Dog food

Roycropper63

Have a cocker spaniel about 16 months old who I have been feeding purine beta range of dry dog food, fine her stools easy to pick up on it, was wondering as it's over 40 euro for a 15 kg bag what do ye feed your dog? Local store has gain crunchy for 17 euro per 15 kg. any one using gain crunchy at present?

Thanks

andreac

Anything that is cheap like that is cheap for a reason and it's not a good one.

Is there a reason you want to change?

Those cheaper foods have very little meat content and are full of crappy fillers and grains which are no good for your dog to be honest.

A big bag of good quality food should last your cocker well over a month it not two so I would try feed the best you can.

andreac

If you read the ingredients and the first few are grains or meat and animal Derivitives I'd stay well clear.

Nody

About as cheap as you can go honestly with Purine; once you go below that price you're talking grains primary which is not something I'd ever recommend for any dog food and it becomes false economy (as they need more food to compensate for the poor quality and lack of nutrients).

Anyway, back to Crunchy:

Cereals, meat and animal derivatives, derivatives of vegetable origin, oils and fats, minerals, vitamins. Contains EU approved anti oxidants and preservatives.

Crude Protein % 20
Crude Oil % 9
Crude Fibre % 3

Not that Purine Beta is much better (really you want something better then this at that price such as NaturNah below, or Taste of the Wild, Orijen etc.):

Composition: Cereals (wholegrain 20%), Meat and animal derivatives (meat 14%, chicken 4%), Vegetable protein extracts, Oils and fats, Derivatives of vegetable origin (dried beet pulp 1.1%), Vegetables (dried chicory root 1.1%), Minerals.

Protein 24.0%
Crude fibres 3.0%

The only exception would be Markus Muhle NaturNah bought in the larger packs from the German site once you've confirmed it works with her system. From the Irish site you'll pay as much as today but you get a meat first food of higher quality and I'd bet you'll end up serving less (if you follow the serving sizes) and hence costing you less.

odckdo

Roycropper63 wrote: »

Have a cocker spaniel about 16 months old who I have been feeding purine beta range of dry dog food, fine her stools easy to pick up on it, was wondering as it's over 40 euro for a 15 kg bag what do ye feed your dog? Local store has gain crunchy for 17 euro per 15 kg. any one using gain crunchy at present?

Glanbia have a better food called Gain Elite. Can you get that in your store?

http://gainfeeds.com/pet/elite-pet-food/

Dried Chicken & Turkey (min 30%), Rice (20%), Wholegrain Maize, Dehulled Oats, Poultry Fat, Maize Gluten, Sugar Beet Pulp, Chicken Gravy, Fish Meal, Egg, Linseed, Fish Oil, Potassium Chloride, Fructooligosaccharides (0.3%), TruCal Milk Mineral Complex, Products from Processing Plants.

Roycropper63

Thanks for the replies, had a look at the gain elite small dog which seems on paper to be slightly better than the beta I am using.
Would I be right in thinking that as it's a gain product it's made in Ireland? Which would be another reason to move to it,

andreac

Gain is Irish, yes.

Gloomtastic!

I feed our dogs Gain Retired Greyhound food and it's great.

I hate people who post on here who seem to delight in the price they pay for their dog food. I used to feed our Boxer on Royal Canin at €60 a bag and it went straight through him.

andreac

Nobody is delighting in what they pay for dog food. The op asked for advice. That gain crunchy is very low quality hence the price.

I don't feed the very expensive ones either as they don't agree with my dog but I don't feed cheap crap either so it's about finding the best food for the price you can afford.

Gloomtastic!

andreac wrote: »

Nobody is delighting in what they pay for dog food. The op asked for advice. That gain crunchy is very low quality hence the price.

I don't feed the very expensive ones either as they don't agree with my dog but I don't feed cheap crap either so it's about finding the best food for the price you can afford.

But the Gain I feed my dogs is even cheaper - €14.50 for 15kg - but it's not crap. Why are you calling it crap?

Roycropper63

Have about a third of a bag left so I see the local pet shop has a 2kg bag to try before I buy the big one, will be interesting to see how she reacts, thanks for replies

andreac

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

But the Gain I feed my dogs is even cheaper - €14.50 for 15kg - but it's not crap. Why are you calling it crap?

What are the ingredients of it? If it's that cheap it can't be that good quality to be honest.

Gloomtastic!

andreac wrote: »

What are the ingredients of it? If it's that cheap it can't be that good quality to be honest.

I've no idea but I've had six dogs on it for the last two years- lap dogs up to Boxer - and all are doing great. Solid poos everytime, as opposed to runny ones on the expensive food. Go figure!

andreac

That doesn't mean it's a good quality food though?

As I said it's not about price, it's about finding a good quality food and that gain crunchy Is far from that.

I don't rate the likes of royal canin at all either. My two older Rotties are on a food that's 35 euro a bag so not that expensive at all.
The pup is on a dearer one until he's fully grown and then I'll prob move him on to something a little bit cheaper then.

