Working might be worth looking at because the protein is 45.7%, fat 20.7%, calories 368. Akela 80/20 is another one with a higher protein and fat content. However, have a look yourself because there some others.