Food Choices (not raw)

[OldEnglishSheepDog]

Before I start, I know all the (very good) arguments for raw feeding but it's not for us. DDog has moved from the puppy food to kibble - I've gone for the Wellbeloved chicken stuff. DDog is not thrilled. He will eat it but generally I end up hand feeding it to him. I am wondering about wet food instead. I would prefer to stick to kibble for convenience sake but ultimately I want something healthy, that produces neat poos (Wellbeloved has been pretty good for that) and that he enjoys. Any recommendations?

Cold Pressed food is good.

We feed wet and dry mix . Breakfast is Millie’s Wolfheart kibble with grated cheese . Tea is millies Kibble with either Lily’s kitchen or Natures menu wet . Poos once or twice a day , non offensive .

purepetfood.co.uk/?tracking=5ad5be6010bd9&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvpaOscGk3QIVzLftCh2M5glREAAYASAAEgJ6E_D_BwE

I used to feed millieswolfheart wet food but unfortunately BiteyDog recently got bored with the flavours. He is now on Forthglade wet food. BiteyDog can't digest kibble very well and finds it very boring so we feed wet but throw a couple of bits of kibble in it for some crunch.

I use allaboutdogfood.co.uk to find different good quality wet foods.

Is finding kibble boring a standard thing then? I have looked at that website but honestly I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all! He's only 8 months so I'm a bit worried about overfeeding him if it's mixed but I suppose I can just play it by ear and see how he goes.

I think dogs tend to eat with their nose iykwim and kibble just isn't smelly or very interesting. It's fine if you have a dog that eats everything in sight but mine from a puppy was always hard to get him to eat. When I switched to wet he loved it as it was nice and smelly in a good way.

If you want to feed both wet and kibble I find it easiest to start with 50/50 so you work out the amount you would need to feed exclusively wet and then with kibble and then you just half each type.

We have switched to step up from pets at home and our dogs seem to like it. One has to have a little water to make it smellier but the other will eat it dry. Tbh we put it down and leave it 10mins then take away what’s not been eaten, they either eat or don’t and that seems to make them eat what they are given x

We have Butternut box which is fresh cooked food. I have no complaints at all. it’s not cheap but our dog adores it and it scores very well nutritionally.

We use Eden fish cuisine with our 9 month old ddog who was finding kibble boring. He lives fish, and this is nice and strong smelling. He loves it!

Skinners Field and Trial.

Gentle cold pressed kibble fish flavour with a small topping of tinned fish or some cooked veg on top for breakfast, plain Gentle for supper..
Small, firm poos unless I have overdone treats or given her a raw marrowbone once every few weeks but the bone is good for cleaning her teeth and she loves it so much it is worth the occasional soft one😳

I feed mine dry mainly but with wet food a couple times a week for variety, they also get cooked veggies and meat added on top of their dry food sometimes too. I use the high quality brand Acana (3 types, Grasslands, Light and fit and Senior as I have numerous dogs) but it is pricey.

I also foster dogs and for them I use Wolf of Wilderness available from zooplus. Currently there's a great deal on for trying different flavours so you don't have to commit to a big bag www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/wolf_of_wilderness/689923. I use a different food for fosters because it's cheaper but the ingredients are basically the same, I have been tempted to switch my dogs onto it but they really like Acana. I use Wolf of Wilderness wet food for all of them though.

Have a look at the website All about dog food www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/the-dog-food-directory it explains what makes a good dog food and about ingredients plus you can look at over 1000 brands to compare quality. James wellbeloved comes out as ok but there are better brands.

Thanks all - this is really useful. I shall have a potter around the website and Pets at Home and see what comes up. I have just given him the chicken rather than the fish and he seems much keener on that. I'll keep tinkering. Thank you!

I have a dog that is quite picky unless things smell interesting. She isn't a big fan of kibble by itself. She gets fed Millies Wolfheart kibble mixed with a bit of their tinned wet food. She is happy and healthy and her poos are inoffensive. Millies do a wide range of different kibbles and I tend to mix two or three types together. We cycle through their (six?) different flavours of wet food, one tin at a time.