Best dog food

Grainnef93

What brands of dog food does everyone use? Has anyone any experience with Red Mills Go Native i was looking at the ingredients and they look amazing.

gmisk

I always recommend lily's kitchen.
Our dog loves it, coat is great, our vet looked at it and was very impressed with ingredients

Cheshire Cat

Grainnef93 wrote: »

What brands of dog food does everyone use? Has anyone any experience with Red Mills Go Native i was looking at the ingredients and they look amazing.

I feed the Herring and Kale variety to my 2 dogs. They love it and are thriving on it.

Cherry Blossom

I feed barking heads lamb flavour. I had been feeding grain free Acana but after reading about the possibility of legumes causing heart problems I switched back to barking heads. Never had any issues with it.

Springwell

Grainnef93 wrote: »

What brands of dog food does everyone use? Has anyone any experience with Red Mills Go Native i was looking at the ingredients and they look amazing.

Look up Nutritional Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs - some ingredients in grain free diets have been implicated in reduced taurine absorption. This leads to serious heart disease and even death in some cases. If feeding grain free (and I do in my rotation of foods!) looking for very low (less than 5%) levels of peas, legumes, beans, chick peas and sweet potatoes ideally

itsmine

Springwell wrote: »

Look up Nutritional Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs - some ingredients in grain free diets have been implicated in reduced taurine absorption. This leads to serious heart disease and even death in some cases. If feeding grain free (and I do in my rotation of foods!) looking for very low (less than 5%) levels of peas, legumes, beans, chick peas and sweet potatoes ideally

Crikey! I hadn’t heard of this. I’ve been feeding our Daxie Go Native and he loves it. What grain-free food has low levels of those ingredients, please?

mobby

I have 3 year Old Cavalier King Charles and I feed him Markus Mühle Natural Dog Food. https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0341/markus-muehle-natural-dog-food
Tried many different types including raw as a Pup but he never liked the raw. was recommended to try the Markus and he eats every bit and currently no health issues.

Springwell

itsmine wrote: »

Crikey! I hadn’t heard of this. I’ve been feeding our Daxie Go Native and he loves it. What grain-free food has low levels of those ingredients, please?

There's lots of options but the one I'm using currently is VetSpec (only "questionable" ingredient is peas and they're only 4.7% or 5% in the two normal adult formulas)

tk123

Eh that article has been widely debunked at this stage..

https://www.petfoodprocessing.net/articles/13914-research-compiling-150-studies-finds-no-conclusive-link-between-grain-free-diets-dcm-in-dogs

Grainnef93

Springwell wrote: »

Look up Nutritional Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs - some ingredients in grain free diets have been implicated in reduced taurine absorption. This leads to serious heart disease and even death in some cases. If feeding grain free (and I do in my rotation of foods!) looking for very low (less than 5%) levels of peas, legumes, beans, chick peas and sweet potatoes ideally

I have read the study and I honesty wasn't hugely convinced. Correlation doesn't equal causation. There are so many studies out there that suggest meat eaters are more likely to get cancer, but they never take into account that meat eaters are also more likely to smoke, not exercise, drink and other unhealthy things in these studies.

How many factors did they consider in this study. Like how the food was stored, what treats the dogs got, living environment, was the dog given left over and genetics, there's just so many factors not taken into consideration.

The FDA says the study was also done by just using interviews and medical history. There's an actually study that shows how interview and survey studies are not accurate as people will always try to portray themselves better or lie without even knowing they are.

So the people that mixed their quality food with cheap food because they couldn't afford it and are embarrassed to say, or the person that gave a chocolate biscuit as a treat and so on all forget to give those details get thrown in the study and boom you have an inaccurate study just like when they said egg yolks were bad years ago.

I'll stay on the fence until there's multiple peer reviewed studies, but I get where your coming from. I was just thought in college to be sceptical of studies.

Springwell

tk123 wrote: »

Eh that article has been widely debunked at this stage..

https://www.petfoodprocessing.net/articles/13914-research-compiling-150-studies-finds-no-conclusive-link-between-grain-free-diets-dcm-in-dogs

No, it hasn't - there is one journal article attempting to debunk it. It was written and sponsored in a large part by a company whose job it is to market grain free food products. I've spoken to many cardiologists and vets about it and they're largely regarding it as not reason enough to reintroduce those ingredients to diets. We've seen far too many pets recover from DCM (a previously unheard of phenomenon) when put on to legume free diets. Why risk your pet basically? There's plenty of great grain free foods not using legumes to bump up their protein levels so there's no reason to feed them!

