Anyone fed this and any views - I am finding it hard at present to choose between Burns or Nutro ( up to now)

I'm very happy with Burns - and if you do a search you'll find many previous posts on this topic.
Cathy.

I'm happy with Burns too :)  We've been feeding it for quite a while now and I couldn't be more pleased with how the boys do on it.  Plus, they love it and scoff up every morsel :D

Lesley

Hi
i have recently changed my lab onto Burns and having good results so far, he has always had a good coat but since feeding him Burns its even better, he is pooing only 2 times a day instead of 4/5, which apparently is a good thing, he also seems to have calmed down so much since feeding him Burns, apparently this could be because there are no additives, colourings and preservatives and he loves it :)

Heidi

I love Burns.

Willis quite likes it too ;)

Dont forget to drink plenty of water with it Chloe :D im having a bottle of red wine with my Burns :D

Heidi

Found it didn't agree with mine at all.  Curtis's stools were soft & Mia's almost black in colour!  :(

We have been using Burn's for the older dogs but it did not keep there weight up, they went very lean, but we had 2 pups newfoundlands that had trouble with the Pedigree puppy professional and we put them on Burns mini bites and they had got on great now upsets at all, we have a Dogue de Bordeaux girl that is expecting and have her on the mini bites at the moment and 2 Lhasa pups that we brought back last night, we only went for 1 and came back with 2, Little mo only weighs 21oz and is 8 1/2 weeks, she thinks she is a pit bull, the other is 14 weeks and we fell in love at first sight, we will be slowly changeing them on to the Burns as we have had good results with the other small dogs

Hi Lel :-) I have been very pleased with the results since feeding Burns,my girls coat is better, skin is better, sweeter breath and she is much brighter. Dogs fed on Burns do tend to be on the lean side but that is no bad thing..far too many fat dogs about :-D

Burns was the only food that my dog refused to eat.  She was fine with Science Diet, JWB, Purina Puppy Whatever and Arden Grange.   Go figure.

(I feed Naturediet now, which she likes.)

Stacey

Thanks everyone :)
finding a good food is all very confusing as they all promise the world :rolleyes:
Gus was on Hills until he was switched to Royal Canin hypoallergenic and Libby was on Iams puppy ( fed by her breeder). I want to change from Iams because of the testing they do but would really like something that they can both eat if possible instead of feeding two different foods. Will have to try Gus on the Burns I suppose and see if his itching returns.And Libby always wants to eat what Gus has and not her own food.
anyway I have bought a bag of Minibites to try
( well for Libby to try - not me ) ;)

Hi Lel (long time no post)

I feed Dizzy on Burns since she had problems with the Beta her breeder had her on and ChloeH gave me some excellent advise.

The burns is fantastic and both my girls love it. I even tried a little myself and it tastes like chicken and brown rice (I'd add salt but for the dogs it's fine ;) ) The added bonus of less poop to scoop is great - especially with dane sized poops!

EDIT: if you request a sample from the website they send you tonnes of info and a £2 money off voucher :D

www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk

lel - [email carla@hodgkins.com]email me[/email] for a pic of what a dog looks like on Burns :)

Blimey Wishfairy - long time no see - where have you been hiding :)

Chloe- have mailed you :)

Cam does well on Burns, and has a good coat. Of all the dried dog foods I've seen, they have the best ingredients (ie no BHT etc).

Jo

Can't recommend it enough.  Both my BCs are on it.  One is allergic to everything (or so it seems) and this is the only thing that he has managed to keep weight on and looks fantastic with.  I do mix it with Naturediet in the evenings just for variety.

Claire

I think Burns is a great food too.It seems especially good for "sensitive" dogs, like those prone to hot spots, allergies and those that needs their anal glands emptying (sorry!) often. I have used Beta puppy and dont like it at all, the pups condition went downhill quickly on it. Dont know about the adult version but the failure of  the puppy one put me off trying the others in the range. 

Barney and I are big fans of Burns (never tried Nutro) no more itchy legs, no more dirty eyes, no more pooing 4/5 times a day, much less wind :) and a lovely coat.

Mine are on Nutro and i'm really pleased with it. Coats are fantastic, and they don't seem to need much. Never tried Burns so can't comment on it.

Karen.

My two goldens have just come off Burns.

The puppy had terribly dry / flaking skin. Although I am not sure this was food, related,  I moved him onto a different gluten free diet to see if this cured the problem. After about five weeks the skin has totally improved.

