Best dog food

[Cait73]

My puppy was on raw but it was a faff having to keep adding vegetables, so we tried out Butternut but she's not enjoyed that

Any ideas where to go now?

Forthglade is good. Mid price range. Our dog has been on the kibble for over a year and is in good health. If you search you can nearly always find a discount code.

My pup is on Wolfworthy. He’s in lovely condition and his coat is beautifully silky and shiny.

The only downside I’ve found was that they don’t do a small bite version and my boy is tiny. We started off by crushing it for him, but didn’t need to do that for long.

I was planning to feed him Forthglade, but decided to trial Wolfworthy first and have stuck with it because it seems to really suit him. Different Dog was the other one on my list, but it is pricey.

It's so, so dog dependent. What suits one dog won't suit another, and what suits one persons budget and lifestyle won't suit someone else's.

We feed Harringtons. The dry food is mid-range but the wet food is good. But, most importantly, it agrees with our dog. He wolfs it down - licks the bowl clean after every meal. There's a variety of flavours available so he doesn't get bored. He likes the texture, his poos are solid and don't really smell, he has a shiny, healthy coat, good teeth and no health issues.

We actually tried the "better quality" foods first, and they really disagreed with him - he ended up with really runny poo and awful wind 😂

I would recommend having a look at your budget and see what foods would fit that, then pick a couple of brands to try. Most companies will send you free samples if you ask nicely! See how your dog gets on and go from there :)

@Impossiblepossibilities all the subscription ones are ridiculous, Butternut worked out at £48 a month which is quite a whack considering raw was only costing me £12 a month

I'll try to get her onto kibble 👍🏼

@mountainsunsets where do you get yours is it pet shop specific?

Sounds like everything I'm looking for!

What food was the breeder using?

We use Akela 80:20 dry which you can find in some shops but mainly online at wholeprey.com. Brilliant food, we use the original or the Suffolk duck. Also feed some raw as well

So I know what to avoid?? ASDA puppy

@Riverlee sorry should add "puppy" is 15 months old, not really a puppy any more

The best food is what you can afford, and why the dog will eat. No point in buying anything else.

I've heard brilliant stuff about this food it's got a high meat content, possibly better suited to mute active dogs?

So I just buy one of everything??

Don't be silly, I need to make an informed decision on her behalf

My two are on fresh meat from the butcher which I cook up with some veg and then Lily's kitchen tins in reserve . My smallie is a very fussy eater and the big one eats most foods but I don't want the faff of feeding different foods . They both eat Arden grange biscuits as a base and then the meat or fish on top .

Aatu dry food is very food quality our dogs love it

@Cait73 they sell it in Tesco but I buy it online via their website as they give a discount for subscription orders, plus free delivery!

If you e-mail them they should send you a sample out :) or you can buy the wet food trays individually to try.

I use Harringtons and add a tin of sardines every couple of days

The All About Dog Food website is good. If you want to stick with raw feeding there's plenty of pre made options available.

Why did you feel the need to add vegetables all the time?

@takemetomars I was adding veg every other day otherwise her poo was black and so hard it was like little pebbles

Dog food is such a minefield.

I work out what is important for my dogs so after a bit of research I decided I wanted a higher meat content than carbs.

That cut down my choices a lot.

I also dont want to use meat meal as although this is ok horrid additives can be added at production stage that are not then included on the label so wanted to avoid that.

Then looked a my budget how much can you afford to spend on your dog a day (expensive does not always mean best!)

Do you want grain free or not

Kibble wise (there are more just a few off the top of my head)

Millies Wolfheart
Orijen
Canagan
Akela
are high meat content and a good place to start.

Millies is the cheaper one out of that list.

If you are happier with more carbs then your list is bigger and usually cheaper.

Burns
Harringtons
Waingwrights
Oscar
James wellbeloved etc

Meat does not increase the energy in dogs in fact carbs can make dogs more hyper and put on weight more. You may find carb heavy diets you have to feed more of them so although they seem cheaper the meat rich diets may work out cheaper.

Look at the ingredients make sure meat product is first ingredient (I dont want meat meal but your choice on that and meat meal is cheap food) . look at where the carbs come from and if you want grain or non grain food.

Allabout dog website is out of date on prices and does have a particular leaning towards grain free high meat content food. Which is fine but their ratings are affected by this. If you are happy to have grain then you can choose a food which allaboutdogfood give a lower rating purely for having grain in to.

However what it does do is show very clearly the percentage of ingredients so easy to see what you are getting.

There is some controversy over grain free dog foods so a bit of research on this may be needed if you are concerned one way of another.

Personally I dont rate Butternut box. It is ok but they push it as a healthy food using best ingredients then have to add brewers yeast for nutritional value. It is reallllllllly expensive for what it is.

In my mind a good food with fresh ingredients would not need this added but this is just my view. Also very high in lentils which does not agree with a lot of dogs .

Butternut box are very very good at marketing

Definitely not Lilys kitchen. They were bought out by nestle, changed their recipes (strongly denied by them) and gave mine and thousands of other dogs the most awful diarrhoea. I do a mixture of cheap Butchers tripe and dear Edgard n Cooper and Carnilove. Took me forever to settle on this combo with my very sensitive dog. Oh and I also have awful issues with Forthglade too these days.

@forumsempronii you're right, their marketing is (way) better than their food!!

@Cait73 - that's normal on a raw fed diet. Was she having issues going??