Dog Food Questions - merged

MrsE_2

oldMcDonald wrote: »

I am really shocked about what I have been reading regarding Iams I have two springers (age 3 and 1) and the older one has a really sensitive tummy. She just would not put on weight and was so skinny - we changed her food to Burns on recommendation of the vet but still no weight gain, then we tried Iams and she has thrived on it (if anything she is a porker now!). I no longer want to buy it due to what I have read here, but don't really have much choice as it is the one brand she seems to do well on:(

My younger springer, however, is going to have her brand changed ASAP. I may give Pro Plan (as mentioned above) a try for her - trying the older one on it to see how she does.

Its not just Iams, most of them use animal testing. Its only a few that don't.
Iams are just highlighted because they are so big.

suki1964

http://www.uncaged.co.uk/petfood.htm

Will list those foods that are NOT animal tested - if you really feel you need to go that route.

Oldmcdonald, whilst I understand how you feel, is it worth putting your old girl through the upheaval of changing food because of your beliefs? As you say the Iams suits her and shes doing well on it. Surely thats the most important thing right now.?

I fed my last boy pedigree complete because thats the only complete food he would eat - I would have preferred not to have because I personally think their food isnt the best but there you go. At the end of the day if you had a child that would only ever eat jam sandwiches, you wouldnt take them away from him as you would prefer him to eat those then nothing

Sarah.A_4

I feel our dog Chappie Complete dry. Chicken flavour. I mix it with warm water to make a gravy and sometimes add a slice of ham or corned beef on top.
Chappie is recommended by vets and dog trainers. It is low fat and easily digestable. I like it as it doesn't have all the artificial colourings that Bakers and other dry food can have. (which can make your dog hyper or "naughty").
I usually buy it from a farm shop for around £14 for 15kg so it is pretty cheap too.
Used to use Arden Grange, but our dog didn't really get on with it.

Natty68

Oh gods now I feel really bad feeding my two dogs (a foxhound/terrier cross and a border collie/alsation cross) Asda own brand dog food. Yet saying that they have been eating Bounce dog food this week and love it. We also give them Asda dog mixer with their meat. They are thriving on it and the vet even says that if they keep looking this healthy then why change their food. Our old dog, who was a Jack Russell, lived to the ripe old age of 17yr on Asda dog food, and it wasn't until the last couple of years of his life that we switched to Chappie as it was easily digestible for him. He used to have this mixed with cold pasta.

My cats are fed on Asda's own cat food, and Iam's senior cat biscuits as they are all over 7yrs now, and it is the only one that the geriatric one (20yrs) can keep down without barfing it back up again. Occasionally she has Aldi's Vitacat senior biscuits.

My other cat lived till she was 20 yrs on Asda's own brand cat food and cat biscuits.. so I can't be doing anything wrong I suppose.

suki1964

Dont anyone stop feeding their pets what they are thriving on. NO pet food is going to do any harm as a lot of research and money is ploughed into these foods.

But educate yourselves into what it is you are feeding so that you can make an informed choice.

Remember dogs dont need bright colours in their foods they dont care what their food looks like, all those colourful bits in some foods are a gimmick for us adults. Dogs dont need a different flavour of food every meal time - once again thats a human trait we project onto out animals. Look at the ingredients - does your dog really need all those additives you cant spell let alone pronounce? Does he really need to be fed vast amounts of fat and sugar every meal time?

For me personally I like to know what Im eating and I know many people on this board read the old style and cook from scratch and think about what it is they are eating, surely we should also see what it is our beloved pets are eating as well

quidsin

Genesis supposed to be a good food, i've heard a couple of people recommend it to me. My dog trainer has even tried to sell me some.

http://www.genesispetfood.co.uk/splash/

As suki1964 has said, if your dog is happy eating what he's getting then keep him on it
( unless the vet says otherwise of course) , if it aint broke....

wuno

suki1964 wrote: »

Will list those foods that are NOT animal tested

Perhaps I'm being controversial, but I don't see why anyone would feed their dog any food that has not been tested for safety and nutritional value by feeding it to other dogs. Otherwise you are turning your dog into a guinea pig (if you see what I mean).

In my opinion, it's not the fact that the food is tested that people should worry about, its the way the tests are carried out, and the way the dogs being used to test it are kept and treated.

I feed my 10 yo labrador on Royal Canin Vet Labrador Retriever food - brilliant stuff. My 6 yo Westie cross gets Royal Canin Vet Skin Support - not sure if it really is as good for his skin as it says it should be, but certainly better than normal food. When I had to pay for it myself, rather than buying it through the practice, they both got James Wellbeloved. Good stuff.

montymud

I will be completely honest, my Labrador eats Tescos own, pop it next to Bakers complete - it is the same! The pup gets Purina until he is older and the cats get purina because one of them has a skin condition and since shes been eating it her coat and skin are so healthy. But Monty (my big lab) loves the Tescos, he wolfs it down! JWB, RC and Purina are all very very good foods but Tescos own is great too - (its the one in the black bag)

foreign_correspondent

wuno wrote: »

Perhaps I'm being controversial, but I don't see why anyone would feed their dog any food that has not been tested for safety and nutritional value by feeding it to other dogs. Otherwise you are turning your dog into a guinea pig (if you see what I mean).

Every dog food company tests food as far as taste and nutrition goes as far as I know, but from what I have read about the IAMS testing the dogs were being used for vivisection rather than testing the food. This webpage claims IAMS had done puncture tests which involved breaking the skin of this dog then infecting it with mites...
http://www.iamscruelty.com/iams-feat-wsuphotos.asp
I cannot vouch for its validity, but if it is true then to me it seems needless in the production of dog food. For years dogs lived on table scraps and bread, and many (not all, admittedly) lived to a ripe old age.

At the end of the day it is food, not medicine, unless a dog is on a special diet for medical reasons.

I do not need someone to carry out extensive testing on my food, as long as its relatively natural, (e.g. I have, by observation of others and trial and error already worked out that a lettuce, or jam sandwhich is unlikely to do me in, so why worry!)... so why would there need to be extensive testing on a dog food made from tried and trusted ingredients, such as meat veg and cereal, that dogs have been fed for years?

wuno

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

I do not need someone to carry out extensive testing on my food, as long as its relatively natural, (e.g. I have, by observation of others and trial and error already worked out that a lettuce, or jam sandwhich is unlikely to do me in, so why worry!)... so why would there need to be extensive testing on a dog food made from tried and trusted ingredients, such as meat veg and cereal, that dogs have been fed for years?

It think you make a very valid point.

The dog food testing I know about is particularly for food on the more specialist side. And since they are trying to help with clinical conditions, they have to do various (sometimes invasive) clinical tests to see if it is working.

But I also know that new formulations of food are tested for all sorts things, including what consistency of faeces they produce at the end. Waltham have a sloppiness scale, and any new food it launches has to pass the "pick it up in a bag" test......But I've seen their testing facilities first hand, and save for them being a bit fat, in my opinion there's nothing wrong with the way their animals are kept.

Any company who says they don't do this sort of testing is telling porkies. How would they persuade the bank to lend them the money to build the factory if they couldn't show that "8 out of 10 cats prefer it", etc. Or maybe I'm underestimating the market for "its natural and I don't care about anything else".