Maxi Zoo Own Brand foods

adser53

Just wondering peoples opinions on Maxi Zoo's own brand range of dry foods.

Namely:

Select Gold (comparable to hills & royal canin according to their website)

Premiere (again according to their webbie, comparable to Eukenuba)

and finally Real Nature (the priciest of the lot)

I'm thinking of changing from Burns to something a bit more budget friendly and was wondering if these foods were any use. Can't find anything about them online or on dogfoodanalysis.com. So does anyone know the prices of these foods for a 15kg bag of adult food (nothing on their website) and what they're like?

Cheers for the info

Shanao

Select Gold- 55.99 for the normal one. Have used it for the pup and for the old collie we used to have and found it pretty good. The senior one really helped out the collie when she started getting stiff.
Premiere- 39.99. Haven't used it myself but my housemate buys it for his parents dogs. Seems to be pretty good for large breeds, has crustacean and mussel extracts for the joints. Might try my fella on it when he's an adult
Real Nature- 69.99. Pricey, but i really wouldn't go beyond it. Its expensive for a reason but well worth it. I only feed the big fella 400g a day of it (in comparison I'd be feeding 600g of Royal Canin, and 945g of Red Mills leader!!) and you can actually kick his poo around the garden its so solid. I was a bit sceptical at first, especially with the price of it, but even though i was gonna put him on Royal Canin, the manager told me to try it and said there was a money back guarantee on their foods if the dog wont eat it. He loves it though and I really wouldn't change it now. There's no chemicals/preservatives etc in it as well which I was looking for after hearing all about BHA and ethyoxin, and i was pretty annoyed to find BHA in Royal Canin.

adser53

Thanks a million Shanao, very helpful

I suppose as they're all decent foods,the deciding factor will be the recommended amount of food required by bodyweight so I can try figure out which one lasts longer, best value etc. I don't suppose you'd have that info handy would you?

And how big is your big dog :eek::eek::eek: the red mills leader is 10g/kg bodyweight so my two big uns were getting around 600g of food daily when they were on that!

So if the Real Nature is half the portion and much better, I'd be inclined to go for that as it would would work out the same pricewise (twice the price but lasts twice as long)....hmmm decisions decisions

lily4

I've recently started my cat on the Real Nature food - I feed her both wet and dry.

I'm very happy with both, it's a cut above the Royal Canin I think.

Pricewise as far as I can tell a 3kg bag of dry Real Nature is about 29 euro, a 2kg bag of Royal Canin is about 20 so works out about the same really.

I'd highly recommend the wet food too - it's basically meat and water, with a very small cereal content which is important for cats.

I know your query is re the dog variety of the food but I imagine the high quality is present in both the cat and dog food !

are you serious

ive got my rottie on select gold maxi plus junior and he loves it!

Shanao

adser53 wrote: »

And how big is your big dog :eek::eek::eek: the red mills leader is 10g/kg bodyweight so my two big uns were getting around 600g of food daily when they were on that!

So if the Real Nature is half the portion and much better, I'd be inclined to go for that as it would would work out the same pricewise (twice the price but lasts twice as long)....hmmm decisions decisions

My big dog is six months old and 40 bloody kilos already. And he's not even overweight!! He's going to be feckin huge. I was putting the redmills puppy against the Real Nature, and it was coming out at 945g for him and 880g for the other dog, meaning 8 days out a 15kg for 45 euro!? Whereas I'm getting nearly a month out of the Real Nature between the pair.

adser53

Shanao wrote: »

My big dog is six months old and 40 bloody kilos already. And he's not even overweight!! He's going to be feckin huge. I was putting the redmills puppy against the Real Nature, and it was coming out at 945g for him and 880g for the other dog, meaning 8 days out a 15kg for 45 euro!? Whereas I'm getting nearly a month out of the Real Nature between the pair.

Ah sure I was forgetting your on the puppy food yeah 900g for a 40+ kilo akita sounds about right, I was thinking of the adult food.

I was totting things up tonight and if we went back on red mills leader (not the supreme) and fed the recommended amounts- we'd use 30.4 bags of food a year @ €42.99 a bag = €1306.89. Compare that to Burns, which they eat less of so we'd only need 24.3 bags of that per year @ €44.85 a bag (from zooplus)= €1089.86. That's a saving of nearly €220 quid despite buying a more expensive food :eek:

It's mad how it all adds up!

Shanao

adser53 wrote: »

I suppose as they're all decent foods,the deciding factor will be the recommended amount of food required by bodyweight so I can try figure out which one lasts longer, best value etc. I don't suppose you'd have that info handy would you?

I'm guessing the dogs are both about sixty kilos then? I think i had it worked out at about 550g for my boy when he's fully grown, but he's heading for about 70kgs. Prob be about 450g for your guys. It has its own specific measuring cup though because its concentrated (or something) so a normal measuring cup would be 200g but the same cup full of Real Nature would be 350g. So instead of having to give three cups a day, you'd be giving one and a half-ish. That's what I have it worked out to anyway.

Shanao

adser53 wrote: »

Ah sure I was forgetting your on the puppy food yeah 900g for a 40+ kilo akita sounds about right, I was thinking of the adult food.

I was totting things up tonight and if we went back on red mills leader (not the supreme) and fed the recommended amounts- we'd use 30.4 bags of food a year @ €42.99 a bag = €1306.89. Compare that to Burns, which they eat less of so we'd only need 24.3 bags of that per year @ €44.85 a bag (from zooplus)= €1089.86. That's a saving of nearly €220 quid despite buying a more expensive food :eek:

It's mad how it all adds up!

Its pretty crazy alright. I'm actually hoping my guy doesn't get as big as it looks like he's going to. By the weight chart, he should be almost 80kgs fully grown!! He's pretty huge already though, his head is at the height of my hip already.
With most dogs I would feed less than the reccommended amount unless the dog is significantly underweight. Especially with some of the spitz breeds cos it'll run through them if they overeat. The big fella was just neutered as well so I'm gonna have to keep an eye on his weight now and cut back on some of the food.

pokertalk

Shanao wrote: »

My big dog is six months old and 40 bloody kilos already. And he's not even overweight!! He's going to be feckin huge. I was putting the redmills puppy against the Real Nature, and it was coming out at 945g for him and 880g for the other dog, meaning 8 days out a 15kg for 45 euro!? Whereas I'm getting nearly a month out of the Real Nature between the pair.

what dog do you have shanao

forensic

lily4 wrote: »

I've recently started my cat on the Real Nature food - I feed her both wet and dry.

I'm very happy with both, it's a cut above the Royal Canin I think.

Pricewise as far as I can tell a 3kg bag of dry Real Nature is about 29 euro, a 2kg bag of Royal Canin is about 20 so works out about the same really.

I'd highly recommend the wet food too - it's basically meat and water, with a very small cereal content which is important for cats.

I know your query is re the dog variety of the food but I imagine the high quality is present in both the cat and dog food !

OP about dogs I know, but just wanted to add a bit about the cat food.

We use the 4kg bags of Light Select Gold, its €34.99 a bag. One bag last us a month-ish with 2 cats, 2 enormous cats!

I remember going into Maxi Zoo and asking about cat food and the guy pointed out the different meat contents of each wet food. The Select Gold was one of the highest meat contents if I remember correctly.

A lot of the "brand" name stuff was terrible in comparison. I know when we gave our two cats wet food along with dry food, the wet food was the whiskas pouches and I swear they were high after eating it! Bouncing off the walls like kids hopped up on sugar and E numbers. Junk food for cats.

All they eat now is the dry food and they love it and if we inadvertently run out they won't touch anything else.

Shanao

Was amazed to find they're actually open today, but we toddled on in and I had a look at the premiere food. If your guys are 60kg adser, you'd be giving them about 480g of food a day each, which seems to be pretty good. I asked the fella in there about the quality in regards to Leader and he said it was a lot better especially as its large breed specific. Hope that helps.

Devi

+1
Have to say have used both Select Gold and Real Nature and can vouch that they are both great dog foods.

Wow didn’t realise Akitas got that big, 60-70kg sure that’s knocking on giant sizes nearly, didn’t know that.

Shanao

They are technically a giant breed, though its more the americans than the japanese that get so big. 55-60kg is about the average for an american whereas a japanese is usually between 35-45kgs. My guy's dad was 65kgs but it looks like the pup is going to outgrow him.

Devi

Shanao wrote: »

They are technically a giant breed, though its more the americans than the japanese that get so big. 55-60kg is about the average for an american whereas a japanese is usually between 35-45kgs. My guy's dad was 65kgs but it looks like the pup is going to outgrow him.

Ah right I was wondering that makes sense. Are both types in Ireland?

adser53

Shanao wrote: »

Was amazed to find they're actually open today, but we toddled on in and I had a look at the premiere food. If your guys are 60kg adser, you'd be giving them about 480g of food a day each, which seems to be pretty good. I asked the fella in there about the quality in regards to Leader and he said it was a lot better especially as its large breed specific. Hope that helps.

Thanks Shanao and you're dead right. We actually went in for a look ourselves today and after lengthy comparisons of every food, we saw the premiere one offered the best value by far. So we're going to try that and see if it's any good. At €37.99 a bag we'd be saving even more so I hope its as good as Burns.

As for the Real Nature....the sales rep and I had some harsh words about that :rolleyes::mad:

***WARNING RANT AHEAD*** :cool:

I explained that things were tight financially and that I wanted the best food I could possibly afford with a budget of around €50 per bag. I continued by saying that I would buy a more expensive food providing that it lasted longer. For example: If a €50 bag lasts me 2 weeks, and a €100 bag lasts me 4 weeks then I would have no hesitation buying the €100 bag as it works out the same financially.

So the following conversation went like this:
He brought me to the "Real Nature" bags, slapping them proudly and exclaiming "70 odd quid a pop but it's the best food by far. What you spend now you'll save in Vet bills" (now mine have never been to the vet with any illness brought about by poor diet for starters so I call that balderdash).

I asked "So what would a 55-60kg dog need per day". After a few mins of reading the bag and using the calculator on his phone, (which I could've feckin done myself- it says feed them 1.2% of their bodyweight) this lad says "approx 640g-720g". I said "Sure thats more than what I'm feeding them now so that bag certainly won't last me any longer, I'll look at some of the other brands."

Unimpressed at my cheap-ass point of view :rolleyes: He proceeded to hold up a measuring cup and asked me how many scoops of food do my 2 Akitas get now. I replied "about two and a half scoops" and he said, chuffed with himself, "Well with this they'd only need one and a half because it's a more dense food so you're feeding them half the amount you currently are." I said "Eh...No. You're not. You're still feeding them minimum 640g of food from a 15kg bag, the same as the red mills range, and that's way more than the burns range. You're just feeding them less individual bits of kibble but the weight of the portions are the same so the bag won't last any longer."

This conversation continued for 15 mins with him assuring me the bag would last longer cos you only used one scoop :rolleyes:;);) Eventually I just had to stop the arguement because I was pissing in the wind :mad: One 600g scoop or ten 60g scoops still equals 600g no matter what way you serve it up.

Ultimately this lad gave out to us for wanting to buy cheaper foods (he proudly said he has 5 dogs and pays over €500 a month on food- madness IMO) despite the fact we explained money was tight and we were trying to do the best we could, while my heavily pregnant girlfriend stood beside me :mad: . "If you had a choice of McDonalds or a fillet steak you'd pick a fillet steak every time" he said. I replied "Well I would rather eat McDonalds 7 days a week and not go hungry than have one fillet steak and starve"

So while he may have been a canine nutritionist, he certainly wasn't a feckin financial advisor with his reasoning that weight is irrelevant when compared to the size of the measuring cup :rolleyes:

Anyway, rant over. I'll be trying the premiere food next and reverting back to burns if it doesn't go down well.

Devi wrote: »

Ah right I was wondering that makes sense. Are both types in Ireland?

Yup, they are indeed and getting more popular all the time

Devi

adser53 wrote: »

Thanks Shanao and you're dead right. We actually went in for a look ourselves today and after lengthy comparisons of every food, we saw the premiere one offered the best value by far. So we're going to try that and see if it's any good. At €37.99 a bag we'd be saving even more so I hope its as good as Burns.

