The best dog food??

r0450111

r0450111

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I'm looking at taking on a dog from a rescue. This will be the first dog i will be totally responsible for, financially ect. So i'm trying to figure out what the best dog food is? My mother has a 16 yr old lab x great dane who is on his last legs so i'm not a total new dog owner.
I've been eyeing up my local rescue, and they seem to have mostly staffies in. I've read up on them and they seem to be a lovely breed but with a tendancy to be dog aggressive. I wont be taking a dog on till after my mum's lab is gone and i work from home so plenty of wee breaks!
 
It really depends on the dog and what they can handle in regards to grains ect.
The best food for a dog is Raw meat and bones.
But if you want to feed kibble things like James wellbeloved and fish4dogs stuff.
 
I was feeding my JRTs on Chappie, it's imho the best for tinned food as it's very simple i.e not full of additives etc. I then started buying chubbs as they're cheap and the dogs still love them but they're off cuts and lefts overs that have just been mushed up basically, and my male was losing weight. I'm looking to feeding the same as mum feeds her dogs, green tripe, it's natural and reasonably priced. Mum adds a basic complete feed to it for the big dogs but the JRTs do fine just on tripe
 
Ours is fed on Wainwrights wet and dry food - its a Pets at Home brand. Hypoallergenic, not full of rubbish and reasonably priced. Around £30 for a 15k bag I think.

I've never fed it but others here rate Skinners quite highly too I think.

I also feed raw eggs, tinned sardines and some raw meat i.e. chicken thighs (though never feed raw and dried food at the same time as they process at different rates) and pigs ears, paddywhack etc for 'chews' and treats.
 
echodomino said:
I was feeding my JRTs on Chappie, it's imho the best for tinned food as it's very simple i.e not full of additives etc. I then started buying chubbs as they're cheap and the dogs still love them but they're off cuts and lefts overs that have just been mushed up basically, and my male was losing weight. I'm looking to feeding the same as mum feeds her dogs, green tripe, it's natural and reasonably priced. Mum adds a basic complete feed to it for the big dogs but the JRTs do fine just on tripe
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Chappie is a really bad quality food.
I also wouldn't be feeding just tripe, Dogs need bone and meat if you are not going to feed them kibble.
 
The 'best' dog food depends entirely on the individual dog.
Our two (10 y/o GSD bitch and 8 y/o Goldie bitch) are both fed on Chappie dry (shock horror!) and a tin of Winalot/Butchers/whatever-tins-are-in meat between them once a day. They've been on this food on recommendation from the vet for years now - our GSD needs low protein to help us with her aggression (dog only!) and our Goldie needs a low fat food.

I worked in a pet shop attached to a vets for 3 years and yes although the £46.99 bags of Arden Grange Salmon and Potato, or £61.00 Hypoallergenic food looks very good and for most dogs is fine, I've seen a few cases where the dog becomes violently ill because of the food. This also happened with £14.00 bags of Chappie or £23.99 bags of Bakers - most were fine, a few were very poorly.

It is totally upto you and I really would say that food is never "good" or "bad" only good or bad for certain dogs - for example our dogs can't stomach Pedigree and yet, it was a very popular food.
We found that on Iams, they lost condition and were more frequently poorly.
Totally depends on the individual dog :)

I'd definitely say don't choose a food just because it looks expensive and free of any additives etc, try and get a sample of the food you are looking to try first rather than spending a fortune on a large bag :)
 
r0450111 said:
I'm looking at taking on a dog from a rescue. This will be the first dog i will be totally responsible for, financially ect. So i'm trying to figure out what the best dog food is? My mother has a 16 yr old lab x great dane who is on his last legs so i'm not a total new dog owner.
I've been eyeing up my local rescue, and they seem to have mostly staffies in. I've read up on them and they seem to be a lovely breed but with a tendancy to be dog aggressive. I wont be taking a dog on till after my mum's lab is gone and i work from home so plenty of wee breaks!
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PS - staffies are beautiful dogs and if can be brought up properly from a puppy, treated respect and obedience like any other dog needs, can be fantastic family dogs in a home with or without dogs, cats and children :) agreed when I worked at our local rescue the majority of dogs were GSDs and Staffies - people just can't cope with their strong personalities but want them to look like guard dogs half the time. Brought up properly, any dog can make a fantastic pet.
 
katielou_houston said:
Chappie is a really bad quality food.
I also wouldn't be feeding just tripe, Dogs need bone and meat if you are not going to feed them kibble.
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I've never had a problem with feeding Chappie - I'm sure it's probably not the best food overall but out of your commercial tinned brands I think it's one of the better ones. Not everyone can afford a £30 bag of food on a regular basis.

