Yarrah bio vegetarian dog food

Getwellsoon

Is there any place in Dublin that stocks this? I can order off zooplus.ie but before I take the plunge ordering two large bags to avail of their discount I wouldn't mind trying a sample out on my dog first... or at least knowing if there's somewhere I can actually go and get it rather than having to order online.

I heard it is excellent for dogs with sensitive stomachs.

tk123

just a heads up - zooplus.co.uk is usually cheaper and faster - go with gls NOT DHL!

Sigma Force

There's a few other dog foods on the market for dogs with sensative tums. Have you figured out what types of food might be upsetting your dogs stomach? If it's gluten or grain mabey a potato based dog food might work like Burns. Some people swear by Arden Grange or RC.
Generally it's the 'filler' that seems to upset dogs tums rather than the veg or meat in a product.
Zooplus is probably the cheapest if they do a smaller bag or sample pack might be worth getting first they have regular special offers might be worth chancing buying a small bag first.

Cherry Blossom

What food are you currently feeding your dog OP? I have a Westie with digestive problems and I'll be changing her food to Burns in a few weeks time. Generally Lamb and Rice foods and Pork and Potato seem to be recommended a lot. I have just ordered a bag of Burns high energy Lamb from Zooplus as there is too big a drop in protein levels from the food she's on to the regular Burns lamb and rice so she'll be on that for a few months first. I had difficulty sourcing that as well, its not listed on the Irish zooplus site, but the one bag will do me anyway so it's not a problem. Your best bet would be to find something suitable thats more readily available. Have you looked at James Wellbeloved, Arden Grange, Acana, Orijen, Land of Holistic pets.

The main ingredient in the Yarrah you mention is Wheat which is the most common ingredient dogs are intollerant to. It's very unusual for a dog to be intollerant of all meats (my dog can't handle chicken) it's usually some grain in the food that causes the problem. My advice would be to try a lamb based food first and change over the foods very gradually (over 3 weeks if possible) If you still have the problems after 2 months try something with potato instead of rice. That Yarrah food is also enormously expensive :eek:

Getwellsoon

Hi there! Thanks for the advice!

As he's only 7 months old I was thinking of keeping him on puppy food anyway until he's at least a year old. I was up at Maxi Zoo in Tallaght the other day and they recommended their Select Gold Lamb and Salmon puppy food with rice. It's for sensitive dogs and they gave me a sample. My dog is yet to try it as he is not quite finished his Bakers Puppy Food (which is what he's had since he was tiny, according to the DSPCA) and I don't want to chop and change too much. So as soon as he tries it, if it agrees with him then we'll start the swap-over. It seems like a decent food.

I know he LOVES his veggies and rice as I have been mixing it into his food the past couple of weeks to try and improve his stomach, it has worked wonders and he's really happy. He loves rice, sweet potato, pumpkin, peas, beans, broccoli... :pac::pac::pac:

Even though I'm on a budget the price of Yarrah (around €60 for 20kgs with Zooplus' introductory offer) doesn't really bother me because I know that will last AGES seeing as I will only be feeding him a bit of it each day and supplementing it with a load of fresh yummy food that he loves

Cherry Blossom

Bakers complete as in complete rubbish , I'd change him over to a quality food. It's very likely that the Bakers is what is causing the problems for you. Also when you are feeding a good quality food, there is no need to suplement it with extra things. If you are feeding a decent quality food the ingredients are proportioned so your dog is getting a balanced healthy diet. I'd get him off the bakers as soon as possible to be honest. If you go to 5 different pet shops they will try and sell you 5 different foods, it will be to suit them not you. I've never heard of select gold. Do your own research, look at the ingredient lists and nutritional information and go by that, anything that has additives or ingredients with high intollerance rates should be avoided. Any food that says anything about derivatives is muck and don't go to high on protein % as that can also cause digestive problems (Bakers is 28%) I'd look for a junior food at around 23ish % and then go lower again when changing to adult food.

andreac

Ive never heard of Select Gold either but i have heard of Maxi Zoo trying to push it on customers a few other times so they must be on some sort of commission for selling it, maybe its their own brand or something.

Ive never heard of it and cant find anything online for it either which isnt a good sign so i wouldnt recommend getting that one for your dog.

There ar eplenty of other well know recommended brands that i would choose over Select Gold. Its not good to go with a food that isnt known at all or that no one can recommend.

