A good food for dogs in rescue kennels?

[Petra292]

Hi all,
I recently became a trustee at a local dog rescue charity. We collect dogs from the stray kennels or they are surrendered to us by members of the public. They usually stay between a few days to 3 months, occasionally one stays longer.

I have been tasked with finding a new brand of dog food, as they are currently fed a brand that’s poor quality and suspected to have caused runny poos.
I’m finding it a bit of a minefield, the vet says royal canin but I do feel that’s possibly because they are a stockist.

I’m looking at wet food as my starting point but all reccomendations welcome. Budget is £1.50 or lower per 400/390g tin or tray.

I found this website helpful when comparing foods

www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

Dry food would probably last longer and be easier to portion out rather than wet food

Dry food would last longer and I can recommend Chappie.

Dry food I'd recommend Millies Wolfheart.

A wet food, Chappie.

I second all about dog food. It's great at weighing up the actual price of food (some food that's cheaper by kilo, actually is more expensive by meal as you need to feed twice as much as it's less dense)

I would probably recommend (Oddly!) To go for a middle rated food

High meat content can really go through dogs, especially those not used to it. The transition from cheaper or more filler foods to the high meat content might not be pleasant .

Skinny dogs often tend to benefit from carbs imo. All about dog food also focuses alot on grain free and there is some possible health implications to do with the heart. High meat content can also be harder on kidneys etc

My dog for example has never been able to tolerate the high meat content food and drops weight like crazy which has been the same for several fosters.

You'd also probably benefit from going for something fish based. Lots of dogs struggle with rich meats like duck and chicken is a frequent allergen.

Something like chappy can be good. It's not something I would feed my own dog longterm but as a bulk food for allsorts of dogs with all sorts of needs it's bland enough to keep most stomachs settled and dogs tend to want to eat it.

Last rescue I adopted from suggested chappie but I've found butchers good as well

I wonder if it might be worth asking other rescue organisations?
They might have some ideas.
I think some kennels feed a lower protein diet because the dogs aren't very active.
I also wonder if you could do a deal with a manufacturer/retailer. Other organisations might be able to help you there too but I guess they might not want you getting in on a deal if they have one.

Wonderful thing to do btw 🙂

My tough, thuggish Patterdale has a sensitive tum and has been on Chappie for the past seven years. On his yearly vet visits for his vaccinations I'm always congratulated on how well he looks - slim with a shiny coat, and he's never sick or sorry. So I'm sticking with Chappie, it might not tick any of the nutrition boxes but certainly seems to be doing something right.

Only thing that pisses me off is that it's nearly doubled in price.

I think you'd probably find it easier to find a good quality dry food in your budget. Things your looking for are for the first ingredient to be a protein (ideally a high quality protein not meat derivative). An ingredients list that's not as long as your arm. Not full of grains and fillers. I'd recommend looking at your local garden centres - I've found some have really good quality own brand foods that are cheaper because it's a smaller company. If possible I'd go for fish and sweet potato, most dogs do okay with fish whereas chicken is quite a common food for dogs to be sensitive too. And in my experience (have had a fair few fosters and rescues and dogs from puppies) sweet potato tends to be more digestable for most dogs over rice or potato

Dry food I would look at ci tickety boo or the csj range. Wet food would be Butchers and they there are the more specialised diets you may have to cater for.

Our last dog had royal canin all his long, healthy life and it did seem to produce much firmer output than wet food. Not cheap, though obviously we bought online not from the vet.

Wet food you're paying for a lot of water.

2 of my dogs do liquid poo if they have anything with chicken.
I have been struggling to find a food all the dogs will eat , and that doesn't upset them and isn't ridiculously expensive.
I think i have found the holy grail now, as all 4 dogs love it.

www.petsathome.com/product/beta-sensitive-dry-adult-dog-food-salmon-and-rice/P3671

Chappie chicken and rice is good for upset stomachs, vets recommend it so could be a good option across the board.

My dog had runny poo with Royal Canin. It turned out he's sensitive to chicken. I would try a reasonable quality kibble, something like Skinners Field and Trial, which has various flavours and age-groups, or Mole Valley own brand (think it's called Country Dog).

Chappie Original. People look down their nose at it but it is low fat, recommended for stomach issues and my diabetic dog thrived on it. Compare the ingredients to Royal Canin, the Chappie is better.

None of my dogs have ever eaten plain kibble.

I help out at a boarding kennels but we also have a rescue kennel.

There are alot of dogs these days with reactions to chicken. We feed on tripe with a little working dog beef dry kibble mixed through dependant on the dog. 1 bag of tripe should get 4 portions of a medium serving i.e collie/lab size and we feed twice daily. Think one bag works out at 2.50 a bag. We have 3 chest freezers though and get 50 boxes every month. (1 box had 8 packets). They are defrosted the day before.

The visiting dogs coming on their holiday wolf the tripe down. We kinda reference it to "yes Mum/Dad are on holiday drinking cocktails, so you get tripe...."

For the fussy ones our tripe stockist also gives us tins but not sure how much they work out at.

Chappie or Butchers for wet food.

Country Dog from mole Valley for kibble https://www.moleonline.com/search/?q=country+dog+15kg

E

Thankyou @Beepbeepoutoftheway they currently have a mix of wet and dry so I will look at that aswell :)

Thankyou @Glowingworms for the info. When I worked out what was being spent on Chappie I realised there was choice of more premium brands such as Harringtons for the same price or cheaper. As I’ve been researching and the replies on this post, plus a post I made on a dog forum, have helped me realise the high meat content might not be the best for rescues, the original chappie choice makes more sense. Chappie seems to be an anomaly as the ingredients are poor on paper but it works for many. I’m looking at nature diet, it seems to be recommended for sensitive tummy’s and it’s also cheaper with better ingredients and some different flavours.

Thankyou @redboxer321 following your reply I gave the dogs trust a quick call, they said they feed wainwrights dry dog food (unless the dogs can’t eat dry or need something different)
Im going to read my findings at a trustee meeting so luckily I don’t have to make the decision on my own!

Thanks @Molecule Im starting to understand the original choice of Chappie. It’s funny because the ingredients don’t look great on paper but its seems to work really well for a lot of dogs.

My local rescue run by a vet feeds Harringtons. Wet food is butchers.

My dog won’t touch chappie and he’s a right dustbin.

I don’t think you can go far wrong with Butchers. We usually get the tripe loaf one. My dogs have always thrived on it with a kit of decent kibble for the teeth.

I was just going to recommend chappie, a vet recommended it to us for a rescue we had with runny poos
dogs in rescue are stressed and this can cause digestion issues, once we changed our dog had firmer poo.

I've never used Burns but I note that they are often used by rescue charities and appear to have a mutual partnership with them.