The adult was OK on Burns although I found that his coat became far more dry than with other foods I had used previously. I also found that when you get towards the bottom of a 15kg bag of Chicken & Rice, there is a lot of fine dust/ crumbled food. On several occasion the dog upchucked after a feed that had a lot of this crumbled food in it. I found myself chucking away a fair amount amount of food at the end of the bag which I can't afford to do.

My opinion? Burns is a good food, good labelling, but just didn't suit my two.

Have to say I stopped using Burns because of the amount of dust, was happy with the food and the condition of the dogs but did not like the effect the dust had on my dogs nor the amount I had to throw away from each bag, if I was to reduce the amount of choaking.

...when I purchased Burns from one local pet shop I found the bag contained a quater of dust. I discovered the pet shop bought it in large bags and bagged it up themselves in smaller quantities putting all the dust from the bottom in one small bag :-(   I then went to another local pet shop which does not stock Burns but gets it in to order and it comes in its own little bag (same price as the other shop) and it never has any dust in at all :-)

Mine are on Nutro and they are all doing great, I found that Junior no longer has dry flakey skin since he is on Nutro natural choice..Works great for my crew :)

As for Burns I can't comment cause we (the dogs) have never tried it, don't think it is offered here in Saskatchewan :(

Hi, my two cocker spaniels are currently on Nutro and a bit of Naturediet to give them a bit variety.  I've been interested in reading all the opinions of Burns food on this site and it seems to have a great write up-I was especially interested to read the post (I'm sorry, I can't recall the author) that said it was useful for dogs with anal gland "issues" (currently, one of my boys is at the vets every 2/3 months having his emptied-has a tendency towards loose stools-yuck, sorry!)- does anyone else have an opinion on this?  I was also considering them due to the wider variety of flavours they have as my boys also have the tendency to become bored, even though they get a different Naturediet flavour every day!  I was considering buying a smaller bag to mix in with their Nutro to try them on it (I've just started another 15kg bag and still have another full one there, so it'll be a while before I swap them over!), if anyone had any sugestions about swapping them over, I'd be grateful to hear them!  Thanks!

Hi SL :-) why not contact Burns and get your free samples and see if you dogs like it? Our favourite is venison and brown rice..yum and lamb and brown rice. As for anal glands I would not know because I empty them routinely when I trim and do nails etc ..takes two seconds... dogs don't mind so no problem :-D

The bags I received were sealed 15Kg bags (no one tampered with these). There was far too much waste in a bag costing £32, hence my decision to seek out better value at same level of quality . I didn't find the same issue with the mini-bites, and I'm not sure if this is just related to the adult C&Rice. The other varieties may not suffer the same problem and I'm fairly sure you won't experience this with a sample bag due to the weight of the bag / packing process.

Thanks reddoor, I'll get onto the Burns website and sort myself out with some samples.  The flavours all sound really interesting, so I'm sure they will go down well, I'm just always eager to make sure my boys are getting the best!  I hate to see them getting bored with the same flavours all the time, thats when I started introducing the Naturediet.  But as I said, I liked the idea of the different flavours with the Burns, i can order smaller bags of more flavours to keep them interested!

Also bought direct and at a local shop but found both to have an unacceptable amount of dust, the cost was bad enough but I was concerned with the hounds breathing in the dust, venison and rice is good in the stomach but not in the lungs.

Think the food is good but the processing needs work.

Surely adding water to the dust (I always add water to dry food just before I serve it) would solve the problem?

Well it would, but my dogs like to crunch and there is not much point in feeding kibble if it ends up like porridge. I do add a small amount of warm water to release the smell from the food and to make the kibble moist on the surface, but the sort of dust I was getting had to be mixed with vigour else it would float on the surface. Not satisfactory at all.

yes Jackie..I know exactly what you mean and do not think you could mix the 'dusty stuff' with water, even if it would bind together I think it would stick to the dogs teeth and roof of the mouth and this also defeats the object of feeding dry food which I do partly for the benefit of the teeth. I think my dust problem was solved by buying the 2kg small bags, slightly more expensive but not that much and no waste and it gives a chance to ring the changes in flavours though my old girl would wolf down minced old shoe and not notice. :-)

Own 4 hounds 20kg plus so don't think that 2 kg bags is an option for me.

