What's wrong with Baker's and what do you think of Dr. John Silver?

cinnamontoast said:
Raw. Mine cost about £4 each a week, often less.



Which is a terribly naive thing to say unless you have tested faecal matter, bile, done a thorough blood panel etc. Anyone who knows anything about vet training will tell you, vets get almost no nutrition advice except by their big sponsor, Hills, whose food is bloody awful, too.

I presume you looked at the ingredient list of Dr John's? Which bit about it containing carcinogens did you miss? Please don't think I'm being rude, but I've spent a long time trying to compile help for people on decent dog food. You only need to google the brand to see if its good or bad. Your dog may appear healthy, mine did, very lively, happy dog til he was diagnosed with cancer and PTS the next ay.

I'd rather give my dogs the best I can rather than stubbornly stick with something just because it's habit.
Click to expand...

My sister in law feeds their westie on bakers, and its ok because he's eaten it all his 8 years of life
 
dingle12 said:
I feed Dr john silver to all my dogs and family members do to there dogs too. I lost my old dog at 18 years and he had been on that most of his life my 11 year old is on it he has been on it all his life he has never needed the vets other than vacc i am always stopped and asked what do i feed him as his coat is fantastic even my vet asks me.
Gizmo my terrier is also on it he has been from day dot and yet again fantastic teeth and coat. He has got a few temp problems but thats down to the terrier not the food

My MIL has a whippet always losing weight and going to the toilet loads with runny stools, i got her to change her food and he now hold his weight fantastic.

All dogs are diff and you should try whats best for you and your dog i for one dont believe in all these expensive foods.

And sorry to say whoever said cancer was to blame for the dog food sadly its not alot of things contribute to cancer you cannot blame whats in dog food.

Just to add i have had a full blood count off one of my older dogs and all the results were spot on.
Click to expand...

I'm not necessarily blaming the food, i don't know what caused it, could well be just one of those things. It did give me a fright though and just for peace of mind I have changed to one of the brands that got high marks on the food analysis site.
 
NOISYGIRL said:
My sister in law feeds their westie on bakers, and its ok because he's eaten it all his 8 years of life
Click to expand...

thats an odd statement, I smoke and have done for more than ten years, I'm not dead and dont have any smoking related health issues, however I would be hard pushed to claim that means smoking is ok for you!
 
I switched from Bakers as a result of learning from reading these posts. Was going to use Wellbeloved and then found the analysis wasnt as great as I had thought.


So Ive started using this as it was the best analysis I could find where the company wouldnt charge twice the amount of the order to actually deliver it to me up here in Aberdeenshire.
http://www.symplypetfoods.co.uk/

The dogs (6-7 yo Border terrier (hip dysplasia) and 6-7 yo Doberman (slight arthritis in back) are having this one
http://www.symplypetfoods.co.uk/Senior-Light

Im combining it with lightly cooked (they wont eat it completely raw) mutton from our cull sheep, the littlun I dont risk with bones tho.

Is this a good food? The dogs seem very happy on this diet and less hyperactive. The Dobies coat is like a mirror, it's so glossy.
 
I wouldnt say it was bad LandM although what I would say is that its on a par with other feeds that cost a lot less! Skinners would be similar in analysis from what I can see and its half the price. I'm no feeding guru though, others may have other opinion.
 
My 18 year old had very bad hip dysplasia dr john did him no harm at all he thrived on it, kept his weight spot on too.

Fed what you think is best for your dog. Try the cheaper brands and work up not the other way around its madness what is charged for some of these feeds. If your dog is healthy has a good coat, teeth and skin keeping a good weight and going to the toilet fine you have found your dog food.

P1010017.jpg


Photo014-1.jpg


do these look healthy ??
lab x is 11yrs ( and no didnt pack him in the case he does it every time i start packing )

S6002038.jpg


and ben at 18
 
Last edited:
Dingle I think the point is that dogs may look healthy on these foods but at the end of the day it is not good or natural for them.

fpr example. My beloved Border was fed on Bakers his whole life, no health problems and everyone commented on how great he looked. We had to have him PTS because his kidneys and liver had packed in and he was dying from the inside out. Him becoming ill and being PTS was within a week.

I am sleepy though and may well have mis read posts / be talking out my a*se :o
 
It seems (from my little knowledge and experience!) that many dogs will do fine on the processed foods like bakers, but they may do better on something else. Thats what I have grasped from this anyway :)
 
I was thinking (always dangerous) that we don't really have these discussions about the 'quality' of horse feed over an above poss starch/sugar/protein levels, I have never actually looked at an ingredients list (although we are only talking horse and pony nuts here, but cheap as chips own brand mole valley ones) I wonder if it is less of an issue because:
a) horses are less popular so less advertising budget!
b) it is a smaller part of a horses ration, not 100% like the dogs.
 
I think most horse feed (esp bulk type feeds) don't really matter as likely 90% (I don't even know! :o :D ) is made up of forage.

Its only when you start feeding something that will make your horse mentally unstable that it makes a difference, for mine this is oats or a balancer :cool:

I think horses also are more of an 'expert' thing that joe public is not involved with, people are expected just to know a bit more, instead of any old joe bloggs buying a puppy cos its cute. They are also treated a bit more like stock :)
 
KarynK that posts on here (much more sporadically than she used to :p) used to say that there is more cereal (maize in particular) in a lot of dogs foods than there are in horse feeds. And that ain't good.
I was doing an ingredients check in Jollyes today (long story, don't ask) and some of the ingredients lists, even in the so-called 'premium' brands are shocking. Meat content, even animal product content, negligible in most, and those are the ones that actually give percentages, most don't.
 
