Burns Puppy Food

Gael23

Almost 4 weeks on from losing our last dog, we have begun the process towards getting another one. Not going to happen for a couple of weeks yet but I want to get started with some research.
Starting with food, 15 years ago you just instinctively went for Pedigree but this time I want to try and get a better, but budget friendly food. And looking at Zooplus, it seems Burns is the best we can afford. Has anyone got opinions on this or able to suggest similarly priced alternatives?
According to the feeding guidelines, you feed half the amount of Pedigree so that would mean that the cost per week for example would be about the same as it was list time.

odckdo

I tried Burns puppy food before and found it to be alright.

Burns are well known for having low feeding guidelines.

Off the top of my head similar foods on Zooplus are James WellBeloved and Greenwoods.

D.Campbell

odckdo wrote: »

I tried Burns puppy food before and found it to be alright.

Burns are well known for having low feeding guidelines.

Off the top of my head similar foods on Zooplus are James WellBeloved and Greenwoods.

My dog used burns for 17 years she was always healthy and I had so much less to pick up (if you know what I mean) money wise you don't have to dish up so much and all of it is absorbed hence the pick up later
In the long run you save as your not going to the vets as often
I'm glad for you that you are in a space to find another pet unfortunately my heart broke and can't go there again
Best of luck

Gael23

D.Campbell wrote: »

I'm glad for you that you are in a space to find another pet unfortunately my heart broke and can't go there again
Best of luck

Not there just yet but hope to in a few more months. more from a financial perspective we need to deal with the cost of his treatment and that first before we but another and have vaccines etc to pay for.
Another food caught my eye is Gain Elite. But it has high feeding guidelines and a much higher protein content

sadie06

My advice would be not to stick rigidly to the Burns feeding guidelines (which also means not factoring it being so much less when pricing) as our dog spent his first 10-11 months on Burns and we stuck to the guidelines very strictly and we were embarrassed when our groomer pointed out that he was a little underweight.

We lost confidence and switched to a different food, but I'm sure he would have been fine on Burns if we hadn't stuck to the guidelines and went with our own instinct.

Esterhase

I don't have much experience with different brands of puppy food but I had my dog on Burns Chicken and Rice when she was a pup and she got on great with it. As others have said, don't be afraid to adjust the feeding guidelines if they are not working out for your pet.

Gael23

Tge feeding guidelines do seem very low. It suggests feeding a 2 month old puppy weighing 1kg 25grams daily which to me seems very little

ABajaninCork

I feed my dog on Burns (both puppy & adult). I don't stick to the guidelines which are just that - guidelines. I feed my dog as much as he'll eat. I changed over from the Royal Canin as that caused nothing but trouble.

He does very well on it. It's expensive to buy, but much cheaper in the long run as you're feeding less and it's a good quality food.

Ave Sodalis

I'm not sure about puppy but I've nothing but praise for Burns Pork and Potato. Switched to that a while ago due to allergies (well, vet said it was probably an autoimmune disease and I didn't want to accept that), and we've a completely different dog.

Gael23

ABajaninCork wrote: »

I feed my dog on Burns (both puppy & adult). I don't stick to the guidelines which are just that - guidelines. I feed my dog as much as he'll eat. I changed over from the Royal Canin as that caused nothing but trouble.

He does very well on it. It's expensive to buy, but much cheaper in the long run as you're feeding less and it's a good quality food.

Once it balances out at a similar expense per week if that makes sense I'd be ok with it.

ABajaninCork

I know what you mean. I give my boy the Pork and Potato and as a change-up some Duck & Rice. He won't eat the dry nuts though, so I have to mix in a little Penlan Grange (Burns) wet food as an incentive!

Like I say - expensive to begin with. I've just taken delivery from Zooplus of His Lordship's nosh. £50, but it'll last for about 4 months.

Gael23

Im also open to other foods if people have suggestions. We cant afford the really top quality foods so something maybe not quite as good as those but better than the like of Bakers and Pedigree.

Hildred

Gael23 wrote: »

Im also open to other foods if people have suggestions. We cant afford the really top quality foods so something maybe not quite as good as those but better than the like of Bakers and Pedigree.

