Best dog food?

[Gorran]

The pup we are getting tomorrow is currently fed Royal Canin Junior Lab dry food, which I understand from a reply on here the other, is not a particuarly good food (despite being one of the more expensive brands).

So, what do you recommend? We currently feed our cat Applaws wet food (which I'm very happy with) and James Wellbeloved biscuits. Is James Wellbeloved a good food for dogs?

I have fed my dog James well beloved sinse she was a pup, have tried several others but this was the best, Burns is also very good. I do find she gets fed up with it after a while and refuses to eat it so we do sample other things .

I have just changed from burns to fish for dogs. He loves it but think he would eat anything!!

The most important thing you can do with regards to your puppy and the food the breeder is supplying is to keep the pup on that food for the first couple of weeks. Don't rush out and buy something different as this will be the only consistant thing in this pup's life from moving from her birth family to yours. The majority of tummy upsets in young pups are caused by well meaning owners rushing out to buy a better food. Do your research in the meantime, when pup is well settled change over gradually. Applaws is better than a lot of food as it's cereal free, don't rely on your vet for food advice as generally they'll tell you what they sell is the best (best for their profits).

I'm not suggesting this is what you will do, but someone reading your post may think it's fine to buy a different food and run into lots of runny poo!!!

Lab pups need good quality nutrition because they grow so much, so fast and have a common problem with hips and elbows - and for that reason I'd get her off the Royal Canin but of course it will do her no harm in the short term.

Get her home and settled - and then next week or so move her slowly onto something else.

Burns is good, Fish4Dogs is really good, Pets at Home do a brand called Wainwrights which is pretty good, Orijen is good, but v expensive and sometimes too rich.

I'd go for Fish4Dogs - I have had fabulous results with it for my labs. The youngest hasn't eaten anything else and is doing brilliantly well.

Oooh good luck with the new arrival! We drove down to manytears yesterday to pick up one of the yellow lab crosses and she is gorgeous and is settling in fabulously!

We got a few days worth of food from the rescue but had ordered fish4dogs puppy as our 2 year old lab has done brilliantly on it.

Thank you all. No - Multipoodles I definitely won't do anything drastic and will keep the pup on the Royal Canin for now, she comes with some so will use that up and order a small bag to mix with whatever we decide to go with.

Anchovies - wow, so exciting! What have you named her? We were supposed to get ours tonight, (also a MT pup, being fostered in Crawley) but she's got a bad tummy so the fosterer would like to keep her until she's better. We're all so excited!

We've called her Flower and she gorgeous! How disappointing that you couldn't pick your pup up yesterday, fingers crossed she's feeling better soon. Is she 10 weeks then? Have you thought of a name? I clearly had no idea what I was letting myself into with a puppy - I thought we were all puppy proofed and within 15 minutes of coming home she'd mastered the catflap into the garage and climbed the woodpile!

Lovely name! Yes, well, she must be nearer 11 weeks now. We're keeping her name as Daisy.

I know we're not all puppy-proofed, but will cross the different bridges when we come to them! The major thing has been getting all my girls' toys up into their bedrooms upstairs! And getting the baby gates out of the loft!

Agree F4D is excellent, but those who are feeding it did you know the company was bought out, but one of the original founders and his son have set up their own compnay called Jon Angell It is indentical but ££££ cheaper.

Just a heads up

Actually will put this in it's own thread in case anyone is interested.

James Wellbeloved did not agree with my basset, we tried wainwrights, fish4dogs but the one that he's best on is Skinners hypoallergenic duck and rice..... is less than half the price of the others and is a better quality food. His coat is fab, breath not smelly, doesn't make him trump loads... with a lab you have to take into account the infamous lab farts!

here's a link... www.skinnerspetfoods.co.uk/products/Field---Trial-Products/Duck---Rice/
we get it from amazon £20 delivered for 15kg

Dull, I know, but PLEASE make sure you get some bullet proof insurance for these pups.

Something like pet plan or m&s or John Lewis.

They will be adorable in every way, but are likely not to have had the best start in life, so gold standard insurance is IMO essential. And get it now. There is a 14 day exclusion period so make sure you have as little time uninsured with these puppies as possible. I have recently read a heart rending list of problems with a puppy of uncertain breeding - and it equalled thousands and thousands of pounds worth of treatment.