Dog food.. which is best?

[Hormonal Filly]

So I currently feed our lab and spaniel Eden working dog food. They love it, look great but it is pricey. Costs me £50 per sack for 15kg. Its rated 92% on allaboutdogfood.co.uk

Friends always say I'm stupid buying such pricey dog food, they feed much cheaper foods and their dogs look as great as mine so have started to wonder if other brands are about.

I have a Amazon account so came across Autarky Grain Free which is rated 80% on allaboutdogfood. Its £20 less per sack than what I currently spend as its on Amazon for £24 for 12kg but it doesn't disclose the percentage of 'pea starch' and 'peas' so I've emailed asking for it.

I'm not to fussed on grain free. They don't have any allergies to food that I'm aware of.. but just want the best quality food I can afford.

Any recommendations? If nothing can be found I'll stick to Eden as they love it and its brilliant but just thought I'd ask the question..

 

[skinnydipper]

I feed my dog Eden for one of her meals, she loves it and gets it in food dispensing toys. Her other meals are raw complete.

The one I give her (Country Cuisine) contains sweet potato 13%, tapioca 3.5%, chick pea 3.5% and pea fibre 0.5%. Total 20.5%

All these are dcm suspect ingredients.

I am going to follow this thread with interest.

 

[Clodagh]

You will get a million answers but basically I feed really expensive stuff in the season, and ours are out 4 days a week at the moment and look great. Come Feb it will be a hotch potch of cheaper stuff, I have just got 2 bags of something that MOC recommended, I will pm you, as I wanted to give mine a break from peas and feed grain for a while. It is not much cheaper than MWH but some. Then I will swap around a bit before going back on MWH (probably) come August when the poults come in and they are back up working all the time.

 

[Meredith]

We feed our lab x Autarky Fish and Potato. He is a pet not a working dog.
He is allergic to meat, grains and grasses.
We didn’t go further with tests as the main allergy was grass and we can’t keep him away from that.
He still itches during spring and summer so has to be washed off after every walk.
When we go to the vets for jabs they say ‘ah, a lab with a waistline’!

 

[[139672]]

Teddy is fed raw food, nature’s menu, chicken and veg nuggets AM and free flow mixed chicken and a fruit and veg nugget PM. Canagan dried food has a high meat content. Another high meat content kibble is Natural Choice Grain Free, I have a 2kg bag that I think cost me about £7.00, it has 8% crude ash and the chicken flavour shows 56% chicken, think that’s less than Canagan - Teddy has this as training treats as well as liver cake. Wolf Tucker high quality, not sure about their food but they are high meat, good quality and they have a website and FB page too I think. All above sold by my dog trainiers and they only sell better quality food. I don’t know prices of the other kibble or wolf tucker.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Teddy is fed raw food,

I worked the costing of raw food and it was nearly twice the price of their current dry food. I’ll look into the other makes though thank you!
PS - what a cutie!

 

[wren123]

I feed skinners field trial chicken and rice, it's for working dogs therefore vat free. It's grain free and free of pea protein, sweet potatoe and the like. She likes it, keeps slim and fit on it.

 

[[139672]]

I worked the costing of raw food and it was nearly twice the price of their current dry food. I’ll look into the other makes though thank you!
PS - what a cutie!

I am lucky that he is only small so cheaper to feed. He’s 14 inches high. My dog trainers sourced the Natural choice grain free as a cheaper but higher meat content kibble, so that may be a possibility? I chose nature’s menu raw because it’s available in most pet shops. Tripe is supposedly cheap but no way can I feed him that ?

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Raw. Under 90p a day for two 25kg dogs. I’ve relaxed a bit about treats and food containing cereal.

I wasn’t impressed with the massive amount of pea flour added to Fish4dogs, which was something I’d occasionally use. Fishmongers from Pets at Home contains more fish and uses potato as the filler if you’re looking at a fish based diet.

 

[Kano]

We feed Kano barking heads puppy days, he is obviously a young pup but he loves the stuff and it scores well on petfoodexpert.co.uk also. We pay 32 quid.

 

[druid]

I stopped feeding most grain free due to DCM concerns (despite being sponsored by a grain free brand at the time). I rotate through various foods now; usually Royal Canin Cocker or Eukanuba Platinum Performance and VetSpec Working Food. Skinners are good but difficult to source reliably for me.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Eukanuba Platinum Performance

Thanks all. This looks really good food, lots of meat in it. The problem with Skinners is it has very little meat in.. that’s why it puts me off. I might try a bag of that, but worried it might make our lab fat with 20% fat..

 

[conniegirl]

I feed my 2 on Rufus premium complete.
I've no idea how it compares on the various tables however it is cheap, cheerful, the dogs are healthy with shiny glossy coats and they love it.
They are a heck of a lot less odourous than when they were on Royal canine, my bank balance thanks me for it (its £1.99 for a 2kg bag) and the dogs are happy.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

I feed skinners field trial chicken and rice, it's for working dogs therefore vat free. It's grain free and free of pea protein, sweet potatoe and the like. She likes it, keeps slim and fit on it.

