RECOMMEND A GOOD QUALITY DOG FOOD

Lemlin

I bought James Wellbeloved and my dog didn't seem fond of it at all. I have now tried Orijen. She loves it but I've noticed her itching alot and I think it could be because of the extra protein. I now plan to try her on Red Mills and see how that goes.

I regularly give her meat as well as the food so she should get enough even if Red Mills hasn't a high meat content.

MoonDancer256

Lemlin wrote: »

I regularly give her meat as well as the food so she should get enough even if Red Mills hasn't a high meat content.

That's a good alternative as well Partial raw feeding can work quite well.

I didn't think I would have the stomach for it (used to be a vegetarian for many years, and although I eat meat now I hate preparing it) but turns out fine. My puppy loves her raw drumsticks for treats And raw livers is like all her birthdays and christmases come at once apparently.

Lemlin

MoonDancer256 wrote: »

That's a good alternative as well Partial raw feeding can work quite well.

I didn't think I would have the stomach for it (used to be a vegetarian for many years, and although I eat meat now I hate preparing it) but turns out fine. My puppy loves her raw drumsticks for treats And raw livers is like all her birthdays and christmases come at once apparently.

My dog isn't fond of liver at all which surprises me as most dogs are.

rat catcher

Hi working in a major petstore I have always used Red Mills and found it great. I have tryed R/c and JWB as I get free stock every month but always went back to Red Mills. Just my 2 cents worth :rolleyes:

00112984

Lemlin wrote: »

She loves it but I've noticed her itching alot and I think it could be because of the extra protein.

Does she have a very white coat, by any chance?

Can't for the life of me give a link to back this up but when I was doing research before getting my Old English Sheepdog years ago, I found lots of sites saying that certain foods with very high protein levels can cancause irritation to dogs with white skin (white skin = white coat, if you've ever seen a shaved Old English Sheepdog ).

lorebringer

Lemlin wrote: »

I bought James Wellbeloved and my dog didn't seem fond of it at all. I have now tried Orijen. She loves it but I've noticed her itching alot and I think it could be because of the extra protein. I now plan to try her on Red Mills and see how that goes.

I regularly give her meat as well as the food so she should get enough even if Red Mills hasn't a high meat content.

Have you looked into Acana - same makers as Orijen but with less protein. I swear by Orijen but this is still and great food and could be worth a try. www.zooplus.ie stock it

LucyK

I'm feeding my Lab Brandy at the mo (he's farting at my feet right now). Can't get him to eat the dry food but he'll eat it with a tin of sardines thrown in.. After reading the above think it would be better to go back to the redmills with the tin of fish in oil..

A local co-op recently sold us a bag of redmills racer telling us it was the most popular seller. I was concerned that this was solely for greygrounds and rang the company. A nutrisionist there told him it was not adviseable to feed my dog a feed with such a high protein level. Just another point to consider...

Hermit07

Honestly all dogs are different and what food they do well on depends on their age, size, condition, how much exercise they get, are they a working/racing dog or a lap dog that never goes out for a walk.

All those big name brands with the big prices to match are not always better than the cheaer variety. Lots of dogs live very long happy lives on madra, pedigree chum etc.

It really is trial and error to find out which one suits your dog. Im sure you have all fed your dog a particular brand of food only to find that the poo is all over the place, runny and very hard to pick up???? If so then change to another brand.

And for any of you owners of giant breeds like Gt Danes, wolfhounds etc, diets that are too high in protein or calcium can cause terrible joint damage if they are fed to puppies of these breeds. What happens it that these puppies grow too fast and untold damage is done.

21 to 24% decent quality protein is plenty for the majority of breeds.

And then there is the breed specific foods like Canin German shepard/labrador etc etc. All just a marketing ploy to get you to buy the food as remember these are very popular breeds.

I myself feed red mills coz it suits my dogs and they are champion show dogs but I will switch food to suit their needs.

