confusion about best dry food

hi, I am new member. I have had a selection of dogs for many years all rescued, I work as a veterinary nurse so many have come through work! I have always been very interested in nutrition to the point of obsessed! my husband thinks I am mad, but I just like as everyone the best for our dogs. The problems I have though that they are quite fussy (due to me I know) we have two retired greyhounds, one min pinscher, a gsd x spaniel and our new recruit is a bull mastiff puppy this is the first puppy we have actually chosen and bought. After the last few years of losing so many as I am a sucker for rescueing the oldies that nobody wants we decided we would introduce a pup. The foods I have used over time are Burns, JWB, Hills, Arden Grange, Nature diet, Butchers tinned. The puppy came being only fed Butchers tripe so I want to get gradually get her on to a good large breed diet. The others I do admit i swap and change. At work we are "brainwashed" into using Hills which I have done for a while but am concerned that it doesnt seem very popular. I do like Burns but my only concern is that one of my greyhounds is always very lean and worried that she will lose more weight. Also I have read that Burns puppy is good for large breeds to slow down growing, but then some say thay prefer more protein. I do add some meat with the dry. I would like some advice as I think I have analysed their diet to the point that I am so confused that driving hubby mad!! Sorry for the long message!

You and me both! Having had a gsd with EPI, I had to stick to virtually similar type dried foods to help her with this problem. Then my latest gsd who I rescued, has always suffered with a terrible, incurable skin condition, and although the vet he has been with all his life told me never to change from his Wafcol Salmon and Potato, I found that it didn't come back out the other end very well, so I have spent the last 2 years playing around with his diet too! I've done the cooking bit, with the chicken breast and veggies, I then reverted back to dry, I then tried the raw which he seemed to love and do very well on, but then things changed, he kept getting very bad stomach upsets, so I reverted back once again to another kibble, of James Wellbeloved Duck and Rice, but 6 months down the line, he's sort of gone off it, he prefers our human food, so this morning I went out and bought a small bag of Hill's Hypo Allergenic (I have to stick with this coz of his skin!) and he absolutely adores it and was asking for more even though I didn't put any tempting normal food over it! That was quite a shock! At one time, a couple of years ago, I had them both on the Burns, as I thought my EPI dog might be able to handle it, turned out she didn't, she got the runs badly within a month, but then so did the other dog, so I persevered with it. It went on with both of them, and I then decided that because Burns does not have any additives or preservatives in it, and because the weather was well into the 30's at that time, I decided it had "gone off" due to the heat, because neither of the dogs would touch it!

I know this Hills is quite expensive, but I'm used to that with the prescription foods I always had to feed anyway, but I've never, ever tried any of it before, and because he actually likes it, I'm going to give it a go!

Don't ask me what my next step will be though because quite honestly, I've now run out of ideas! I never tell my husband though, he would definitely be booking that van if I did!!!

Hi, I think we all get like that at times

I should imagine that one of your problems is trying to keep it fairly simple and getting one food to suite them all (except the pup at the moment).

Many people say that their dogs are lean on Burns, but don't have the same problem on Arden Grange.

As for the pup, I can't comment, like you I've always had older rescues (our most recent at 3 years is our youngest yet).

Personally I wouldn't get too hung up on analysing it yourself - all those brands that you have named have good reputations and I'm sure will have got the right balance of nutrients etc, so I would just go for whatever the majority of them seem to like best

(not sure that is much use though is it!)

I have 3 concerns when feeding foods, assuming the ingredients are the right balance for the dog:
1. No artificial additives/preservatives eg BHA/BHT which have nasty side effects (present in Hills last time I looked BTW)
2. No animal by-products soya or beet pulp to pad it out.
3. Produced ethically ie no animal testing

That said, I cook my own 'wet', organic meat (mix of heart, liver and lites with herbs) to add to the dry kibble or use fish (fresh or canned ) to liven up kibble a bit. To this I add fresh veg daily.

I swear by Burns, Luaths and Robbies (all Burns family, just different brothers!) and like Healthy Paws too....rabbit is main meat. I used to feed AG but use of beet pulp annoyed me and JWB is a good food but tests on animals.

Just my 2p,

Mary

Like Mary I am an advocate of 'fresh food' I know people go on about getting the correct balance of nutrients, but I go back to a time way beyond the invention of 'complete' food to the days of tinned meat and mixer and many dogs fed on those managed to survive to a good age .

Complete food may be ok for growing puppies, but for an adult dog I personally feel feeding a variety of meat/fish/eggs/ rice/some vegetable matter is preferable to a feeding a perfectly balanced but uninteresting and often adulterated dry food, and feeding a variety of foods of different categories will ensure a dog gets a good mix of nutrients.

My main concern about feeding dogs complete dehydrated food is the amount of water they consume (and the corresponding increase in urine output). It worries me that this can't be good for the dog, when feeding 'normal' food there is a more modest intake of water and urine production.
Feeding fresh cooked food does require a degree of effort but it is very easy when you have only one dog as I do at the moment . The meat can be cooked in quantity/portioned/frozen.

At the moment my puppy is fed on Burns puppy food with some fresh food but will progress to all fresh food eventually , sardines/coley/herrings/cheaper cuts of meat and chicken/egg/cottage cheese/veg pulp (probably with Burns Mixer or brown rice/organic oats. )

Have you thought about doing a course?

I'm off to do this one next month

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

sorry not much help at the mo but thought you might like to look into it

Hi, I haven't been on the forum for ages, but this thread has caught my eye today. I agree with Minihaha about giving a varied natural diet. It does take a little extra effort, but I just cook for Hamish while I am cooking for us and it doesn't seem like extra work. The main benefit is that you know exactly what your dog is getting, and the quality of it.

Oh dear, I'm just going to check out my bag I bought this morning then Any ideas as to why you avoid BHA/BHT please? Just for the record!

Although my dog enjoyed the cooking diet, I did the cooking, he watched with great enjoying, lips salivating and gobbled down every morsel, the end results got far too sloppy for my liking (on and off)so that's why I reverted back to kibble for a while.

IN all honesty, you go in a big pet store nowadays and imo there's far too much choice, same as the supermarkets for our human food, and I really think it's a case of the companies trying to be one better than the next and coming up with a yet another high grade, hypo this, anti that, food, it's all getting a bit silly imo. Whilst in P@H this morning, I saw some new food I've never seen before by some vet or other, and it was game with rice or something similar, or venison, etc. etc. Now does your dog really need to eat game or venison??? I don't think so! When I was a child, our dogs never suffered with upset tums or half the problems they seem to suffer with nowadays and there we were giving them a tin of something or table scraps, or off down the butchers for 5lbs of meat scraps which we just used to throw on the floor for our german shepherd, and he never suffered with anything the whole of his life! Makes you wonder doesn't it!

I couldn't agree more Helena........dog food has become a multi-billion pound business now I'm afraid!

Helena
Does this help?
http://www.purelypets.com/articles/whatsinfood.htm
Maybe not, don't worry too much, just try to ditch additives if you can.
Mary