Recommend me a good brand of dog food, please!

andrewire

Hello.

I got two puppies -a miniature Jack Russell and a West Highland Terrier- and I am unsure about which brand of dog food should be the best for them.

Also, I found really hard to find a decent pet shop in Dublin. It's like the most unfriendly place for pets in the world. All pet shops are tiny and they don't seem to have much.

HELP!

Thanks beforehand.

meeayz

Hi
I feed my 1 yr. old boarder collie mix Royal canine , he loves it and has a lovely coat and teeth . I would recommend staying away from pet food that can be bought in supermarkets like , pedigree , bakers ... they aren't very nutritious ! Go to "dog food analysis " and you can get more info on food there.
I have read that " orijen " is a great food , but it has to be bought on line , I think you can order small bags to test your pet with to see if he'll like it .

andrewire

Thank you for that. I saw that "Pedigree" today and I thought it didn't look good and it was insanely cheap. I saw Eukanuba on zooplus.ie and it looks good. Where in Dublin do you get your dog food?

meeayz

Hi
I feed my 1 yr. old boarder collie mix Royal canine , he loves it and has a lovely coat and teeth . I would recommend staying away from pet food that can be bought in supermarkets like , pedigree , bakers ... they aren't very nutritious ! Go to "dog food analysis " and you can get more info on food there.
I have read that " orijen " is a great food , but it has to be bought on line , I think you can order small bags to test your pet with to see if he'll like it .

meeayz

andrewire wrote: »

Thank you for that. I saw that "Pedigree" today and I thought it didn't look good and it was insanely cheap. I saw Eukanuba on zooplus.ie and it looks good. Where in Dublin do you get your dog food?

No problem . Sorry , Im living in Cork , I get the food in the vets as they stock it . Is there any "Maxi Zoo" in Dublin ? they stock a wide variety of food . I love the shop because you can actually bring your dog in with you

Paul91

meeayz wrote: »

No problem . Sorry , Im living in Cork , I get the food in the vets as they stock it . Is there any "Maxi Zoo" in Dublin ? they stock a wide variety of food . I love the shop because you can actually bring your dog in with you

is that the one in midleton - that's where we annoy the staff ;o)

i used to get select gold from there for the lab/box, but now get acana dry food and rinti meat, as the German Shepherd didn't agree with the select gold.

i think westie's can suffer from allergies, so might want to look at wheat free food, my mum has to get this for hers

meeayz

Paul91 wrote: »

is that the one in midleton - that's where we annoy the staff ;o)

i used to get select gold from there for the lab/box, but now get acana dry food and rinti meat, as the German Shepherd didn't agree with the select gold.

i think westie's can suffer from allergies, so might want to look at wheat free food, my mum has to get this for hers

Ya , thats the one What do ye do to annoy the staff ? My dog loves testing all the beds !

Paul91

i'm always asking for freebies or discounts (from Yorkshire originally ya see ) they love me really though, Katie is a star

andrewire

meeayz wrote: »

No problem . Sorry , Im living in Cork , I get the food in the vets as they stock it . Is there any "Maxi Zoo" in Dublin ? they stock a wide variety of food . I love the shop because you can actually bring your dog in with you

Nah, there are no MAXI ZOO in Dublin I'm afraid. But I'll be in Limerick this weekend and I just saw there's one there

Thanks again!

meeayz

Paul91 wrote: »

i'm always asking for freebies or discounts (from Yorkshire originally ya see ) they love me really though, Katie is a star

Oh rite only been there a few times , wanted to get a pirate style lead and collar for my dog , too pricey though maybe for christmas :rolleyes:

Paul91

meeayz wrote: »

Oh rite only been there a few times , wanted to get a pirate style lead and collar for my dog , too pricey though maybe for christmas :rolleyes:

tried ebay?

meeayz

andrewire wrote: »

Nah, there are no MAXI ZOO in Dublin I'm afraid. But I'll be in Limerick this weekend and I just saw there's one there

Thanks again!

No prob , best of luck

meeayz

Paul91 wrote: »

tried ebay?

