Dog food

[Cooperman]

Ours have been on James Wellbeloved forever but we have just changed from the lamb to Turkey.

[Feline]

I feed Google on Royal Canin Medium Adult. He's got a very sensitive digestive tract and gets diarrhoea really easily. The Royal Canin keeps his poo firm and also low quantity because most of what's in the food is digestible rather than waste. When I first got him he was on Hills puppy food, which I kept him on but just couldn't get his poo firm. the second I changed him to the Royal Canin it fixed the problem.

Because of my job I do have a lot of bias in what i think is good and bad in the dog food world, and I think you can read an awful lot of crap on the internet about it a lot of which is wrong. But the old saying 'you get what you pay for' to a certain extent is true, good quality ingredients and nice cuts of meat cost a lot so if a food is cheap you can be sure it's full of the rubbish not the best. Whatever you pick try to go for a food with nice oils added, they seem to make a genuine difference to skin and coat health and joints too.
Flippin eck I sound like a pet food advert

OK lara cards on the table
as a dog lover with a professional insight in to dietary needs of canines
what would you recommend for a 9 year old staffi with hyperactive tenancies (my diagnosis with no input from 't' vetanry)

I would try my dog on Royal Canin medium mature, and see how he got on. You may well find cheaper foods out there, but I can personally vouch for the science behind this one, and they are not paying me anything to say that

[mel]

Can any one remember "lites" you bought from the butchers i remember my parents cooking it on the stove for our spaniel i think as a treat it smelt rank but the dog loved them .

[Old Dragon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_%28offal%29

[_simon_]

I find that there's a lot of snobbery involved with some people and what they feed their dog and what they think you should feed your own. Seems the more people pay the more snobby they are! I'm talking in general, not about people on here before anyone jumps down my throat thinking I mean them!

My inlaws have had labradors for years and always fed bakers complete and always had healthy dogs until they passed away with old age. We started our lab off on food that was costing us almost £40 a month due to what we were being told by people. I decided to do more research and see what was around at what price and these days we feed him Wagg worker dog. 17KG for around £10. He's not overweight, not hyperactive, has a lovely shiny coat, has good stools and always gets a good bill of health at the vets. In addition we mix in 1/2 a tin of tesco supermeat dog food each day. 6 tins for £2.50.
Obviously everyone has to make their own decision as to what they feed their dog but no-one should ever be made to feel bad for buying one of the big cheap brands if there dog doesn't seem to be any the worse for it!

[mel]

I think we are going to mix a better quality complete dry food in the future with the earls stuff seeing as she loves it maybe 50 / 50 from now on
See what the boss says

[Feline]

Don't forget one of the undesirable side effects of feeding the cheap and nasty tinned foods though ..... when the dog gets up and moves to the opposite side of the room suddenly you know what silent but deadly thing is coming

As I said, I am biased about pet foods, because as a vet very often I'm treating pets for diseases that would have been entirely preventable by the correct food. Some of the deficiencies we see when people try to home cook a diet for their pet without knowing enough about nutrition are disastrous.

Things have improved massively in pet foods in the last decade or two. Many people fervently believe that any food that's 'traditional' is better. But they are kind of missing the point that the reason we fed tripe to hunting hounds traditionally was it was the poorest quality rubbish left over from producing meat fit for human consumption. Feeding it to the hounds was very cheap as it was effectively a waste product not much use for anything else. The hounds were not really required to live very long lifespans since old dogs are not much good on a hunt, so living a long healthy life into double figures was never the main aim of such diets. Plus those dogs were working dogs getting much more exercise than many pets so obesity wasn't an issue. Nobody bothered to add nice oils to those dog's diets to try and keep their skin and joints healthy. When they had served their useful purpose they were simply culled and replaced. Needless to say I don't buy Butcher's tripe or anything like that for my dog.

Anybody remember all the white dog poo we used to see on the pavements in the 70's? Not such a common sight these days.

[mel]

Don't forget one of the undesirable side effects of feeding the cheap and nasty tinned foods though ..... when the dog gets up and moves to the opposite side of the room suddenly you know what silent but deadly thing is coming

As I said, I am biased about pet foods, because as a vet very often I'm treating pets for diseases that would have been entirely preventable by the correct food. Some of the deficiencies we see when people try to home cook a diet for their pet without knowing enough about nutrition are disastrous.

Things have improved massively in pet foods in the last decade or two. Many people fervently believe that any food that's 'traditional' is better. But they are kind of missing the point that the reason we fed tripe to hunting hounds traditionally was it was the poorest quality rubbish left over from producing meat fit for human consumption. Feeding it to the hounds was very cheap as it was effectively a waste product not much use for anything else. The hounds were not really required to live very long lifespans since old dogs are not much good on a hunt, so living a long healthy life into double figures was never the main aim of such diets. Plus those dogs were working dogs getting much more exercise than many pets so obesity wasn't an issue. Nobody bothered to add nice oils to those dog's diets to try and keep their skin and joints healthy. When they had served their useful purpose they were simply culled and replaced. Needless to say I don't buy Butcher's tripe or anything like that for my dog.

Anybody remember all the white dog poo we used to see on the pavements in the 70's? Not such a common sight these days.

Must admit ours rarely makes a smell ..lol..

I thought white dog pooh was from feeding to many edible bones but yea white dog pooh was everywhere when i was a kid ....yuk !

So what would be a reasonble priced good food for a 6 year old mongrel ? , she hates dried food so it would have to be mixed with wet food .
Don,t mind paying for the right stuff but don,t want tobe be feeding saki hikari type stuff if its not needed ..lol..

Also is a boiled egg a day ok , google says yes but you never know

[johnsb00]

well i don't know what i've started here, but the wife wants me to look into the cats diet now
as i have one moggie well into double figures who is often sick shortly after eating and the vet cant find anything

I have ordered a trial pack of pero staffi formula and i will also be looking at royal canin and james wellbeloved

[Feline]

Mel, you can soak dry food in hot water for a time before you feed it if she prefers things moist, you lose the benefit for the teeth though. Alternatively stir something tinned like Chappie into the food to coat it for her.

I think when it comes to deciding whats reasonably priced you first have to decide what's reasonable! Everyone has their own favourites and foods they are less impressed with, so it's really hard to advise in a neutral unbiased way.
If the foods at the upper end of the price spectrum are a bit too costly then look at the mid range stuff. I would personally avoid the supermarket branded stuff (but not everyone will agree with me here).

Egg is quite a good protein source, so nothing wrong with giving one as a treat from time to time so long as its cooked. The raw egg feeding brigade tend to be occasional visitors to my surgery with salmonella