How do you decide what to feed your dog? Share with tails.com – £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

For many of us, dogs are part of the family. Choosing the right food for them can feel really important – but with so much choice, how do you know what’s right for your dog? Share your experiences of finding the right food for your dog, and be in with a chance of winning a £300 voucher for a store of your choice.

To get us started, here’s what Sean, the Head Vet at tails.com, has to say: “From raw feeding to grain free, we are seeing more human diet trends crossing over into the world of dog food. While trends come and go, I believe in three founding principles of a good diet to improve and extend your dog's life. High quality ingredients, tailored to your dog's individual needs, and fed in the right amount to keep them in great physical shape. The question is how do you find the food that meets all three principles?”

What do you prioritise when it comes to choosing food for your dog? How can you tell if the food you’re giving your dog is beneficial to their health and general condition? Do you have feeding tips that you’d like to share with new dog owners? If your dog has ever gone off their food, how have you encouraged them to start eating again? And if you’re thinking of getting a dog, what do you think you’d feed one - would you buy generic dog food or would you think more deeply about their diet?

Everyone who posts on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice.

Tails.com have supplied a 1 month free discount code - if you'd like to use this please click here.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

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My golden show cocker has Aatu chicken dry food which I get delivered through monster pet supplies. I order it an 2 days later it appears outside my house.

I discovered aatu through allaboutdogfood website which was recommend on mumsnet. I can not fault that website it's amazing!

Dog has anal gland issues and mn suggested I try a grain free gluten free diet. Worked almost instantly! Ddog loves his aatu and I don't need any other treats the kibble is his favourite

We use food recommended by my vet whom I trust.

We stick with pedigree light and pedigree tins, if we buy different dog food her poops are horrendous, we tried fancy expensive food and she just threw that up.

Her bowels thrive on human food, meat and veg is always a winner.

She is an old rescue dog and was almost starved to death before she was rescued and we have no idea what she was fed in the past. If we were to get another younger dog or pup we would definitely look at better quality foods.

There are so many foods out there it can rather bewildering. I’ve seen league tables where the ingredients are listed and star rated - it’s quite an eye opener so how much dubious stuff appears to go into some ogpf the popular, well-known branded foods.

Our dogs are currently fed on Ancestral Csnine which they both seem to enjoy ...supplemented by chicken, fish, etc depending on what’s on offer.

Nutriment raw food. Best thing for his gas and soft bowel movements since he was about 6 months old

What do you prioritise when it comes to choosing food for your dog?
We choose a product that is healthy and natural. We are using Guru pet food currently - our dog loves the Surf and Turf flavour.
How can you tell if the food you’re giving your dog is beneficial to their health and general condition?
By the colour and texture of her poo and also her behaviour - she came to us as a puppy on Royal Canin and got more and more excitable which we realised, through trial and error, was due to the dog food. We tried others but Guru came out the best, she eats it and has a good temperament.
Do you have feeding tips that you’d like to share with new dog owners?
Do your research to see what other people recommend, also buy small sample bags to try.
If your dog has ever gone off their food, how have you encouraged them to start eating again?
Our dog has never had a "big" appetite, she eats when she is hungry and has never stopped eating completely. If she was unwell we would give her chicken and rice.
And if you’re thinking of getting a dog, what do you think you’d feed one - would you buy generic dog food or would you think more deeply about their diet?
If we got a new dog we would try it on Guru which we currently buy.

We feed Pedigree dry or Royal Canin mixed with Pedigree pouches. Our Lab looks fantastic, she's lean and active with an amazingly shiny coat. She's almost 9 but nobody can believe it as she looks so young.

Mine usually has chappie as it helps with The Arse From Hell.

Previous dog was raw fed as it suited him allergy-wise.

It's about finding the best fit for the dog, as far as I'm concerned.

Raw feed here. She arrived obese and hyperactive from being fed the horror that is bakers; switched to raw, weight easily came off, she is now calm, (well unless something small and fluffy runs by! ), is the perfect weight (I am sooo sick of seeing overweight and struggling dogs! ) lovely muscle tone and with gorgeous soft silky shiny fur that everyone comments on. Dogs don't need grains or 'sweepings from mill floor' type fillers, they need meat and bones and although I don't eat meat, I accept that what a canine needs and so when taking on responsibility of a dog, I took on responsibility to keep her as happy and healthy as possible, the right food is the basis for everything else.

My dog is fed grain free James wellbeloved dry food. He does eat it but not straight away preferring to graze over the day.

He has grain free food as he was always scratching his skin on other foods and switching has solved this. We choose a high fish content and his coat is glossy and he has an abundance of energy.

I’m afraid whatever is cheapest, plus occasionally our leftovers !

