Three dogs, 3 sizes, 3 diets - help!!!

Hi everyone,
I have a dilemma and need some help quickly. I have a 8 year old Standard Schnauzer who is very happy to eat anything - currently on a generic complete food which hubbie insists on giving with tinned food as well - to make it interesting. I also have a 1 year old mini Dachshund who has Pedigree complete, again with a little tinned for interest. I am about to get a new mini Dachshund pup and want to set her on the right feeding road, and want to use the opportunity to seek out a new supplier on-line.
So, any suggestions as to what would be a good food for the 2 minis to be fed on, and what protein percentage should i be looking for. I am not too sure they need the extra tinned food, and would appreciate some input on this please.
I do not want any of the dogs to be on the raw feeding regime as it is not something I feel I could do. If anyone knows of any good suppliers that deliver in the north of England, that info would be much appreciated too.
looking forward to hearing some good advice from you all
Cheers from Tracy

I would look at the premium branded kibbles, definately steer away frm Pedigree or generic cheap brands. I'm sure someone will come along and recommend some (I don't feed commercial food so not quite up to date with the best brands) but a few that come to mind are Orijen, Fish4Dogs, Barking Heads. These may look more expensive initially but do bear in mind that it is more digestible so you feed less. With cheaper foods you're buying food full of poorly digested fillers like cereal, so end up feeding two or three times as much.
Wet food isn't necessary but if your husband feels the need then again, I would steer clear of the cheaper foods. Naturediet is a good wet food, it comes in a plastic tray rather than a tin. Pets at Home sell a similar version by Wainwrights, which is a bit cheaper.

Ive all ways been informed not to feed wet and dry together as they digest differently.

I personally would not feed any dog pedigree chum as it made my puppy hyperactive when I changed her diet to something different it made a massive change to her character.

Wainrites is good affordable one I guess if you hubbie wants variety you could all ways get a mixer brand.

Nothing wrong with feeding wet and dry.

How about something like JWB/Burns/Skinners/RC, and then wainrights/natures menu/natures harvest to keep hubs happy

Mine currently have 10 bags of Harringtons (on offer at Wilko) for training/kong/biccie ball/find it.

Burns, Skinners, Arden Grange, CSJ, Wainwrights (From Pets at home only), Fish4Dogs, JamesWellBeloved are all good brands of dry dog food.

Natures menu, Natures Diet, Natures Harvest, Wainwright wet food, Burns wet food, Butchers, Chappie, Rocco are all good brands of wet dog food.

You certainly like to make things difficult for yourself don't you?!

I am always interested why people spend a lot of money on "complete" foods which are supposed to be the product of scientific research with all the necessary nutrients for growth and or maintenance and then proceed to ADD stuff to it which then completely undoes the work that has been done in the lab.

There is no NEED to provide both wet and dry food. But that is your choice. I would suggest that most of the money you are spending on the dog food is filling little black bags............

If your dogs will not eat dry food without an added wet food why not just feed a high quality complete wet food? Would that not make more sense and provide the best nutritious and cost effective diet?

Good quality complete wet diets include:

Natures Harvest
Natures Menu
Naturediet etc




There is no evidence based science on what the minimum or maximum protein requirements are for dogs.

Also, unless you know how to read a food label, understand the difference betwen complete and incomplete protein, the difference between crude protein and actual protein and how bio available it is to the dog, worrying about protein percentages is a waste of time.

What you are looking for in a good diet is one that clearly states the ingredients and their source (eg chicken rather than meat derivatives), and if using a diet with grains then preferably oats, then rice or a mixture (avoid barley, maize/corn and wheat if possible) alternatively use a diet with potato instead of grain/cereal.

Avoid salt, sugar, colourings.

There are literally hundreds of dog foods out there and for every one dog that has problems with a brand there are hundreds of others that thrive on it.

Good luck

SB has pretty much covered it -
You need to do some packet reading

Pedigree dry ingredients:
Cereals (including 4% Rice, 4% Whole Maize, 4% Whole Wheat),Meat and Animal Derivatives (including 10% Chicken in the Brown Kibble) ,Oils and Fats (including 0.25% Fish Oil) ,Derivatives of Vegetable Origin (including 4% Dried Beet Pulp) ,Vegetable Protein Extracts ,Minerals ,Vegetable (including 4% Carrots in the Orange Kibble, including 4% Beans in the Green Kibble)

Starts with cereals (this means this is the highest quantity ingredient). There is 10% chicken. The protein may be similar to that of better foods, but protein can be found in various different sources and some are more usable to the dog than others. The meat content is very low..

Compare this to something like Fish 4 Dogs:
Ocean White Fish, Potato, Fish Meal, Salmon Oil, Beet Fibre, Brewers Yeast , Minerals.

First and main ingredient is fish (over 55%). Potato is used as opposed to maize etc which is better used by the dog and there are not multiple grain sources.

Watch out for something called grain splitting when looking on packets. This is where the grain is split in to sections ie, maize, rice, barley etc. They do this so it looks as though meat is a higher ingredient.
For example it may look like this:
Chicken, maize, rice, vegetable extract, barley.
So you think 'great chicken is the highest ingredient'. Wrong - Grains are - they have just separated them...
So it should look like
Grains (Maize, rice, barley) 80%, chicken, ... etc.

Good brands include:
Arden Grange
Fish 4 Dogs
Barking Heads
Skinners
James Well Beloved
Wainwrights
.. and more!!

There are also grain free foods such as orijen and arcana.

I have found since feeding my dog on F4D that it costs similar to feeding a cheaper food. There is less waste and you feed less. A 12 kg bag costing £36 lasts me 2.5-3 months for a 13kg dog.. pretty good value

Wet food is optional - my family mix wet and dry. I don't bother - it seems unnecessary to me as my dog enjoys the food as it is..

Good luck chosing

Actually to be pedantic, grain splitting refers to the practice of splitting A grain in order that the consumer believes that the first named ingredient makes up the MAJORITY of the product; it does not.

Ingredients are listed in weight order of the largest SINGLE ingredient, thus you will get rice listed as:

rice bran
whole rice
rice hulls etc


This disguises the total amount of rice that a food contains.

Thanks lots to look for!!

OMG, such a wealth of information out there!!! thank you everyone already. think the wet stuff is out of the window already!! Next, any idea how much good quality dry complete food a 11lb very active adult dachshund would need daily (split into 2 meals) and what would you recommend for the new pup (obviously to be slowly weaned from the breeders food)???
Any ideas for cheap on-line delivery companies????
Cheers from Tracy and the Gang