As for the Real Nature....the sales rep and I had some harsh words about that :rolleyes::mad:

***WARNING RANT AHEAD*** :cool:

I explained that things were tight financially and that I wanted the best food I could possibly afford with a budget of around €50 per bag. I continued by saying that I would buy a more expensive food providing that it lasted longer. For example: If a €50 bag lasts me 2 weeks, and a €100 bag lasts me 4 weeks then I would have no hesitation buying the €100 bag as it works out the same financially.

So the following conversation went like this:
He brought me to the "Real Nature" bags, slapping them proudly and exclaiming "70 odd quid a pop but it's the best food by far. What you spend now you'll save in Vet bills" (now mine have never been to the vet with any illness brought about by poor diet for starters so I call that balderdash).

I asked "So what would a 55-60kg dog need per day". After a few mins of reading the bag and using the calculator on his phone, (which I could've feckin done myself- it says feed them 1.2% of their bodyweight) this lad says "approx 640g-720g". I said "Sure thats more than what I'm feeding them now so that bag certainly won't last me any longer, I'll look at some of the other brands."

Unimpressed at my cheap-ass point of view :rolleyes: He proceeded to hold up a measuring cup and asked me how many scoops of food do my 2 Akitas get now. I replied "about two and a half scoops" and he said, chuffed with himself, "Well with this they'd only need one and a half because it's a more dense food so you're feeding them half the amount you currently are." I said "Eh...No. You're not. You're still feeding them minimum 640g of food from a 15kg bag, the same as the red mills range, and that's way more than the burns range. You're just feeding them less individual bits of kibble but the weight of the portions are the same so the bag won't last any longer."

This conversation continued for 15 mins with him assuring me the bag would last longer cos you only used one scoop :rolleyes:;);) Eventually I just had to stop the arguement because I was pissing in the wind :mad: One 600g scoop or ten 60g scoops still equals 600g no matter what way you serve it up.

Ultimately this lad gave out to us for wanting to buy cheaper foods (he proudly said he has 5 dogs and pays over €500 a month on food- madness IMO) despite the fact we explained money was tight and we were trying to do the best we could, while my heavily pregnant girlfriend stood beside me :mad: . "If you had a choice of McDonalds or a fillet steak you'd pick a fillet steak every time" he said. I replied "Well I would rather eat McDonalds 7 days a week and not go hungry than have one fillet steak and starve"

So while he may have been a canine nutritionist, he certainly wasn't a feckin financial advisor with his reasoning that weight is irrelevant when compared to the size of the measuring cup :rolleyes:

Anyway, rant over. I'll be trying the premiere food next and reverting back to burns if it doesn't go down well.


Yup, they are indeed and getting more popular all the time

Yea I found the Real Nature to go alot faster too, so went back to select gold, must try the premier though, didnt hear about it till today.

paultf

Adser, there isn't a MaxiZoo close to me but I am always interested in hearing about other dog foods. Build up the knowledge:)

The maxizoo.ie website isn't great as for some reason they don't list the ingredients of the foods.

I went to their general website maxizoo.com and clicked on Germany at the bottom (since they are a German company).

Here's the link for their Premiere food. adser I know you bought a bag so you know the ingredients - but for anyone else that might be interested.

http://www.fressnapf.de/shop/premiere-high5-dog-adult-gefluegel

Its in German so run the link through Google Translate to get English. The other food ingredients are listed too like Real Nature.

Here is the translated link for the Premiere food:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fressnapf.de%2Fshop%2Fpremiere-high5-dog-adult-gefluegel

adser53

paultf wrote: »

Adser, there isn't a MaxiZoo close to me but I am always interested in hearing about other dog foods. Build up the knowledge:)

The maxizoo.ie website isn't great as for some reason they don't list the ingredients of the foods.

I went to their general website maxizoo.com and clicked on Germany at the bottom (since they are a German company).

