Best dog food (again)

Hi,
I’m currently having trouble with my 2 border terriers, they seem to go off a food very quickly & have trouble adapting to a new food which leads to upset stomachs & yet more leaving of the food (yes I do introduce it) but any new food seems to get wolfed down & they can pick it out of the bowl & leave the rest!
We have tried lots since coming of dried food that they simply won’t eat, they seemed to like Chappie for quite a while, then we went to Butchers tripe mix, then Wainwright’s with a few others which is about where we are at.

So I’m thinking about going half/half with wet & dry & choosing one that is fit for sensitive mutts, current thinking having looked at the ingredients list is for Fishmongers sensitive Adult Dog Food & either their dried food or to mix it up a bit with Orijen senior as they are 7 & 11 Y/O.

Any thoughts other than to feed then RAW?

Cheers.

Weve used burns for three dogs now. Current dog gets it dry and wolfs it down which makes it really convenient when away camping.
Its not cheap but it goes a long way and the dog is fit as a butchers, er dog.

I was using Burns, was gettin 15kg for £40 and then I was talked into a much more healthy food. My diabetic malamute x is on Canagan (£72 12kg) for large dogs. It’s so rich and full of nutrients you give your dog a lot less . My boy is now just getting through 12kg when before he was easily doing 15+ . Secret is no treats !

Frozen raw chicken wings – must be raw or bones will splinter if cooked, raw chicken carcass, raw turkey neck, raw duck neck, raw bones, best bit is you get old school white dog poo!

Had similar times with one of mine stopped all the high protein stuff, onto raw food you can buy it in frozen form just minced chicken rabbit or what ever you want to feed them. No additives at just raw meet minced with bone, I’ve found it to be the best diet they have ever had try it

Our 3 terriers are all on James Wellbeloved, with steamed white fish /chicken and rice once or twice a week, they love it.

+1 James Wellbeloved rice and Turkey.

fish for dogs

Swear by it now, all sorts of different dogs catered for (pun down!), made from fishes. Smells a bit…..

that they simply won’t eat, they seemed to like Chappie for quite a while, then we went to Butchers tripe mix, then Wainwright’s with a few others which is about where we are at.

I don’t blame them. Would you eat it?

Give them some decent stuff. Ours are on Lily’s Kitchen, Cannagans or Hunter’s Pantry (?) . All wheat free and they love em!
Scrambled eggs every morning though…

OK, I hate to say it but talk to me about raw, I understand that you can buy “nuggets” which contain what you think you want, TBH I want an easy life but I can cope with just opening a can & putting it a bowl to getting it out of the freezer the night before & putting it in a bowl, but again TBH I don’t get the new found thing with feeding your dog the best available in much the same way I don’t get why we treat our kids differently (I’m guilty BTW) to when I was a kid, we have all had a good life right?

Cheers.

What happens if you don’t give in and give them what they want? They’ll eat when they’re hungry enough, surely?

I make my own for my staffy. Have always done. Lean mince, rice, veg, cod liver oil. All in a big stock pot. 25 meals at a time. Portion it off and freeze it. Cheaper than bought but more importantly I know exactly what my dog is eating unlike anything in crumbs or a packet. Have switched a lot of my morning dog walkers to this and they all notice the difference in their dogs, much calmer and healthier. Most have lost weight as well (the dogs that is not the owners).

It turns out that dogs also like home-made Bakewell tart. Not the really crappy kind that Mr Kipling makes, but the sublime delicious kind that only good home baking can bring.

Wolfed it down while we were out.

…choosing one that is fit for sensitive mutts…

One of my GSD’s was a reluctant eater, would need to poo 5 or 6 times a day and was underweight. We tried various food, pills, powders and potions, until one vet suggested we try Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal. It’s prescription only, and not the cheapest food, but it sorted him overnight. He’s a twice a day regular now with the added benefit that they’re easy to pick up.

We’re using Royal canin junior for our pup. He likes it and he’s developing very well.

If you look at the side of any dog food they are all pretty much the same spec. And our two spaniels will eat anything, just the wife insists on buying them dear stuff whereas I just buy the basic stuff.

All dried, and luckily a big garden out in the country in case 🙂

Have a look at ‘Naturediet’, my whippet’s been on it for the last 11 years and she’s fit as a flea.

After puking up a load of foamy blood and a long stay in doggy hospital we realised Vinnie had a rather sensitive stomach. No chicken or lamb or crap dog food. He’s survived the last few years on Royal Canin sensitivity control dry food and Waitrose frying steak. You get 9 steaks for a tenner and each one lasts a day and a bit. He likes them medium rare, which is only to be expected, and if we run out of food for the kids they can share a steak. He is a miniature schnauzer cross shih-tzu.
We used to give him cheap braising steak or mince, but it wasn’t a lot cheaper, and not as nice to nibble (for me).

Acana dried food.. Only dried food the dog will chomp down in one sitting. Even the cats try and steal it so it must be good…

Dr John Gold,

Hills Science Plan dried food – not cheap but loves it, no tummy issues and the excretions are suprisingly unsmelly!!

Ours has wainwrights with raw tripe or white fish. Stinks but she loves it!

Used to use Fish For Dogs then they cut the ammount of protein/fish now use Millies Wolfheart[/url]

Do yourself a favour and get the most appropriate Royal Canin food for the dog and stick with just giving them this, no mixing with wet or other poor foods.

Stop changing food, stop giving in to them when they turn their nose up at it, Royal Canin is good stuff.

Dogs can get bored of food quite easily, however supplementing with new food and ‘bribing’ them is not a good approach as they will wait for this.

