We have done a lot of research through veterinary and university journal articles and have come up with a program that seems to work for our dogs. A challenge we have with Beagles is that they are prone to epileptic seizures – there is no test for it so you never know where it will show itself, and it usually doesn’t appear until the dog is older – around four years old. We haven’t seen it in our show dogs, but its always a possibility.
There are several journal articles that show gut health is directly linked to seizures, in both humans and Beagles. So we start by giving the mom the best nutrition we can, and if we own the stud, he gets really high quality nutrition as well. When the pups begin to erupt teeth (around 3-4 weeks old) we wait until the teeth are fully through before we switch from mom’s milk to solids. Even if they are interested in food earlier, we wait until the teeth are fully erupted – this is a signal that the digestive tract is ready.
We begin with goats milk and probiotics, so the pups can lap up the milk – this strengthens the muscles in the digestive tract. Each feeding, we add something to it. Tahini, spirulina, raw egg, local raw honey, a vitamin, and finally, ground up tripe (cow’s stomach) which has digestive enzymes in it. By the end of that week, the pups are eating from the bowl and doing some chewing. We then start grinding up small amounts of dry kibble to add to the mix, and that’s what they get until they are about 8 weeks old.
At that time, they begin to eat the food in the “bucket”. We prepare dry kibble (we use Inukshuk brand all-life-stages chicken 26/16 dog food, but have used Pro Plan Puppy Chicken as well) in a 3 gallon bucket, with warm water to start to soften it. We add probiotics and a vitamin from www.naturesfarmacy.com, and then depending upon what we have on hand at the time, sometimes we add a raw egg, spirulina, ground up chicken from www.gandcrawdogfood.com, sardines, and Camolena Oil. It’s important that the first year of your puppy’s life they get a balanced diet including phosphorus and calcium in a 1:1 ratio. But adding fresh foods to their diet and lots of fats keeps them healthy.
Keeping your pup at a healthy weight is important until their bones solidify and hormones calm down around 18 months old. Too fat and you risk bone issues and their back weakening. Too skinny (ribs showing) you risk brain health and poor coat, skin issues. Exercise is important for a puppy but never push them – let them play at their own rate and let them sleep many times throughout the day.
Worming is just as important. If you have your pup on a monthly heartworm such as Interceptor Plus or Heartguard Plus, you really don’t need to worry about worms. Keep them on it year round because it kills other worms besides heartworm.