Help with Nature Diet v Wainwrights Wet Dog Food please?

OnAndUp

I'm a bit baffled by this....not hard though!!

Thinking about changing one of my dogs onto wet food, just can't get my head around the quantities for both of these foods the ingredients seem very similar etc. but the amount she would need is so different it just seems wrong!

For an example these are the Lamb & Rice flavour ingredients:

Naturediet: Lamb 65%, Rice 10%, Vegetables 7%, Natural Ground Bone, Seaweed Meal,
Wainwrights: Lamb (min.65%), Lamb Liver (min. 5%), Brown Rice (min. 5%), Minerals, Seaweed, Chicory Root.


The feeding guides are massively different ie.

Naturediet says she would need 500g a day for a 10kg dog so 1.2 trays @ 98p a tray.

Wainwrights says small dogs 5-12kg 1/4 to 1/3 of a tray so @ 10kg that would be a bit less than a third say 110-130g a day? @ 88p a tray.

Confused.......how can that be possible!? :eek: Am I missing something here?

Has anyone fed these foods and how did you get on with the quantities?

krlyr

I used to feed Naturediet but only alongside a complete dry, adjusting dry quantity to account for this. I did half the RDA of ND and half of dry food and had no weight issues so can only assume that the RDA for ND was quite accurate. They are just guidelines though and it can vary from dog to dog, but it does seem a huge leap with the Wainwrights. I had a quick google and found a pet forum thread where many members felt the Wainwrights guidelines far too low and fed in line with the ND recommendations.
I've found one member saying their 8.5kg dog is maintaining well on 2/3 of a tray of Wainwrights a day so would say 1/3 for a 10kg dog sounds far too low. I would probably start on, say, a tray a day and watch his waist, then adjust accordingly.

There_Goes_Trouble

They're only guidelines, even dogs of the same weight can need different amounts of food depending on their activity levels.

My 15kg collie has 2 trays of ND a day, one morning and one evening. That maintains her weight and is 780g in total so almost spot on with the ND recommendations by your post. (Working on 500g for 10kg so 750g for 15kg)

I get it quite a bit cheaper than 98p though, my local shop sells boxes of 18 for around £13, so roughly 72p per tray.

It's worth shopping around.

JennyW_2

Take no notice of the recommended feeding quantities. You should feed 2-3% of your dog's body weight.

Nature diet is a very good food if you decide to go with it. Wainwrights is made by Pets at Home

Fire_Fox

Are those the percentages of the total food or the solid portion of the food (minus the gravy/ jelly)? Are they talking about wet meat or dried meat? Is there a calorie/ fat/ protein/ carb chart as well?

dawnie1972

I have a 30kg staff x lab and over the years he's had both Naturediet and Wainwrights - both he had 1.5 trays per day and maintained a good healthy weight. Couple of points to consider 1) Pets At Home keep whacking the price up of Wainwrights and b) Naturediet used to have loads of problems with blown packs (and so i'm told still do).

pawsies

Nature diet is impossible to open aswell. I've had it many times and always need a sharp knife and patience

Have you considered Nature's Harvest? Similar product to both, but slightly cheaper?

There_Goes_Trouble

dawnie1972 wrote: »

Naturediet used to have loads of problems with blown packs (and so i'm told still do).

Yep, still do. Not as bad as it was, but it still happens. I emailed nature diet about it and was told it was caused by poor storage either by myself or the vendor I buy it from.

pawsies wrote: »

Nature diet is impossible to open aswell. I've had it many times and always need a sharp knife and patience

LOL yep, I've resorted to a knife in the past too, although since the last batch of production problems I have found it's easier to open now than it was before.

I'm stuck with nature diet. My dog has a combination of 3 diet related health problems and their fish, potato and rice suits her really well. Even if there's a comparable product elsewhere I won't risk changing it, because if it didn't suit her the results could be really nasty, and potentially fatal if her pancreatitis kicked off again.

OnAndUp

Thanks for all your replies!

I'm leaning towards the wainwrights but looks like the guide is definitely on the very low side. Still seems odd to me after all the more you buy the more money they make so really would expect them to be a bit over if anything lol!

Rev

WW guide is on the low side, check out the many threads on petforums about it. I'd feed around the same WW and I would ND.

IMHO Wainwrights is the best wet available right now (although forthglade have just started making a completely cereal free one).

More meat than Naturediet, less rice, plus chicory root for sensitive tums should it be needed. I'd go with wainwrights every time if I didn't feed raw.

But they're both top quality foods, you'll not go wrong with either.

rising_from_the_ashes

dawnie1972 wrote: »

Couple of points to consider 1) Pets At Home keep whacking the price up of Wainwrights

They keep doing this with their dry foods too .....