Theres plenty of good foods, like Burns, Arden Grange, Hils, Royal Canin, Clinivet and so on so dont rush into getting that Select Gold one, just because they are pushing it in the shop.

Getwellsoon

andreac wrote: »

Ive never heard of Select Gold either but i have heard of Maxi Zoo trying to push it on customers a few other times so they must be on some sort of commission for selling it, maybe its their own brand or something.

Ive never heard of it and cant find anything online for it either which isnt a good sign so i wouldnt recommend getting that one for your dog.

There ar eplenty of other well know recommended brands that i would choose over Select Gold. Its not good to go with a food that isnt known at all or that no one can recommend.

Theres plenty of good foods, like Burns, Arden Grange, Hils, Royal Canin, Clinivet and so on so dont rush into getting that Select Gold one, just because they are pushing it in the shop.

Hi, some great advice there from both AndreaC and AdrenalinJunkie. I totally relate to what you're saying about different pet shops advising different foods. It's really confusing. I'll just have to use my own common sense and intuition by reading the ingredients.

Bakers IS complete rubbish, I can see that from reading the pack... poor lil fella, no wonder he's had an upset tummy. Thankfully it will only have been for the first few months of his life - he'll get a great diet from now on!

Maxi Zoo's own label, Select Gold, is apparently comparable to Hills and Royal Canin, has no artificial colours, preservatives or flavourings, and the price seems to reflect it's more decent ingredients. I can at least give it a go and see what the lil chappie thinks...

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

Also when you are feeding a good quality food, there is no need to suplement it with extra things. If you are feeding a decent quality food the ingredients are proportioned so your dog is getting a balanced healthy diet.

I do disagree with the above though: about there being no need to feed them any supplement foods if a good dry complete food is given to them. Yes I do see you are right in that this food provides them with all the necessary nutrients, etc... but I think that dogs enjoy variety just as much as we do. As long as the basic kibble remains the same I think it's a good idea to mix fresh food and healthy leftovers into their meals. They get just as excited about food as humans do, so I don't think it's right to feed them the same thing over and over again. I'd get bored so quickly eating that stuff even if it did give me everything my body needed! It's all about the taste and texture for us, and discovering new things we love - I think dogs should be allowed to experience this too! Dry dog food is good for their teeth and everything, and of course I will feed mainly this to my dog, but it's just a convenience food created by humans for their pets, to make human life easier. A dog in the wild wouldn't eat the exact same thing day in day out for the whole of its life, true it probably wouldn't eat rice and cooked veggies either... but I think what I'm trying to say is that even if extra food isn't necessary once a complete dry food has been given I just think it's a nice thing to do, for your dog

Thanks again for all the help!

Cherry Blossom

Getwellsoon wrote: »

Maxi Zoo's own label, Select Gold, is apparently comparable to Hills and Royal Canin, has no artificial colours, preservatives or flavourings, and the price seems to reflect it's more decent ingredients. I can at least give it a go and see what the lil chappie thinks...

<snip> but I think that dogs enjoy variety just as much as we do. As long as the basic kibble remains the same I think it's a good idea to mix fresh food and healthy leftovers into their meals. They get just as excited about food as humans do, so I don't think it's right to feed them the same thing over and over again. I'd get bored so quickly eating that stuff even if it did give me everything my body needed! It's all about the taste and texture for us, and discovering new things we love - I think dogs should be allowed to experience this too! Dry dog food is good for their teeth and everything, and of course I will feed mainly this to my dog, but it's just a convenience food created by humans for their pets, to make human life easier. A dog in the wild wouldn't eat the exact same thing day in day out for the whole of its life, true it probably wouldn't eat rice and cooked veggies either... but I think what I'm trying to say is that even if extra food isn't necessary once a complete dry food has been given I just think it's a nice thing to do, for your dog

Thanks again for all the help!

Okay first of all I just want to emphasis the point that you came here looking for advice on feeding your dog because it has digestive upset, please take the following in this context.

First of all neither Royal Canin or Hills agree with my dog having tried them both, that's not to say it won't agree with your dog but I have found an awful lot of posts on forums from people who have had similar results from them. I'd go with something that is hypoallergenic.

Secondly as dogs were not designed to eat cooked foods this is why its important to introduce a new food slowly so they can build up the relevant bacteria in the gut so they can digest it properly, it makes no difference if the food comes out of a bag or a saucepan, it has to be introduced properly.

