I want to change a 1 year old Stafford to a complete food for convinence on holidays etc.

Which do you all recomend.

Karen

Hi Karen
Gus is on Hills Science Plan

Hi,

You can't beat Burns or Oscars. Full of good stuff although not one of the cheapest around :)

TTFN

Ruth

My two are on Tescos own brand or Bakers.  It didn't take mine long to adjust and they love the Bakers Bacon & Liver flavour.  I had to try a few first as they didn't take to all of them.

Hi Karen, previously I'd have said there was little difference between the various premium complete foods, but I've just finished a 'test' of a newish one called Procare on a litter of pups, and am so well pleased that I'm going to continue it for the 2 pups I'll keep and am changing all the adults onto it.

BTW someone was asking about weaning. Procare also do a weaning food. I didn't get a chance to try that but will do next time.

Whatever brand you choose, pick carefully.  Some varieties of food are made into cute shapes and colours, who is this for, the dog or the owner?  Dogs are colour blind and we all know what colourings can do to children.

The label on the packet will list ingredients by weight which will make some dog foods appear to be meat based as meat appears first.  Do not be fooled, all this indicates is that it is the single largest ingredient.  To do this manufacturers will list either a number of cereals or a number of different ways a cereal is processed in order to appear that it is mostly meat.  Eg maize, maize flour, maize gluten etc etc

Soya can produce a lot of gas in the gut, something you don't really want to encourage. 

Some, like Hills, are primarily maize and some have fillers such as peanut shells and sugar beet pulp.

If I was to feed commercial dog food I would opt for one that contained only nourishing ingredients with no unecessary fillers, additives, colours etc such as Burns or Naturediet both of which are complete and widely available.

HTH

I am in the proscess of changing my two GSD's over to Burns, got my two samples this morning Chicken and rice for pup and she went mental nearly ripped the bag out of my hands trying to get to the food, and fish and brown rice for the Adult has she has allergy with meat protein, well she took a sniff and walked off but then she is a pain in the bum and very fussy but i'm in not doubt that she will eat it later when i mix a bit in her food.
You can get samples from Burns and they only take a few days to come.
http://www.burns-pet-nutrition.com/products.html
And it is not tested on animals unlike a lot of leading brands.
Cordelia

Can you buy burns in petshops or does it have to be mail order ?

It is available in some shops

I will try and first see if she  takes to it and how she goes from there.

Thanks I didn't want one with c##p in it.

Thanks Karen

Burn's is great, my 17 week old cocker spaniel was on JWB, but he was really slow to eat it, it would take him 30 mins to finish his meals, he had VERY smelly wind :( and always had runny poos :(  He then started to bite his back legs and his coat went rather dry looking.  I changed him over to Burns 3 weeks ago and the result is fantastic, dinner gone in 2 mins, firm poos, odourless wind (well nearly), and the most fantastic looking coat :)  It isn't the cheapest but he doesn't have to eat as much weight wise as he did on JWB, so in the end it must work out cheaper. 

Jax

PS  How is whistle training going?  My whistle arrived this morning from Turner Richards - will be checking out posts to see how I get started.  :)

Have to say I have in the last 50 years given most compleat foods a go and I have never found anything as good as Burns.

I have brought some burns today from my local supplier, got a small bags of each of the adult "flavours"
so we will try.Thanks to everyone.

The whistle is going well she flies back even quicker than when I say "bye Sal" good luck with the training I tried her first in the house/garden she was so inquistive to see what the noise was.When she came I gave her a piece of her favourite treats ie a grape, or bit of hot dog sausage or got her ball out. Something so she thought the whistle meant "Hey whats up what's mom  got that nice I better go see."
She comes back in the park too and I don't put the lead on everytime but give her something nice or a fuss she adores it. I also hide behind a bush or something and whistle she runs to find me like crazy.

Also tried getting someone to hold her and whistling from a distance. She is getting it well, not sure if my ways are "correct" but they work for me and Sal and that good enough :D

Karen
  

Glad to hear the whistle is going well for you - I think I'm going to try that with my Sam... so  what if she's 9?