I don't have a dog but I think if I did I would buy whatever their vet recommended

don't worry too much.start with one and find the one that suits.
we did a general sweep of ingredients I nthe brands were were going to try and found some better than others but now.since its been made more important most dogs foods are the same in benefits.lots of th extra faff and costs with "so called boosting" ingredients we found pointless.
we started them young with a mix of dry and weet fod then moved on to getting the huge back of dry in as they got older.sometimes to swtich it up wed give her a tin with it too.or a slosh of milk which she loves added.
don't let them become fussy,once your stray to giving them "special" diet there tummies become unsettled and work harder to adapt to this new reginme.its in needed and actually doing more harm.
don't give them cheese or konrflakes or human foods.it does not bode well!
leave the food out for the meal.they should it it down.if not don't give them something out.leave the food down for a certain amount of more time then remove it.leaving a bowl of water.
by taking the food away your teaching them that meals are meals.they wont get different and its time to eat.and they quickly develop that routine.
I found the longer we left food out the fussier they became.
What do you prioritise when it comes to choosing food for your dog?
cost.flavour.what the dog likes.one like beef one hated it!give it a good try don't give up if they go a bit iffy after first putting down adult food.they are so used to mummies milk it is only like a child weaning.
you would put a meal in front of them and then give up.this is the same for the dog.they will yearn a bit for mummies milk.
How can you tell if the food you’re giving your dog is beneficial to their health and general condition? do they have a good look about them.good wet nose.bright eyes.energy.look happy.they should look forward to the food.
Do you have feeding tips that you’d like to share with new dog owners? before this new fangled boosting vitamins here and anti here added vitamins there dogs has plain tinned food and plain dry food.our dogs were always fine and dandy on this.so don't be guilted into needed all this food with added crap.we actually found this did them a disservice.

If your dog has ever gone off their food, how have you encouraged them to start eating again?set meal times.do not leave out all day.do not give them ur food.when your all having breakie they will sniff it and be intrigued.so like a child it "now your breakfast! and pour there food out too so like a child you then all sat down together eating.the aroma of yor own cooking and prepping will have gotten their hunger going so now is apt time to give them their food.a splash of milk can help.dont tell them off.if your harsh and getting cross at them to eat it WILL WORK TO THE OPPOSITE.dogs work by association and tone of voice and actions.so yelling and getting cross to eat will mean the forever see serving of their foods as a bad experience we owner yells.
And if you’re thinking of getting a dog, what do you think you’d feed one - would you buy generic dog food or would you think more deeply about their diet?generic.its always been fine.the new stuff is new ways for companys to compete and make money more than what they acutlaly need.
no chococlate grapes or onions.

We have always used burns organic chicken and brown rice

We used to have two very high energy (mad) collies and a dog trainer recommended it to us as it was low protein.

It made a huge difference and so we’ve always used it. We now have a rescue cross breed and he loves it too and thrives on it.

It doesn’t have any junk in it, not too expensive £38 for 12kg and can buy it in the local pet shop.

Job done!

We use Akela as it’s rated highly on allaboutdogfood.com and it’s very affordable.

Chewy likes stealing the cats food, and has been quite fussy with food. He now eats wainwrights and seems to be getting better with eating it straight away.

Our two small terrier crosses eat Harrington Grain Free, Sainsburys tinned and trays of wet food plus fortnightly I cook up a batch of liver, heart, kidney, mince, chicken, rice and vegetables to freeze for them.

I feed my dog a diet that consists mostly of dry biscuits on the advice of my vet. They look so unappetizing though so she often gets treats and if we are having a veg/meat based meal (like a roast etc) then she will have some of what we are having.

We’ve always relied on the advice of the vet with a few treats thrown in, the Sunday roast is rarely safe!

I discovered that Royal Canin and similar brands make my already quite mad Mini Schnauzer go completely hyper!

I now feed her and my 2 Affenpinschers a mix of raw and grain free kibble. I supplement with oils as they are all getting on now.

We have two whippets, one is currently on a low fat diet due to a recent illness and the vet instructed us to buy a certain dog food, however the other dog is not meant to eat low fat food so we are actually at a bit of a loss of a happy medium - something less fatty than standard dog food but not as lean as the prescribed stuff as they often steal each others dog food.

We have a gluttonous spaniel with a dodgy stomach (oh the liquid shits). He hates the Ekanuba dry food the vet suggested, so swapped him onto nutriment raw food which he loves. However I'm concerned by the amount of pathogens reported in these products plus it's also not great for his teeth. So I'm trying other dry products with poached chicken or fish and the poaching water which he's m okay with. Such a shame as food is his biggest love in life!

Our dog isn't at all fussy, but some food doesn't seem to suit him at all. We have used a system of trial and error to find out the best food for him along with researching the nutritional content online. I don't mind paying more for good quality food.

I would love to try raw feeding, but the practical implications put me off - and the cat would probably try to steal it!

Our dog has always been fed a decent quality dry food, the best we've found is Arden Grange. We've tried most flavours, but for the last year she's been on their senior range. She's 12 but looks so healthy, her coat is glossy (she's only groomed by a groomer once a year and only bathed if she's rolled in something) She's still very youthful & bouncy. We tried a raw diet for a while, but came back to dried. There's definitely a huge difference between the quality of dry dog food available, so it's worth researching before purchase.

When we just had our first dog, he used to be on a really cheap brand. His fur was always dishevelled which we put down to him being half terrier, but when we switched to Tails, his fur went so sleek and shiny. Unfortunately, our newest dog (a cocker) doesn’t tolerate her Tails food and gets a runny tummy on it, so we have changed to Millie’s Wolfheart. It seems to be much better.

Finding the right dog food is not so hard - I think getting the portion sizes right is the bit that needs attention. Our first dog is a farm dog and gets so much exercise, we had no idea we were feeding him huge portions. He looked the perfect weight. We have since measured them out properly, but we have dogs to stay quite often, and they also come with huge portions. Millie’s Wolfheart comes with a feeding guide on the bag which is useful.