Just had a quick look there , never thought of looking before , theres a skull and cross bones one that i kinda like for 7 pound . What a difference in price:eek: Thanks for that Never used e bay before !

jen_23

You could always try a BARF raw diet

I couldn't find a food to agree with Gunnar when I got him (A samoyed) . They either all made him too runny or too smelly!! I tried hills, orijen, burns but nothing agreed with him!

I put him on raw a few weeks ago and he loves it! His output is decreased significantly as it's so digestable, his coat, eyes are so healthy and his teeth are so clean!! (people have commented on how white his teeth are )
It's literally as it says on the tin - all raw food. SO your never going to be stuck to get it as you can pick it up in any supermarket

If you want more information on it you can find some here
http://www.topdog.ie/showthread.php?t=1771&highlight=barf
http://www.topdog.ie/showthread.php?t=7570&highlight=barf

Good luck with finding a food

Sigma Force

Any good quality brand suitable for puppies should be fine, westies can have skin issues and jack russels can be fussy with their food (or perhaps that's just the spoilt ones I've met). So a good quality one with as little or no artificial stuff in it.

Our toy breed pup is on Burns chicken and rice and doing really well on it, he won a bag of Hills puppy so was mixing that up with it and he was still doing grand. Every dog is different some like certain brands better than others and some do well on other brands.

Red Mills would be one I'd go for if on a tighter budget, not sure how small their puppy food it, that sized pups need a fairly small kibble.

Anything like

JWB
Burns
Royal Canin
Hills

Avoiding ped chum and the like, makes them stink to high heaven.
As said the BARF diet might work for the two of them as well.

lorebringer

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

Any good quality brand suitable for puppies should be fine, westies can have skin issues and jack russels can be fussy with their food (or perhaps that's just the spoilt ones I've met). So a good quality one with as little or no artificial stuff in it.

Anything like

JWB
Burns
Royal Canin
Hills

+1

Try to stick to a food for a while (whatever brand you try) to stop fussyness and if you are changing foods, do it gradually to prevent dodgy bellies. Any of the listed foods here are good. They feel very pricey but in reality it works out nearly the same to feed good or not too good foods because they need less of the good foods to get all they need nutritionally. Plus, if you buy the big bags it works out cheaper again! All of these foods can be bought in pet stores or vets or on www.zooplus.ie

smilerf

we feed our westie arden grange its a good quality food
try stay away from rubbish like pedegree iams bakers beta purina
imo even royal canin and hills are not that good either

funkyjebus

Hey OP,
I feed my guy on Royal Canin. One of the better ones available over the counter.

For a pet shop, if you have a car, try equipet in ashbourne. I live in dublin, but travel out. They are so nice out there, the place is quite big, very well stocked. And the last day I was out the royal canin was half price. Stocked up big time. You can bring your dog in too.

andrewire

jen_23 wrote: »

You could always try a BARF raw diet

I couldn't find a food to agree with Gunnar when I got him (A samoyed) . They either all made him too runny or too smelly!! I tried hills, orijen, burns but nothing agreed with him!

I put him on raw a few weeks ago and he loves it! His output is decreased significantly as it's so digestable, his coat, eyes are so healthy and his teeth are so clean!! (people have commented on how white his teeth are )
It's literally as it says on the tin - all raw food. SO your never going to be stuck to get it as you can pick it up in any supermarket

If you want more information on it you can find some here
http://www.topdog.ie/showthread.php?t=1771&highlight=barf
http://www.topdog.ie/showthread.php?t=7570&highlight=barf

Good luck with finding a food

Thank you Jen_23, I never thought about that. It's a good idea!

andrewire

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

Any good quality brand suitable for puppies should be fine, westies can have skin issues and jack russels can be fussy with their food (or perhaps that's just the spoilt ones I've met). So a good quality one with as little or no artificial stuff in it.

Our toy breed pup is on Burns chicken and rice and doing really well on it, he won a bag of Hills puppy so was mixing that up with it and he was still doing grand. Every dog is different some like certain brands better than others and some do well on other brands.