Stencilface said:
What is the general opinion of canned meat for dogs - is this just as bad, or better than dry foods. I can't believe its worse :eek:
Click to expand...

Good quality canned food is far far better than dry food. If i couldn't feed raw i would feed a 100% canned diet.

First it has much more moisture. Dehydration is a huge issue in dogs and most dogs fed dry food are dehydrated.

Seconds a good quality canned contains much more meat than kibble.

Third way way less carbs because it doesn't need he carbs to hold shape.

I personally think most kibble in the UK is terrible. Skinners ect is mostly all grains or potato and very little meat.
 
Thanks, so meat is better than dry - tbh I would have thought that anyway - it looks like meat for starters!

I will endeavour to get my dog (when I get one :( ) on a raw diet, but I need to do it so its easy for my OH/parents to feed if needed, so likely will need a packaged deal. thats easy to do, and buy a small chest freezer :)
 
For convenience, I ordered from Natural Instinct for a few weeks.
Now I have all the tubs. And a freezer.
I have since sourced a cheaper guy who supplies to the greyhound industry, minced tripe, minced whole chickens, chicken carcasses, turkey legs, hearts, kidneys etc.
So I just defrost what I need for the next couple of days and divide it into the tubs. Hurray :D
 
My dogs have always had a varied diet. Tinned, mixer, veg, pasta, rice, raw meat. I can't think of anything worse than feeding them dry feed daily with nothing else. I'm sure feeding dry is down to convenience for a lot of dog owners - scoop in the bowl, job done.
 
Betty is now on a bit of a mixed diet:

she gets raw chicken wings/oxtail etc or a whole raw egg (inc shell) and natural yog (only 2 eggs max a week) in the morning, and is then fed wainwrights dry food with either a tin of sardines or leftovers from our dinner in the evenings. i always put in a good glug of water, and 20 mls of apple cider vinegar to this evening meal too.

during the summer we catch lots of mackerel, so we freeze some and she gets them when we have them.

she was on wagg and tesco tinned dog food, she looked great and was fit as a fiddle. i wouldnt say she LOOKS or acts any different now, but her crap is a whole lot more normal looking......:eek:

i wanted to move to raw, but where i am makes it really difficult, so this way i feel that she has the best that i can give her.
 
Last edited:
Not sure if there is an equivalent of what we feed in the UK. We use Carnibest (http://www.carnibest.nl/) which you buy frozen in 1kg rolls (3.50 euros each) and just defrost as you need. We don't have a big freezer (just a 2 shelf one above the fridge) but can fit about 4 of these in at a time and still have room for our own food. 100% raw with all the parts of the animal plus a few naturally found herbs and veggies and everything is human grade and sourced in the Netherlands. It was recommended by our breeder and I think it is fantastic quality, doesn't have that gross dog food smell, is comparable price wise with supermarket brands and the dog loves and looks fantastic on it.

I wanted to go raw but the butchers here are virtually non-existent, very few supermarket offers on meat and our local butcher doesn't even stock bones or off-cuts!!

ETS: Also, her poos are great! Never thought I'd get excited about how easy to pick up poo is!
 
NOISYGIRL said:
My sister in law feeds their westie on bakers, and its ok because he's eaten it all his 8 years of life
Click to expand...

And she doesn't mind the carcinogens? Poor bloody dogs.

dingle12 said:
My 18 year old had very bad hip dysplasia dr john did him no harm at all he thrived on it, kept his weight spot on too.

Fed what you think is best for your dog. Try the cheaper brands and work up not the other way around its madness what is charged for some of these feeds. If your dog is healthy has a good coat, teeth and skin keeping a good weight and going to the toilet fine you have found your dog food.
Click to expand...

Is that you'd feed your kids? Start with the cheap crap? You've been lucky, given the epically awful ingredients and the bits that might cause cancer. Google BHA/BHT: you really think it's ok to feed an animal that has no choice that stuff?

dingle12 said:
And sorry to say whoever said cancer was to blame for the dog food sadly its not alot of things contribute to cancer you cannot blame whats in dog food.
Click to expand...

Even though the vet told me stomach cancer is usually directly linked to nutrition? You a vet? Why add to the risk? There are known carcinogens in the food.
 
cinnamontoast said:
And she doesn't mind the carcinogens? Poor bloody dogs.



Is that you'd feed your kids? Start with the cheap crap? You've been lucky, given the epically awful ingredients and the bits that might cause cancer. Google BHA/BHT: you really think it's ok to feed an animal that has no choice that stuff?



Even though the vet told me stomach cancer is usually directly linked to nutrition? You a vet? Why add to the risk? There are known carcinogens in the food.
Click to expand...


Agree with this, WHY would anyone WANT to subject their pet to carcinogens?
 
Creeps back into thread.

Ok, so if I give them Skinners Hypoallergenic Field & Trial Duck & Rice (with some meat when possible - as the analysis said lack of meat was the problem with this feed) will that be safe? Ok? Acceptable?

Thanks

That analysis site script crashed my PC earlier BTW.
 
Last edited:
please dont feed raw meat and dry food/kibble in the same meal though! ;) they are digested at different rates, and can lead to problems.

i give betty a small raw meal in the morning, (eg 2 x chicken wings/ 1 chicken wing and a small bit of oxtail/ a raw egg, shell and all, mashed up with some natural yog (only twice a week max for the raw egg) ) and her dry meal with a tin of sardines/household leftovers in the evening.
 
cremedemonthe said:
Agree with this, WHY would anyone WANT to subject their pet to carcinogens?
Click to expand...

I would just like to point out that they are likely exposed to carcinogens every day, as our we in varying amounts. I do understand the want to reduce exposure though I just want to not get too close the line of this food will give your dog cancer/if you don't feed your dog this food it won't get cancer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top