HELP - what dog food to feed my 8 month old labs?

hi everybody
can anybody recommend dried dog , is skinners ok or autraky. confuesd over many differing opinion. on portien oils, soya etc. confused.

I think the reason there are so many foods on the market is that different dogs do well on different foods.

I currently feed Fish4dogs to mine which they seem to do well on.

I would check the ingredients, try and make sure the food is not bulked out too much with 'fillers' and steer clear of colours!

thanks. for your advice.

Soya is not a suitable food for dogs, it is a thyroid inhibitor and a major cause of gas...........................

I feed mine Skinners and I'm a big fan. I would only feed their hypoallergenic range (salmon & rice, duck & rice, chicken & rice) though as I don't particularly rate their other foods.

Very good value for money and a good British company.

I like Skinners, James Wellbeloved and Wafcol in particular for dried. Our dogs did well on Skinners when they had it.

Also reccommend Natures Harvest and Prize choice if you want to go down raw/raw substitute route.

I might give you a few pointers since I did a comparative study of dog foods for a consulting assignment. They're just tips though, I'm no vet, so you might want to consult your vet or the people in the pet food store. I also only reviewed brands available in Belgium, so it's not a complete overview

• Pedigree is bad for your dogs, it does not contain the necessary nutrients nor meat content
• Eukanuba is perfectly fine (higher meat content) but is the most expensive on the market - at least over here
• Hill's generally costs less because they eat less from it than Eukanuba and also contains all necessary nutrients. I give hills combined with some fresh meat to both our dogs and they're perfect on this diet. Some dogs with digestive problems might get the runs from Hill's though... (we only give the beef flavour because the other flavors are harder to digest and they get dried or fresh chicken as a supplement)
• Royal Canin is OK concerning ingredients and price (reasonable meat content, cheaper than both hill's and Eukanuba)
• Steer clear from most supermarket brands, they're generally junkfood for dogs...

I also steer clear of any food that contains ash and buy nothing with artificial coloring... (Skinner's would be a no no for my dogs because of 9% raw ash)

Further, as you have labradors, beware because they tend to overeat... make sure you give them a lean type of food and consult your vet if you're unsure about the quantity (you can follow the package but this will not always be correct, you need to monitor your dogs their weight and make sure it remains stable on an acceptable level)

Mostly, it's a thing of trial and error, find out what your dogs respond well to and see how the food affects their fur and their poop. If they like the food, have shiny coats and their poop is neither running nor rockhard you have a winner!

Pedigree is bad for your dogs, it does not contain the necessary nutrients nor meat content

By law all complete foods must contain the nutrients necessary. Whether or not you LIKE this food is another matter, so I am afraid this statement is untrue.


I also steer clear of any food that contains ash

Your dogs must have malnutrition then as Ash is how the mineral content of a food is expressed in the Analysis!

Perhaps you may benefit by going on a course on animal nutrition?

I avoid Skinners because when I wrote to several dog food companies to ask if they included the ' nasties' that I try to avoid, Skinners were very honest and told me some of their foods do include one of these.


I have a Lab too, so be careful not to give in to their almost constant hunger.


Foods I have tried and think are good are:

Dry foods:

Fish4Dogs
Arden Grange

For raw:

Prize Choice
Natural Instinct

Pedigree is bad for your dogs, it does not contain the necessary nutrients nor meat content
Yup..ditto Bakers, Wagg etc

Eukanuba is perfectly fine (higher meat content) but is the most expensive on the market - at least over here

Wouldnt feed this if you paid me

Hill's generally costs less because they eat less from it than Eukanuba and also contains all necessary nutrients. I give hills combined with some fresh meat to both our dogs and they're perfect on this diet. Some dogs with digestive problems might get the runs from Hill's though... (we only give the beef flavour because the other flavors are harder to digest and they get dried or fresh chicken as a supplement)

Hills IME is very expensive, but not a good food

Royal Canin is OK concerning ingredients and price (reasonable meat content, cheaper than both hill's and Eukanuba)

Nope. Most of the RC's hve grain as the first ingredient, and mentioned several times in the lists too

Steer clear from most supermarket brands, they're generally junkfood for dogs...

Hmmm, if I was short of food, and Tesco was open, and I fed a commercial diet. Chappie would do in the very short term