Dog Food and feeding

Nod_Off

gettingready wrote: »

OK < I am feeding Zara 320g Orijen, Skinners she would need 480 gram which is 14.4 kg per month so a 15kg bag would last me a month with Zara.

What is the best place to look at prices for skinners?

£19.99 on Amazon at the moment with free delivery.

Dollardog

krlyr wrote: »

Rawhide is notorious for causing upset stomaches and being a choking hazard - I'd recommend other natural treats like pigs/cows ears, pizzle, etc. - Zooplus is a great source for various natural treats.

OP, I think Arden Grange is a relatively OK food but everything else you're feeding isn't great. I'd swap the Butchers for a better quality wet food - something like Naturediet, or if you have a Pets At Home nearby, their version which is the Wainwrights trays.
Ditch anything made by Pedigree, stick to natural treats like the stuff on Zooplus, or you can make your own homemade treats a lot cheaper and healthy than commercial ones.
Buying in 2.5kg bags will make things more expensive but bear in mind that better quality foods are better digested so you need to feed less of them. I did a comparison for a customer when I worked in a petshop, the amount he was feeding of Bakers (6 cups - large dog) to what he'd feed of James Wellbeloved - only 2 cups. A third less of a product only twice the price, so he'd actually save money feeding a premium brand. So work out how much it would cost to feed your dog per day, not per bag, by reading the recommended feeding amount, you may be pleasantly surprised at the actual cost of "more expensive" foods.

He's only just started having the Jointsticks on the recommendation of his vet, so would keep them.
As for cost, I'm not particularly looking at cutting costs, its the large bags that I can't store. Having read about AG, I am happy with it, it is a natural based food, hypo allergenic, not full of nasty additives and recommended by the vet.

I don't give pigs ears for the same reason I avoid rawhide, they get chewed until they are soft then swalowed.
He does like dried tripe sticks and puffed jerky which he gets as a treat sometimes.

krlyr

Sorry, misread the thread thinking you were asking for advice but now see it's just a general discussion - my bad!
If you're concerned about his joints then I imagine he would benefit from a proper joint supplement rather than the sticks, which would contain a relatively low amount of the helpful ingredients and a higher quantity of general junk. I've seen several articles that suggest cereals can worsen arthritis, for example, so would be wary of "cheap and cheerful" commercial dog treats which consist mostly of cereals. JointAid is a granule-type supplement which I've heard fab reviews for, or there's the option of getting human-grade supplements from places like Holland and Barrett, or online (Healthspan comes well recommended in many doggy circles). I've made my own "joint treats" by crushing up human-grade supplements of glucosamine, chondroitin, etc. mixed into homemade treats, given daily.

My two are raw-fed, it works well for me and them and had no scares over bones or anything. Raw bones are much softer than cooked bones, and once the dog learns to chew their bones (had to hold one end of the bone with one of my dog so she realised she had to chew it up, she was a bit of an inhaler with dry food too) then they tend to get the hang of it and chew things up properly. Prior to raw feeding, I was struggling to find a dry food that kept weight on Kiki, and the pair of them had terrible wind on the lamb & rice kibble they were fed before I made the switch to raw.

pawsies

krlyr wrote: »

Rawhide is notorious for causing upset stomaches and being a choking hazard - I'd recommend other natural treats like pigs/cows ears, pizzle, etc. - Zooplus is a great source for various natural treats.

OP, I think Arden Grange is a relatively OK food but everything else you're feeding isn't great. I'd swap the Butchers for a better quality wet food - something like Naturediet, or if you have a Pets At Home nearby, their version which is the Wainwrights trays.
Ditch anything made by Pedigree, stick to natural treats like the stuff on Zooplus, or you can make your own homemade treats a lot cheaper and healthy than commercial ones.
Buying in 2.5kg bags will make things more expensive but bear in mind that better quality foods are better digested so you need to feed less of them. I did a comparison for a customer when I worked in a petshop, the amount he was feeding of Bakers (6 cups - large dog) to what he'd feed of James Wellbeloved - only 2 cups. A third less of a product only twice the price, so he'd actually save money feeding a premium brand. So work out how much it would cost to feed your dog per day, not per bag, by reading the recommended feeding amount, you may be pleasantly surprised at the actual cost of "more expensive" foods.

I've never had an issue with rawhide and my dog loves them. It's personal preference, some dogs can't cope with them others can.

Also James Wellbeloved is made by Pedigree so is probably pumped with the same rubbish as other pedigree products.

Dollardog

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Personally, I wouldn't go past the Skinners Field & Trial range (note: Duck & Rice, Turkey & Rice and Salmon & Rice only) as they are hypoallergenic, wheat & all gluten & dairy free.

It's also VAT free (working dog food but fine for non-working ones) and RRP is £21.99 (Duck) for 15kg - although you can get cheaper if you hunt around online.

Not bad for a decent quality food that's not got any of the "usual problem ingredients" in!