Red Mills would be one I'd go for if on a tighter budget, not sure how small their puppy food it, that sized pups need a fairly small kibble.

Anything like

JWB
Burns
Royal Canin
Hills

Avoiding ped chum and the like, makes them stink to high heaven.
As said the BARF diet might work for the two of them as well.

Thanks Guineapigrescue, I have looked at Royal Canin and it looks good. What worries me is that the Westie could like one type of brand and the JRT another one but we'll see. I hope they're not fussy!

andrewire

lorebringer wrote: »

+1

Try to stick to a food for a while (whatever brand you try) to stop fussyness and if you are changing foods, do it gradually to prevent dodgy bellies. Any of the listed foods here are good. They feel very pricey but in reality it works out nearly the same to feed good or not too good foods because they need less of the good foods to get all they need nutritionally. Plus, if you buy the big bags it works out cheaper again! All of these foods can be bought in pet stores or vets or on www.zooplus.ie

Thanks lorebringer, I will stick with one brand to see what happens. I will try to get big bags as you said 'cause they are cheaper in the long term. And my puppies are very small as well. I like that website [zooplus.ie]. It's cheaper than most pet shops I have visited. Especially dog beds, blankets, cushions and dry dog food.

andrewire

smilerf wrote: »

we feed our westie arden grange its a good quality food
try stay away from rubbish like pedegree iams bakers beta purina
imo even royal canin and hills are not that good either

You are right, no supermarket food is good for dogs. The other day I saw that Tesco has one line of dog food. Yikes. I say that's probably full of sugar and by-products.

andrewire

funkyjebus wrote: »

Hey OP,
I feed my guy on Royal Canin. One of the better ones available over the counter.

For a pet shop, if you have a car, try equipet in ashbourne. I live in dublin, but travel out. They are so nice out there, the place is quite big, very well stocked. And the last day I was out the royal canin was half price. Stocked up big time. You can bring your dog in too.

Thanks for that funkyjebus. I will definitely go to that place then. I have visited over 6 pet shops in Dublin and they are all rubbish. Although there's one in Drimnagh that is really good and big.

CL32

If you're worried about allergies James WellBeloved is great stuff. They proudly list everything it doesn't contain and why not. Our little one took a turn off it though so we have her on Royal Canin and she loves it. Royal canin do breed specific foods to take the guess work out of it.

Kinsealy pet store is huge (on the way out to Malahide) and there is a huge pet superstore in Blanch

williamellison

High nutritional food is good for your puppies. You can also feed milk to your puppies. I bought some protein supplements from vet pharmacy for my dog. You may check this at http://www.vetpharmacy.co.uk/

TaraR

andrewire wrote: »

Nah, there are no MAXI ZOO in Dublin I'm afraid. But I'll be in Limerick this weekend and I just saw there's one there

Thanks again!

Maxi Zoo Is In Tallaght. There are a few others, ive been in the one in Tallght many times

adser53

This thread is nearly 2 years old

Groom!

I know this is an old thread but one of the posts today by williamellison says you can give milk to puppies.

Is cow's milk not really bad for any animal??

I would never give milk to an animal, even my cats.

Just wondering if anyone knows about this?

ISDW

Groom! wrote: »

I know this is an old thread but one of the posts today by williamellison says you can give milk to puppies.

Is cow's milk not really bad for any animal??

I would never give milk to an animal, even my cats.

Just wondering if anyone knows about this?

You're right, I wouldn't recommend giving cows milk to a dog or cat. However, you can get puppy milk from vets, but usually this is just for pups that are being hand reared, or that the mother is having trouble feeding, once they are weaned, they shouldn't need it anymore.

If you are feeding your pup a good quality puppy food, there is no need for supplements, puppy food is high enough in protein without adding to it.

TaraR

adser53 wrote: »

This thread is nearly 2 years old

Never even thought of looking at the date on it :rolleyes:

are you serious

TaraR wrote: »

Never even thought of looking at the date on it :rolleyes:

I got to this page thinking there is a maxi zoo in finglas... just in case anyone else has got this far!