What food do you feed your dogs?

[MsMiaWallace]

Have used Skinners Salmon & potato for a few years now but the price has gone up a lot!
Looking at Harringtons Grain Free. It's cheaper & available in most shops.
I know some people recommend Aldi dog food.
We need grain free as we have Brachycephalic breeds.

Any recommendations??

interesting thread!

have a new puppy so have been thinking about this recently. She started on nature’s variety which she absolutely loves but it’s just so expensive - I can’t keep it up long term! So ordered a trial pack of millies and she didn’t seem keen - wasn’t sure if it was just the big size kibbles as shes still quite little.. so now she’s on james wellbeloved and seems to be doing really well on it. She’s not farty and always is keen for her dinner! Though I’m not sure it’s as tasty as nature’s variety 🤣

she would love a meat topper but the one she was having as a tiny (butchers - only a couple of spoonfuls on top of her biscuits) made her fart like an absolute trooper and her poos were softer than they should’ve been so I phased it out! If anyone can recommend something nice to go on top that might be a bit more digestible I’d appreciate it!!

Our lab has Arden Grange, but with toppers each meal eg egg, Tuna, sprats, salmon oil, sardines, blueberries& yoghurt etc. he does well on it so planning to keep him on it.

Millie's Wolfheart. Good customer service and dietary advice too. Interestingly I haven't seen them advertised anywhere prominent, which says a lot.

I use essentials www.essentialfoodsgb.co.uk/r/fdZR3apz/ its got a 90% nutritional rating on all about dog food and they have 4 mains flavours including a fish that I rotate in, as I feel that way my dogs don’t get bored and get a range of micronutrients. I add a half sachet of forthglade or barking heads wet as a topper

Forthglade dog dinners.

Vets recommend Chappie, cheap and seems most dogs get on with it.

Millies Wolfheart 50/50. £47 for a 12kg bag but it lasts a while because you don't need to feed as much. We find the feeding guide to be exactly that - a guide only. We feed much less than what is suggested. We now sometimes mix it with a tray of Butchers wet food for some interest. Or salmon or coconut oil which keeps her coat glossy.

We also top up her diet with frozen carrots, Kongs filled with frozen yoghurt and berries, raw egg or can of tuna/sardines plus any human food left overs to mix in with the kibble (e.g. salmon skin from dinner) etc. Works for us and our dog.

Barking heads little paws - beef waggington flavour and the wet food too

Pooch and mutt for us.

I've also fed Eden before and that's excellent but the lord almighty dog decided he didn't want it any more.

He can have grain or chicken so their soft and shiny or their calm version both work well for him. I pay a lot less than shop prices on subscription with discount code. It works out at £20 a month for the dry food, and he gets some topper too.

Ours has Harringtons kibble in the morning, and wet Nature's Deli in the evening. I was advised by the breeder not to mix wet and dry at the same meal but it seems others do.

A couple of times a week I give him sardines or scrambled egg with rice for breakfast instead of kibble.

Butternut box here. Very fussy dog and we have tried so many different things over the last three years and this is the only thing she’ll eat consistently.

Millie's Wolfheart. Just the cheapest one, as he's not a working dog or anything.
He has been on it since puppyhood, is thriving, and never farts or has a dicky tummy.
I'd recommend it to anyone.

Nutriment Raw. It stinks but my dog doesn’t, and neither do his poos!

Arden Grange Large Breed with toppers of scrambled egg, spratts & salmon oil, sardines or blueberries and natural yoghurt.

Seven dogs all on raw, usually bulmer, dogs butcher, natural instinct. They also get veggies, eggs, sardines throughout the week. They’re all senior so I want them to be as healthy as possible and have the smallest poops and not stink or have greasy fur.

I've got a brachycephalic dog too and I feed him arden grange dry food and a fish pate thing which I can't seem to find to link to. My dog isn't a massive fan of either, I'll be honest, but it stops his allergies. I'm looking into a raw diet and I'll be watching with interest.

I’ve never of heard anyone thinking their dog needs to eat grain free because it is a brachycephalic breed- this is incorrect.

I would strongly recommend not feeding any dog a boutique brand, exotic ingredient or grain-free (BEG) diet. There have been recent reports of these diets being associated with development of a type of heart disease (specifically, dilated cardiomyopathy). The exact nature of this relationship is still being explored, but until that time, the recommendation is to feed a diet that comes from a company meeting the nutritional guidelines of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA). These companies include: Royal Canin, Eukanuba, Hill's Science Diet, and Purina.
Grain-free is a marketing tool, a claim that became a health declaration with no science to back it and many of these diets were promoted by companies that emphasised marketing over science and quality control.
There are still open questions regarding the grain-free association with heart disease; however it is unlikely that the lack of grain per se is the cause for this; therefore, grain supplementation is irrelevant since other factors are likely involved.
Other factors such as limited digestibility, low sulfur amino acid content and or bioavailability or impact on the GI microbiota, inadequate formulation are some of the other possibilities for this association. Grain addition is unlikely to resolve these inherent problems in these diets - ie. adding grain to a grain free diet is not a solution.

Same here

@ditavonteesed sorry for tagging you from a post in September but my Dalmatian has also become the fattiest creature ever and it reeks. Did you have any joy with a change of diet?

@RoachTheHorse we tried a couple of other food but they made the problem worse so back on skinners salmon for now,

@RoachTheHorse seriously try Nature Diet , it’s worked wonders with my dog and I thought he was actually ok on his old food but moving to this has been amazing .

Thanks @Floralnomad I'll take a look!

Oh, the irony. You realise the WSAVA is funded by the big brands you refer to? There is such a massive conflict of interest. It’s those brands which have the slick marketing campaign over actual science! Read the studies they base their conclusions on - they fed lab dogs diets which were much higher in legumes than pet diets are, for starters. The actual ingredients in brands such as Purina (which makes Bakers) and Royal Canin are crap. It’s clever marketing and sponsorship, the equivalent of Nestle promoting formula as better than breastfeeding in the 50s. Follow the money.

We have been through so many brands when he was younger. Some were eye watering expensive but he had stomach issues and was really fussy on top.

However for the past few years he has settled on Butchers wet tins which I can easily get in my supermarket shopping and it doesn't break the bank. I think for meat/quality it's an alright brand.

Ours are on Naturo wet food tins. Goes down a lot better than the kibble used to.