Here's the link for their Premiere food. adser I know you bought a bag so you know the ingredients - but for anyone else that might be interested.

http://www.fressnapf.de/shop/premiere-high5-dog-adult-gefluegel

Its in German so run the link through Google Translate to get English. The other food ingredients are listed too like Real Nature.

Here is the translated link for the Premiere food:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fressnapf.de%2Fshop%2Fpremiere-high5-dog-adult-gefluegel

Thanks a million for all that Paul

But I havn't gotten a bag yet, I'll be getting one next week when I finish up what I've got left

Shanao

adser53 wrote: »

Thanks Shanao and you're dead right. We actually went in for a look ourselves today and after lengthy comparisons of every food, we saw the premiere one offered the best value by far. So we're going to try that and see if it's any good. At €37.99 a bag we'd be saving even more so I hope its as good as Burns.

As for the Real Nature....the sales rep and I had some harsh words about that :rolleyes::mad:

***WARNING RANT AHEAD*** :cool:

I explained that things were tight financially and that I wanted the best food I could possibly afford with a budget of around €50 per bag. I continued by saying that I would buy a more expensive food providing that it lasted longer. For example: If a €50 bag lasts me 2 weeks, and a €100 bag lasts me 4 weeks then I would have no hesitation buying the €100 bag as it works out the same financially.

So the following conversation went like this:
He brought me to the "Real Nature" bags, slapping them proudly and exclaiming "70 odd quid a pop but it's the best food by far. What you spend now you'll save in Vet bills" (now mine have never been to the vet with any illness brought about by poor diet for starters so I call that balderdash).

I asked "So what would a 55-60kg dog need per day". After a few mins of reading the bag and using the calculator on his phone, (which I could've feckin done myself- it says feed them 1.2% of their bodyweight) this lad says "approx 640g-720g". I said "Sure thats more than what I'm feeding them now so that bag certainly won't last me any longer, I'll look at some of the other brands."

Unimpressed at my cheap-ass point of view :rolleyes: He proceeded to hold up a measuring cup and asked me how many scoops of food do my 2 Akitas get now. I replied "about two and a half scoops" and he said, chuffed with himself, "Well with this they'd only need one and a half because it's a more dense food so you're feeding them half the amount you currently are." I said "Eh...No. You're not. You're still feeding them minimum 640g of food from a 15kg bag, the same as the red mills range, and that's way more than the burns range. You're just feeding them less individual bits of kibble but the weight of the portions are the same so the bag won't last any longer."

This conversation continued for 15 mins with him assuring me the bag would last longer cos you only used one scoop :rolleyes:;);) Eventually I just had to stop the arguement because I was pissing in the wind :mad: One 600g scoop or ten 60g scoops still equals 600g no matter what way you serve it up.

Ultimately this lad gave out to us for wanting to buy cheaper foods (he proudly said he has 5 dogs and pays over €500 a month on food- madness IMO) despite the fact we explained money was tight and we were trying to do the best we could, while my heavily pregnant girlfriend stood beside me :mad: . "If you had a choice of McDonalds or a fillet steak you'd pick a fillet steak every time" he said. I replied "Well I would rather eat McDonalds 7 days a week and not go hungry than have one fillet steak and starve"

So while he may have been a canine nutritionist, he certainly wasn't a feckin financial advisor with his reasoning that weight is irrelevant when compared to the size of the measuring cup :rolleyes:

Anyway, rant over. I'll be trying the premiere food next and reverting back to burns if it doesn't go down well.

Cripes, the lads in my place are lovely, and I had a great chat with the manager about the Real Nature. I've done canine nutrition myself and went through the Real Nature and tbh I made out the calculations myself across how much exercise my lads were getting, their weight etc. By their calculations, my lot should be on about 600g as well, but they're a fine weight on the 400 I'm giving them.
Yer man sounds like a right plonker though, I mean when you're feeding two big hungry hounds it is hard to go the whole hog and spend so much on food, and I definitely dont believe his whole 'paying 500 a month on food', that's a bit mad. Let us know how you get on with the premiere- I'm thinking of switching my lads over when they're fully grown.

Shanao

Devi wrote: »

Ah right I was wondering that makes sense. Are both types in Ireland?

