Menu Content/Inhalt
Home arrow Puppy Care
Puppy Care


Quality Dog Foods PDF Print E-mail
I get many questions about what to feed pocket beagles.  I firmly belive that most commerical are not healthy sources of food for our beloved furry family members.  There are many sites on the internet that review dog foods.  One of my favorites is Dog Food Analysis.  They rate dog foods from 1 star to 6 stars.  I only feed 5 or 6 Star Dog foods to my dogs. 
 
Finding these quality dog foods is not as easy as you might think.   Here is a list of the dog foods rated by this site as being 5 and 6 Star Dog Foods.  Notice the absence of most of the well known dog foods.  To find the quality rating of your dog food, you can go to that site and enter the name of the product.  Don't be surprised if you are feeding a 1 or 2 Star dog food.  And don't be surprised that many of the expensive brands have very low ratings.
 
The only quality dog foods I can find in my area are Taste of the Wild, Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lovers Soul and Canidae for All Life Stages.  Those are the ones that I feed to your puppy along with raw hamburger and fresh organic bones.
 
I also do not believe in feeding just one brand of dog food.  I feed all the 5 and 6 Star foods that I can find.  If you only feed 1 brand you are locked into the nutritional analyis and sources of nutrients of THAT company.   The way that I do this is to mix a couple of bags together or feed 3/4 of one bag and then mix the another bag in  which allows the dog to change to the new brand gradually.
 
6 Star Dog Foods
 
Orijen
Petcurean
The Blue Buffalo: Blue Wilderness
Naturapet Innova
Old Mother Hubbard Wellness Core Ocean
Artemis Maximal Dog
Horizon Legacy Adult Canine and Legacy Puppy
Taste of the Wild
 
5 Star Dog Foods
 
Acana
Artemis
Before Grain
BrightLIfe
Canidae for All Life Stages
Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover's Soul
Evanger
Fromm Four Star
Go Natural
Innova
Merrick
Nature Logic
Nature's Variety R Praire
O &  M Prime Life Plus
Pinnacle Peake Protein
Snow Bound Naturals
Sold Gold
Timberwolf Organics
Wellness

 
 
 
 
Puppy Management PDF Print E-mail
We believe in lots of human socialization.  Aft r the first week or so, the puppies are handled on a daily basis. We do nothing with the pups that woud scare them or in anyway frighten them.
 
As they get a little bit older we spend more time with them.  They have puppy toys and a lot of human contact in a comfortable, pleasant environment.  
 
The puppies have access to food as soon as they are able to follow their Mom from the "den" to the feed station.  The puppies are born in a heated and cooled structure which has doggie doors that lead outside to screened-in porches.  At above 4 to 5 weeks of age, they will be following their Mom outside to the porch and begin chewing on puppy food and sipping on water.  
 
As they get older and more coordinated, they can go down the steps from the porch to a fenced-in puppy yard.  This allows the puppies the opportunity to follow "Nature's Program" of going away from where they sleep and eat to poop.
 
We deworm the puppies on a regular basis first with Nemex II and then with Drontal Plus.  By 8 weeks of age, most puppies have had about 3 deworming.  
 
At 8 weeks of age, the puppies get their first vaccination of Vanguard 5.  Their 2nd dose is due at about 12 weeks of age.