good dog foods for golden retriever?

biggebruv

currently on the pedigree stuff atm he's 7months old wondering what do other Goldie owners on here use?

tk123

My two are raw fed.

shopper2011

Dried food all the way. Its complete, clean and tidy and can be bagged into portions and fed outta any bowl, anywhere.
If your food is wet or raw, your gonna need stainless and great cleaning skills.
If I was you get Goldie onto dried food and twould be much handier for you and Goldie un the future.

tk123

shopper2011 wrote: »

Dried food all the way. Its complete, clean and tidy and can be bagged into portions and fed outta any bowl, anywhere.
If your food is wet or raw, your gonna need stainless and great cleaning skills.

Well if you eat meat you'll already know how to handle and clean up after preparing and handling it raw. No humans or dogs have been poisoned in our house yet anyways whether plastic or steel utensils and bowls have been used.
You can also buy it pre portioned in 200g, 1lb/500g, 1kg and 1.4kg portions as well as bigger bulk sizes, and feed it anywhere you want....I feed 99% of my guy's meals indoors and they'll get something long-lasting outside.

biggebruv

probly a stupid question but would a dog care much between the difference of dry food and canned food?

atm I'm mixing half tin and dry for morning
then other half of tin and dry for evening

tk123

No disrespect OP... but pedigree is a bit crap. Have a look on zooplus - they do some really good wet foods like Rocco. You can get 800g cans so perfect for your guy

Bunnyslippers

James well beloved, Taste of the Wild and Orjen are all good quality, canned stuff tends to be mostly water and not great quality so I've never bothered feeding it. As above the pedigree stuff is awful, so switching is a good idea, just change any new food gradually over a week to avoid upset stomach! Also raw bones from the butcher are a welcome treat for any dog, no cooked bones though or rawhide chews!:)

biggebruv

tk123 wrote: »

No disrespect OP... but pedigree is a bit crap. Have a look on zooplus - they do some really good wet foods like Rocco. You can get 800g cans so perfect for your guy

is that stuff alot more expensive than something like the Tesco or pedigree brands?

VonVix

biggebruv, can you give is a ballpark figure with how much you'd be willing to spend on a 15kg bag (if you're going down the dry food route)? Might help us figure out a decent food for you.

sillysmiles

This is waht I feed my lab. Not the best or food in the world, but not the worst and he looks well on it (I think)

http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/markus_muehle/naturnah/128238

25kg lab and he's on about 300g/day - so one 15kg bag does approx 6 weeks.

tk123

biggebruv wrote: »

is that stuff alot more expensive than something like the Tesco or pedigree brands?

You can buy in bulk - and I mean BULK lol! . http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/canned_dog_food/rocco
Some of the Rocco is cheaper than zooplus’s prices for pedigree anyways. You’ll find you’ll feed less of a higher quality food too.

kylith

biggebruv wrote: »

is that stuff alot more expensive than something like the Tesco or pedigree brands?

You tend to feed less of the good stuff, as there's less filler in it. Also the poos tend to be firmer and less stinky, which is worth the extra cash!

NutmegGirl

I've used James Wellbeloved since puppy stage
She was on a diff food with the breeder, can't remember the name
A 15 kg bag lasts 5/6 weeks
Never had a problem with it, we use the turkey and rice flavour, there's lamb and duck too, but the turkey is easiest to get
Have tried one or two other brands when we were trying to eliminate scratching, just in case the food was the cause, it wasn't and we went back to it.
There's a puppy version too so could start on that and move to adult when necessary

biggebruv

Iv moved onto GAIN big puppy dry food for now

what's everyone's thoughts on that food be interesting to read

Knine

biggebruv wrote: »

Iv moved onto GAIN big puppy dry food for now

what's everyone's thoughts on that food be interesting to read

If it is the Gain Elite I found it to be very good however personally I would put him on the adult one. They grow slower and steadier on the adult. I only feed puppy food to very young puppies.

stephrousseau

There was a really interesting study that found that dogs who were fed fresh food (just regular, human food), lived 30% longer than dogs who were fed dry food. Dogs who had fresh food added to their dried food still lived 15% longer than those who just ate dry food.

The thing with dry food is that it's highly processed and a lot of the cheaper stuff is mainly cereals and vague things like meat and animal derivatives.

Most of the vitamin and mineral content comes from powders that are sprinkled on it once any inherent value has been cooked out of it. And a lot of the minerals and vitamins have quite a short shelf life so the 'complete' values, as given at the time of packing, are usually pretty depleted by the time it arrives in your house, never mind once it's been open a few weeks.

If your are picking a dry food, make sure the first ingredient is an identifiable meat (Lamb, chicken, beef), and make sure you're not being conned by them separating out the cereals used so they look like they make up a less significant proportion.

If you're interested in raw feeding there's a very good website called Dogsfirst.ie which is run by a canine nutritionist. And you can get books with recipes for balanced meals if you'd like to cook yourself for your dog. There's also an English company called Butternut Box who I'm trying to convince to start delivering to Ireland. It's a really good alternative for people who don't like the thought of all that raw meat!

Knine

stephrousseau wrote: »

If you're interested in raw feeding there's a very good website called Dogsfirst.ie which is run by a canine nutritionist.

Lol I think I would prefer to feed Pedigree Chum then take advice from that 'nutritionist'

tk123

Knine wrote: »

Lol I think I would prefer to feed Pedigree Chum then take advice from that 'nutritionist'

Showing your age there lol - they dropped the Chum part 10+ years ago :pac:;)

Knine

tk123 wrote: »

Showing your age there lol - they dropped the Chum part 10+ years ago :pac:;)

In my defence I have not brought the stuff in years. That's it I am officially an oul one but hey you are not too many pawsteps behind me........

muddypaws

stephrousseau wrote: »

vague things like meat and animal derivatives.


If your are picking a dry food, make sure the first ingredient is an identifiable meat (Lamb, chicken, beef)

I get confused at people's dislike about the first phrase, yet they feed things like chicken feet, necks and bones, all of which are classed as meat and animal derivatives.

The second point is often made but, it's actually more complicated than the first ingredient being the biggest as some companies weigh the meat to get the percentage rate before the water is taken out, and some weigh it afterwards. So in fact, a food may appear to have more meat content than another, but actually has less. And it may also have more cereals etc than meat, even though it appears not to.

stephrousseau

I guess the difference is when you feed those things, you choose to feed them as an extra. I know when I feed my dog a dried cows ear or a fresh bone that it's nutritional content will be different to a piece of muscle meat, and I would never feed them entirely on bones or cows ears, or expect that to be their only source of protein. In fact, I generally offer those sorts of things for their benefit as a chew rather than for their nutritional value.

For me the bottom line is that highly processed dried food is never going to be as good for a dog as fresh food, anymore than it is for ourselves.