As for the food I'm another one to recommend Burns :)  After a couple of problems with Dizzy's original diet I changed her over and she loves it. Sam was always fed on Bakers but after doing a direct comparison I'm going to change her over too... a good bit more expensive but so much better. 

:o I even tasted it and guess what... it tastes like chicken and brown rice, lol!

Have to agree that Burns is a great complete food.  My mums cocker has been on it for about 4 weeks now and she looks fantastic and much less waste coming out the other end.  She was on JWB but terrible wind and loose stools on this. 
If I was to feed my cocker complete, I would definitely use Burns after the results I've seen with my mum's pup.

well mixed the sample with there food today and i must say the fussy one finsihed before the pup so i think i am on a winner.

Cordelia

Hi Karen,
What did you normally feed her on.
I feed Toesy on Nature Diet, he loves it, and does very well on it.
I'm in the process of changing Rio on to it too.

Michelle

Hi Mitch have PM'd you.

Karen

She has fresh food.

Shin Beef/chicken/lamb/fresh fish all with veggies and broth or a mixer She has the beef either cooked but also raw.
She has Iams complete (but not happy with that now)hence the change.
She has pilchards in tom sauce once a week and ocasionally Liver or lambs hearts, as well as eating tinned dog food occasionally.

She also has a sunday dinner same as us at the weekend with yorkie/potatoes etc.


Karen

Hi Karen
I have staffies and DDB and we feed all ours on Dr Johns Gold. I have to speak as I find and can honestly say mine have never looked better.
I have two staffie bitches that both had Dr Johns through their pregnancy and throughout feeding the pups. I did whist they were nursing give them scrambled eggs and cheese too though. With both bitches they did not look as though they had given birth and reared litters! My one bitch Pepsi even nursed her own litter and another litter for a week and still looked fab.
Dr Johns is only £7.29 for a 15kg bag. Such a low price for such fab food :-)

We tried burns after using Hills. Well, all i can say is that we should have never changed to Burns. Our pups coat became much less shiny and conditioned. She seemed to pick at her food more, and ahe started eating her own poo. She had never had a problem with eating her poo before, but she started 2 days after changing from hills to burns.

Staffi. have you had your pup checked by a vet, it could be the Burns, but I doubt it and you could be missing something else by assuming it is the food. You did change it over slowly didn't you, only ask as you said it happened after 2 days.

Hi Jackie. I have to admit, we did not graduate it over 7 days- but over one. However, we left her on burns for a futher week and it got worse. We have also changed her food on another occation, using a 1 day change over, and she was fine.

Just that 2 days seems far to quick for any food to have the effects you are talking off, loose tummy yes but not the others. If the problem is caused by food it would have to have been whatever she was on a few months back, coat change is not immediate and I double the poo eating would be food related unless the dog is unable to digest its food properly, best let the vet take a look.

THanks- will do. I suppose you know best. you are the expert!

No I'm not an expert but I do know 2 days is not long enough for any food to affect the skin and coat. As to poo eating I don't know what would cause that unless the dogs system is unable to use the food, Burnes and Nature diet are only what they say they are and there is no reason to think it would cause poo eating if it had not happened before, particularly after 2 days. The pup being picky, well that does happen when you change food, most dogs fall on it but some are suspicious if given different food.

There is no way I would tell you what to feed your dogs but think the problems you discribe is more likely to be from an earlier food that the one that has only just been offered,

Hi Saffy,

Two days is certainly not enough time for coat to change from a change of food.  That would take weeks, if not months.    It is more likely that something else - like the central heating being on more -- causes a change in the appearance of coat as the oils dry out from dryer air.

A switch in food, however, could cause your dog to want to eat her poo when she did not before.   It probably smells different to her than the other food and encouraged her to eat it.

That said, Burns works for most dogs it seems - but that does not means it works for all dogs. 

