Is eukanuba the best?

[Drunkentulip]

My partner and I have been feeding our 6 month old springer spaniel eukanuba since we had him at 8 weeks old.the breeder had also been feeding him this.however this brand is proving to be quite expensive.we love our dog but does anyone know of another good quality brand that is a bit cheaper?we are in the UK and have been paying £15.00 for a 3kg bag.

[Zeldacorgi]

Eukanuba is a terrible food, but the company has genius marketing that makes you think you're buying something awesome. It's also something that the company pays to have vets tell you is good for dogs. I fell for it with Science Diet. I switched my cats over to Blue Buffalo and am now transitioning my puppy from Solid Gold puppy to Petcurean (simply because the protein levels are too high for her, still SG is an awesome food). At the very least, you could be spending the same amount of money on a food that is way higher quality, but you may even find cheaper feeding methods.

Eukanuba, even though they claim they don't use fillers, does use fillers. Wheat and corn. Lots of it! It cannot be digested by dogs and can cause all sorts of digestive problem. Also, a sampling of a couple of their formulas (a company with that many "formulas", by the way, is trying to trick you) use meat by-products as their primary or secondary meat. That means the parts of the animal no one would ever eat-feathers, nails, heads, etc. You can also see on the ingredient list that there sure is a lot of science, but very little named actual foods.

What you want to look for is kibble with a NAMED meat or meat meal (ex. lamb or lamb meal). If it just says animal meal, that's not good enough. You want a meat or meat meal source in the first ingredient, preferably a second in the top five.
Avoid wheat, corn and soy at all costs. They are simply crap for dogs. Rice is a good ingredient, but avoid brewers rice.

Check out http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/ for some good quality brands. Anything in the 4-6 star range is going to be great. 3 stars and down you're going to start seeing some funky ingredients pop in. Also, feel free to google "dog food reviews" and read up on what to look for and, more importantly, what to avoid. Hope this helps.

[josie1918]

corn, when cooked can be digested by dogs, it is usually used as an inexpensive protien source, there are a lot of documented issues with allergies due to corn, and wheat. Eukanuba, has extremely high levels of protien, and also most of their diets have beet pulp in them, this is used to keep a healthy gut in a dog,(source of high fiber) however, once again, we are seeing many dogs becomming allergic to it. Not everyone can afford to pay big money for dog food, and just because it costs more does not always make it better.
The problem here as I see it would be what you have available to you in the U.K. Chicken soup for the dog lovers soul is a good diet, at a reasonable price. At the end of the day though, the best diet is the one your dog does well on. EVERY dog is different, I have friends whose dogs benefitted greatly from blue buffalo, I put one of my dogs on it, his skin got dry and flaky, his hair felt like steel wool and lost all it's shine. So.................... I would ask people you meet who have healthy, good looking dogs what they feed and see if you can come up with something that way.

[Sarah83]

I currently feed Wainwrights, costs around £30 for a 15kg bag which lasts Rupe about 6 weeks. Other ones I've tried that have been decent have been James Wellbeloved and Burns. Arden Grange, Orijen and Natures Menu are ones I see recommended a fair bit. I can't feed Rupert Burns as he drops so much weight on it but I know others who feed it with no problems.

I get confused with all the ingredients, percentages and all that and the dog food analysis site seems to list american brands, most of which I don't think you can get in the UK.

[hlopez18]

Most of the major commercial brands (e.g. Eukanuba, Pedigree, Purina, Science Diet, etc.) are equivalent to our fast food. These companies are concerned with their bottom lines and not necessarily the quality of the food they put out there, therefore the ingredients suffer. They have a lot of fillers that dogs cannot digest easily and oftentimes cause several medical issues. Your focus shouldn't be on the marketing techniques that Eukanuba uses and instead on the list and quality of ingredients. Yes, this is more difficult to do and can be more expensive per bag. However, many times the higher quality foods, because they are higher quality and have better ingredients last longer than the commercial brands and therefore end up costing the same if not less in the long run. For example, my pup would finish an 8 lb bag of Iams in a three week span when we first got her from her foster. On the other hand, once we switched her to Orijen, she lasted 2 months on a 15 lb bag.

Good luck.