Royal Canin isn’t great imo, chock full of Maize, Wheat and other fillers. From looking at the ingredients in RC the only thing premium about it is the price

Mine have James Wellbeloved, anything else and its liquid shit + blood after a few days. Its expensive but cheaper than a vets visit.

If the do get an upset stomach they have plain rice or tins of Chappie until it settles down.

Mine are both bang on target weight and have very defined muscles and the vet is alway very pleased when they are checked up as they are perfect weight and build, which is apparently very rare.

Dried food has a lot of science invested to ensure dogs are regular, the poo is less smelly and the maximum amount of nutrients per gram are absorbed, which minimizes waste. I read an article about how NASA are using pet food nutritionists to figure out what food products should be used when traveling to Mars as you have to think of size vs nutrition vs waste and this is what the dog food manufacturers have spent decades solving

To be honest, if you’ve got 2 dogs who initially like food then start turning their noses up at it, the most likely thing is you’re giving them too much of it. Ok, if they refuse to eat it for days at a time or start losing weight, its time to change diet. For the most part though, if a dog’s hungry, it’ll eat what’s put in front of it, especially if there’s more than one in the house.

It always fascinates me that people think a food must be good for a dog because they wolf it down quickly. The reason a lot of tinned foods are so palatable is due to salt/sugar content – the equivalent of fast food for dogs. As for protein levels, dogs are Omnivores, not carnivores and high protein levels can lead to more problems than they solve. Yes, in rare circumastances, you can get intolerances to different ingredients including grains but, for the most part, they are fine.

I could go on (and on, and on 🙂 ) but my advice would be pick a quality food (Royal canin would be my choice but most of the above suggestions are ok and Chappie is alright if you’re on a bit of a budget) and stick with it. The more you chop & change, the more fussy you make your dog – it’s quite easy to train a dog to be fussy by “rewarding” them for not eating what you first put down.

Our cat eats raw – from Natural Instinct :

http://www.naturalinstinct.com/all-dog-food/?gclid=CKanrtXTrcgCFYOy2wodI6UE3Q

I think it works out quite cost effective compared to ‘normal’ shop food, especially as most of it is junk quality – including the RC stuff.

Also look at Honeys :

Honey’s Raw Food for Dogs

they provide a good little guide written by their resident vet, explaining how dogs like to eat, etc. They sent me one, even though I was trying their cat food.

A big benefit is the ‘quality’ of his number 2s now – like a big rabbits – solid and absolutely no smell – would make picking them up from the park or pavement very easy – if it were a dog.

Thats a good point about dogs turning there noses up at food apparently if you leave unlimited supplies of food out dogs will self regulate. I’ve never tried it as mine as Lab crosses so I suspect they would explode first.

Also you aren’t supposed to leave food out for long periods of time, if they haven’t eaten it in 30 minutes throw it away, that way they know when and where to eat and this should prevent 3am wakeup calls when a dog suddenly needs a shit.

Dogs won’t starve themselves, if they are hungry they will eat. Your dog shouldn’t be calling the shots as they are ultimately just a dog, its your job to lead not to follow.

Check out http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/the-dog-food-directory if you are unsure about whats in their food and fancy a bit of research.

Spent countless hours on this site checking out what to feed our oes, eventually decided on Arden Grange, she loves the stuff and we feed it to her in toys so she doesn’t wolf it down so fast and actually has to work for her food. Keeps her occupied for more than 15 secs than it would in a bowl.

We had trouble with allergies/weird reactions etc, now we feed all our animals (cats and dogs) Forthglade, and everything is fine.

Seems to produce a good quality stool, too, nice and easy turds to pick up instead of piles of mashed potato
🙂

Always used Berriman’s, tried all the others which either made them skittish or overly ‘loose’. Tried Autarky too which was pretty good but couldn’t buy it locally for ages so switched to Berriman’s.

Our Fox Terrier is on Lily’s, it’s the only food he hasn’t gone off and caused him upset stomach. He has a mixture of wet for his morning/daytime feed and dry on the evening.
May be a bit more expensive but well worth it.
Order direct and delivery is very fast(next day)or Tesco’s now sell it although you will need one of the bigger stores to buy the dry.

My old Staff used to have Bakers, he would graze when he wanted to, if I opened a can of Tuna would pour the oil onto his food which would cause him to scoff the lot then push the bowl around for ages by licking it. Happy healthy dog 😆

Our new Border, Ted, has a raw diet as recommended by the breeder.

We use Nature’s Menu minced chicken, comes frozen either direct or from Pets at Home. We mix in some frozen mixed veg as well.

For us the benefits are that the food doesn’t smell and he loves it.
We prepare it a day or 2 in advance – weigh out veg and meat into a tupperware (other makes are available) container (we do 2 at a time) then leave it in the fridge to slowly defrost. Just before we give it to him we sprinkle on a little bit of puppy kibble, which will stop when he’s grown.

We give him half in the morning and half in the evening.

To me it feels right – dogs evolved by eating raw food so it seems the best thing to give them. You also know exactly what you’re feeding them, The breeder swears by it and so far so good.

Our puppy would scratch more than seemed natural. We suspected she might have an intolerance to something in the food. Checked out allaboutdogfood site and the feed she was on (CSJ) had quite a bit of grain. I ordered a pack of Markus Muhle as a trial and things got better. Their UK sister company Gentle was the next one we tried as at the time it was grain free. She went’t off the food after a while though, so I tried Eden which is completely grain free.

They do a few different versions and she loves all of them.