What To Feed Golden Retriever

fiestaman

Hi, we have a 2yr old Golden Retriever,shes neutered and put on a bit of weight. we fed her veg and chicken for past 6wks and she lost some weight,vet was happy with her. Can anyone suggest a dry feed (nuts) that is low in fat. our vet recommend we buy the stuff he has €60 a bag. looking for somthing cheaper but good brand. Any suggestions???

Cherry Blossom

If you tell us the name of the food perhaps it would be easier to recommend something with similar nutritonal value.

Shanao

Sounds like Hills or RC from the price. You can get food similiar in nutritional quality with lower price, or you can always do what some of us are doing and buy it in from england online. As long as you get a good quality food that's either light or diet you should be fine.

tk123

Firstly be careful with low fat/weight control food because they've got loads of fibre in them to make the dog feel full = tons of poo for you to pick up! :pac: :rolleyes:

My baba is a GR too (18 months) and is on Luath - we get it at dog training ireland. He's 27kgs - he has probs with his legs so has to be kept skinny. Getting the weight off was easy imo - measure out the food and be tough cos thats all they get no matter what faces they make! EG I started at 250 grams a day and put 50g in the teat jar and thats was it.
He doesn't care what comes from the jar - jar=treats=happy doggy lol. This was a big factor in our hour cos what happens when somebody comes in is.. "sit, gimme the paw, bow, lie down, roll over, up, bang bang etc etc" and then the jar gets open and they give a treat without thinking lol so jar had to be taken care of!
Once the weight came off I cut it back a little more to 200grams a day and he can have some of his fav treats too now each day - 2 bonios, one dental chew and I take a handful of food in a bag for our walks :pac: Our guy is on very restricted activity at the moment following surgery on his leg and was restricted before so thats why he gets so little - once he can do more I'll be watching his weight in case he gets too skinny!

dvet

tk123 wrote: »

Firstly be careful with low fat/weight control food because they've got loads of fibre in them to make the dog feel full = tons of poo for you to pick up! :pac: :rolleyes:

My baba is a GR too (18 months) and is on Luath - we get it at dog training ireland. He's 27kgs - he has probs with his legs so has to be kept skinny. Getting the weight off was easy imo - measure out the food and be tough cos thats all they get no matter what faces they make! EG I started at 250 grams a day and put 50g in the teat jar and thats was it.
He doesn't care what comes from the jar - jar=treats=happy doggy lol. This was a big factor in our hour cos what happens when somebody comes in is.. "sit, gimme the paw, bow, lie down, roll over, up, bang bang etc etc" and then the jar gets open and they give a treat without thinking lol so jar had to be taken care of!
Once the weight came off I cut it back a little more to 200grams a day and he can have some of his fav treats too now each day - 2 bonios, one dental chew and I take a handful of food in a bag for our walks :pac: Our guy is on very restricted activity at the moment following surgery on his leg and was restricted before so thats why he gets so little - once he can do more I'll be watching his weight in case he gets too skinny!

Great idea to save some of his daily food for the treat jar - loads of people fall down on their doggy diets because they can't bear to see sad faces begging for treats!

Also, glad to hear your dog is back walking again tk

fiestaman

Yea it was hills was recommended by vet. I bought a bag of Leader Lite today. €40. Il see how that goes and see if i can get good quality brand for less.

andreac

Most vets will always recommend Hills as they get commission for selling it:rolleyes:

dvet

andreac wrote: »

Most vets will always recommend Hills as they get commission for selling it:rolleyes:

I'm not sure about that...I'm a vet and I've definitely never been paid to sell or to recommend anything! I'm sure if they offered to bribe me I'd tell them where to stick it! And I know 100's of vets and have never heard of anyone getting paid to push it... unless the practice owners are keeping some big shady secrets from the rest of us!!

My opinion on Hills & R.C. etc is that if your dog doesn't have any special requirements, then they're pretty expensive. There's lots of cheaper good quality dog foods that will do the job just as well. BUT the prescription diets (e.g. for cardiac and liver disease, food allergies, lrenal failure, diabetes etc) are excellent, and I would definitely put a patient on to one if they needed it.

andreac

Well ive heard that most vets that supply it get commission for selling it. Ive only ever had bad experiences with Hills along with other people i know that have fed it too.
As you say, they are very expensive and there are plenty of good foods for much cheaper.
I agree with you regarding the special dietry foods they make, they are excellent.

dvet

andreac wrote: »

Well ive heard that most vets that supply it get commission for selling it. Ive only ever had bad experiences with Hills along with other people i know that have fed it too.
As you say, they are very expensive and there are plenty of good foods for much cheaper.
I agree with you regarding the special dietry foods they make, they are excellent.

Personally, I don't mind feeding brand XYZ to my dogs as long as i know it covers their nutritional requirements, and as long as it agrees with their digestive system/coat/skin. I think with a lot of dogs it can be trial and error what brand and what type of food agrees with them, I see it time and time again with some people loving a particular food and some people hating it - but it depends on your dog's particular needs really!

With Hills & RC (talking about the non-prescription foods), I think the reason why a lot of vet clinics sell it is that they are so heavily marketed. The companies are very smart at selling it to vets, with promotions and heavy marketing campaigns etc. There's a perception that it's the best. And then to compound that, a lot of other supposedly high quality foods e.g. James Wellbeloved, have terrible marketing, to the point that a lot of vets might not have even heard of them!

In reality, if the vet you're talking to happens to own the practice/be the boss, he's probably going to encourage you to buy whatever brand it is he has in stock... so take that with a pinch of salt :rolleyes: But the other vets in the practice have no gain in recommending any particular brand to you - and trust me on this one, none of them, including the boss, are getting paid commission for it! So I hope that puts your mind to rest

andreac

My rottie has a very sensitive stomach and also certain foods make him break out in hot spots, Hills being one of them so i have to be very careful what i feed him. I know quite a few who fed Hills and same thing happened but i also know plenty of people feeding cheap foods too with no problems so swings and roundabouts really. Some foods suit some, and some suit others.

I always say to people, feed the best you can afford. Not everyone has 50-60 to pay on food every month so i always try recommend something in someones price range, the best quality for that price.

tk123

I've had a few vets pushing me to buy Hills - sometimes I think they're imposters from Hills and the all the vets are tied up in the back lol. I was told by one that Burns was one of the worst things I could feed my guy and that Hills/RC were the best - which I know is complete rubbish. Now it's never one of the regular vets who does this - it'd be somebody who's maybe covering holidays etc and who hasn't bothered reading the history/notes (this drives me INSANE) which backs up my imposter theory - they don't know how to use the system!! :pac: :pac:

OP just make sure that you're not being fooled getting a cheaper brand - sometimes a cheaper brand means you feed more so it ends up costing the same if not more than a better quality/more expensive brand). Usually a better quality food means you'll be feeding less so you end up saving money in the long run. Zooplus stock Burns and have offers all the time so a 15kg bag would be around €50 (it's cheaper again if you buy 2 x 15kgs). A 15kg bag would last us a good 2 months.