Dog Food

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herbert

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Have just paid 63p for a tin of well known dog food that is 80% water. This must be the most expensive water my dog has ever had. Anyone got any cheaper alternatives for feeding a dog. He refuses, no matter how hungry, to eat dried food.
 
ALl 'wet' dog food is approximately 80% water, this is a sweeping statement but generally the more well known a 'brand' is, the worse the food is! Check the can a bit more and it probably has 4% meat in it.

Go to your local (decent) pet or feedstore and ask for some advice. My personal advice would be to try dry again, go for a high quality food, wheat free, ie Burns, Oscar, Royal Canin, Arden Grange. (This is the link to Oscar, your local rep will come out and offer a taste trial to your dog if you require - basically working out the best food, and finding out what the dog will eat, there is no pressure to buy http://www.oscars.co.uk/ ).

If your dog won't eat it dry, you can put warm water with it and leave it for 10 minutes - this will released the meat odours, or add natural yogurt to it (good for gut flora) or leave the dog with it for 20 minutes, if it's not eaten in that time, take it up and offer it again at the next meal. Obvisouly, if you go with plan c no treats or titbits to be given! Most dogs will eat by the fifth day.
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I'm sure there will be lots of others on hre soon to help, BARF is popular with some and may help you too.
 
I definitely wouldn't buy tinned food for those reasons. I feed a working dog food (no VAT) such as Chudleigh's Working Crunch and change to a lower protein food in the summer when they are not working.

LB's advice of using warm water is good.
 
Amber was a fussy moo with dry food, but I just added water and she eats the lot now! I feed Autarky, and if she doesnt eat it within 5 mins (i.e. walks away), I take it away and put it down at the next meal. I was told a dog will never starve itself, as long as there is food available they will eat it if they need to.
 
I have changed my dogs onto James Wellbeloved, they have been on it for a couple of weeks now, before they used to be on a 'cheaper working mix' (active collies) and they used to have ad lib food. Since being on James wellbeloved I have made sure they eat their own food and weigh it out. To tempt them to eat that straight away I spray warm water over the top with some tuna sprinkled on and they love it. The condition of their coats and condition has also improved no end!
 
It's normal for a non-dried food to have a high water content....the food humans eat is (or should be!) high water, and when you consider that a living being is something like 70% water (or moisture), it's really not a bad thing.
I think what most people are concerned about with mainstream or supermarket shelf dog foods is not the water content, but the crap that goes into it?

If you don't want to go raw, but want something a step up from tinned, how about trying something like NatureDiet or similar? Can be found in feed merchants or Pets at Home. Still 75% water though, which I think is about average.
My dogs are happy and healthy on it as part of their diet, and I know that if I gave them the tinned stuff they'd have the sh1ts for days.

Burns is a good dried food IMO, and would agree that wetting it slightly will help tempt a fussy eater.

ETA, Def agree with putting it down for a specified length of time then picking it up at the end of meal time, they soon learn that if they faf about with it there's nothing else till tea time
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My lab won't eat any dried food. I tried all the 'leave him with it 20 mins and then take it away' type things. I did this for a week and still he refused it.
I now feed him nature diet which I believe to be the best wet food available. Its about 50p-60p a packet and comes in a tray. My lab has 2 per day. Hope this helps.
 
I don't feed wet food. My dogs are given dry working-dog food in their bowls ad-lib however they are also fed raw meat.

Have you tried Burns dry food? That was what my dogs were fed when we lived in England and they loved it.
 
i would love to BARF but dont have the freezer space as i have 4 dogs.

it would depend how much work your dog does and what type it is as to what kind of food i would give it

ive tried lots with mine and have settled on the Autarkey for 3 and my boy gets half autarkey and half wainwright as his poo is always a bit runny (i have tried everything, hes a very hyper mad dog doesnt keep weight)

i had them on dr johns gold and they did great on it but poo'd lots which to me is a bad sign

also tried kirklands which is meant to be one of the best but they did just as well on autarkey and its cheaper so settled on that

puppies were always on pets at home puppy i had no prob with that although had to put one on JWB junior before adult to keep some weight on her

Burns is another thumbs up for me

i would NEVER feed tinend food
 
My family has used Wuffimix since the 60's from puppy to working dog food. If you're after a premium dry dog food then I would recommend it. They sell online, if you're in the uk. wuffitmix.co.uk

Hope this helps. :)
 
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