Feets

Recently moved from Royal Canin to Select Gold in maxi zoo. Real happy. Raw dog food from carnivore kellys is amazing if u dont mind handling chubs of raw meat.

NeonCookies

We have our puppy on Patron Salmon Feast currently. Gone up in price now due to Brexit, but we stocked up as our lad is thriving on it. He loves it, looks so healthy, and is growing well. Great way to support your choice of rescue too whenever you buy a bag.

DBB

tk123 wrote: »

Eh that article has been widely debunked at this stage..

https://www.petfoodprocessing.net/articles/13914-research-compiling-150-studies-finds-no-conclusive-link-between-grain-free-diets-dcm-in-dogs

And, as I understand it, it was an opinion article written by an author with a vested interest in the dog food industry, and not based on peer-reviewed research.
I'm happy to keep an open mind on food debates, but I'm afraid this doubt over grain-free foods has come nowhere near convincing me it has any merit, at this stage anyway!

Gemancy

We use John Burns here, having been through most brands over the years, this is the one we’ve stuck with.

anewme

Anyone tried Phoenix Barks?

Cherry Blossom

anewme wrote: »

Anyone tried Phoenix Barks?

I had to Google this. Their site says its home cooked. Does it come cooked or do you cook it yourself? Does it come frozen or how does it keep? I'm in a 48hr delivery area so I'd wonder what condition it would be in by the time it got to me.

anewme

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

I had to Google this. Their site says its home cooked. Does it come cooked or do you cook it yourself? Does it come frozen or how does it keep? I'm in a 48hr delivery area so I'd wonder what condition it would be in by the time it got to me.

lightly Cooked and frozen I believe and you thaw it in fridge as required.

Considering it for my Mum’s dogs.

I’m interested in from a quality angle and supporting small local business.

Rubberchikken

Our lady is nearly 14, birthday this month, and she's eating Naturo from tesco and/or canagans from equipet, we get it online.
She likes it mixed with some if their biscuits.

Truth be told she'd eat anything and has:), but we like to give her quality.
She's in great form don't know if it's down to the food or just good luck but we're happy with that.

anewme

Rubberchikken wrote: »

Our lady is nearly 14, birthday this month, and she's eating Naturo from tesco and/or canagans from equipet, we get it online.
She likes it mixed with some if their biscuits.

Truth be told she'd eat anything and has:), but we like to give her quality.
She's in great form don't know if it's down to the food or just good luck but we're happy with that.

That’s what ours are currently on.(Naturo) They drink a lot of water after it.

Cherry Blossom

anewme wrote: »

lightly Cooked and frozen I believe and you thaw it in fridge as required.

Considering it for my Mum’s dogs.

I’m interested in from a quality angle and supporting small local business.

I can't see a comprehensive ingredient list anywhere on the site which is a bit annoying but I might try the trial pack when the current bag of food gets low. In theory it sounds good.

sdp

anewme wrote: »

Anyone tried Phoenix Barks?

I've tried it, with a foster boy i have at the moment.
It comes frozen, packs are like a pack of sausages, if anyone wants photo let me know. heres what on pack.

60% chicken (meat 65% heart 30% liver 5%)
25% fresh vegetables (turnip, sweet potato, carrots,caulflower,kale,peas.)
11% organic red lentils.

4% whole foods (miled flax,pumpkin & chia seed,kelp(desiccated) organic thyme (dried) eggshell calcium.
Nutritional additives (per kg) vitamin d3 (150iu) vitamin E 40mg


Analytical constituents crude protein 15%/ crude oil & fats 5.2%/ crude fiber 1%/ crude ash 2% ..Moisture content 69%

anewme

sdp wrote: »

I've tried it, with a foster boy i have at the moment.
It comes frozen, packs are like a pack of sausages, if anyone wants photo let me know. heres what on pack.

60% chicken (meat 65% heart 30% liver 5%)
25% fresh vegetables (turnip, sweet potato, carrots,caulflower,kale,peas.)
11% organic red lentils.