Personally I really like Burns and wouldnt swop although I do know what people are on about with the dust at the bottom.  It is a pain and I am probably throwing half a carrier bag full away.  I have started to mix it with Autarky and it seems to be going down really well with the boys/

I too found the same thing with my two Boxers, they liked the food but
my two lost coat condition and had dry flaky skin..as I show I didn't want
them in poor coat condition.
I know of another lady that tried her Boxer on it and he went too lean and was
constantly hungary.
But I know of others that feed it and are very happy with condition and coats and
their dogs do look wonderful on it.

Personally I feed Nutro and am very happy with my girls condition and they like the food too.

Basically I think you have to find the food that suits your dog. Not all dogs are the same, it's
just finding the successful combination.
:)
Good Luck

we found we had the same problem's with burn's,out of condition (coat),runny stool's ,dogs constantly hungry,and eventually the weight started to fall off,we now feed royal canin,with great result's,nice healthy coat,firm stool's,and i'm glad to say weight has returned,my dog's have never looked better,as other people have said it all depend's on what brand of food suits your dog.

I agree completely about the dust....and it does seem to be getting worse, but because Burns works so well for my bitch....I pass it through a colander  ***blushing profusely - obviously too much time on my hands****
:)

hi Joe..:-) as I have stated I no longer have a problem with dust but think it might be a good idea if WE ALL contact Burns and try to find a solution, I know Burns food seems to me to be a bit  softer than some of the 'completes' ? That may we where the problem is? If enough people make a noise perhaps Burns will try to sort out the dust, after all you are paying for something you can not use  :-)

Very good point indeed.  Maybe I will try finding an email address and suggest that they take a look at this post.  The Autarky I have as well doesnt seem to be dusty at all apart from the usual little bit at the bottom but it does seem harder to the touch.

Claire

http://www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk/ :-)

Blushing here too Jo-Basset - when I get to the bottom of the feed bin out comes the colander to sift out the kibble from the dust!  But if you really had time on your hands, you would mix the dust with some chicken stock, roll out the resulting "dough", cut it into little bits and bake them for use as treats :D 

Lesley

PS, before anyone asks, I made that last bit up - but who knows, it might work, any person of leisure want to give it a try :D

Blimey, have got myself thinking now, maybe adding in a beaten egg to help bind it all together and it might just work......................:D

Lol you could probably make a doggy cookie out of it :)

Or what if you add it in on some yogurt or something that it can be whipped up into...Good luck :)

Gosh yes, yoghurt!  Or perhaps honey?  The possibilities are endless - and conveniently enough I am coming near to the bottom of the feed bin :D  Mind you, I really don't want to be posting in a few days time "I gave my dogs some lovely treats made from Burns dust, egg, yoghurt and honey and now they have a terrible dose of the trots.  What should I do?" ;)

Seriously though, I love the way my boys are on Burns, so the dust is a minor inconvenience.  But it would be nice if Burns could eradicate it :)

Lesley

Might I suggest that they could eradicate it if, as other manufacturers do, they added emulsifiers and humectants etc to "bind" it; depends what is more important to you, the absence of dust or the absence of unecessary ingredients......................

Tohme, what a sensible thought and one which had never occurred to me!  If this is the reason for the dust, then it is indeed a small price to pay :)

Lesley

Maybe the dust is caused when its being transported - you know , when they throw the bags artound etc onto the vans ?

All dog food is thrown around in transport, i tend to agree that the binders in other foods make them less likely to break up. if you add water to most dry foods it takes several minutes to soften and even then stays quite well formed.if you add water to burns it breaks down almost instantly. this could be why it is more available nutritionally once inside the digestive system. jmo.

Don't care why it is dusty and I am not disputing that the food is made from good ingredients, I just don't think that the dust on the lining of my dogs lungs make up for that fact.  Have gone back onto AG and they all look fine on it the stools are firmer and they have muscled back up. I do no that Burns say they will lose weight to start with, and may be because I keep mine lean anyway, but they went from lean to too thin and I did not see it coming back even after 6 months. Now the hounds found it palatable but the don't turn their nose up at AG either.

Where do you buy it?  On-line or can you get it from a pet store?

I have looked at their website and they also do food for cats (sorry I know this is a dog website!) and they claim it can help with struvite stones which my old boy gets.

Julia

I buy mine on line as you get a discount if you order 5 bags at once and postage is free.
I have 6 dogs 2 are puppies and they are all doing really well on Burns ,also if you have any problems they are very helpfull when you contact them,they have given me loads of good advice since putting my lot on it