Dog food choice

BoycieIRL

Hi all,
Have a 5 month old golden retriever - trying him on several foods to find one that works best - he has had terible wind problems on James Welbeloved and Royal Canin. He is on Hills Science Plan now with some improvement so far.
Came acros this site http://brillyschoicedogfood.com/ anyone any experience or would you recommend the puppy food based on the ingredients.

Nody

No, just say no...

Cereal Products and by-products, Meat and animal products, Oil Seed Products and by-products, Fish products, By-products of Sugar Production, Yeasts, Oils, Vitamins and Minerals.

Get yourself something that at least has meat as the first ingredient and preferably something grain free as Taste of the Wild.

Latatian

Feed him what works, try foods until you find something that works. I've yet to see anyone produce evidence for the current anti-grain thing and my dogs don't seem to have heard about it (shh, no-one tell them that wolves are supposed to eat sweet potatoes!) Some companies will send you out samples of their foods if requested. The only way to know for sure is to try it.

I believe there is a 'bulldog' formula by Royal Canin that is supposed to reduce flatulence- but (a) it could be just marketing and (b) that's going to be expensive to buy for a golden retriever.

njs030

I feed my dogs burns original and they are doing amazingly well on it. I supplement it with meat and butcher bones a few times a month.

I tried loads of different foods and this is the one that works for them....they smell fine, they rarely pass wind and when they do it's not overly stinky! Their poo is small and easy to clean up and their coat and eyes are shiny and fabulous!

Cherry Blossom

Have you compared the ingredients to see if there is something common to the foods you tried that might be the cause of the issue?

Springwell

Find a food that works for your dog, change foods slowly if you do switch and buy the best you can afford. Some dogs do fine on grain, some are fine with oats and rice but not corn and wheat, some can't tolerate grains at all - I buy grain free because when you do fecal analysis dogs don't digest cereals very well so essentially what you're paying for with grains is cheap fillers and more poo! If your dog does well on them then that's all that matters though.

Cheap foods tend to be made from lower grade thus cheaper ingredients (supermarket and petrol station type stuff) - just because it is "balanced" and "complete" doesn't mean it's the best or most digestible. In fact you can apply both of those to the vegetarian dog foods on the market too!

Buying online is usually cheaper, try somewhere like Zooplus.ie.

For a puppy food I'd use Acana which is a similar price to the Hills. I like their foods, dogs tend to do well on them, fussy eaters like them and you don't have issues if you have to move from one type to another within the range. I've got 5 on three different Acana lines (dogs range from 18 months to 18 years and one has an intolerance to most meats so is on a "singles" monoprotein diet) and supplement with raw and they all look fabulous - the pup was taken up as an example of a dog in perfect condition at a recent training day. Hope that helps!

If you have other questions or want a suggestion for a food in specific budget let us know - there's always someone willing to do some virtual shopping on here!