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

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

When I brought my pup home from the rescue, his tummy wouldn't settle. We tried a couple of brands, then I started researching for a kind to tummies food. I came across raw feeding, which made so much sense to me. It seemed an easier way to avoid whatever was upsetting his tummy. So we switched and had no trouble.

He's as fit as a butcher's dog, has never needed the vet apart from annual checks. He has never had fleas or worms. He's active, bright eyed, not overweight...

I feed my whippet raw meat, we've tried a variety of different suppliers but have currently settled on DAF minces as they are the correct mix of meat, offal and bone, and have a variety of different meats. They are also economical and very convenient. We used to almost exclusively feed whole raw chicken carcasses, but butchering them was time consuming and having that much raw chicken around was a bit off-putting. He does get some kibble every now and then and I usually go for Arden Grange. I just think that dog kibble is like really over processed food, yes it's nutritionally balanced but only because vitamins etc are added back in after processing. Before dog food was invented dogs are meat and bones, so I'd rather choose a natural and unprocessed diet for my dog.

We use harringtons. We be came concerned about sugar and wheat that was in cheap dog food. We did use wainrights but that was mega expensive and difficult for us to get hold of. I noticed the di
difference using harringtons but not much more of a difference with more expensive food.

The breeder we got our dog from recommended Royal Canin because that's what she'd started the puppies on, and she gave us a free week's supply. We kept him on that for a while as we didn't want to upset his tummy.
On a MN thread I noticed a link to a website explaining all the pros and cons of most of the major brands of dog food and we did some further research into the subject.
Our dog now has Eden dry food, supplemented with a digestive support powder, also by Eden.
He doesn't tend to go off his food but when he has we tempt him with some scrambled egg or plain chicken.

After a huge amount of research before getting our first dog trying to find the best food for her we settled on raw feeding. We switch around sometimes making it ourselves if we see some good deals on meat and follow the 80/10/10 ratio. If we buy it ready made we switch between nutriment, Cotswold raw and benyfit.
They also have treats of fresh veggies, they particular love carrots and brocolli and they also go mad for watermelon. They also have raw bones we give them anything that isn’t weight bearing they particularly like chicken wings, ribs, duck necks and also beef trachea keeps them busy for a while. If we see fish on offer they have that too mainly sprats or sardines. The dogs look great on it, I don’t like my dogs having anything with grain in it as it isn’t good for them and is just a cheap filler.
Feeding them on raw is great as they look great and I have never noticed my dogs fart and they do far less and much smaller and less stinky poos.
Shocked to see someone feeds their dog a vegan diet, dogs need meet in their diet.

*meat

Mine is on James well beloved. I’ve tried cheaper and more expensive but this one gives him a settled stomach and his breath doesn’t smell like death

We had to trial a few different dog foods to find one that worked well. A mixture of wet and dry foods worked best in the end for our dog Harry.

We feed our two labradors Tails food - one on a low calorie diet and one with a grain, and low level beef allergy. We've used Tails for over 3 years.

Previously used Hills Science Plan low calorie for our older dog, which was fine but expensive and we had to get online to pay a reasonable price and it wasn't always available at the local pet shop. Ended up having to store massive bags! We've been really pleased with Tails - easy to manage the account on line, easy to adapt food for allergies and dogs are in great condition.

We feed a mixture of kibble and quality scraps (raw beef/mince/roast chicken/veg)
He gets a very good quality grain free kibble with no frills or gimmicks.

We know what we are feeding him is good for him as his weight is good, he looks healthy and has small firm pickupable poop. He very rarely has gastric problems or smelly wind unless he finds and eats something nasty/dead outside.

Homecooked vegetables with either meat or fish.

He adores lambs hearts and I buy sardines in oil for him not the boneless ones.

Looks very good on it, also he has powdered/crushed eggshells.

For treats he has Vets Kitchen senior, little niblets so easy to take on walks. Found these recently.

When we camp I take Lilys Kitchen cans, he likes it and its the closest to what I cook for him.

I feed my dogs pets at home step up to naturals sensitive and light.

I love that the food is both sensitive and lighter as one of my dogs is overweight and another is sensitive. The other ones are fine with whatever they eat so this food covers all bases. It is affordable and the quality compared to higher end brands is roughly the same.