Like adser said, they are indeed. How to know which is which: if you ever see an akita with black around its muzzle, its an American. Even though people are even advertising them as japanese akitas, black muzzles are only found in the Americans (or at least should be, though I'm pretty sure there's a few breeders crossing the two:rolleyes:)

andreac

Adser, would you consider CLinivet? I feed my dogs it and its around 50 euro a bag with free delivery.
Both my rotties are on it and i find it brilliant. You cant buy it in the shops or only at certain suppliers so you order it online but you can get it delivered where ever you want. I get mine delivered to work.

lily4

forensic wrote: »

OP about dogs I know, but just wanted to add a bit about the cat food.

We use the 4kg bags of Light Select Gold, its €34.99 a bag. One bag last us a month-ish with 2 cats, 2 enormous cats!

I remember going into Maxi Zoo and asking about cat food and the guy pointed out the different meat contents of each wet food. The Select Gold was one of the highest meat contents if I remember correctly.

A lot of the "brand" name stuff was terrible in comparison. I know when we gave our two cats wet food along with dry food, the wet food was the whiskas pouches and I swear they were high after eating it! Bouncing off the walls like kids hopped up on sugar and E numbers. Junk food for cats.

All they eat now is the dry food and they love it and if we inadvertently run out they won't touch anything else.

I must try the Select Gold on my lady. She's a young cat and going through a growth spurt or something at the moment as she's eating loads

adser53

andreac wrote: »

Adser, would you consider CLinivet? I feed my dogs it and its around 50 euro a bag with free delivery.
Both my rotties are on it and i find it brilliant. You cant buy it in the shops or only at certain suppliers so you order it online but you can get it delivered where ever you want. I get mine delivered to work.

I'm open to any food Andrea I'll have a look at that one too. Do you get it from zooplus?

andreac

adser53 wrote: »

I'm open to any food Andrea I'll have a look at that one too. Do you get it from zooplus?

No i buy it directly from their site www.clinivet.co.uk

adser53

Right well...I did some quick sums on the foods in maxi zoo and a few online ones and thought I'd post the results on here for others to see.
A few notes first, I based my calculations on the manufacturers minimum feeding guidelines for two 55kg Akitas and one 7.5kg cavalier king charles (the cav was also included in the large breed feeds for reference). The prices are from one of the following sources per food: maxi zoo, zooplus.co.uk, husse.ie and clinivet.com. Finally, the prices quoted from zooplus are from the economy offer where you save a few quid by buying two bags at once.
The purpose of this was to show the feeding costs per year for a number of mid range to high end dog foods. The quality of the foods isn't shown below but they are all respected foods and none would be classed as cheap or rubbish (I don't think anyway )
I've arranged them by price in descending order showing the food price for a 15kg bag, the daily amount of food needed altogether for the 3 dogs, the number of bags needed per year and finally the cost of that number.

1.Premiere High 5 €39.99 (maxi zoo) 1020g per day 24.83 bags per year = €992.95
2.Burns Adult (zooplus) €44.85 1000g per day 24.3 bags per year = €1089.86
3.Happydog Naturcroq (maxi zoo) €37.99 1310g per day 31.87 bags per year = €1211
4.Taste of the wild (zooplus) €48.04 1090g per day 26.52 bags per year = €1274.31
5.Husse Lamb & Rice €54.00 980g per day 23.85 bags per year = €1288.23
6.Husse Prima €45.00 1210g per day 29.2 bags per year = €1314.00
7.Husse Optimal Giant €54.00 980g per day 23.85 bags per year =€1314.00
8.Red Mills Leader (maxi zoo) €44.99 1230g per day 30.4 bags per year = €1368.45
9.Clinivet Adult Large Breed €52.03 1300g per day 31.65 bags per year = €1647.09
10.Select Gold Adult Large Breed (maxi zoo) €55.99 1220g per day 29.68 bags per year = €1662.16
11.Hills Nature's Best Adult Large Breed (maxi zoo) €52.50 1360g per day 33.09 bags per year = €1737.30
12.Select Gold Adult (maxi zoo) €54.99 1310g per day 31.87 bags per year = €1752.53
13.James Wellbeloved Adult (maxi zoo) €58.99 1370g per day 33.63 bags per year €1968.13
14.Real Nature (maxi zoo) €69.99 1420g per day 34.56 bags per year = €2419.16

