lets talk food shall we

[Clodagh]

After many years of reading & discussing dog foods & their ingredients I have come to the conclusion that the best food for a dog is the one it eats, likes & does well on.
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So very, very true. I spend a reasonable amount on feeding mine, MWH for a basis with sardines at least once a week, a lot of eggs (I have chickens), all leftovers from our meals bar anything too bready. Any food with bulking agents (sugar beet pulp is in loads of kibbles) makes older lab go all scurfy and dry and gives middle lab skanky ears and an itchy face. However, the stuff they help themselves too seems to do no harm. Spilt grain in the yard, even when it has rotted into cakes, eat it by the tonne, no ill effects. Nests full of addled or half incubated eggs, a bit windy but look well as anything. Whole maggot infested rabbit carcasses, fine. The pluck from a deer that was shot, the bits the foxes and badgers left, downed in seconds, no problem.
The only major culinary misjudgements are: a starfish, a whole tin of Effax hoof oil and a salmon head that had been laid out in the sun for 10 days. Not all at once!
I think that would have felled a lesser dog. I think labradors have similar digestive tracts to Tasmanian Devils.

 

[Moobli]

After many years of reading & discussing dog foods & their ingredients I have come to the conclusion that the best food for a dog is the one it eats, likes & does well on.

Best bit of advice on this thread ^^^

 

[TheresaW]

We feed both of ours Millies. Aled had a really poorly tummy last year, still no idea what caused it, but we’d not long had Luna, and she came on a different food which he also ate.

Both are doing really well on the Millie’s (I posted on here a week or so ago asking about their poo, apparently completely normal).

They do have the odd rabbit which I buy locally for them, and they do get scraps if we’ve left anything.

 

[EventingMum]

Our three terrier look great on Arden Grange kibble with a very small amount of Waitrose wet food (one small pouch between the three of them a day). All have good, shiny coats and are alert and energetic.

 

[BBP]

My old collie was fed on chudleys dog food and table scraps, which I’m sure doesn’t rank too high on the list of quality dog foods. But she lived to be 16 with barely a sick day in her life.

Pup is on Arden Grange. He doesn’t have a great appetite for it but is growing well (think I may have been mis-sold a wolfhound instead of a collie!) so assume he is getting what he needs. We just don’t have the facility to do raw food (no freezer of kitchen facilities for a large part of the week).

 

[Tinkerbee]

I would love to feed raw but due to work hours I'm rarely the one actually feeding my dog and no one else is up for the hassle! I feed Simpson Premium kibble, or occasionally another brand with high meat content/low/no cereals and then supplemented with cooked chicken breast (OH's dad is a butcher so we get the spares...)

My old dog was on our table scraps and Tesco dog kibble for 16 years so I'm not sure why I'm so precious about the new one..!

 

[SpringArising]

Mine gets 'human' food.

Scrambled egg, fish, wholemeal toast, pasta and veggies, all different kinds of meat, liver/kidney, porridge, rice, leftover homemade soup etc.

He looks great and people always comment on his shiny coat!

 

[CrazyMare]

Ours have the most ridiculously sensitive tummies. I understand its a breed thing.

Lucky vomits after bones of any description. Maggie gets colitis after anything slightly abnormal.

They have Burns Sensitive Pork and Potato, with believe it or not, Aldi own brand trays that are wheat free. Occasionally they have gluten free pasta and sardines/tuna, or sardines with their biscuits. They also like the occasional jacket potato with a bit of cheese or a raw egg. They also love scrambled egg but that's a rare treat.

 

[Clodagh]

Ours have the most ridiculously sensitive tummies. I understand its a breed thing.

Lucky vomits after bones of any description. Maggie gets colitis after anything slightly abnormal.

They have Burns Sensitive Pork and Potato, with believe it or not, Aldi own brand trays that are wheat free. Occasionally they have gluten free pasta and sardines/tuna, or sardines with their biscuits. They also like the occasional jacket potato with a bit of cheese or a raw egg. They also love scrambled egg but that's a rare treat.

That sounds tiring! What are they?

 

[CrazyMare]

They are greyhounds. Laziest creatures known to man. Cuddliest creatures ever despite seemingly having their bones on the outside!

 

[Clodagh]

They are greyhounds. Laziest creatures known to man. Cuddliest creatures ever despite seemingly having their bones on the outside!

Ah! I am used to labs, the rotten food processors of the species.

 

[CrazyMare]

Ah! I am used to labs, the rotten food processors of the species.