Stacey

Hi- well, we actually kept on burns for 2 weeks (a- to see if it would improve and b- because we had baought a 2 week supply) and the poo eating was still a big problem. They were also runnier and smellier. We did use a cheap brand about 1 month ago- which could be the coat thing, but i cant see what how it could be to do with the poo eating 1 month on?

Nor do I, but I cant see why if she has not done it before why she should start now. If her stomach was able to deal with a cheap grain based food I would be surprised if she can't deal with a meat protein one, unless she has some sort of deficiency in her gut or an allergy to meat, you could try raw/natural yoghurt to help put her gut flora back to normal and then see if there is an improvement, if there is not I would let the vet see her.

You don't say how old the pup is, if she is still very young it is best to clear up straight away as some pups, particularly bitches, will develop this habit as they get older it seems to be to stop other dogs getting it. The other thing it may be is that she needs worming.

Having said that if you and she were happy with Hill why change, it's not IMO one of the better foods but it is not one of the worse either.

She is 12 weeks old. she has been wormed, yes. We do try to clean it up as soon as we see. Most times she leaves it now- but others, she eats it. She only eats it when she does it on the paper inside- so prehaps she is trying to hide the evidence?

No, don't think she is hiding it, it's there, it can be eaten so she eats it. Would do my utmost to stop the habit by whipping it away, once this habit starts it is hard to stop. If you think about it, in the nest that is what the dam did, pup relives it's self and the dam clears up. Not too surprising that a good few pups do it too given the chance, particularly if it is in what they perceive as the nest.

Hmmm. It gets more confusing, but I am trying Burns at the moment (well since the other day) and the only problem I can forsee with that is availability.

I will see how she gets on she's perfect at the moment (but I'm biased)

Karen

Karen, don't worry about getting it, I placed an order on line late Wednesday afternoon and it arrived on Thursday. All ways gone and collected it before but wont again.

That's GOOD service, mind you they were really helpful on the phone telling me where my local suppliers were, I might try online if she likes it. Which she seems to so far :D

Thanks

Karen - I'm now unable to pick up CD at work (boo - hisss!!) and I've only just read this thread.   I see that you give Sal grapes as a treat - I would warn you against this - because grapes in quantity can cause serious problems to dogs - a pound of grapes stolen by an Aussie has been enough to kill it, according to one of my Aussie groups - and I would be afraid that if Sal gets used to one as an occasional treat, then comes across the shopping before it is put away, she could try & pinch the lot and become very ill!

Margot

I will take care, Thanks for the warning. But she does like them and I only give her pieces of the grapes as a treat she doesn't have more than about 4 and we don't have them very often anyhow but she does love them.

I wll take extra care though Thanks you.

Karen 

Like most thing they are only dangerous if given in relative large amounts, if dogs have access to ripe grapes they eat them just as they do any other fruit including rose hips. Think chocolate is the only real danger and even with that the amount has to be more than any intelligent person would give their dogs.  The biggest problems with all food is if the dog can help themselves and eat far to much, remember one of my GSD's eating half a bag of dog food, enough to kill, even though the food it's self was safe.

Sal never has chocolate, in fact its about the one thing you can eat in peace ;) because she knows she can't have it.

Karen

I would say that there is no "ideal" food that will suit every dog . Every dog is different and therefore will respond differently to each food  . It just happens to be whatever works for your particular dog. What suits one will not be as good for another .

Dogs have a wonderful constitution, have when the need arose fed mine on what looked like stable floor sweepings mixed with molasses, they loved it and did not do too bad on it, but it was best not to read the content. Then there are those foods that seem fine but have a high grain content, I have know dogs do ok on it but when the same dogs were put on a meat based food the difference in their condition, coat and muscle tone as well as general well being, to say nothing of the amount of picking up there is to do, mind you think the birds preferred the grain one as grain like sweetcorn goes straight through, hence the bulky stools, I suppose the dogs were only getting benefit from the grain that had been possessed in some way. As Lel says, different dogs, different food but I would rather feed mine on a meat protein rather than a grain protein, but that is what I prefer, if you prefer grain and your dogs are at their peak then that is what you will feed.