There's a website called All About Dog Food ("allaboutdogfood .co .uk)" which has reviewed a large number of different dog foods . . . wet, dry, raw . . . across the board really. The reviews seem impartial and unbiased towards or against any manufacturer and as a result of checking out the best dogfood in my price affordability range, I took my two boys off Bakers Complete, which got a really bad review, (not even half a star!) and put them on Markus Mühle Natur Nah, which gets around 4.6-7 out of 5 stars. I think it can be fed from puppyhood to old age but don't quote me on that as mine are adults. It's about €43-44 per 15 kg bag at Zooplus, with a special offer if you buy two, and feeding guidelines are very low, only about 210g a day for a 20kg border collie and 4000g a day for a 40kg mutt who gets less because he's overweight, so one bag usually lasts about 5-6 weeks. I highly recommend this dog food.

I know that there's another one by Land of Holistic Pets that's said to be quite good, if a little more expensive (Robbies, not Luath), but I would also urge you to have a look at the All About Dogfood website listed above, as there may be a greater selection of highly rated food at *your* price affordability range than there are at mine! I can't yet post proper links as I've less than 50 posts, so apologies for the spaces.

Best of luck with your search, for both the perfect dog food and the prefect canine companion to munch on it!

tk123

Hildred wrote: »

I know that there's another one by Land of Holistic Pets that's said to be quite good, if a little more expensive (Robbies, not Luath),

Burns and Luath are pretty much the same - there's some extra supplements/herbs thrown into Luath but I would never recommend it (or Burns - sorry) after my dog had a bad reaction and was very sick passing blood and almost admitted into the vets for IVs etc He was on Burns first and then Luath and never really thrived on either of them and was having bouts of runny poos every few weeks. They were "premium/holistic" food 5 or 6 years ago but not by today's standards.
I know lots of people who had similar experiences with Luath. The first time Lucy was ever sick was after a day at daycare where she was fed Luath for treats and she had an upset tummy almost every time she went there. Everyone I know who used that daycare had the same problem with dogs having the runs after being there from eating "holistic" Luath.


The Champion foods from dogfooddirect.ie come in a huge range now from ones with rice cheaper than burns to grain free options for just €2 a bag more.

EG - €35 for 15kgs
http://www.dogfooddirect.ie/modules/shop/products/champion-premium-plus-puppy-15kg-/

sunshine and showers

We fed our last dog Pedigree - a mix of dry and wet. It is so much better with our curent dog only giving her the dry stuff. She had Burns as a puppy and loved it. So much so that the transition to "adult" food was tough as she didn't like that it was different! Had to slowly mix the two until she was on just the adult stuff.

Tried other ones like the breed specific Royal Canin and one organic natural one (ridiculously expensive but talked into it the one time by shopkeeper), but really Burns is good stuff for the price of it.

Gael23

Hildred wrote: »

There's a website called All About Dog Food ("allaboutdogfood .co .uk)"

Been on that site and it doesn't rave about Burns, it does say it is reasonably good quaity but contains too much rice for its price. I'll look at Champion, its not one I heard of before.
I just went on Zoooplus and worked through them until I found the maximum we could afford, which was this but it seems its not actually that good and I do think the feeding guidelines are not accurate so it will work out more than you think.
Sunshine & Showers, Dogs love Pedigree but its not great quality but then our dog did live to be 15 on it

sunshine and showers

Gael23 wrote: »

Sunshine & Showers, Dogs love Pedigree but its not great quality by=ut then our dog did live to be 15 on it

Ours lived til 11 on it, but she was a pure breed retriever and had cancer.

Gael23

Had a look at the Champion supreme which looks good but it doesn't provide and feeding guidelines so its hard to know what it works out at. Also the Protein content is quite high at 29%

odckdo

Gael23 wrote: »

Had a look at the Champion supreme which looks good but it doesn't provide and feeding guidelines so its hard to know what it works out at. Also the Protein content is quite high at 29%

Puppy food in general should be around the 30% protein mark - they need it.

Gael23

odckdo wrote: »

Puppy food in general should be around the 30% protein mark - they need it.

Was wondering what was recommended. Burns is 24%.
Does anyone know about the Gain Elite range?