Food

[atomic7431]

I have done a lot of reading on this board and other sites and im getting confused as to what food is good and whats not

I have a 9 month old cocker spaniel female who is the working breed and eventually will be doing agility.

She was on beta puppy but stopped eating that and now shes on bakers puppy which i think is sending her loopy lol and ive read its not so good.

Im in the uk and theres so many complete dry foods to choose from so what does people recommend

[runlikethewind]

Hi Atomic

Bakers has colourings in it - which could be making her hyper active, much like they say for children. There's no need for colourings in dog food - they don't care less what colour their food is. Also, if you have a look at what is actually the meat content of the supermarket brands, you'll be quite astonished and wonder what on earth you are feeding your dog If grain is listed before meat, it's not going to be very digestible and you'll see most of it re-appear the next day on your lawn.

Before I went on to raw which I can appreciate might be too much of a big step at the moment (but it's very easy now I have the hang of it.. and very cheap too), I did a lot of research like you.

Here are my recommendations and why on commercial food:

I would always choose a grain-free food (dogs have no need for grain and the pet food industry uses it as a cheaper filler, but also in order to make a kibble, it has to have a starchy carb in it to bind it together. This means avoiding rice-based kibble too. The UK's choice of grain-free kibble is poor (you can get a couple of unusual ones in the US but they are not available here). If you prefer to feed a dry food, then, I would recommend Orijen which is made with potato. It comes from Canada and their standards are very high and if animal welfare is of interest to you, they are quite good in this area too. It's high protein and you only need to feed a very small amount because it is so digestible. James Wellbeloved has also launched a potato based kibble but I like to steer away from big business (they are owned by Mars). Burns do one too - pork and potato and the company really rates filling the dog up with starchy grains and carbs etc for some reason. Possibly to keep production costs down...cycnic!

I then went off kibble as I realised the dog wouldn't be eating potato in real life!!!... So I basically had to give up all dry food. Moving to wet felt better because a kibble is so far removed from what a dog would naturally eat. Then I went on the hunt for a wet food. Once again, it is near on impossible in this country to find a decent high quality wet food without any grain, including rice or potato. In fact, I would go as far as to say, there isn't one.

This is where www.zooplus.co.uk came in. They are a German online retailer selling lots of dog food. I finally tracked down a canned wet food they sell called Terra Canis - it is pretty amazing because it consists of just meat and veg (no grain, no rice and no potato). It's very sloppy because it is not bound together with lots of carbs. If you go onto the website, you will see it's called the Terra Canis sensitive range. I have emailed the owner of the company before - a German lady really into the quality of her food. They do others but they have pasta in.. I would avoid.... There is also a very expensive product called Herrmann's Organic which produces a grain and potato free wet food - it's very expensive because it's organic so I don't know what your budget is. These two products are so nice smelling, I would eat them myself!! My dog did very well on them both.

I moved off this wet food onto full blown raw feeding a few months back and haven't looked back really but as I understand, it is a big step for some people. I would buy this wet food still for long camping trips etc

[atomic7431]

thanks for the info, but do i need a high protein or lower protein product?

[runlikethewind]

I don't know about that. I'm giving my personal recommendations on the foods I have tried. I don't really know about protein levels. All I know is I didn't want to fill my dog up with carbs they have no need for. They say protein levels are connected to excessive energy but I didn't find that personally. On the Orijen product, you will find a statement about high protein on their website which is very informative. It's a concentrated product so you feed very little of it. If your dog is healthy, I believe high protein levels are not important but I'm not au fait with this. The products above are the ones I have tried and were happy with at the time,

[Zeldacorgi]

thanks for the info, but do i need a high protein or lower protein product?

For kibble, around 23% is what you're looking for.

[Sarah83]

I feed Wainwrights Salmon and Potato and Rupe does well on that. It's not as good quality as some out there but I needed something I can get fairly locally wherever I am and pretty much everywhere has a Pets at Home. Orijen I'd have to order online, same with a lot of the others and that isn't an option because of security. Burns he was like a walking skeleton on despite eating more than you'd feed a giant breed. James Wellbeloved he did okay on but Wainwrights suits him better. And Wainwrights doesn't have "secret ingredients" that could be anything like JWB does.

I think you have to find the balance between finding a food that isn't absolute garbage and finding one your dog does well on. And awful as it sounds, for most people price is a factor too.

