I have been feeding F4D but am not impressed with the ingredient changes so as I only have a half sack left I am looking for another good food with no or minimal grain content. I have heard AG mentioned on here many times so have sent for small 2kg bags of lamb and salmon to see if the dogs approve, I have also sent for samples of Millies salmon ( mentioned on here also although this has not arrived yet) My dogs are picking out the AG lamb and leaving the F4D and the AG salmon. I tried by putting down 3 bowls giving them a choice and they both licked the plate clean on the AG lamb again, but left the other two.
Do any of you have any comments on the AG lamb.
I know Rabid mentioned that her dogs became constipated on this food, but would be grateful for any other feedback. I see that AG contains Maize this is another query that I would like to know your thoughts on.
Grateful for any advice

I often feed mine on AG Lamb and have no problems. It also seems to be the variety that is usually heavily discounted :-D

I am looking for another good food with no or minimal grain content

Applaws food is 75% meat and 25% veg, only 'bulker' is beet pulp- which is fairly well down the list and no grain at all.

I have tried Applaws and Orijen in the past and even though I liked the content my dogs decided they didn't and refused to eat it willingly.( I gave half a sack away to avoid wasting it)  I know I could have offered nothing else and forced them to eat it or starve, but it is much nicer if they actually like the food and eat willingly. I went through the dog sample trial and error not too long ago and was thrilled that they loved F4D and thought my feeding problems were sorted - and then they added a large quantity of pea and spoilt the ingredients, hence I am back to food samples again.

Have you looked at Jon Angell? They used to be the owners of Fish4Dogs.

Thanks I have just googled Jon Angell, I had no idea he had sold F4D and started another similar product. I have also had the sample of Millies Wolfheart arrive today, similar price to J Angell except JA has  - Salmon (min. 37%: Includes min. 26% salmon meal, min. 11% salmon) and Millies - Salmon(min 45.7 %) Salmon meal (min 14.10%) so I will see how I get on with the Millies and will look at samples of the J Angell as well.

However I am still interested in the AG as it is far easier to buy from many places but the JA and the Millies appear to only have one or two outlets so prices have no competition in the marketplace

I used to use AG Lamb and Rice and still get the occasional bag. It's a very good food, my dogs liked it and did very well on it. No drop in condition from previous food, nor problem with poos - they were always lovely :-D We changed due to increasing costs and increasing doggy numbers. Have to admit, I'd never noticed maize as an ingredient before ... wondering if this is an addition since the reduction in bag size (and normally an increase in cost :-/ ), together with a 'new look' bag, and in my experience new look packaging always means a new recipe :-(

I wouldn't particularly want maize as the main ingredient, nor beet pulp, but I don't believe they're that bad as an inclusion lower down the ingredient list. But what do I know? As of tomorrow one of mine will be fed hydrolyzed feathers :-O

I tried Millies samples recently and may change to that next year at some point. I was going to order last week, but the girly I've been desperate to try a new food for is starting a very restricted diet trial, so Millies is on hold. However, I was very impressed with the ingredients, the price is not much different to F4D (specially with a 20% discount for breeder members) and my dogs were hugely impressed :-)

Interesting about the Jon Angell, though looking at that the salmon is much the same as the new F4D salmon recipe - made in same factory? The Lamb has the main ingredient as maize :-O Plus a recommended feeding amount of 380g for a 20kg dog :-O Mine will be waddling around the sheep if I fed them that much!! Think I'll give them a miss.

I fed AG lamb and rice for many years with excellent results. And the other poster is right, you can get very good deals on it (usually paid around £20ish for 15kg).

Interestingly ... AG changed their bag design recently. Noticed they include maize in the lamb and rice! Sure they didn't before else I wouldn't have bought it. Did they tell anyone or was it just snuck in?

as far as I can recall most AG varieties had maize in the ingredients right from the launch. Was on breeder service when first introduced.

The recipes, bag design and weights have changed recently. I did read a discussion about it recently and I felt sure it was on here. The recipe change has not suited my youngster hence changing diet, but my older ones did well on it.

> I did read a discussion about it recently and I felt sure it was on here

Yes it was a discussion in July this year - here

I think the maize has become a lot greater in quantity and moved up the ingredient list though...

Just to confirm that some of our recipes have always contained maize. The maize is included at the level it always has been and has not increased.
If you are specifically looking for maize free diets, then our Sensitive, Premium and Partners canned food do not contain it.
As always, our recipes are free from the high gluten grains (i.e. wheat, oats, barley and rye). Zein (the storage protein within maize is not technically classed as a gluten, and it is widely considered suitable for human coeliacs and pets with gluten allergies since the structure of the protein within it is significantly different to the glutenin and gliadin that form wheat gluten.
I hope this clarifies, but if you have any questions, then please email us via enquiries@ardengrange.com as we are not supposed to post here really because of our commercial interest.

Many thanks for explaining this NessBird.
My dogs have recently changed to Lamb and rice after the change in F4D ingredients and I must admit they love the AG food and lick the plate clean. They also have 'wonderful' poos. I think that the maize is far enough down the list not to bother me, and as long as my dogs do not lose condition over the next few months then I am happy to continue with this food. I am fed up with trial and error of the dog food market and to find a product that appears to have reasonable ingredients at a pretty good price that my dogs eat willingly then that is enough for me.

(I just wish you did bigger bags in the mini kibble as my elderly C. Spaniel prefers this size as her teeth are not too good now ) However if that is all I have to worry about then I'm not doing badly I think !!!

No problem Sue. We are very glad to hear your dogs are enjoying their food and digesting it well. I hope that continues. Thank you for your nice feedback which is appreciated (and thanks too to all of the other Champdogs members who have taken the time to make positive comments as well).

I will pass on your msg regarding a larger retail pack size of the Mini to my colleagues in our marketing department. If there is sufficient demand, this may be something that could be considered for the future.

Hope you all and your dogs have a lovely weekend, Ness