They are polar opposite to labs. Our dog walker has three labs. Occasionally the girls go to stay for the day, and you couldn't find any dogs more different! Ours take their beds, and rarely get out of them!

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Raw all the way for me. I get it very cheaply locally. I think it averages out about £1.10 a day for 2 dogs and a cat who eat over 1kg between them.

Where, LW? Always interested in a new supplier. Do they have variety?

 

[RunToEarth]

Pips Pet Pantry. I was feeding applaws but had a run of mouldy bags of food, I gave them the benefit of the doubt but after three returned online orders and one from a pet shop stocking their food, I had to draw a line.

PPP is a small independent company which I love, the ingredient listing is very similar to applaws and she does 48hr delivery on orders. My girls are both doing very well on it, I’m really pleased with the results, and it’s cheaper than applaws!

 

[Bojingles]

My terriers are on Vet's Kitchen with a topper of Naturo or Nature Diet but I'll soon be swapping them to a brand I've stumbled on since adopting a big lad who's very sensitive. I've now got him on CI Junior Big League (high meat, grain free) and he's thriving on it. It's reasonably priced too.

 

[RockinRudolph]

Raw - we use a local supplier of Manifold Valley Meats. When going on holidays or leaving them with the dog boarder, we feed wainwright’s trays for convenience.

 

[oldie48]

Stanley ( a BT) was very fussy as a pup and for months I fed raw, which he liked apart from most offal and I worried about the bones that were needed to add the calcium he needed. Stan's idea of a good meal was raw rabbit and he'd eat the lot including all the offal but our supply of fresh rabbit was intermittant. As he got older he got less fussy and at nearly 11 months he's happy on Tails.com + a top up of kitchen scraps. however, I am moving him to MWH, we got some samples and he loved it and tbh I think it's good value and high quality. He seems to have a very robust gut as nothing seem to upset his tum but I do like to see him tuck into his meals with enjoyment which hasn't always been the case.

 

[Equi]

I dont have any say in what my parents dog is fed, despite my mumblings about it. Hes on harrigtons i think ? is very fat, and tends to drink a lot and despite being well house trained soemtimes just cant hold it til morning. I did buy him some better wainwrights low fat with fish oils food once when i had dad in a good mood and funny he lost weight, was more active and did not pee in the house once.

But no, they dont see it. To them dog food is all the same, but different flavours. It took a long long time to get them to even buy something like harringtons when they could buy just PAH own brand.

On going debate in our house, and im hopful ill get them back to the brand i bought myself..but in the mean time there is a bag of food to eat

As for RAW, if the dog will eat it it can be fabulous. But it takes a lot of knowledge and work and extras too..reminds me of a vegan diet lol i did know a girl who fed RAW really properly, and wrote articles about it n stuff.. her dogs just looked amazing. She followed a more natural approach too and would have days they ate in bulk, days they did not get fed at all, days they got only "scraps" or bones etc and she would always try to give them the meat in full form so a whole rabbit (fur n all) and birds and eggs and the cow lamb or whatever would be a leg not just cuts.

 

[maisie06]

My boy has a bit of a mix - working for us and he looks really well! I can feed him anything as long as it doesn't contain rice. Rice gives him Mr Whippy style poo that is really nasty....he also does much better on a few small meals rather than one or two large ones..

Breakfast...around 200g raw meat such as tripe, sometimes it's a couple of chicken wings..

around 11am on my tea break he has a raw egg

Lunch - a duck neck or a few lamb ribs again raw

Evening - a couple of handfuls of kibble , he's having an own brand cereal free at the moment and it's suiting him at a third of the price of Eden too!!!

There's no "right" or "wrong" when it comes to what to feed - just do whatever works best for your dog.

 

[Auslander]

Ah! I am used to labs, the rotten food processors of the species.

Aren't they just. My old lab disappeared one day, and was found an hour later, eating his way through a binbag full of green, stinking meat, which had been dumped on a footpath. He was half way through a chicken when he was discovered, and was already bulging at the seams. Took him home, put the vet on standby, and watched him like a hawk. He went straight to bed, slept for 12 hours straight, and woke up fresh as a daisy and ready to go...

 

[Janah]

i feed raw and have done for the last four years or so. love the fact that dogs have lost the doggie smell, have clean teeth, small poo's, slim bodies (they are labradors), no ear infections for the dog that had them regularly, last but not least, no itchiness and sore skin.

I find it reasonably priced way to feed and am lucky enough to have a local farm shop that gives me lamb bones for free.