what shall we feed the dog?

[fishie]

Hello dogmners please share your advice.

Pup is 7.5mo, 0.5 retriever, 0.25 gsd, 0.25 husky. He has enormous sloppy poos and often gunky eyes on waking. He is well, I am sure it is the FOOD. Is on Waitrose tinned / Arden Grange atm - we've tried Pero and that semi moist wormy one, both resulted in a mess on the kitchen floor in the morning.

While I loathe processed food and would happily feed BARF type stuff, dh is the one at home with him all day and does pretty much all feeding. He is not a person who will be adding seeds and mixing in tuna a la Olihan's thread, although I would love to feed the dog this way. He is already complaining that he is doing more dog care than work (is self employed home based).

So it needs to be easy and not too expensive. What do you suggest?

We feed ours Wainwrights and have no problems. (touch wood)

thanks Coca. We're using Wainwrights treats but the food = runny plops :(

My staffie has Hi-Life morsels, and a small amount of chicken or beef (poached/stewed) mixed with Iams chicken complete dried food.

We never give him tinned food. Ever.

We use Skinners hypo allergenic Duck and Rice for our Husky it is the only thing he can tolerate.
Also feed it dry.
It is reletively cheap too

No treats at all, no scraps nothing. if he gets a wiff of anything he gets teh runs. Fat seems to be a killer for him

Our puppy was on JWB Junior until he was a year old - I found out, after a lot of trial and error, repeated tests for worms, giardia, etc, that his runny poo was because red meat triggered bad colitis. He's now on hypoallergenic high fibre fish/chicken-based food and is huge fine.

Arden Grange is meant to be quite a good food, so before you change it, might it be worth checking whether your puppy's actually getting too much? How many treats a day is he getting? Has he been wormed recently?

I also share your DH's pain about doing more dog-wrangling than work, btw. Sometimes I feel like a full-time dog-owner, part time self-employee.

All the 'premium' brands are much of a muchness tbh and although not dreadful, they aren't especially good either.

Wheat is a big cause of runny poos etc so avoid that and aim for a food with rice as the only cereal is possible. Beef/red meat and even chicken can cause problems too. Or, even better, use something such as Orijen or Fish4dogs or Pets At Home have just started doing a food called 'Fishmongers' which is 60% fish and potato, no rice or any other cereals. I think that's about the best quality you'll find without having to mail order.

I would also ditch the wet food completely, it won't help and there's no need for it diet wise.

Whatever you change him to, you need to change it gradually and then stick with it for a while to let your dog get used to it.

fishie, just wanted to say before you totally rule barf out that everyone does it a bit differently. I'm obviously an idle barfer as all I do every day is take a packet of frozen meat with green tripe mixed in out of the freezer and either some chicken wings/carcass or a chunk of liver or kidney and leave it in a Tupperware box to defrost and that's it.

It takes a little bit more time and thought than a scoop of kibble does but in terms of delightful natty little pick up able poos it is superb and we have had no issues with gummy eyes, anal glands, itchy skin, allergies or dandruff ,just great looking hair.

Damn you cross out, that worked on the preview.

thank you all. Slubber I am considering getting an additional freezer for the cellar, if we could get food pre-portioned etc would be good. i saw you said landywoods on other thread but their website has no pictures and £30 minimum order which is a bit offputting.

poor doggy, he literally did about 13 tiny poos on a walk yesterday. is a nightmare to pick up.

Natural Instinct do pre packaged barf food trays with everything included. I started out with them as I was a bit anxious about the whole crunching up of bones issue and with this crowd the bones are ground up in the meat already.

I phoned and had a long chat with them, they were very helpful and recommended what to start with. I think there might be a minimum order but it is not as mind and volume boggling as your first Landywoods delivery.

I have fed my dogs Chappie for years and years. I thought it was the best. I thought this because I worked in rescue and the dogs there couldnt really cope with anything rich.

Someone recommending Nature's Menu to me for my Chi X Pom and raved about it. I gave it a go and didnt notice a huge change in the Chi (he is only 1) but my 14 year old dog changed within a couple of weeks.

Honestly, I have no connection with the company but he is like a diffent dog. I feel awful for feeding him that crap all this time

Joints, coat, eyes, his whole condition has improved so much. He used to have trouble walking and was really stiff - he runs about like a dog half his age now (I know I sound like an advert).

Both dogs poo normal poo. No runny ones.

The food comes in frozen chunks and is just meat and veg. The feeding guide on the back is far to generous IMO. I only give about a third with some plain mixer. Its 2.99 a bag.

HTH

If I have managed to activate my profile there should be a picture there of our first Landywoods delivery. I had been warned about the amounts but even with a huge spare freezer in the garage I had to play a lengthy game of raw meat packet tetrus to fit it all in.

crikey that's a lot of dog food!

We have a rescue dog who was in a sorry state when we got him. His stomach was also very sensitive. After trying all sorts of feeds with limited success, our dog trainer recommended Burns. He hasn't looked back. He is lively, bright eyed, his coat is shining and sleek now (it was like hay before) and he has finally got up to an acceptable weight.

His poo is also what I would consider normal now and he has had no accidents since moving to this feed.
I, personally, would thoroughly recommend it.
My cousins's dog had similar problems and he too has turned right around on Burns.

I hope you find something that helps.

We feed our GSD Royal Canin topped up with Butchers tripe mix (third of a can per meal) Make sure bowls are properly cleaned once a day. Gummy eyes probably not diet related - could be an allergy or infection.

We are idle BARFers too. We get carcasses free from butcher (but only free after you've bought your Sunday roast from them...) and we top up with offal from Tescos, which we mix with veg peelings/cottage cheese and cod liver oil once a week and freeze in bags. We also have a few tripe packs from local vet shop in freezer for emergencies.

If you can get to butchers once a week then you need freezer space equivalent to maybe two loaves of bread, and similar size in fridge.

I was very dubious when I started but prrof is in the pudding and dog V happy, with no farting/bad breath etc etc (not that farting/bad breath would bother the dog itself)

The Royal Canin was what the vet recommended to us but our poor dog couldn't cope with it at all. I would buy a very small bag if you try it just in case - same with all these feeds really.
Many people also recommend just plain chicken or fish and rice (boiled obviously)

We have had no end of problems with doglet and his runny poos, but after a lot of trial and error have settled on a mixture of Burns and Natures Menu. Would love to feed him a complete BARF diet but all seems a little complicated to me at the moment and I need to run the freezer down a little first...

I have a Staffy and a Labradoodle on Orijin and it's fab.

Staffy has intolerances to some proteins so we switched him.

70% meat or fish, depending on variety and 30% fruit/veg.

Bloody good stuff but pricey. The fish one, which is the fussy Staffys favourite is nearly £70 for a 13.5kg bag.

But I wouldn't like to live on crap food so why should my dogs.

ok i have made an order from natural instinct. i almost got half a lamb's head but i think maybe a step too far at this stage.

OOH i have just remembered that my neighbour runs a halal butcher shop. mind you I gave poor dog a few oxtail bones and there was poo explosion overnight so maybe not yet.

yy fishy, oxtail full of marrow, v rich = poo explosion
[been there, done that]

Lol @ lambs head. If there was ever an opportunity to improve a weak stomach then barf feeding is it.

It's a learning curve but the natural instinct stuff is a really good starting point imo.