Feeding Your Greyhound Or Lurcher

Feeding Your Greyhound Or Lurcher. What Should I Feed My Dog?
Many owners do question if they are feeding their greyhound or lurcher correctly.

Feeding Your Greyhound Or Lurcher. What Should I Feed My Dog?

Many owners do question if they are feeding their greyhound or lurcher correctly.

Complete Dog Food or BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food)?

The first rule is always use a raised feeder. Raised feeding bowls have to be used for all deep chested dogs. We sell them in our online shop.

It is then a personal choice whether you wish to feed your greyhound dried dog food or you follow the BARF diet.

General Feeding Rules For Your Greyhound Or Lurcher

Always feed from a raised bowl.

Please do not feed your dog with any food that has a high concentration of artificial colourings, flavourings and preservatives. As a rough guide this means those foods advertised on TV. Always check the back of the food packaging to see what you are feeding your dog. The wrong type of food can cause digestion and/or behavioural problems.

If you dog has behavioural problems, it maybe that they are getting too much protein in their diet. This is similar to feeding your child too many sugary treats. Check how many high protein treats you are giving them and consider choosing a dog food with a lower protein content.

We also do not recommend feeding commercial dog treats, as most are very high in artificial colourings and preservatives etc. Why not try baking your own dog treats. They are very easy to make and much better for your dog.

The emerging dog food market is food made from bugs! It is currently expensive to buy but becoming very popular for many environmental and vegetarian reasons.

Feeding Dried Dog Food

There are many very good quality dried dog foods available which will give your dog a balanced diet without filling him up with additives and preservatives. KGR feed our dogs on Arden Grange, which is a nutritionally complete dried dog food. But there are other good quality foods available ranging from £20 to £70 for 12kg bag. Other foods we would highly recommend are Scrumbles, Naturaldogfoodcompany, Burns, Trophy Pet Foods, but there are many other quality food available – why not try popping into your local pet shop and discussing your dogs diet with them.

Do not feed your greyhound with food designed for racing greyhounds. It is VAT free because it is for working dogs and not suitable for the lazy sofa hog you have at home.

On average a greyhound will need around 15kg of dried dog food per month but this will depend on the brand of food you purchase. Always check the packet to see how much food you should give your dog based on his weight. The cheaper products tend to contain bulking agents and fillers which means that although the product will appear cheaper, you dog actually has to eat more to obtain the same benefit

Some foods are manufactured by companies which test on animals, so please try to avoid these brands.

Feeding Wet Dog Foods

We would recommend you avoid commercial tinned dog food, so again the ones advertised on TV. If you wish to feed your dog soft food use good quality brands such as Scrumbles, Barking Heads, Arden Grange or Forthglade, all of which contain high quality ingredients. Scrumbles is a local Company (Sussex) and our dogs love it. We were lucky enough to receive a huge donation of Naturaldogfoodcompany food from them – and again, the dogs loved it.

Feeding BARF

BARF is the same diet that your dog would eat if he were in the wild. Your dogs digestion system can cope with raw meat and they do not catch e coli or salmonella the way a human may from eating raw meat.

Please don’t forget that your dog cannot just eat meat, he will need a nutritionally balanced diet, which must include vegetables. You will need to understand how to fulfil his nutritional requirements to correctly feed on a BARF diet.

Dogs have died from eating bones and some vets suggest that dogs should not be fed any bones even uncooked.

There are lots of small companies in the UK who provide advice and a delivery service for owners wanting to feed raw food.

When feeding your greyhound or lurcher. Please remember NEVER to allow your dog to eat:

  • Chocolate
  • Grapes/Raisins/Onions (including stealing the Christmas cake!)
  • Gravy i.e. Bisto – it is very high in salt which could cause kidney failure
  • Anything mouldy including waste in your compost bin or kitchen bin – green mould on bread, cake, veg peelings, and general food waste can be very toxic to dogs. 

Everyone at Kent Greyhound Rescue is a volunteer.  We receive no funding from the racing industry and have to fund everything in house.  Shopping with us is a great way for you to help us help more dogs.  We sell toys, coats, beds, harness, collars, leads and lots more in our online shop

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