[chan31]

Can i really give my 11 week old puppy a vitamin B complex? My friend told me that it can improve the skin and coat of my dog. Is this really true?
please help... thnks...

[Todd]

You could, but I personally don't feel it's necessary if your pup is on a healthy diet, but it does have its benefits, especially on the nervious system. On a healthy, balanced diet, your pup should be getting all the B vitamens it needs. Some liver will help too. What do you feed the pup? If you want your dog to have a healthier coat and skin try supplementing with fish oil.

[chan31]

Originally Posted by Todd

You could, but I personally don't feel it's necessary if your pup is on a healthy diet, but it does have its benefits, especially on the nervious system. On a healthy, balanced diet, your pup should be getting all the B vitamens it needs. Some liver will help too. What do you feed the pup? If you want your dog to have a healthier coat and skin try supplementing with fish oil.

To tell you the truth, this is my first pup and i only fed her puppy dog food.

[Todd]

Originally Posted by chan31

To tell you the truth, this is my first pup and i only fed her puppy dog food.

What brand of food?

[chan31]

Originally Posted by Todd

What brand of food?

The Brand is BeefPro... She likes the food but I want to try other brands.
Do you have any recommendations?

[gambler-girl]

Originally Posted by chan31

The Brand is BeefPro... She likes the food but I want to try other brands.
Do you have any recommendations?

alot of dogs do not do well on beef, yours could be an exception, dog foood can be a very divisive conversation....lol

GG

[Todd]

Originally Posted by chan31

The Brand is BeefPro... She likes the food but I want to try other brands.
Do you have any recommendations?

I feel Beef pro is a very poor food, as is many commercial products you'll see. Here's something I will copy and paste for you. This is usually what I show people when I suggest foods to feed you dog...

Have you considered feeding a raw diet? How bout a home cooked diet? In my opinion, these are your best options. If this is too inconvenient, I'd suggest choosing a high quality kibble. Most of the foods you see on television commercials and sold at the grocery stores aren't the best choices. Look for a high quality, natural food without artificial preservatives, colors, additives, fillers, corn, wheat, or soy as a initial rule of thumb. Grain free is the best way to go, which generally has high amounts of meat protein. If price is an issue, don't sweat it. There are plenty of good foods out there that are priced the same as poor quality foods. Here is a great site to learn more about what foods are the best and the worst, and their pros and cons. The 6 star foods are the best and the 1 star foods are the worse. I'd at least try to feed 4 star foods, but of course 6 star foods would be ideal. Here are some brands I'd recommend off the top of my head;

Best (Don't use these foods until your dog is an adult/done growing. At least until one year or more, maybe even less, depending on breed. These foods have too high amounts of overall nutrition and cause larger breed dogs to grow too fast and develop bone problems. Wait until adult)

EVO
Taste Of The Wild
Origin
Timberwolf Organics
Canidae Grain-Free Formula
Wellness CORE

Very Good

Innova
Wellness
Canidae
California Natural (Great For Dogs With Food Allergies)
Solid Gold

Good For Best Quality On A Budget

Fromm
Premium Edge
Natural Balance
Diamond Naturals

*Don't forget to consider home cooked or especially raw (which is EXTREMELY cost effective). Let me know if these interest you and I can give you more info. Good Luck!

Great resource for kibble reviews: http//:Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble

There are other good foods out there too. Do some research online on how to read a pet food label.

[CorkyMax]

Originally Posted by chan31

Can i really give my 11 week old puppy a vitamin B complex? My friend told me that it can improve the skin and coat of my dog. Is this really true?
please help... thnks...

I am giving my dog B50 complex because my dog is urinating a lot because of taking furosemide (water pill) for his heart condition. When a dog (or human) urinates a lot --B vitamins get flushed from the system so adding a B50 complex vitamin puts the necessary B vitamins back! I use a human grade vitamin that I order from Puritan's Pride. Here is what it says from their catalog about B50: may be involved in energy production and may help maintain the health of nerves, eyes, skin and hair.

I don't know how much you should give your pup but think whatever the dog doesn't need gets flushed out of body when peeing---That is why the urine will be much yellower when it is flushed. Also if pee isn't yellower that means your pup is using up the B vitamins and must of needed them! Best to ask your vet, etc. about it as I am no expert. (But realistically speaking--Don't expect your vet to know much about vitamins--not taught much on the subject!--Hey! You would prob. do best to talk to a regular pharmacist!!) I personally don't think it will harm your pup and may do some good---maybe you could split the 50 pill in half (Buy a pill splitter--should be under $5.00) and give half a day or just give a pill every other day if you find that a whole pill is too much, but I would use human grade pills.

Here is a link to a thread I did in this forum on vinegar that may give you some ideas too about improving the skin and coat. Please read entire thread: What About Vinegar!!

[gambler-girl]

Todd, it is odvious you like to push people towards raw or high end foods, why?

I have seen this on woman, ex-freind, whom has written articules on raw and sold raw food to others who secretly feed her own dogs kibble because on raw they were looseing their hair.