BanzaiBk

JWB for our West Highlands and Royal Canin for the Cairn in the mornings, barf for the evening. The Cairn responded very negatively to JWB and Burns (hotspots, itchy ears) and was hooked on Eukanuba for a while. The vet recommended the Royal Canin and she seems to be doing fine on it. It's harder to judge on smaller dogs imo.

ronboy

I give my 2 dogs leftovers from the table and meat. I have access to a lot of red meat.
I cook the meat to last a few days.
Take out what I need throw in a stock cube mix it all up with potatoes and veg or whatever is left...and they love it. They are in fantastic condition.

dee o gee

My cairn x gets fed JWB with a bit of applaws tinned food, he seems to be in good condition even though its hard to tell with his coat.
When I got him he was on pedigree and I noticed he was very hyper, like a 5 yr old after drinking a 2L bottle of coke, changed him to royal canin and he calmed down a lot but it was getting a bit expensive and the shop ran out of it, so tried red mills noticed no change really in him but decided to change him to JWB because of all the good reviews, his stools are way smaller and firmer than they ever were!!

The cat is on red mills and shes doing excellent on it, am thinking of changing to JWB for her aswel but if she keeps doing ok on red mills I might just keep her on that.

Just wondering has anyone else ever tried applaws for either dogs or cats? I use the wet stuff for both my dog and cat and they love it, the cat was always a picky eater but she devours this stuff! I read somewhere that its not a complete food though this doesn't really matter as they are both on other complete stuff. They also do a dry food for cats that is advertised as 80% chicken and natural. Anyone have any experience with this? This the stuff im on about: http://www.mpmproducts.co.uk/applaws_dry_food.asp?in_section=applaws

Steve30x

Im feeding my dogs Red Mills Star and its making their coats shiny and soft. They love the food. I buy a 15KG once a month and store it in a large plastic container to keep it fresh.

artieanna

ronboy wrote: »

I give my 2 dogs leftovers from the table and meat. I have access to a lot of red meat.
I cook the meat to last a few days.
Take out what I need throw in a stock cube mix it all up with potatoes and veg or whatever is left...and they love it. They are in fantastic condition.

I feed my dog similarly, but I also give her some burns..

The cat gets tuna, and bread and milk, sardines, ham, cheese, turkey etc...

I can hear folk giving out milk will give her the runs.... nope it don't brought her to the vet awhile back with minor prob... vet complimented me on how healthy/well she looked and I said not one tin of cat food did she ever get shes 10yrs old.

My reason for not feeding the regular foods is because the meat put into these foods is rejected for human consumption. We had a v sick beef animal on the farm and she had to be taken away and I asked the guy what would she be used for he said dog food. I do not want my dog to eat this bad meat!!

Lemlin

00112984 wrote: »

Does she have a very white coat, by any chance?

Can't for the life of me give a link to back this up but when I was doing research before getting my Old English Sheepdog years ago, I found lots of sites saying that certain foods with very high protein levels can cancause irritation to dogs with white skin (white skin = white coat, if you've ever seen a shaved Old English Sheepdog ).

Yep, she's Blue Roan and her coat is very white when I give her a good wash. It also looks very white after she's been swimming.

Lollymcd

dee o gee wrote: »

My cairn x gets fed JWB with a bit of applaws tinned food, he seems to be in good condition even though its hard to tell with his coat.
When I got him he was on pedigree and I noticed he was very hyper, like a 5 yr old after drinking a 2L bottle of coke, changed him to royal canin and he calmed down a lot but it was getting a bit expensive and the shop ran out of it, so tried red mills noticed no change really in him but decided to change him to JWB because of all the good reviews, his stools are way smaller and firmer than they ever were!!

The cat is on red mills and shes doing excellent on it, am thinking of changing to JWB for her aswel but if she keeps doing ok on red mills I might just keep her on that.

Just wondering has anyone else ever tried applaws for either dogs or cats? I use the wet stuff for both my dog and cat and they love it, the cat was always a picky eater but she devours this stuff! I read somewhere that its not a complete food though this doesn't really matter as they are both on other complete stuff. They also do a dry food for cats that is advertised as 80% chicken and natural. Anyone have any experience with this? This the stuff im on about: http://www.mpmproducts.co.uk/applaws_dry_food.asp?in_section=applaws

My two cats adore Applaws. They eat both dry and vet food. www.zooplus.ie do good offers especially if you can buy the larger bags.

tcm315

I've got a rough collie 2 yrs old. He was on red mills complete adult until about May of this year but was not doing as well as he should. I moved him to salters maintenance around EUR 55 per bag and since the move he's done really well.

http://www.salterspetfood.com/maintenance.html