My dogs get bones as treats - I didn't feel the need to mention it as presumed it was more a "meal time" post.

I think it's down to the individual opinion. There are lots of brands like James Wellbeloved that are good too.

My mum breeds Hungarian Wirehaired Vizlas and they're prone to sensitive tummies, we've had puppies go to homes to be fed expensive food or high content and it's had a bad effect on the dogs tummy and it's then taken the new owner a long time to find a food that suits. Our dogs have always had tripe and complete feed and we've never had a problem. I also said it was only the JRTs that get just tripe.
 
Hiya. I have 2 corgis and they are doing fantastically well on the Burns dry food - have been on it since they were born. I had an elderly JRT (16 she was when i had to PTS) and she was on Royal Canin Sensitive nuts.
Would recommend both. The Vets are usually good to advise - Best of luck with your new dog. xx
 
Tessie (a Lucas terrier x) is on JWB wet and it suits her very well. She has it warmed in the microwave for 20 seconds and she simply cannot get enough of it. She's 14 now and has never been fitter or more active and happy, I swear it's because we switched her on to a better food - I won't touch anything that has 'meat and animal derivitives' on the label now as you can never be sure as what's actually in it :/
 
echodomino said:
I've never had a problem with feeding Chappie - I'm sure it's probably not the best food overall but out of your commercial tinned brands I think it's one of the better ones.
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I would just never be comfortable feeding my dogs something that main ingredients are the 2 things that are not easily digestible to dogs.
In fact i would never be comfortable feeding my dog anything that doesn't have real meat as the main ingredient. Chappie has around 6% "meat".
 
I'm no expert, but if you cant afford to fork out for the expensive brands and dont have the freezer space for raw diets, then just look at the ingredients of the brands you can.
What you'd want to avoid is something that says "turkey and rice" on the front and then the first ingredient listed is "animal derivitives" (**** spelling sorry!) and 2% turkey + millions of additives!
you can feed a complete wet food (james wellbeloved do one I think?!?), but I would supply chews and bones etc on the side.
Brands like Skinners are cheaper than JWB but not a massive nutritional difference.
I would just get what you can afford, don't feel pressured to buy super-expensive food... unless the dog had specific dietary requirements most dogs will be fine on the slightly cheaper stuff.

Also - have a hunt around at your local feed stores. I'm going off JWB as its too expensive, went out to swap to skinners and the store actually has their own brand made in the same factory as JWB, almost identical in quality, but a fiver cheaper because of the packaging! Bonus!
 
katielou_houston said:
Chappie is a really bad quality food.
I also wouldn't be feeding just tripe, Dogs need bone and meat if you are not going to feed them kibble.
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I don't want to appear to be argumentative here, but my mum bred and showed GSDs for 30 years on a diet of green tripe, the only time they had extra in the form supplements and bandsaw mince was when in whelp and rearing pups. I have also fed tripe to my dogs for over 20 years , with complete added when in whelp etc, they have always been fit and healthy and successful in the show ring, agility ring etc.

Oh and I was very brave tonight, Evie had a turkey drumstick! :D
 
For one dog, I would buy the best you can, I have 10 dogs and I still try and get the best food I can for them, at the moment im using skinners, chudleys and fish 4 dogs, as my dogs seem to do well on either one or the other:D
Im very impressed with the fish 4 dogs.
I have also started to introduce raw.
 
MurphysMinder said:
I don't want to appear to be argumentative here, but my mum bred and showed GSDs for 30 years on a diet of green tripe, the only time they had extra in the form supplements and bandsaw mince was when in whelp and rearing pups. I have also fed tripe to my dogs for over 20 years , with complete added when in whelp etc, they have always been fit and healthy and successful in the show ring, agility ring etc.

Oh and I was very brave tonight, Evie had a turkey drumstick! :D
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Thats great that it worked for you but i would never feed tripe without a balance of other meat or at least other bones.
 
My dogs have had various diets over the years, including raw chicken, raw rabbit, raw tripe, pasta, kibble, different varieties of tinned. They maintain their weight, have never suffered allergies.Iit depends on the dog, what they will eat & thrive on. My lot turn their noses up at complete dry food, will refuse Royal Canin & hate all veg except carrots.:D
 
KatieLou_Houston you're so self opinionated and arrogant.

Raw is NOT "the best food" for ALL dogs. For one, my dog would be seriously, SERIOUSLY ill if she ate raw every day. Realistically, they're not gonna die if they eat ANY pet food designed for dogs! Get off your bloody pedestal.

