Ask the French Bulldog Experts

admin July 4th, 2008

My question is regarding the proper food for a French Bulldog. I have been recommended Taste of the wild kibble, Evo, also a raw diet and home made meals. I am not comfortable with the raw however I am willing to make the homemade meals but do not know what would be a good recipe.

I would not want to make a regular meal that is lacking the vitamins and nutrition necessary for my dogs. It seems there are all kinds of sources of what is best…but what really is?

I was just hoping for some helpful insight.

Carol writes -

When I was personally still cooking for my dogs, I used the mix available from Essex Cottage Farms. It looks basically like a sack of flour, and contains all the assorted bone meal and minerals needed to balance out the food. To it, I added meat (ground beef, chicken, turkey, or fish), ground vegetables, greens (mostly alfalfa) and some oil. I’d then bake it, either in individual serving muffin tins, or as a ‘meat loaf’. The dogs seemed to love it! In fact, when Tessa was pregnant with her litter of ten (!!) Frenchie puppies, Essex Cottage Farms food was the only thing I could get her to eat.

Since what you want seems to be more a completely ‘home made’ recipe, I asked for advice from some of the members of the French Bulldog mailing lists:

Monica of HotSchott French Bulldogs writes -

Carol, there is a GREAT book out there for home cookers. I used to before I fed raw and I used to use the recipes all the time. My husband always thought I was cooking for him. LOLOLOL The book is called Barker’s Grub and can be purchased from Amazon.com.

Linda writes -

my vet gave me a copy that is actually from science diet that has many different recipes on the page. And he worked with me on each dogs weight to devise the amount of vitamins and bone meal to add to the recipes. And it has everything from calorie reduced to protein reduced to many types. You could go to science diet ( not that I would recommend you feed their food ) but down load the recopies. I often used eggs for the protein as you can measure it exactly. And yams or sweet potatoes . Children’’s’ vitamins dissolve much better and natural health food section of your store has them. For 5o lb dogs I used 1/2 or 1 teas per day. But work with your vet .and yes I used canned salmon too.

Another suggestion was to join a mailing list for people who home cook for their pets -

You might try this group. Some do raw, some cook, some feed kibble, and some combine. Always great info and discussions,

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/K9Kitchen

I also found these recipes books, which seem to have favorable reviews from people who’ve used them:

The Good Food Cookbook for Dogs - 50 Homemade Recipes

Real Food for Dogs - 50 Vet Approved Recipes

The Natural Pet Food Cook Book

Bone Appetit

Three Dog Bakery Cookbook

Better Food for Dogs

Here’s a great website for home cooking resources - http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/dogfoodrecipes.htm

Enjoy, and bone appetit!

Carol

Tags: diet, dog food recipes, dog treat recipes, Essex Cottage Farms, French Bull Dog, French Bulldog, Frenchie, home cooked dog food, homemade dog food, raw dog food

• Dog Food , French Bulldog Miscellaneous
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lorihuntdvm June 13th, 2008

   I just brought home the best frenchie puppy ever, Stella, two weeks ago.  She is currently 10 weeks old.  Since our first weekend with her, our vet put her on prescription food  i/d.

She seems to absolutely love it, but gobbles it up soooooooooo fast that she is so bloated aftewards and all she wants to do is lie in my arms and go to sleep.  The bloating seems to go down once she eventually goes to the bathroom, but I feel bad for her tummy after each meal.

Do I need to give her smaller portions (I’m giving what was prescribed)  or figure out a way to slow her down?  Or is this normal?

I also researched that maybe this is related to worms?  Her stools are finally normal so I’m worried to switch her food on her - which we are going to start doing in one week.

Our vet says this is his first frenchie ever - I’m slightly worried and probably should find a new one - we live in NJ.

Dr. Lori writes -

Hi there… sounds like Stella definitely needs her stool checked for parasites.  Quite possible some nasty critter is upsetting her tummy.

Also, I think you need to wean her off the I/D as soon as possible as that is meant to be a short term diet and is not nutritionally balanced for long term use, especially for a puppy.

You could try soaking her kibble (ed note: dry food) with water before feeding her, so that it is already expanded when she eats it, this may help with the bloating.

In Stella’s case, I would consider the use of probiotics (good bacteria) added to her food as this may help her digest it better.  There is also a feeding dish (the Brake Fast Dog Bowl)  available with plastic nodules that stick up and force the dog to eat around them, thus making her slow down.

Good Luck!

Lori Hunt, DVM
French Bulldogs d’Assisi

(editor’s note: You can find a list of French Bulldog experienced veterinarians here. Readers may feel free to add their own to the list) 

Tags: diet, Dog Food, French Bull Dog, French Bulldog, French Bulldog Veterinary, Frenchie, NJ, Vet, veterinarian, worms

• French Bulldog Veterinary
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