Dry dog food comparision

mel.b

Hi All,

I know i have seen it linked here before to a website that gives ratings / comparisons / ingredients of dry dog food - is someone able to link to for me?

I've just got back from the vets with Cooper as I have been concerned about his weight. I took him to our regular vets late last week and he said he was ok and to bring him back in 3mths to be weighed, but I wasnt happy and still concerned so I went and got a second opinion today. The 2nd vet said he is a fit dog and has a covering over his ribs, but is not great around his back /spine and could do with putting on a bit of weight. They also said if he was a collie / lab they would say he is perfect, but considering he's a malamute he needs more weight on him. Both the vet and the vet nurse were also a bit concerned about the quality of his coat, but he's in the middle of blowing it for the first time.

Back to the food, i had a long chat with the vet nurse about Raw diets. i had previously had Cooper on a raw diet and could not get his stools to be of good consistency (always runny), so he has a mixture now of dry food (barking heads) in the morning and in the evenings he has wet food (Bozita), rice/veggies/fish mix and a chicken drumstick. He also gets bones on a regular basis.

I don't know if I'm not just feeding him enough or if I need to change. Taste of the Wild was suggested by the vet nurse so I'm interested in comparisons of that with the Barking Heads. Due to my past experience with Raw, I'm not keen to go fully back there with the hearts etc that was mentioned today, but would possibly look at a pre-prepared option.

This is the barking heads I have at the moment
http://www.barkingheads.co.uk/products/large-breed/big-foot-tender-loving-care/

I find it frustrating - my mal I had in australia was fed on pedigree pal wet and dry food with pasta & vegies and had no problems, great weight etc and yet I try and do better for Cooper and have all these problems

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

Shelli2

There was a thread here very recently with many dry foods discussed, based on the findings in that thread and value for money, next week I'm switching my pair to the Markus Muhle dry (from Zooplus), combined with gRaw (from dogs direct). Will probably still get the odd bone too.

I have two small/medium young crossbreeds, so finding something that suits both is proving hard. One is like a little barrel and the other is skin and bone! Vet says they're both healthy though, just different builds, but ideally I should try to fatten up the skinny one a little bit, so he'll be getting a bit extra


Edited to say: the gRaw is not available until April, so I'll gradually switch their dry over a week and then slowly introduce the gRaw when it's available again. And of course they will still get their dose of Salmon oil

Hooked

How much and how often are you feeding Mel.b? Is Cooper coating by chance? Hugo loses quite a bit of 'conditioning' at this time of year when blowing his winter coat. Had us concerned last year - but hoes down a kg again these last few weeks, eating the usual amount, but starting a full blow.

Just got our first bag of MM yesterday for Jack. Still have a full 18kg bag of Royal Canin for Hugo, so might switch them both eventually to half MM, half raw.

Just gave Hugo a mackerel head, in the presence of my OH... And mid chew - the eye popped out and onto the paving slab. Quickly mopped up... We had a right chuckle... And a gawk!

mel.b

Hey Hooked,

He gets two handfuls of Barking Heads in the am. In the evening he gets approx 200g of wet food (bozita), approx 150g mix of rice/veggies/fish and a chicken drumstick. In addition he gets his treats in treat balls for during the day when I'm at work and a few more in the evenings.

For the past 10days or so I have added a couple of extra chicken drumsticks every day.

He is blowing his coat and that's why initially i wasn't sure if it was just the change in look of him but the vet has said he definitely needs some more weight on him.

Since early Dec he has only put on 2 - 3kg max. He is now just 12mths old. I was talking to his breeder in Jan about his weight and she said if I could feel his spine and hip bones then he was underweight. I could feel his spine but not his hip bones, but I wasn't sure how much you are meant to feel the spine and at the time we also thought he may have lost a bit of weight being in the kennels over Xmas (turns out he didn't, we just didn't get an accurate weight). In Jan when he was neutered he was 31kg dead weight and his is now somewhere between 31 - 32.5kg - again hard to get an accurate weight as he won't stay well on the scales.

As for that mackeral eye :eek: