What food is best for my 8week collie cross?

[sez88]

Hey,

First off just a quick thank you to everone who has helped out so far with my various puppyt questions, I have never had a dog before and want to do the best by him so appreciate all the help I can get.

Right...back to the issue of food.
What food is best to feed my pup? He is a collie x lab, he is a big lad weighing in at 4.8kg atm, the vet says he is not fat just pretty big for his age.

Anywho... when we got him he was on morrisons own, which im guessing cant be that great as its the cheapest available! Then the vets reccomended 'Hills Science Plan Canine Puppy Food' but I dont know enough about dog food to make an informed decision, is hills really the best or are they just trying to sell their stock?

I dont mind cooking a chicken to cut up, freeze and use as treats but dont really want to be cooking food for him everyday so would prefer to use prepacked stuff.

Thanks in advance

[emmabeth]

Yeah they like to sell Hills at the vets. Its not the worst dry food around but its also not the best by a long shot.

I feed my dogs a raw diet, raw meat, raw meaty bones, some offal, someitmes some tinned fish, blended veg/fruit, hte odd egg... you acheive balance over time rather than a balanced meal in every bite...

Ive been doing this for over 7 years i think now and seems to be doing my dogs the world of good (they range from 1 year to 14 years).

Bought in bulk and preparing things like the veg in advance, and sourcing things cleverly/carefully (sometimes cheap, sometimes free!) I feed five dogs for WELL under the cost of a premium branded food - about 100 a month... youd spend half that feeding one large dog a premium food!

The dry food I would recommend is Orijen though... contains no grains at all and seems to be very good. Not cheap, but then you feed less... so it works out ok.

[sez88]

Thanks emmabeth,
I would love to have the time to prepare the food for Charlie myself but once Im back at work I'm worried I wont and I dont want to keep changing his diet all the time, so think its best if I start as I mean to go on.

Just searched for Orijen, your right is it is a bit pricey!! haha.
I was looking at 'Burgess Supadog - Puppy'
http://www.burgesspetcare.co.uk/product ... py---.html
but the protien level is 28% is that too high?

Also should I be feeding his a completely dry diet?


Thank you for taking the time to reply, I really do appreciate you help!

[emmabeth]

Tricky to tell with complete foods, because the protein source and quality are as important if not more so than the percentage overall protein content.

No good if its low quality or indigestible!

As I say ive been feeding raw for about 7 years now, to five dogs.... so we have the organisation down pretty well by now.

We defrost over night, and then dollop into bowls which takes no longer than a dry food. Just remembering to leave something out to defrost is the key point really - and even then, if its minced meat (Prize Choice by Anglian Meat Products, its minced meat and bone frozen into a block..) we defrost that in the microwave, one block takes about 12 minutes.

I dont like to microwave chicken wings or other things with bones in because of the risk of cooking the bone which makes it dangerous so they get shut in the microwave over night to defrost naturally (shut in so no one steals them!) at room temp.

In all honesty, the actual work involved.... 1 day a month we ge a delivery from Prize choice - takes me about 45 minutes to put all that away in the freezer, but then we have five dogs.... so its a lot of meat.

A couple of hours one day a month blending and freezing veggie pulp in meal sized portions.

For days when we forgot to get something out... a can of Glenryck pilchards goes down well! In summer they often get things like turkey wings or lamb ribs still frozen... mmm meaty lollies! (bleurgh!).

It does require some research but it honestly ISNT a lot of work, i find it a lot harder figuring out what to feed myself!

[Nettle]

I'm another raw feeder, for over 20 years now, three big dogs and a terrier atm, and it's honestly no more work because you save time other ways. It's just a matter of getting into a new way of doing things. You also save a lot of time and money from not going to the vets because the dogs stay so healthy.

[Sarah83]

Where do you store it??? I assume you have an extra freezer just for the dogs food? I've considered trying Rupert on raw but storage has always been a problem. Now delivery would also be a problem but could be worked around.

As for what food is the best, I've tried Rupert on pretty much all the recommended ones and none suit him as well as what he's on now. Wainwrights seems to be the best one for him although it's not the best food out there. Dry foods I usually see recommended are Orijen, Burns, James Wellbeloved and Ardent Grange.

[Nettle]

Yup, extra freezer needed.

[sez88]

I dont think we will have the storage for Cahlie's food in freezer -we can hardly fit our own food in there!!

I went and looked at lots of different foods today and think I found a pretty good one;
Its called 'Barking Heads', the ingredients for the puppy food are as follows...

Ingredients:
Fresh British Chicken (min 22%), Dried Chicken (min 21%), Brown Rice (min 21%), Ground Oats, Dried Salmon (min 10%), Potato, Chicken Fat, Sunflower Oil, Dried Egg, Salmon Oil, Minerals, Dried Tomato, Dried Carrot, Natural Seaweed, Vitamins, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM

Typical Analysis:
Protein 28%, Fat 18%, Fibre 2.5%, Ash 8%, Moisture 8%, Vitamin A 20000 iu/kg, Vit D3 1800 iu/kg, Vit E (Tocopherols) 690 iu/kg, Copper 11 mg/kg, Omega 6 (linoleic acid) 4.4%, Omega 3 (linolenic acid) 1%


Im pretty sure the current food is making him hyper, this has no colourings, preservatives, flavourings or GM ingredients in it apparently.