Some people do feed dogs with digestive problems an all home-cooked diet with good results. You are looking at months of research into getting the balance of nutrients right if you are going to do this. A home-cooked diet does not mean left-overs it means nutritionally balanced meals from the point of view of the dog. This is not to supplement a kibble diet it's to replace it completely.

As for dogs in the wild, they eat raw meat which they are designed to digest and therefore generally have no problems with. This is also a suitable diet if you don't mind having to exercise all that extra energy off your dog. Again you need to know what your doing and get the balance right.

I've basically outlined 3 suitable diets there, but I would recommend you chose one and not switch between them continuously and I've briefly outlined the reasons for this there.

Getwellsoon

Yes I would be looking for a hypoallergenic and organic food, with as pure ingredients as possible.

I have only been adding these foods to his diet because he's much better when he's eating them. His stools are of better colour and consistency and he seems much happier. At the moment it's either add those things or see him suffer on a diet of 100% Bakers as I gradually change him over to something else.

I'm not feeding him random left overs, I have actually done my research to find out what he can/can't have. I only called them left overs because I have been eating them too!

I'd also be more than willing to try a raw diet with him. I'd definitely be able to exercise him to work the energy off too, seeing as I'm already out with him about 3 hours a day and would definitely be up for more!

I wouldn't ever switch between diets too suddenly either, I just need to find something he is comfortable with. The sooner he is off the Bakers the better, it's just really difficult to know which to swap to. Any suggestions then?

Cherry Blossom

I am putting my own dog on Burns high energy lamb as a stepping stone to something much lower in protein. However as you are feeding your dog cooked vegetables with the Bakers the protein levels he is getting is probably a fair bit lower that the actual protein content in the dog food. If I were you I'd try changing to Burns Adult Lamb and Rice over about 2 weeks. I wouldn't give the veg from when you start changing over, it will only make him a fussy eater. I'd give it about 2 months for him to get used to the food properly. My own dog has a hormone imbalace and is already far to hyper so I don't want to chance putting her on a raw diet just yet. If the Burns doesn't work out by the end of the year though I will look into it in a lot more depth and try it then as she will have been spayed 2 months by that time.

Burns does come highly recommended on this and other forums, is readily available and is actually quite affordable. Please don't think I am pushing my opinion on you as obviously it's your own decision what you feed your dog, but I have put an awful lot of time and effort into trying to find something suitable to feed my own dog and it seems the situation is similar so really I just want to share what I've found and the decisions I've made form it.

<ETA> By reasearch I didn't particularly mean the kinds of food it's safe to feed but more the proportions needed in relation to each other for digestability and nutritional balance, you haven't mentioned any protein sources other than the Bakers so I'd assumed you weren't giving him any protein in the extra food. Dogs don't digest food the same way humans do and don't get the same nutrients from the same sources we do. If you have been eating the same food as your dog then one of you have been getting the wrong diet.

Getwellsoon

Thanks for the advice AJ, I've heard a lot of good things about Burns so it's definitely something I would consider. Is it ok to feed him Burns adult rice and lamb when he's still only 7 months old?

Shanao

Hey there's nothing wrong with the Select Gold food. I admit when my friend's westie ended up with a skin irritation we went to get her the Hills, but like you said, the Maxi Zoo staff reccommended the Select Gold Sensitive. We were a bit wary at first, but she wanted to give it a go and within two weeks the problems had all cleared up. I had a look through the ingredients too and its pretty close to RC and Hills so I'd reccomend to give it a try at least. I've heard more people complain about Burns than I have of Select Gold.

And dont tell my friend I said this, but her dog used to stink on the old food. XD Thankfully, that too has been cleared right up.

Cherry Blossom

The reason I put my Westie on Hills was due to 4 or 5 other Westie owners on here having good reports about it. It did a lot for her hyperactivity but as the same people said she has poos which are a bit sticky on it. I thought this was acceptable for a while as she was much better otherwise, no scratching or chewing her paws but with a bit more research I now believe the stickyness could be a mild symptom of colitis, although its relatively minor in her case I think that long term there must be something more suitable I can feed her. It's a constant learning curve :rolleyes:. And yes it is exasperating!

Getwellsoon

Just an update, but my lurcher has been on Red Mills Junior for a while now and is doing amazingly on it. He had sensitive skin before but that's totally cleared up. I researched a lot into it before I swapped and am really pleased with it, it has really simple ingredients and seems to suit him fine.