Just looked at Skinners Chicken and Rice and its full of maize, isn't that a grain?

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Just looked at Skinners Chicken and Rice and its full of maize, isn't that a grain?

Apologies - was looking at the wrong one! Only thing is it has peas in with no percentage..

 

[Hormonal Filly]

So after having a quick chat with Skinners, Their Chicken and Rice is 7.5% peas which I believe isn't great?

The Lamb & Rice has 2.5% Lucerne which again, isn't 'perfect' but not the end of the world.

I'm unsure if to try Lamb & Rice or the Superior, which their best rated feed, chicken 40% and maize 31% but it doesn't have any ingredients linked to issues (peas, lucerene etc) unless they are allergic to maize which i'm not aware they are.

 

[druid]

Thanks all. This looks really good food, lots of meat in it. The problem with Skinners is it has very little meat in.. that’s why it puts me off. I might try a bag of that, but worried it might make our lab fat with 20% fat..

Never had issues with them getting fat, just feed to the work they are doing

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Never had issues with them getting fat, just feed to the work they are doing

Do know of anything negative about Skinners Superior or Lamb & Rice? I’m swaying to Superior because of the calorie level is similar to their current one but will have to check they don’t get I’ll on the maize.
A friend said maize is all filler with no goodness but Skinners say otherwise...

 

[Clodagh]

Skinners told me they add beet pulp as dogs need it for the roughage. I'm unconvinced by that argument.
I'm pretty sure I have been told dogs can't digest maize? That may be wheat? Not sure!

 

[wren123]

Just looked at Skinners Chicken and Rice and its full of maize, isn't that a grain?

Sorry my mistake, it's just makes add hypoallergenic. But no peas shown in ingredients on the Fetch website. I've tried to link but it doesn't work.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Skinners told me they add beet pulp as dogs need it for the roughage. I'm unconvinced by that argument.
I'm pretty sure I have been told dogs can't digest maize? That may be wheat? Not sure!

A quick bit of research shows maize isn’t great for them, rice is the better alternative.

Damn I’m so over thinking which food to put them on!

 

[wren123]

So after having a quick chat with Skinners, Their Chicken and Rice is 7.5% peas which I believe isn't great?

The Lamb & Rice has 2.5% Lucerne which again, isn't 'perfect' but not the end of the world.

I'm unsure if to try Lamb & Rice or the Superior, which their best rated feed, chicken 40% and maize 31% but it doesn't have any ingredients linked to issues (peas, lucerene etc) unless they are allergic to maize which i'm not aware they are.

In totally confused the Fetch website shows no peas in ingredients!!

 

[wren123]

And I've just looked on skinners website and there's no maize but there are peas!!!

 

[Pearlsasinger]

So after having a quick chat with Skinners, Their Chicken and Rice is 7.5% peas which I believe isn't great?

The Lamb & Rice has 2.5% Lucerne which again, isn't 'perfect' but not the end of the world.

I'm unsure if to try Lamb & Rice or the Superior, which their best rated feed, chicken 40% and maize 31% but it doesn't have any ingredients linked to issues (peas, lucerene etc) unless they are allergic to maize which i'm not aware they are.

Rice is a grain, which is fine unless you are looking for grain-free.

 

[planete]

After much research and raw, then home cooked food, my lot are now doing great on Arden Grange adult. It has maize but no peas, and it has beet pulp. The lurchers have lovely coats and muscle tone, and healthy poo. The pure sighthound with dodgy insides has the premium variety which has no maize. I have found I can sort out most bouts of diarrhoea nowadays by adding tinned pumpkin to normal food, apparently the extra fibre bulks the stool and mends the gut. I cannot say I have much understanding of how it works, all I care about is that it does. Some kinds of colitis in dogs are also treated with a high fibre diet so it does suit some dogs.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Royal Canin contains BHT/BHA. I watched an entertaining video about their French factory, no meat in sight, just flour.

 

[AmyMay]

What’s BHT/BHA?

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Wheat versus maize (corn) Really sorry I can’t remember the source of this!
‘
‘Wheat has been shown to inhibit serotonin release in several animals including dogs and from a behavioural pov probably the single most beneficial to eradicate from the diet.
I also avoid barley & oats also as the gluten levels are quite high in these too and imo potentially very damaging to the gut wall.
Maize is not particularly harmful imo but some dogs can be intolerant..... is why some people say avoid and not others..... but it just depends on the dog.’

 

[Cinnamontoast]

What’s BHT/BHA?

E numbers, banned in many countries, used as a preservative, proven to be carcinogenic in various studies.

 

[druid]

Skinners and Burns just list "antioxidants" and "preservatives"...both of which cover BHA/BHT. Labels are so much smoke screen, massage of figures it's frustrating