[runlikethewind]

Yes I've always wondered how they can get away with putting 'JWB special ingredients' .. they don't have it listed on all their range. Odd.

[atomic7431]

ok thanks for everyones help its a mine field out there.

ive been looking at this - http://www.ardengrange.com/Pet-Food/dog-food.asp?id=2 and have found it for 34.99 delivered free.

I was advised its supposed to be a good food do you have any thoughts.

once again thanks.

[Sarah83]

Arden Grange is one I've seen recommended quite a bit on other forums. Never tried it myself though.

[Zeldacorgi]

It's "ok". It has named meat/meat meal in it's first two ingredients which is good, although I tend to be less impressed when it's chicken (just a personal preference, so no worries there). Once you get further down the list, you do get some corn and science (words you don't instantly recognize or pronounce). The protein count in puppy foods tend to be on the high side, and this one is no exceptation (although lower than a lot that I've seen). I looked at some of their adult formulas and was even less impressed.

My advice would be to keep looking, and don't think that you have to limit yourself to feeding a puppy formula. At 9 months, she can do just fine on adult formulas. I have no idea what's available in the UK though, so I really can't make any other recommendations. I'll take a peek on the internets and see if I can find anything.

[Zeldacorgi]

So from just a quick peek around, it looks like Orijen and Acana are available in the UK, and both are great kibbles. Check out http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/ and look at 4-6 star reviews, and maybe you'll see a few foods available where you are. A good starting point when you're looking for quality kibble:

At least two named meat/meat meal in the first 5 ingredients.
No corn, wheat or soy.
Little to no "science".

I never read the fancy write-ups on websites or the front of packaging. Anymore, the first thing I do with a bag of dog food is flip it over and read the ingredients. If it doesn't meet my initial criteria, I put it back. You can usually tell within the first 5-7 ingredients whether or not it's quality.

[josie1918]

Now, with all due respect there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with cooked, cracked corn, unless your dog has an allergy to it. It is a good source of protein, and enzymes. Grains such as cooked corn and rice are easily digested by dogs, rice does in fact help the dogs production of seritonin in their brains.
I have nothing against the reviews system, but remember these are not experts in the field of canine nutrition, they are just people, with a lot of different opinions. I say this, because as I have stated many times EVERY dog responds to food differently. I have a GSD who has never looked or behaved as awful in his life as when I fed him blue dog food, my friends dog however has a gorgeous glossy coat, and the high protein did not affect her dogs behavior at all. Once we had a client with a terrier and a toy poodle, they were approx. the same age and were fed the same food, the terrier kept losing weight, (it was scary!!) he was eating, had an excellent appetite, not parasites, no disease of ANY sort, but this dog was starving to death, literally starving to death, while the poodle was fine. I use this as an example of how very different dogs can be, once the terrier was fed a different food, he put weight back on and was fine. He for some reason could not utilize the nutrients in the very pricey, top of the line organic dog food. Go figure

[Sarah83]

So from just a quick peek around, it looks like Orijen and Acana are available in the UK, and both are great kibbles.

Biggest problem is finding them. Only place I've found either is online and delivery costs for them were ridiculous even when I could get food delivered.

[Jenna316]

So from just a quick peek around, it looks like Orijen and Acana are available in the UK, and both are great kibbles.

Biggest problem is finding them. Only place I've found either is online and delivery costs for them were ridiculous even when I could get food delivered.

I feed my dog Acana and I do have to go to a fancy dog boutique about 20 minutes from my house to get it. You've probably already done this Sarah, but do a google search for stores in your area. I know that the company that makes Acana isn't taking on any new stores to sell their food at this time because of a shortage of the organic ingredients they use. They want to make sure the stores that already carry their food get their full supply. Maybe once they get that straightened out, more stores will begin to carry it.

[Jenna316]

So from just a quick peek around, it looks like Orijen and Acana are available in the UK, and both are great kibbles.

Biggest problem is finding them. Only place I've found either is online and delivery costs for them were ridiculous even when I could get food delivered.

I feed my dog Acana and I do have to go to a fancy dog boutique about 20 minutes from my house to get it. You've probably already done this Sarah, but do a google search for stores in your area. The lady that runs the boutique told me that the company that makes Acana isn't taking on any new stores to sell their food at this time because of a shortage of the organic ingredients they use. They want to make sure the stores that already carry their food get their full supply. Maybe once they get that straightened out, more stores will begin to carry it.