Gloomtastic!

andreac wrote: »

That doesn't mean it's a good quality food though?

As I said it's not about price, it's about finding a good quality food and that gain crunchy Is far from that.

I don't rate the likes of royal canin at all either. My two older Rotties are on a food that's 35 euro a bag so not that expensive at all.
The pup is on a dearer one until he's fully grown and then I'll prob move him on to something a little bit cheaper then.

Racing greyhounds are probably the healthiest dogs about. Why would they not be fed poor quality food?

andreac

Usually the cheaper foods are made up of cheap fillers with little meat in them. I can't comment on the greyhound ones as I haven't seen the ingredients in it.
But if it's very cheap I imagine the food hasn't a high meat content so in my opinion isn't a very good quality food.

The food you feed though is for retired greyhounds so wouldn't have anywhere near the same nutritional value as the one for racing ones.

Any chance you could post the ingredients as a matter of I interest?

Gloomtastic!

Crude Protein
20%
Crude Oils & Fats
9%
Crude Fibre
3%
Crude Ash
7.5%

andreac

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Crude Protein
20%
Crude Oils & Fats
9%
Crude Fibre
3%
Crude Ash
7.5%

They aren't the ingredients.

Gloomtastic!

andreac wrote: »

They aren't the ingredients.

Dogs should eat anything. The ingredients are irrelevant, I'm sure they wouldn't be very palatable to us but it contains all the protein etc dogs need.

Pretzill

The way I look at it - our food is 56 - 62 for 15kg - it's well balanced and vet reccommended ( though I know they have reps that push certain brands) but this brand suits our pair - the bag lasts about 8 weeks - which is about 50cent per day per dog - they also get mackeral and veggie treats and other homey food.

We fell foul of the myriad of choice from cheap as chips (that actually wasn't btw monetry wise, just rubbish nutrition wise) and saw the results dull coats, bloating, gas etc. And now work on a main feed that sustains and suits and doesn't cost the earth with the option of changing if problems arise and adding or supplementing with natural choices to give the dogs some diversity. I've said it before finding the right nutrition for your pet can be a minefield but it should never cost the earth!

As a dog owner for many years with many alternatives in feed my late and lovely pets all still exceeded their full life expectancy - so I'm still as confused as ever to what actually constitutes optimum nutrition.

muddypaws

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Dogs should eat anything. The ingredients are irrelevant, I'm sure they wouldn't be very palatable to us but it contains all the protein etc dogs need.

I think the point that people are trying to make is that the cheaper foods are cheap because the meat content is very low, but the cereal content is very high. A food high in cereal may not be digested properly by dogs, so most of it then comes out the other end. Dogs aren't obligate carnivores, unlike cats, but meat (or fish) should be an important part of their diet.

borderlinemeath

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Dogs should eat anything. The ingredients are irrelevant, I'm sure they wouldn't be very palatable to us but it contains all the protein etc dogs need.

That's the problem. Dogs will eat anything, they have far fewer taste buds than us so while it may not be palatable or even good for them they'll still eat it.

A high percentage of dogs are wheat and gluten intolerant, but a lot of the cheaper foods are full of wheat and gluten as a protein source. While it may be irritable to the dogs stomach, they can't tell you, and you don't give them a choice of foods so they keep eating. I cared for some retired greyhounds on this food and the poos weren't all that good to be honest, not quite runny but nowhere near as firm as they could have been on a better food. And the portion sizes were huge, for a 40kg dogs they were getting over 500g a day, and this is always the way with cheaper foods, less nutrition overall so portion sizes have to increase to meet the dogs needs. And bigger portions means bigger poos.;)

I found this food to be good for anybody on a very tight budget, it's produced in Northern Ireland and is labelled as working food so it's vat free but the main ingredient is meat and there's no wheat or gluten, although there is maize. Poos are firm and not very big, and portion sizes are small enough so a 15kg bag would last a good long time, for a 40kg dog the guidelines are 325g per day compared to over 500 for retired greyhound food.

http://bluegrasshorsefeed.com/bluegrass-dog-delight-nuggets.html

I'm not sure if you can buy it from that site as it's available in my local agri store for €24.50 and it works out far cheaper than most comparable foods and far better than a lot of the lower end foods. I've got a few people to switch over to it from nutritionally worse foods that actually were costing them far more to feed.

Edit, was just looking at the Gain Elite big dog and the guidelines state for a 40kg dog you should feed 515g per day, which would mean a 15kg bag would only last under a month for a 40kg dog. With the bluegrass it would last a month and a half, and cost a lot less - €24.50 v €36.95 (price on the bag here)

nala2012

Just on the greyhound foods. No greyhound trainer uses just dry food, they always use fresh meat and scraps and basically use the dry food as a mixer.

angeldaisy

We used skinners duck and rice after our dog developed anal probs on a wheat based food.
We now feed a mix of skinners for her breakfast and raw meat and cooked veggies for her tea.

She's never been better, glossy coat and no anal probs!