Dog foods, can I run through a few?

[Disenchanted3]

Not literally that would be gross

I want to get my pugs onto a complete dry food and so went to our large pet shop tody to have a look.

I'm looking to get the 15kg bags as there are 2 of them (the KKCS) is still on puppy food.

The higher end 15 kg bags seemed tobe around £50,proplan adult, james wellbeloved, science plan.

Thenthere was Bakers adult at about £30 (but is on special offer at £20 at the moment)

Purina was £27

and finallyJolleys own at £23.

The science plan was also on offer down to £40 from £50 but I have to think what it will be in the long run rather than just this month IYKWIM.

I read that if the first ingredient is meat then we are off to a good start, i found it surprising that the jolleys brand was chicken first at 26% and that eukenuba which is double the price is the same at just 2% more (28%)

Just looking for advice on what I should go for really, I have no qualms at getting the top end ones but if the £20 less ones are as good then I'm happy with that.

Also are these foods complete, do you need to add anything else or just measure this out morning noon and night?

My pugs like to have chicken, carrots and rice in the evening can I add ths to the dry food, I don't want them getting fat!

Thankyou

We've found that our (admittedly huge & not at all pug-like) dog does very well on the dried vegetarian dog food.

Unfortunately the expensive branded one (Happi-dog, sometimes sold as V-dog) seems much the best (we pay £25 for 15 kg).

BUT - the key thing is that his poo is much less gross to pick up compared to when we had him on a standard meat containing dried food. His breath also smells less.

We have a dodgy-stomach weimaraner and he is on James Wellbeloved (we get it from the farm store where it is cheaper - approx £35 for 15Kg iirc). If he has anything else, it is not nice to clean up after him (not that it is ever 'nice' poo-picking, esp with a dog the size of a small pony ). Def agree with Orienteerer on the dry food = easier poop.

iirc, Purina and Bakers are Nestle = evil.

Thanks orienteerer. I will tell her. I think she can deal with routine and has a good park nearby.
will also recommend dry food. Which one have you all decided on?

Ahhh, a cause close to my heart at the moment, having spent literally hours last weekend examining the ingredients list of all the major dog foods!

Definitely stay away from Bakers - it's like doggie sweets, full of sugar and additives. It also has very little meat content - same with Pedigree Chum, Beta and the like.

Basically, the less ingredients a food has, the better. We use Wainwrights lamb & rice from PAH - we chose it over the James Wellbeloved lamb & rice because it has the same amount of meat (26%) but the ingredients list was a lot shorter (it's also quite a bit cheaper). The kibble might be a bit big for your pugs though - the JWB has smaller biccies.

The Pro Plan, Iams and Science Plan all have too many ingredients for my liking, and the Royal Canin has too much maize for me, but I know a lot of people swear by it (not sure if this is just because so many vets push it though - our vets sell it, but none of them use it). I've heard good things about Arden Grange, although from what I read it can make some dogs a bit windy.

If they are only going to get dry food, Orijen is the best one food you can buy - just 70% meat, 30% fruits and vegetables, and nothing else. It seems expensive but you use less, so it's quite cost effective.

All the foods are complete, but if you want to add something to them you want to, as long as you reduce the serving size accordingly. For example, according to the feeding guide ours should have 350g of Wainrights a day and 2.5 trays of Naturediet. As they're labs and get fat on fresh air, I always feed a bit less than it says, so they actually get 150g of Wainwrights and 1 tray of Naturediet (dry in the morning, wet at night). If you want to give them something wet in the evening, I would be tempted to go for a pre-packed food so you can be sure of the amount of protein, carbs etc they're getting (whereas if you cook things for them yourself, it's harder to balance). But again, it needs to be good quality - of course, I am a Naturediet convert, so I have to recommend that! 60% meat (compared to Pedigree Chum's 4%!), brown rice, veggies, ground bone, herbs, kelp, and nothing else. It goes down very well with my two (hence me just buying 360 packs!).

I still haven't stocked up on my dry food yet as I'm still wibbling about whether to bite the bullet and go for Orijen - it'd cost me an extra £16 a month but I know it's better value because I'd be paying for 70% meat instead of 26%. But on the other hand, I know they like the Wainwrights, it's easy to get hold of and it doesn't upset their tummies (older one has colitis). There's no point in me buying them the best dog food if they won't eat it anyway. Must remember to order a sample bag tomorrow!

I used James Wellbeloved. Seemed to do the trick.
If you are going to buy Bakers, I believe poundland sell it!

I haven't actualy owned a dog for 5 years, but nearly bought a can of Chappie the other day just to smell it. Now I am stalking dog food threads.

is it true that they poo less on the more expensive foods? mine either have tescos/pets at home own brand unless there's an offer on in asda. prior to DS they used to have pro plan or beta.

Dogs love Fish4Dogs but I can't stand the smell!

Comfy - Irish Terriers are the best . My only concern would be puppy "toilet" training in a flat, do they have a balcony to designate as outdoors? I ended up using Pets At Home own brand.

The cheaper a food is, the more fillers it contains (corn, maize etc) so the more poo it produces.

I must say, I meant they should get 350g of Wainwrights OR 2.5 trays of Naturediet, not and. They're only labs, not elephants

I forgot to say, my vet also sells JWB alongside the RC and I know a lot of the staff use it for their own dogs/cats. The only thing that worries me about JWB is the 'special ingredients' bit - I like to know exactly what's in the food, so it's a bit cryptic for me! But size-wise it'd probably be a bit more suitable for small dogs than the Wainrights. Not sure what size the Orijen biccies are, I'm sure someone will be along shortly who uses it.

fab. thanks, what would you guys recommend for a staffy and a GSD? they have dry food, with 1 bag of 'dog mince' from the butcher as well. (this I beleive is 75% fatty meat and 25% meat meat minced)

thesouthbelle - 100% dried is great (in my opinion)

Mine used to love James Wellbeloved until we moved her on to the adult food. She wouldn't touch it.

She now has Joe & Jacks which she loves. She has the odd packet of wet food from them too which she absolutley loves and goes totally mental over .... licks the empty bowl for 1/2 an hour afterwards.

thesouthbelle, my two greedy 26kg labs are doing really well on the Naturediet, and I've just got six months worth of it from Berriewoods for 59p a pack (compared to PAH 83p!) so they'll be eating it no matter what

Their poos are great on Naturediet, the best I've ever seen them, and they always lick their bowls clean afterwards. They get a whole tray each at night, but I did consider giving them just half a tray each on top of some dry food instead. In the end when I worked out the price per meal, it wasn't much different, so I decided to give them the full tray and keep the dry food for mornings only. As much as they like their biscuits, they like their ND a lot more. I always think feeding them dry food all the time must be a bit boring for them, like us eating dry cereal for every meal. They definitely enjoy the meat much more.

There are so many dry foods on the market it's really confusing, you can spend hours looking at them all and still be none the wiser, and even if you do choose one there's no saying they'll actually eat it! If I didn't know how well mine did on the Wainwrights, I'd probably go for the Orijen. It's definitely the better food, but unfortunately that doesn't mean they'll like it!

As a vet who sells no pet food and does feed the posh brand behind the scenes, I recommend a premium brand food such as burns, james wellbeloved, hills, iams or royal canin. All the premium brand pet foods provide vets and nurses with ongoing training, but as we are mostly independant thinking people we can pick out the good and the bad.
Bakers don't get me started on it do we feed our children things with a high number of colourings, flavourings and preservatives everyday mostly no then why do it to our dogs. The number of epileptic dogs I have had who turn out to be on bakers and when we stop the bakers the numbers of fits drop.

I've been lazy and not read all the posts so this may have already been said, but I would suggest that you strike Bakers off your list. It has a lot of additives and colourings, I'm told, and I know quite a few owners with epi dogs have reported seizures in their dogs soon after changing to it.

My Lab x and GSD boy (the latter of whom has a sensitive tum) eat CSJ and Naturediet. No upset tums, empty bowls and healthy dogs, thank goodness.

Lizcat, what do you think about the Orijen? Do you know anyone who feeds it, or do you think the other premium brands (JWB etc) are just as good? I'm really undecided whether to try it - I'm a bit concerned about the high protein level (45%), especially as I'd be trying to balance it with the ND.

I don't suppose you know what the 'JWB 'special ingredients' are, do you? I've googled and looked on their website but I'm still no closer to cracking the code! I'm guessing they're nothing bad, but it's always made me a bit wary that they don't list exactly what they are. Maybe it's like KFC and the colonel's 'secret recipe' lol!

Ive bought the 2 x 15kg bags of Arden Grange for £51ish delivered

You can usually get deals on Royal Canin, we got 4 x15 k bags @£35 each down from £35 and Pets at Home had the small bags really cheap too.
I have one fussy eater and she will only eat Royal Canin, but the younger girl eats anything JWB whatever, which is handy as the older girl won tons with her showing last year but refused to eat it...

Vallhala which CSJ do you feed?

Gosh, bella is right, I really am a dog food tart!

Ooooh disenchanted, you're brave buying 30kg without trying it first! I hope they eat it

Woofa has been reading too many dog food/ dog poo threads.

I keep reading 'bowls' as 'bowels'

They eat anything!!

but I hope so too!!

Don't use Science Plan.

Orijen is the best.

Hills and Iams have bad reputations.

www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php/cat/1