So as I said earlier, ill try the premiere high 5 and see how it goes as by all accounts its far superior to red mills leader (my fall back food) and if it doesn't work out I'll put them back on burns which I know I can rely on and its 2nd best in the list above for costs. Win win IMO

Edit: there's a slight boo boo on one of the husse calcs that I'll fix tomorrow but its negligible and the standings remain the same

Kali_Kalika

I feed my pup (5 months) the Real Nature, she loves it! Two different times I ran out of it and couldn't get to Maxizoo to stock up, I had to fall back on Bakers and she wouldn't touch it! Just sorta sniffed it and gave me that look of "You expect me to eat that crap?!" and went off to sulk in her bed.

I've tried her on all the ones you listed and she prefers the Real Nature (both wet and dry) much more than the rest. And, overall, it does work out to be really affordable because its so good they dont eat as much of it (and mines a greedy guts and 2 of the plastic cups in MaxiZoo they give for free completely fill her for the day)

Devi

Hi Adser, do you know if the premiere high 5 is for young dogs aswell? (10 month rottie).

Shanao

Devi wrote: »

Hi Adser, do you know if the premiere high 5 is for young dogs aswell? (10 month rottie).

Nope it isn't. I asked them the same thing as my lot are only six months, but its made only for adult dogs.

TonyFella

I fed my lad select gold large puppy food and he loved it good coat and stools. I found this guy who delivers your dog food and i now feed my lad on it and its quality food at an affordable price http://www.dogfooddirect.ie/

are you serious

Adser, how you getting on with the Premier High 5?

SoulRock

Yep i have an 11 week old staffy and feed him the Real Nature Black angus..
it really is brilliant and his stools are solid and he's an extremly happy Puppy, he wolfs it down.. i might switch to the Premier when he's a year old and see how i get on, the Real Nature is expensive and not sure i can keep paying that much for his food although i really want to give him the best i can afford, looking at most other dog foods, im of the opinion that the Real nature stuff is Pretty much the best. and the recommended feeding amounts are a bit high, i was told 400g a day but am feeding him closer to 250g a day and he is a perfect weight for his age, really healthy, i also have to say the guy i deal with in MaxiZoo in finglas is brilliant and has answered all my questions regarding my staffy.. so its Real nature for now, and one or two marrow bones a week!

moving_home

I'm feeding my dog premier high 5 for last few months. She is doing great on it. Feed alot less than other foods like red mills leader, beta etc. so it lasts for ages. e40 for 15kg bag. It is 27% protein though so not for every dog but my dog does good mileage every day so it suits her.

kmmh58

I started my red setter pup on real nature but after 2 weeks she went off it. Brought the food back to maxi zoo & got my money back, well technically i exchanged I got the select gold maxi junior sensitive. She loves it. the poo is really good & her coat is so glossy & soft

adser53

Sorry Gar I only saw now you asked how I got on. The P.H5 was grand. The dogs enjoyed it, coats and condition were good and the poops weren't bad (Loki can have a dodgy tum sometimes so the p.h5 was no better or worse than the other foods.
I ended up changing the foods though cos Naas is the closest Maxi Zoo to me and I used to call in on my way home from work at about 5:50. On a few occasions the douche bags in the shop wouldn't let me in cos they were closing (I was there before 6) even though I wouldve been in and out in 20 seconds. Meaning I had to get something else to feed them. So I changed to a food I can get locally without any of the hassle from Maxi Poo ( see what I did there?)

portgirl123

adser53 wrote: »

Sorry Gar I only saw now you asked how I got on. The P.H5 was grand. The dogs enjoyed it, coats and condition were good and the poops weren't bad (Loki can have a dodgy tum sometimes so the p.h5 was no better or worse than the other foods.
I ended up changing the foods though cos Naas is the closest Maxi Zoo to me and I used to call in on my way home from work at about 5:50. On a few occasions the douche bags in the shop wouldn't let me in cos they were closing (I was there before 6) even though I wouldve been in and out in 20 seconds. Meaning I had to get something else to feed them. So I changed to a food I can get locally without any of the hassle from Maxi Poo ( see what I did there?)

