Which food?

Just from ingredients which of these Adult dry foods would you pick and why?

1.
Beef and Lamb Meal, Wheat, Bread, Chicken Fat, Maize, Chicken Liver, Unmolassed Beet Pulp, Green Leaf Vegetable, Full Fat Linseed, EC permitted natural anti-oxidants, Mixed Tocopherols, Vitamin C and Rosemary Extract.

Typical Analysis

•Protein : 20%
•Oil : 9%
•Fibre : 3%
•Ash : 8.5%
•Vitamin A : 15,000iu/kg
•Vitamin D3 : 1,500iu/kg
•Vitamin E : 90iu/kg
•Copper (as Copper Sulphate) : 10mg/kg

2.
Chicken Meat Meal, Wheat, Rice, Chicken Fat, Unmolassed Beet Pulp, Wheat Feed, Full Fat Linseed, Prairie Meal, Yeast, EC permitted natural anti-oxidants, Mixed Tocopherols, Vitamin C and Rosemary Extract. (min 20% chicken)

Typical Analysis

•Protein : 21%
•Oil : 12%
•Fibre : 2.5%
•Ash : 8.5%
•Vitamin A : 12,000iu/kg
•Vitamin D3 : 1,200iu/kg
•Vitamin E : 125iu/kg
•Copper (as Copper Sulphate) : 15mg/kg

None of those.
bolded ingrediends should nbot be present in dog food.
I would say you have the same brand of foods here, just different formulas. one adult and one light or senior right?

Both are very high in ash, low in protein and the first one is too low in fat.

what kind of dog do you have? how old is she/he and what are his excersise levels?
maybe we can help you out finding the proper food.

but stay away from those you have listed.

I have a 4 month old spaniel who is on the puppy version of the food. I know I'm a little ahead of myself looking at adult food!

I thought the adult food was supposed to be lower protien? protien/fat/ash etc seemed about average with other foods I looked at. What should they be?

Why not rice? thats in most foods isn't it? maize and beet pulp seem to feature in lots of food too?

Just trying to get it right. He came to us on pedigree but we changed that. He does get a little extra oil on his food sometimes.

Actually looking at the ingredients tells you very little about how good a food is for your dog. It doesn't tell how much of each nutrient there is and if it is in a digestible form. You are right to question the prohibition of rice. Chicken and rice and lamb and rice foods are quite common and have a very successful record in the real world. It is only in the speculation on the net that rice becomes a problem.

If your 4 month is doing well on what it is eating, when the current bag runs low, start mixing the adult version in until after a week, it is all adult. Doing so will slow the dogs growth giving its joints more time to develop before having to support the full adult weight. For the same reason, keep it lean.

Don't worry about the protein level. It means very little. What counts is the levels of the essential amino acids. You can have a high protein level and barely meet the requirements for some of the amino acids. another, lower protein food may comfortably exceed them. Excess amino acids are burned for energy or excreted. An ingredient list tells you nothing about the important balance of amino acids.

Maize and beet pulp are simply cheap fillers and many dogs can be intolerant of them. Although the percentage of meat is better than alot of foods, it's still pretty low at 20%.
Even some of the best foods have some naff ingredients in them (e.g beet pulp in Arden Grange) but it's just weighing things up against each other. The less cereal and cheap fillers, the better really.

I once read somewhere that protein levels for an average adult dog should be between 20 and 25%. Higher levels tend to be for hard working dogs.

Personally, I wouldnt choose either of them but if I had to choose one, i'd say the second one!

Hi
I am new and loving this website!

I am in a quandary about dog food at the mo.
I am on a very limited budget at the mo (maternity allowance- baby due in 4weeks!!!!) and when I was working fed my dogs (both just over a year old) on Hills Nature's best puppy food.

One of my dogs needs to lose weight - have posted about his health probs on another thread- I have been feeding them pedigree puppy food recently- but feel guilty about this- could stretch to spending a few more punds a week on food- any recommedations?

I am hearing that James Well BEloved food is good. I don;t want to feed him rubbish that is going to not give him enough energy and possibly exacerbate the weight gain.

Thanks

No reason not to stick to the Pedigree. If a dog is overweight, just feed it less or increase its exercise.

If you dig into it, the only advantage to the more expensive foods is that some people think the ingredients sound better. If you can't afford steak, you can still eat a balanced diet. Don't be browbeat into spending money you can't afford on dog food that gives no better nutrition than the Pedigree.

None of them they are all processed.

http://www.canine-health-concern.org.uk/

[mod edit]
Try some research and make your own mind up.

Picking up on what one of the respondents said earlier in the discussion, rice has been around in dog food for some years and has proved itself to be both very digestible and unlikely to cause intolerance. Wheat is not so digestible and does seem to feature more in dietary intolerance. Beef seems to be less digestible than lamb, fish or chicken.
Beet pulp is not necessarily a poor ingredient, and there are strong arguements for accepting it as having health benefits (see www.pet-food-choice.co.uk/pet_food_ingredients.htm