Another woman(breeder with approx 25 dogs) I know maybe 15 years ago was feeding Innova. Luckily her mentor told her to always use two different foods, she feed half her dogs one brand and the other half Innova. She was feeding after delivery of a batch of Innova the half that were feed that got very sick, 6 died. Apparenlty after the food was milled it was bagged too quickly (still warm with moisture) the food grew mold and became toxic. The company only offered to replace the bags of food, no appology, no compinsation for the lost dogs or vet bills.

Money they say is the root of evil, people make alot of money selling books on 'Raw Feeding' or milling high end lables of food with really no clue what they are talking about, please be carefull.

GG

Originally Posted by Todd

I feel Beef pro is a very poor food, as is many commercial products you'll see. Here's something I will copy and paste for you. This is usually what I show people when I suggest foods to feed you dog...

Have you considered feeding a raw diet? How bout a home cooked diet? In my opinion, these are your best options. If this is too inconvenient, I'd suggest choosing a high quality kibble. Most of the foods you see on television commercials and sold at the grocery stores aren't the best choices. Look for a high quality, natural food without artificial preservatives, colors, additives, fillers, corn, wheat, or soy as a initial rule of thumb. Grain free is the best way to go, which generally has high amounts of meat protein. If price is an issue, don't sweat it. There are plenty of good foods out there that are priced the same as poor quality foods. Here is a great site to learn more about what foods are the best and the worst, and their pros and cons. The 6 star foods are the best and the 1 star foods are the worse. I'd at least try to feed 4 star foods, but of course 6 star foods would be ideal. Here are some brands I'd recommend off the top of my head;

Best (Don't use these foods until your dog is an adult/done growing. At least until one year or more, maybe even less, depending on breed. These foods have too high amounts of overall nutrition and cause larger breed dogs to grow too fast and develop bone problems. Wait until adult)

EVO
Taste Of The Wild
Origin
Timberwolf Organics
Canidae Grain-Free Formula
Wellness CORE

Very Good

Innova
Wellness
Canidae
California Natural (Great For Dogs With Food Allergies)
Solid Gold

Good For Best Quality On A Budget

Fromm
Premium Edge
Natural Balance
Diamond Naturals

*Don't forget to consider home cooked or especially raw (which is EXTREMELY cost effective). Let me know if these interest you and I can give you more info. Good Luck!


There are other good foods out there too. Do some research online on how to read a pet food label.

[Tucker]

Originally Posted by gambler-girl

Todd, it is odvious you like to push people towards raw or high end foods, why?

Money they say is the root of evil, people make alot of money selling books on 'Raw Feeding' or milling high end lables of food with really no clue what they are talking about, please be carefull.

GG

I think it is of benefit to all dog owners to be aware of not only what is in the foods we are feeding but the pros and cons of those foods. There is plenty of detailed, reliable information out there on this subject - so called "high end" foods might not be the right food for a particular dog but I think comparing the ingredients in them to other foods helps us to try to come up with the best food we can afford. There are a lot of very good foods that don't have to break the bank and supplementing with home cooked, or raw if you are comfortable with that, can increase the quality.

[Todd]

Originally Posted by gambler-girl

Todd, it is odvious you like to push people towards raw or high end foods, why?

I have seen this on woman, ex-freind, whom has written articules on raw and sold raw food to others who secretly feed her own dogs kibble because on raw they were looseing their hair.

Another woman(breeder with approx 25 dogs) I know maybe 15 years ago was feeding Innova. Luckily her mentor told her to always use two different foods, she feed half her dogs one brand and the other half Innova. She was feeding after delivery of a batch of Innova the half that were feed that got very sick, 6 died. Apparenlty after the food was milled it was bagged too quickly (still warm with moisture) the food grew mold and became toxic. The company only offered to replace the bags of food, no appology, no compinsation for the lost dogs or vet bills.

Money they say is the root of evil, people make alot of money selling books on 'Raw Feeding' or milling high end lables of food with really no clue what they are talking about, please be carefull.

GG

Well, I have heard many positive things about the raw diet for one. I feed a raw diet and my dog is doing great off of it. As Tucker mentioned, not every diet is going to be the best diet for every individual dog. Another person came on here asking about which diet to feed her dog. Her dog had all kinds of digestive problems and wasn't looking all that great. She took myself and others advice and switched to a raw diet and everything has been great ever since.

Raw Diet.

As far as there being cases of dogs loosing hair over a raw diet, I seriously don't think a raw diet would cause something like that. Just doesn't make much sense. There could be an underlying condition. Higher end foods are considered higher end for a reason and that is because of the superior quality ingredients used as opposed to other brands, which I consider lower end foods, which contain poorer quality ingredients. You obviously know someone who has had issues with Innova because of a bagging problem but I'd be willing to bet that this has happened far more times with lower quality brands than higher. You hear about these pet food recalls all the time. I'm not saying you never see a higher quality get recalled because you do, however most of the foods being recalled are lower end/cheaper pet foods.

[Lunareclipse]

B complex around here means Buster complex. Is there a cure for that?

[Todd]

Originally Posted by Lunareclipse

B complex around here means Buster complex. Is there a cure for that?

I'm sorry but to my knowledge it's a terminal illness...