hi adser, just wonder if u know what brownes pet feed store is like. i live in tullamore but am always in portlaoise. someone was telling me they have a good range and good prices. im trying to find a good food for my st puppy.

adser53

They're very good portgirl. They're about €2 a bag cheaper for some foods that are also stocked in petmania and they've a pretty good range of foods too. Only problem (similar to what I said above) is their opening hours. I'm not sure if its still the case as I haven't used them in a while but they used to close at 1 on a Saturday and not open sunday so for a commuter like me, I'd a very small window of opportunity to get food

ferretone

I feed my doggie (5-yr-old dobie girl) Orijen, which is expensive, but is grain-free and she does great on it. Before I switched her to that around 3 years ago, she'd had an auto-immune skin problem, which caused her to get scabs on the tips of her ears on the insides.

Then around half a year ago, with hubby on 3-day week in work, I tried switching her to Select Gold to see if it came back. Which it did, and fairly quickly. So I switched her back, giving the other 15kg bag I'd got on the special deal to my mother-in-law. It took ages for the problem to go away again, and so she'll be staying on grain-free food for the rest of her life, even if we have to go hungry ourselves.

On the other hand, my cats need anti-struvite in their food, which the Select Gold Sensitive has, so they are now on that, instead of the exorbitantly-priced Hills c/d from the vet, which they don't even like. And doing great on it as well, along with half a pouch of wet food each per day from Aldi, which they actually like better than expensive pouches

axle108

hi ferretone
did you look at bestformydog.com. they do a grain free food. i read on a different site has similar content to orijen. used to get it for my dog, changed and now thinking of going back to it. guy is based in dunboyne and delivers.

padraig.od

Very interesting thread!

I have two Miniature Schnauzers who are currently eating Real Nature from Maxi Zoo and are thriving on it.

However, it is very expensive. And considering we're adopting an 18mth (approx) rescue Rottie now, I want to get a food for all three that is high quality but won't break the bank.

Was interested to read that the Premiere High 5 seems to be a good fit for the larger breeds (although our girl is quite small as Rotties go). Wondering what people would think of switching all 3 dogs to this food?

Omega Fatty Acids are also a priority, as one of the Schnauzers has Lupus - switching from Science Plan to Real Nature made the world of difference to her. Don't want to risk her taking a step back but the Premiere does seem to be comparable to the Real Nature as far as I can tell - or am I wrong???

Shanao

I use the Real Nature for my two because of the lack of chemicals and preservatives, but I had a look at the Premiere and its more along the lines of Royal Canin than Real Nature which has a higher meat content as well. A friend of mine uses it for a boxer and JRT and they're doing great on it so I'm thinking of trying the premiere once my guys are adults. Best thing to do is go with whatever suits them the best

padraig.od

axle108 I've just looked at the bestformydg site and the food looks great. Thinking of ordering the cold pressed food when it's back in stock now. Hope he delivers to Kilkenny!

lorebringer

Best for my Dog is very good - had some of mine on it for a while (stopped because it was a pain to source... more so, I kept forgetting to order it and ended up buying food in a pet store or vets so it just got phased out).

The Poultry one (blue bag) is fantastic and even agreed with my problem child (who has cost me a fortune in food over the years due to allergies and sensitivities). I will definitely be ordering it again (now that I have been reminded!). The only negative is that poo production was on the high side - not gross or liquidy or anything, just quite a lot of it, even though the recommended feeding amount wasn't too high. In saying that though - was great for the anal glands!

chris139ryan

probably one of the most interesting thread I have read in a while, learned alot about the overall cost of food.
I have my bull terrier on redmills leader puppy and he is thriving, i find it better than royal canine, would love to try him on some of the other foods but not the natures one, I just could not justify spending 70 quid on a bag of dog food.

padraig.od

Thanks lorebringer. I'll deffo go for bestformydog and keep an eye out for any increase in poo