4% whole foods (miled flax,pumpkin & chia seed,kelp(desiccated) organic thyme (dried) eggshell calcium.
Nutritional additives (per kg) vitamin d3 (150iu) vitamin E 40mg


Analytical constituents crude protein 15%/ crude oil & fats 5.2%/ crude fiber 1%/ crude ash 2% ..Moisture content 69%

Does he like it?

sdp

hi Anewme,

Sorry to say he don't, As I already home cook for him, due to him starting immunotherapy 12 weeks ago, I think its because of the texture of the mix, almost like a puree,
Also he had TPLO surgary 4 week ago, so his eating habits are not normal, I have kept the rest of the food and will try him again once he is back to normal exercise. ( he's a bit of a problem child )

But I must say, in the 2 week trial food, they start with 25% to mix into own food and built it up to full portions.
Lovely people to deal with,Kathy was more the willing to work as closely as possable to what I was doing for him.

It's definitly worth a try

Barking Heads kibble and James Beloved wet food-1/4 pack of wet food mixed with the kibble. Thinking of moving to James Beloved kibble once Barking Heads supply runs down.
Anyone else using James Beloved kibble and how do you find it?

DBB

When I was feeding dry food, James Wellbeloved always went down a storm, even with fusspots

DBB

DBB wrote: »

When I was feeding dry food, James Wellbeloved always went down a storm, even with fusspots

Apparently its one of the best selling brands in the UK - I'll give it a try. I've been ordering direct from barking heads in the UK but since Brexit has now happened, it won't be possible as the website demands a UK address. Barking Heads in Ireland is very expensive compared to UK prices.

nala2012

I've been feeding my guys (greyhound, staffie x and mastiff x) red mills engage either the duck or salmon for last few years as it fits my budget and the dogs were all doing well. Before Christmas I saw james beloved reduced to €15 for big bag so grabbed two. My guys are never fussy so can't go on taste but haven't notice any change in poops or coats. Will wait till they have both bags finished to decide if I'll stick to it or not as i think its normally 70 a bag?

tk123

I used to feed the grain free JWB before switching to raw (which is actually cheaper!). I still get the crackerjack treats sometimes for Bailey because he loved them lol

thunderbolt

Has anyone tried Nadur? My dog is on GoNative but is very fussy and mainly eats the wet food that's mixed into it 😂

Anawilliam850

Acana or Nomade

zyraaisha

Hi everyone. Just wondering, when you change your dog food - is it normal for them to have yellow poo? Or does it mean the new food doesn't suit them? I'm slowly transitioning our 13 week old puppy from pedigree (from the breeder) to Nadur. Since I started doing 50/50, his poo has turned yellow and a bit soft. He doesn't seem to be in any pain and he's his usual energetic self.

anewme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120073928#Comment_120073928

My fella is on Acana but going to have to review that in light of it being taken over by Mars Petfood.

xhomelezz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058146428/best-dog-food

Have my two on Leader puppy and Leader adult slimline from red mills and can't complain. Hopefully doggies see it same way. They thrive on it. But have to say I cook for them too. Making the food as rich as possible, as in, no dry kibble every day. Deer, chicken, beef, veggies. I think that's the way to go to find the best dog food and don't make it boring.

Widowmaker

Our little rescue Chihuahua cross was blasting out some really seriously bad farts when we got him, so we tried different foods and came across Butternut Box and their marketing struck a chord, so we gave it a try.

They do some cheap starter offers and after a while it does become a bit pricey, but our little lad is 5 kilos and we get his food and two bags of their chicken tenders and I estimate it is costing us around €2.30 per day which I am happy with.

He looks great, his coat is shiny, his poos firm but not too hard and he farts a lot less then he used to!

Deadwards.com

We have our girl on butternut box also and we found the same thing i.e. lack of smelly room clearing farts :-)

We are ordering a trial box of Phoenix bark now to see how it stacks up

tk123

Barkin Bisto (based in NI) also do some cooked options and have subscribe and save option too to lower the price a little.

hamburgham

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120097486#Comment_120097486

Another fan of Butternut. Ingredients recognizable as real food and smells absolutely delicious. My dog is incredibly fussy, but she eats this. She gets mainly home cooked food though, think it’s the best.

tk123

I just cooked some Wolf’s Menu patties for Bailey - had them in the freezer and completely forgot you could cook them! They’re in 50g patties so easy to portion and can be fed raw or cooked. The ones I have are 80% meat vs 60% in butternut and better value for larger dogs.

https://www.rawvolution.ie/Wolfs-Menu?product_id=1919

zyraaisha

Hi everyone. Just a little update, our puppy was on Nadur but had loose stools even after transitioning slowly. He was also very fussy and never finished his meal. He's now on Butternut box - no loose stool, no farts and licks his bowl clean every time.