Feeding a Bedlington Terrier puppy: what actually worked

Most “what to feed your puppy” articles are generic. This one is specific: it’s the actual food history of one Bedlington Terrier, Quincy, plus the guidance his breeder sent home — with the parts that are still unsettled left honestly open instead of smoothed over.

The foods he’s actually eaten

• Farmina N&D Chicken & Pomegranate — his first food.
• Zignature puppy, fish and beef — later.
• His breeder then advised no chicken, and fish-only, because of tear/coat staining concerns.
• Breeder-recommended foods to move toward: Voyager Sensitive Skin & Stomach Salmon and Orijen Six Fish.

He can be picky with kibble and tends to eat wet food more readily. He likes carrots and some fruit, and he’s had yogurt.

The one thing that isn’t settled: when to switch foods

There are two different pieces of timing advice on record, and they don’t agree:

• The breeder discussed switching around six months.
• Earlier advice pointed to adult food around one year.

This is genuinely unresolved. Rather than pick one and pretend it’s settled, the honest answer is: this is the exact question to bring to your vet, because the right age depends on the individual dog’s growth, not a fixed number.

Breeder guidance (not the same as a vet’s prescription)

This came from Northstar’s puppy-buyer document. It’s useful context, but it’s breeder guidance — not automatically Quincy’s current routine or medical advice:

• Puppies: about ¼ cup dry plus a couple of meal mixers, three times a day — “do not overdo it.”
• At about 5½–6 months: down to two meals a day, about ½ cup dry plus some wet food.
• If three meals a day isn’t possible: ½ cup dry plus meal mixers.
• Don’t leave food out. Take it up if the puppy doesn’t eat, and offer it again later.
• Transition by mixing a little of the new food in until they’re weaned off the puppy food.
• No chicken; grain-free wet food.
• Rawhide and bully sticks: not recommended. Earth Animal No-Hide Salmon Stix were suggested instead. String cheese and small training treats are fine as rewards.

Foods that caused problems

These are worth flagging because they’re first-hand, not theoretical:

• Mango caused vomiting.
• After a walk one morning, a little yogurt and salmon wet food was followed by vomiting white foam once.
• He ate a few corn kernels and corn-looking pieces showed up in his stool later.

None of that is a diagnosis — it’s just a log. If a food consistently causes a reaction, that’s a vet conversation, not a guess from a website.

Practical odds and ends

• He’s fed twice a day.
• Water intake has been low at times, and he was once afraid of a water fountain — worth watching in a breed where hydration matters.
• A 25 lb bag of food is a lot to store for one dog; an airtight container helps keep it fresh.

The short version

Feed on a schedule, don’t leave food down, introduce new foods gradually, and treat the picky phase as normal rather than an emergency. Save the two big questions — when to switch to adult food and whether a specific food is causing a reaction — for your vet, because those are the ones where a wrong guess actually costs something.