I'd get advice on a raw diet.

We have a lab with eczema so we have to have specific food for her. Before this, we've always gone with pretty simple farmers' sacks of food, but recently we've had to go for this really expensive brand. But it is working, and her skin is better. It's gluten free, and various other things. But for our dog, we give her farmer's blend in the evening, and in the morning a handful of pedigree chum 'nuts'..

whtever is on offer at the supermarket - i know you want me to say something about it being healthy, but honesstly that is how i choose

I have a border collie and a miniature dachshund on Autarky working dogs food. It is cheaper because no VAT and has the best ingredients I can afford. They also have sardines in oil once a week. Both dogs are in very good condition.

My dog is a rescue, we tried a few things over the first few months but settled on mostly Arden Grange dry mixed with some/little topping of wet food that is grain free (we vary the wet brand to get different tempting flavours for him but always a grain free one).

We chose this because he would eat it easily and regularly, his poos are good on it and he seemed energetic and happy. He had turned up his nose at other things or had upset tum or seemed unsettled. Cost was also part of the factor of course - the Arden Grange is middle diddle between cheap as chips and the dog eating better than us.

When he goes off food (it's only very very occasionally now) we give him plain rice to settle his tummy then after 24 hours or so he's usually happy to start back again.

Advice to new owners - go on allaboutdogs.co.uk to check out the quality of various brands. It's scary the utter garbage in the cheapest and some
Of the most popular/most promoted brands - absolutely no nutritional value at all!

About half and half of dog food and our food
Tonight she will have roast beef
I feed a variety of food - skylos kibble, Lily's kitchen, nature's diet and all grain free
I would get really bored of same stuff everyday
She needs the added vitamins and minerals from proprietary dog food
She's very small at 2.7 kg so doesn't need that much

Used to feed Arden Grange large breed puppy food to my lab as it was suggested that she shouldn't grow too fast. Nit sure how much I believed the hype though. Then we switched to Autarky turkey and potato as it seemed to score well on the allaboutdogfood site.
Now looking for a change, as she needs to diet and is becoming a little rounded.
Have stalled on the decision making thoug as there don't seem to be any good quality 'diet' foods about.

I feed my dog Harringtons with a wet pouch on top.

He has a very sensitive stomach and I went through a lot of dog food trying to find one that he would eat or that didn’t cause major holes in the ozone layer due to evil flatulence afterwards.

I sent away for lots of samples of food when he was a pup, and one very posh one actually made him heave when he went near the bowl.

My dog means the world to me so only the best for him! I would gladly upgrade to a superior food if I could be sure it wouldn’t cause adverse effects. (Actually his favourite food in the whole world is a nice piece of hot buttered toast )

My springer spaniel lived happily on James Wellbeloved for most of his life until his partial rostral hemimandbulectomy spelled the end of kibble so now it’s cans of Aatu - I have a trade account with a local feed merchant and am influenced by what customers rave about/swerve.

I fed our lab on raw tripe, with natural yoghurt, carrots/cucumber/apple , cod liver oil capsule and some Wainwrights biscuits as the breeder had them on that, but after a recent telling off from the vet re raw feeding I’ve just ordered some Hills science plan light for large dogs and I will continue to add in the veg and yoghurt and see how she goes, she currently has a lovely shiny coat so I will keep an eye on her and see if this new diet is bettter or worse for her.

My dog recently has had an ache pancreatitis attack so for us low fat diet is the most important. We use Hill's id low fat food. Texture and taste are so important so we add a bit of bovril and make sure it's mashed completely up!

Our dog is a rescue and she is fed on the same food the centre used. My dh switched to a cheaper option when we got her, but her poop doubled in size, and smelt foul, so we went back to what they used to feed her where we got her from. It seems to agree with her, so we will stick with it.

Our dog (jack Russel, 14 years old) has James Wellbeloved senior dry food with water. We’ve always used James wellbeloved as it has a high meat content and not too many other additives. The wet food always gave her bad breath and dodgy tummy. As a special treat she has naturediet pouches mixed in every now and then. Always has a bit of chicken and gravy on roast dinner days!