Reddit reviews Feed Your Best Friend Better: Easy, Nutritious Meals and Treats for Dogs

I started cooking for my dogs when I lived in area where I could not easily find quality food. I bought this book -

http://www.amazon.com/Feed-Your-Best-Friend-Better/dp/1449409938/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1369923278&sr=8-2&keywords=Cooking+for+dogs

and if I catch stuff on sale, it is affordable and I can control exactly what is in there. I make up a big batch and freeze it. Just cooked a batch last night - chicken, quinoa, red lentils, tons of mixed greens, tomatoes, carrots, zucchini and eggplant. Be sure and add the vitamin mix recipe included in the book to each batch of food, which you can also make up ahead of time.

Treats are dehydrated sweet potatoes and this week, organic blueberries from a local fruit stand.

That said, if cooking is not your thing, I agree with all the recommendations for the Costco food, definitely the best bang for your buck.

I've got a Boston too and when I first got her she was pretty quiet and liked to explore cautiously, but after she was comfortable with everyone and everything there was no stopping her!

As for toys, get smaller ones that fit nicely in his mouth (but nothing he could choke on obviously). My dog has the same unstuffed long fox thing, and she loves it.

I would hold off on feeding your puppy by hand because you don't want him to expect this in the future. If he gets hungry enough he will eat.
I had a bunch of food problems with my Boston. I had her eating Acana brand foods, but the protein level was way too high for her (she has a small liver, so processing protein is hard for her (It also gave her nuclear farts). I then put her on a raw diet which is supposedly really good for their coats (you buy like hockey puck sized frozen portions of raw meat and vegetables, let it thaw, and that's it), but after a few months it was getting pretty expensive and she lost interest in the food.

Now I make her food (a mix of rice, chicken hearts or livers, chicken thighs, spinach, eggs, etc) which I found in this cookbook.
While sometimes she gobbles up her food right away, other times she can leave it for a good hour before touching it. I kind of just figure that she'll eat when she's hungry.

If you go the raw diet route though, you can't leave it out for long or else it can go bad

As for the baldness thing, I've never had that problem, but I can tell you that my Boston is bald on her belly and her "armpits" (if you can call them that). And sometimes, if the light is shining a certain way on her head, you can kind of see her scalp. So maybe it's just a breed trait?

Hope you find some reassurance in this. Let me know if you have any questions.

This book was super helpful when we made the switch ~4 years ago with our mini Aussie: https://www.amazon.com/Feed-Your-Best-Friend-Better/dp/1449409938. It includes options for supplementing or replacing kibble. We went the replacement route and it took some time to find some of the ingredients, but it wasn't anything the internet/a good health food store couldn't solve.