OP - Chlo eats Symply (its £40 but a bag lasts us about a month and a half) and its brilliant - for her.

I would recommend you start off feeding the dog whatever its currently eating, and then going to someone who stocks a wide range of foods and seeing what they recommend.
 
flamehead said:
KatieLou_Houston you're so self opinionated and arrogant.

Raw is NOT "the best food" for ALL dogs. For one, my dog would be seriously, SERIOUSLY ill if she ate raw every day. Realistically, they're not gonna die if they eat ANY pet food designed for dogs! Get off your bloody pedestal.

OP - Chlo eats Symply (its £40 but a bag lasts us about a month and a half) and its brilliant - for her.

I would recommend you start off feeding the dog whatever its currently eating, and then going to someone who stocks a wide range of foods and seeing what they recommend.
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Sorry but what part of "It depends on the dog" didn't you get. My opinion is just as valid as yours so i would appreciate you not being insulting.
I have done so much research into dog food and while plenty of dogs do well living off food from a garbage dump its not necessarily the healthiest for them and neither is bakers, chappie ect!
I feed my dogs the absolute best i can afford for them i do a ton of research into the food i feed and so i feel i have enough knowledge to give an opinion on it and i will thank you very much.
 
OP I'm glad you're excited :) start off on what dog is already fed and always change over slowly to avoid tummy upsets! :P
Don't be put off by "cheap" food (I use the word "cheap" loosely) as sometimes it can be the best for that particular best - as an eg, 60% of the vets at my old place fed their dogs Chappie!
Ask your vet they'll be able to give you a good start - but like I said don't think you have to pay £50 a bag!!
 
flamehead said:
Realistically, they're not gonna die if they eat ANY pet food designed for dogs!
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Mine would have, given another 12 months on a commercial diet, and chronic diarrhoea with accompanying malabsorption would have been an awfully nasty and lingering way to go.

Yes, it's a terribly touchy subject but people need to be aware of what they are actually feeding their dog. Many, many dogs do well on Bakers and Pedigree, I'm sure, but there are alternatives (often cheaper) that contain named ingredients and are irrefutably better for the dog. I mean, Bakers contains added sugar, for god's sake... why?!
 
We're using Acana - it's completely grain free which I think is appropriate for dogs as they weren't really evolved to eat something that's 70% wheat. Of course lots do fine on those foods though!
 
flying solo said:
Off topic sorry!! I dont know how to upload or do a sig :confused: :(
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Do you have photo bucket?

Flamehead, I dont think Katey was being arrogant at all, she is passionate about RAW feeding and possibly knows more about dog food/raw feeding than alot of us, and gives good advice, I definately changed my view on dog food when joining this forum from KK and KLH, as some foods are cheap as hell and no doubt cause the skin, joint, digestive problems e.t.c we see today in dogs, then it's good for people to see whats on offer and gets lots of advice.

She did point out fish 4 dogs and skinners, are they not dry kibble?
 
My mum's two Weimaraners and my new JRT puppy are all on Burns. Its a good quality kibble food and I like that their breaths dont smell on this food! The tinned food tends to make them smell horrible.

I think my mum gets Burns delivered for free when ordering from the website. They also have a nutritional help phoneline which is good.
 
For me I would not feed anything but raw meat and bones, using the local butcher I can feed two the vast bulk of their diet for around £10 month. For a Human grade appropriate diet with no additives, preservatives, flavourings or colourants .

Basically you have to bear in mind that commercial feed companies are just that and with a lot of them if they can cut costs by adding cheaper ingredients they will. Protein i.e. meat is expensive compared to grains. Dogs have NO nutritional requirements for complex carbohydrates found in Grains, Rice, Potatoes etc., all of which are used to bulk some dried diets. This not only makes the food cheaper to produce it also appears to help "fill" up a dog since it's natural bulk of bones is not present in the diet, it also assists with giving the food an extra long shelf life, much of the time along with chemical preservatives and emulsifiers to stop any fat leaking out.

They have few restrictions on Dog food labelling and can get away with even miss describing food For instance Burn's describe one of their feeds as Chicken and maize, read the label and you will find a Massive minimum 70% of that food is Maize and only 13% chicken meal, I don't know about anyone else but I would not feed that amount of Maize to my horses and they are herbivores!!!! I personally find feeding a scavenging carnivore that much complex carbs horrifying and can't help thinking that we are setting up problems for future generations.

You can see from a lot of companies that intolerances to these bulks are increasing, but nobody appears to want to say why, wheat intolerances are quite widespread and intolerances to rice are increasing!

If you do go down the commercial food route this might help you decide
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=339836
 
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