I used to feed Wainwrights but it was a lot more expensive (£33.49) and didn't seem to be any better so I switched to Skinners on a recommendation from someone and never looked back!

Arden Grange is free of all the nasties too http://ardengrange.com/hypoallergenic-ingredients.asp

Cost wise, because I can only have smaller bags, yes it is expensive, but he is a funny eater and he likes that brand, so that's what he gets. I pay £7 for 2.5 kilo bags from Waitrose which is cheaper than the same size for £9 from Kennelgate.
I wish Sainsbury's would stock it!!l

krlyr

pawsies wrote: »

I've never had an issue with rawhide and my dog loves them. It's personal preference, some dogs can't cope with them others can.

Also James Wellbeloved is made by Pedigree so is probably pumped with the same rubbish as other pedigree products.

It was only fairly recent that Pedigree bought them and they seem to have kept to the same ingredients. Obviously there's the chance they decided to skimp on the quality of those ingredients, perhaps, but JWB still seems to have a fairly good reputation from what I hear. However, I haven't fed a commercial food to my two for over 2 years now so don't really keep that up to date with it - my recommendation to the guy who switched from Bakers was many years ago, way before Pedigree took over.

Dollardog

krlyr wrote: »

Sorry, misread the thread thinking you were asking for advice but now see it's just a general discussion - my bad!
If you're concerned about his joints then I imagine he would benefit from a proper joint supplement rather than the sticks, which would contain a relatively low amount of the helpful ingredients and a higher quantity of general junk. I've seen several articles that suggest cereals can worsen arthritis, for example, so would be wary of "cheap and cheerful" commercial dog treats which consist mostly of cereals. JointAid is a granule-type supplement which I've heard fab reviews for, or there's the option of getting human-grade supplements from places like Holland and Barrett, or online (Healthspan comes well recommended in many doggy circles). I've made my own "joint treats" by crushing up human-grade supplements of glucosamine, chondroitin, etc. mixed into homemade treats, given daily.

My two are raw-fed, it works well forevery now and then me and them and had no scares over bones or anything. Raw bones are much softer than cooked bones, and once the dog learns to chew their bones (had to hold one end of the bone with one of my dog so she realised she had to chew it up, she was a bit of an inhaler with dry food too) then they tend to get the hang of it and chew things up properly. Prior to raw feeding, I was struggling to find a dry food that kept weight on Kiki, and the pair of them had terrible wind on the lamb & rice kibble they were fed before I made the switch to raw.

I'm not too concerned about his joints at the moment, both he and I take propolis which I know are effective having had a dog previously with joint problems who after taking 2 a day was able to have his vets tablets cut from 2 a day to just one every now and then, after 3 vet check ups and having needed no tablets, the vet asked what I was giving him as his legs were moving more freely, the next time we went to the vets, he had got his mother in law taking them!!
Arden Grange also has glucosamine etc in too, probably only small amounts though as you say. If they become a problem, I will give him glucosamine tablets which the vet says I can give him at the same dose as I would take myself.
Twice a week I swap his tinned meat for a tin of sardines in sunflower oil and was considering giving him all the time instead of the canned Butchers, although to be fair, he probably only has a couple of cans of Butchers a week at the most as he often has the mince/chicken etc

krlyr

Take a look at salmon oil, you can buy it in bottles aimed at pets or in capsules in human health shops. I feed it to my two on a near daily basis. I would be reluctant to feed tinned fish daily, it's not recommended in humans due to the possible contaminants in fish/sea food, e.g. mercury - also sunflower oil isn't one of the best oils.

dawnie1972

I'm not an expert on dog food but just wanted to add a couple of things.
Re the joint sticks - my dog has a leg problem in that if he runs at full stretch he gets really stiff, i was giving him joint aid until i had a chat with a very knowledgeable member of staff in Pets Corner who recommended Symply dry food (the Senior version) - I bought a bag, took him off the joint aid and started him on the symply and the difference was amazing!! Its got the gluacosamine etc in it.
Secondly when looking at ingredient also make sure you take note of the copper content - this is something that i never took any notice of until recently - my dog was diagnosed with liver disease/hepatitis before xmas - i used to feed them Wainwrights dry food in the morning & wainwrights wet food at night which they loved - i've now disposed of all the wainwrights food - the copper content was one of the highest - the lowest i found (apart from prescription diets) was JWB. I was also advised to give him Burns as opposed to the prescription diet - I looked at the contents - no thank you. As i said i'm no expert far from it but just wanted to add these points.

Dollardog

krlyr wrote: »

Take a look at salmon oil, you can buy it in bottles aimed at pets or in capsules in human health shops. I feed it to my two on a near daily basis. I would be reluctant to feed tinned fish daily, it's not recommended in humans due to the possible contaminants in fish/sea food, e.g. mercury - also sunflower oil isn't one of the best oils.

Ginger is also supposed to be good for mobility.