Premium dog food

Freefall

Anyone got any tips for a good "premium" dog food and where to get it.

My dog really likes the James Wellbeloved stuff and it is £2.67 per kilo on eBay, delivered. What do others on here use?

Croatoan

There aren't that many truly premium dog foods. Orijen, Fish4Dogs, Acana, Taste of the Wild etc. Wellbeloved is good and certainly better than the stuff you find in supermarkets, but not really considered a "premium" dog food.

Comparisons of some can be found here. These are the "6-star" kibbles.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showcat.php/cat/8



EDIT - personally speaking if your dog loves JW and is thriving on it, I wouldn't change it.

Croatoan

double post

ash28

Our dog love James Wellbeloved, unfortunately she can evacuate a room when she has it.

rising_from_the_ashes

I've used the Skinners Field & Trial hypoallergenic range for years & totally gluton free which my lad was intolerant to (Duck & Rice, Turkey & Rice and Salmon & Rice only - steer clear of the others as these are "normal" foods and not hypoallergenic/gluton free).

It's a working dog food so VAT free which helps a bit too - prices are £22.99 RRP for 15kg for the Duck & Rice but you can get a lot cheaper online (I got 2 bags for £36 recently).

http://www.skinnerspetfoods.co.uk/products/field---trial-products/duck---rice/

Freefall

Croatoan wrote: »

There aren't that many truly premium dog foods. Orijen, Fish4Dogs, Acana, Taste of the Wild etc. Wellbeloved is good and certainly better than the stuff you find in supermarkets, but not really considered a "premium" dog food.

Comparisons of some can be found here. These are the "6-star" kibbles.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showcat.php/cat/8



EDIT - personally speaking if your dog loves JW and is thriving on it, I wouldn't change it.

Thanks for your prompt reply!

How would you define premium? I usually just went for high %age meat content, etc (rather than bulking material).

I used to get this stuff from mad-dog-feeds on eBay, such as this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15kg-SUPREME-HYPOALLERGENIC-CHICKEN-RICE-DOG-FOOD-/380245274813?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Dogs&hash=item58886270bd#ht_3071wt_982


They have high meat content 26% but the women on the phone I spoke to from that company said even the supermarket brands that state only 4% meat would have a relatively high meat content because what was listed was only the MINIMUM. I really don't get it, she had no reason to speak up her competitors product and if the supermarket brands have high meat percentage what sets about a "premium" dog food from non-premium one lol.

Croatoan

Freefall wrote: »

Thanks for your prompt reply!

How would you define premium? I usually just went for high %age meat content, etc (rather than bulking material).

My own take is the majority of meat used in the kibble should be meat and not meal or cereals, and the first item on the list of ingedients (meaning the largest amount used) should be meat and not meal/cereals, and the meat used should be fit for human consumption.
Also, speaking for myself and others may differ, I would choose grain-free (no rice etc). Carbs, which should be low, will come from fruit and veg.

As an example the ingredients in Bakers Adult are listed as : Cereals (35%), Meat and animal derivatives (26% meat in the chunk, 4% beef in the brown & natural kernels), Vegetable protein extracts, Derivatives of vegetable origin, Oils and fats, Various sugars, Minerals, Vegetables (4% vegetables in the green & yellow kernels).

In James Wellbeloved Turkey and Rice it is: Rice, turkey meal, oats, whole linseed, turkey gravy, turkey fat, sugar beet pulp, alfalfa meal, natural seaweed, sodium chloride, omega oil supplement, potassium chloride, chicory extract, calcium carbonate, yucca extract

In Orijen Adult it is: Fresh boneless chicken*, chicken meal, fresh boneless salmon*, turkey meal, herring meal, russet potato, peas, sweet potato, fresh boneless turkey*, fresh whole eggs*, fresh chicken liver*, fresh boneless lake whitefish*, fresh boneless walleye*, sun-cured alfalfa, pea fiber, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), organic kelp, pumpkin, chicory root, carrots, spinach, turnip greens, apples, cranberries, blueberries, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold flowers, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, vitamin A, vitamin D3, vitamin E, niacin, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, d-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, selenium yeast, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Enterococcus faecium.

Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of healthy, happy dogs living on Bakers, or Chum, or Wagg. I am far from evangelical about dogfoods: people should feed the best they can afford and what their dog will eat. I also realise that what we might consider "best" may be unpalatable to your dog. I've said before that my last dog turned his nose up at everything from Wellbeloved, Arden Grange, Orijen (didn't try him for too long on Orijen as it's expensive, but in two days he refused to even try it) and a couple of others, and would eat only Wagg. Also "premium" brands are expensive, tending to be around £50 give or take a few quid for a big bag (we got a big bag of Wagg for about a tenner, which surely reflects the quality of ingredients).

andyrpsmith

I agree with the post on Skinners, using the puppy food and Lamb & Rice, all three dogs doing very well on it. Best value for a quality food.

kjmtidea

My dog has wainwrights salmon and potato, he has a very sensitive stomach and he is fine with this. I am sure there are better foods but I am too scared to try him on anything else incase it makes him ill
When we first got him he was on wagg, bakers and asda own with a few chocolate chip cookies thrown in for good measure, he was the most hyperactive thing ever!

pet_nutritionist

Many people mistakenly believe that meat should be the first ingredient in pet food and think that cereal 'grain' is a cheap filler. However some cereals such as brown rice are actually very expensive – you’ve probably noticed the price of things like this going up in your local supermarkets/shops.

It also depends on the type of cereals used. Poor quality or processed ingredients would be labelled as rice flour, ground rice (instead of just rice) or just ‘cereals’. It is a fact that dogs can easily digest high quality complex carbohydrates such as whole grain brown rice or oats so there is no reason they should not be included in a good quality food– for detailed information on how dogs have evolved and adapted to digest carbohydrates I would highly recommend ‘Strombeck’s Small Animal Gastroenterology’.

Some diets look like they are high in meat because meat is the first ingredient but this could be because the company have labelled it this way by ‘ingredients splitting’. E.g. diet (a) contains chicken, rice flour, ground rice, wheat.
So it looks like meat is the bulk of the diet because it is the first ingredient but if you add up all the cereals after the meat (which have been split into smaller groups) they would actually end up as a larger percentage of the diet.

Secondly – a high meat diet is not actually desirable for our pet dogs. Wild dogs, working dogs or dogs that live outside may need higher levels of meat as this produces a diet high in protein and fat. However, our pet dogs are generally not as well exercised as they should be, live in warm houses and do not require high energy diets. 1/3 of UK dogs are overweight and diets higher in fat would simply contribute to this.

In my experience the best way to determine a high quality dog food kibble is by two simple ways:

1) Ensure the ingredients are labelled exactly. So the food should tell you that it contains chicken and rice and not state vague ingredients. If the ingredient panel says ‘meat and animal’ or ‘cereals’ and does not tell you which meat is used or which cereals are used then this is generally a poorer quality food. It also means the manufacturer can change the recipe depending on which ingredients are cheaper each season.

2) Look at the recommended feeding amounts. A good quality diet will have lower feeding amounts. So if Brand A suggests you feed a 10kg on 100g but Brand B suggests 200g for the same weight of dog this tells you Brand A is more digestible. A more digestible diet (and lower feeding amounts) means it is better quality, you save money and the dog produces less poo!