Skinner's: Feeding a rescue dog
Written by Zoe Russel, BSc (Hons) ANutr Nutrition Officer, Skinner's
Offering a rescue dog a forever home is a happy and rewarding experience, and helps provide a dog with the life they deserve. Rescue dogs come in a wonderfully eclectic mix of shapes, sizes, breeds and ages, each with their own delightfully unique personality.
As with any animal, it’s important to provide them with the right training, care and diet to help them live happy, healthy lives.
Bringing a rescue dog home
Bringing a new dog home can be quite a strange and uncertain time for them; there are often new sights, sounds, smells and people to accustom to. For some dogs, a change of environment can seemingly put them off their food at first.
However, providing they are in good health, we would suggest giving them time and space to eat their meals. Staying patient and maintaining a quiet, calm space for them, will be the best way to help them settle and find their appetite.
It’s also important to provide a constant source of fresh, clean water to help them stay hydrated.
Thinking of changing their diet?
If you are looking to change your new dog’s diet, then we would suggest waiting a few weeks for them to settle in first. Once they are settled, you might consider moving onto another diet, such as Skinner’s.
When making dietary changes, we would recommend that you transition your dog onto the new diet gradually over a period of ten – fourteen days; we typically recommend doing this in 10% increments.
During the transition, it is quite normal for dogs to experience flatulence and/or loose stools but these should diminish as the digestive tract adjusts to the change, which can take up to six weeks.
Making mealtimes fun
Once your new dog has settled in, it’s important to not only provide them with appropriate exercise to keep them healthy but to also keep their minds stimulated.
Mealtimes can be a great opportunity to provide some fun enrichment for your dog. Why not use exciting alternatives to ‘normal’ feed bowls such as slow feeders, lick mats and Kongs. This helps to keep their mind active and make mealtimes much more fun and engaging.
Top tip - our wet food is the perfect choice for spreading into lick mats and Kongs, plus it can be frozen so makes the ideal, longer-lasting meal for a warmer spring or summer day.
Training and treating
Rewarding your dog with a tasty treat can be a great way to positively reinforce behaviour. Using a high-value treat can make the reward even better, however for some dogs it’s simply the idea of getting extra food that’s exciting!
When treating your dog it’s important not to overdo it, as too many treats could unbalance the diet and could also increase the likelihood of your dog gaining weight.
As a general rule of thumb, treats and titbits shouldn’t make up any more than 10% of your dog’s overall diet.
Meeting their nutritional needs
Some rescue dogs have very specific nutritional needs, which your vet or rescue centre should discuss with you prior to adoption.
If you’d like to see if Skinner’s have a diet that suits their nutritional needs then their team are on-hand to help.
Email [email protected] or call 01379 384247.
