Hi,
Can anyone suggest the best dry complete dog food to feed my dog. I was told a while ago about one which I am not sure if I have the name right - Burns. If this is correct what is your opinion.
Many Thanks

Sam

The best dry dog food is whatever dog food your dog likes and thrives on. It is as simple as that. You can investigate the content, the protein levels etc etc, but if your dog won't eat it, it doesn't matter how good it is on paper. Most foods are much of a muchness, just find one your dog likes!

You will probably get as amany answers as people :D

My own personal favourites are Arden Grange and Autarky (both have a higher than average meat content and the latter has lots of herbs added), followed by Wafcol Greyhound Foods.  I have also used Beta and Pedigree puppy foods in conjunction with the others. I mix them all together and that way new owners can pick from the five which they can get easily and pups will alredy be used to it.

We feed Burns to our 2 and, for them, it's the best food, plus the occassional spoon full of tripe or oily fish. In the past we have tried Wafcol, Beta, JWB, Bakers, Dylan, Febo, Nature Diet( which is idea for taking to shows/away from home when the older of our 2 loses her appetite.), all with varying results, you name Chloe has probably been on it! She was one of those dog who would have starved herself, when she was younger thank god she's usually fine now. Of course as naive first time vizsla owners we trundled off to the vets where they sold us a bag of hills, guess what? She didn't eat that either! Butchers tripe/beef mince and gravy(!!) and Dylans dry eventually worked. It would eb interesting to know of anyone else who fed this(Dylan i mean)it was very cheap and she liked it but she must ahve done in excess of 6 poos on one morning walk! Now they are firm and small, on the Burns, but still don't smell like roses!!
So yes Burns is a good food but it may not suit every dog,
HTH
Emily

I now feed Autarky but have fed allsorts before ive been happy. Ive tried JWB but found it too expensive for what it was, the poo's were huge, they werent happy with it and i had to add mince to it before it would be touched. I tried Burns but couldnt justify £50 for 15kg, i dont spend that on my own food! Hills is a plain rip off IMO, Supadog gave them terrible wind, Pedigree, well just that, Bakers was awful gave them the runs. ( just to add i never swapped them all from on eto another quickly, the changes have been made over 4 years or so).
So eventually i tried Autarky and am happy with that. The only other food i am happy to give my dogs is Professional Choice and its mail order. Once i get back to my beloved England i'll probably switch tot hat.

I use iams. Only thing that doesnt give mine the runs.

I think the reason a lot of people avoid Iams is because of the testing they do on animals
Archer

Hi,

Glenmoray there are many excellent feeds if they are expensive do your resaerch/homework Hills ,JWB Royal Canin can be obtained much cheaper if is being sold expensively doesn't mean its rubbish food ;-)

These feeds can be obtained much cheaper tahn vets,pet supermarkets if your prepared to look check out your area for people who sell such feeds as an individual business ;-)

People whinge at the price of a good quality feed but are not prepared to do their homework :-)

Put this way good quality Koi food 15 kg bag tops £100 and koi are greedy eaters trust me,however for the results it produces of quality koi that is what I expect to pay as we run a Koi business I would not feed less quality food to the koi and our customers of koi expects high grade japanese koi of show quality .
People in the Koi industry worldwide except to produce the standards they have in Japan feed decent food and doesn't come cheap.

However you can feed decent dog food and obtain it cheaper if you look in the right places ;-)

Briony :-)

I would just add that I would advise you avoid any food with unnecesary colourants and preservatives.  The dogs don't need the colours and it is better to go for the foods preserved with vitamin E and C.

   I have fed Skinners for the last 3 Years   Field and trial  Maintainace in the summer then 50% maintaince 50% country recipe 26% protein in the Shooting season the Maintance is £11.50 for 15kg and the country Recipe £14.00 for 15kg Vat free makes it very competivly priced and the dogs work twice a week on it in the winter and look  well all year round

Masters Meaty Crunch as a maintenance food in the summer and Masters Performance in the shooting season when I need that little extra go. Roughly the same protein and price as Skinners. Again, vat free.

Regards, John

I have just changed from Burns to JWB.  Molly was looking a little too thin on much more than the amount advised by Burns.  Probably due to the fact that she now has rather a lot of exercise.  Otherwise I found to to be a very good food, althought sometimes hard to get hold of.

Eaglepack holistic,you can check it out and order it at www.postalpets.co.uk

Archer... They test it on animals? Thats p****d me off a bit I avoid that whenever possible. Used it for about 6 years and wouldnt know what to change to.

sharonb - if you wanted some information on iams, look here and here.

What I find very disturbing is that the BUAV(who I am a member on)takes verbatim the information from Uncaged who are part & parcel of PETA whose aims are to and ALL pet ownership everywhere & leaving dogs, cats, pet rabbits etc to fend for themselves in the wild

PETA release show dogs from crates at dogs shows in the USA & dump them into the wild by the roadside(not hearsay a friend of mine in the states lost two of her dogs( dies that have retired)from her airconditioned motor home & dumped tham by the side of an interstate highway & sadly both were killed PETA were quite open & admitted they had "freed"the dogs & that they believe pet owning is the worse cruelty man can inflict on animals, My friend only every has a max of 6 dogs & shows them herslef they are not cosmetically tampered with & live in house with her & have a great life. She has stopped showing as she is terrified that PETA will strike again & take all her pets & dump them as well

The BUAV know this yet still believe & use PETA's "evidence"from investigations that were on work done  by a scientist who got sponsorship from a fund supported by IAMS

PETA has been campaigning against P&G for many years & since IAMS was sold & then taken over by P&G launched into  an attack on IAMS(they did nothing in the previous 40 odd years that IAMS had been in existance

I feel my dogs on an purely Organic diet so I have no axe to grind as I don't feed conventional dog food & I have repeatedly told the BUAV about PETA's aims. but they never grace me with even an acknowledgement. I am a vegan & no I don't take drugs that have been animal tested & no I don't wear dead animal skins either

There are many companies out there that PETA have not attacked yet they do animal testing & a lot worse, including the company that was involved in introducing animal by products into cattle feed & at the root of BSE-the original company(it has now changed hands & is somewhat more ethical)& they were exposed as putting dead cats & dogs into dog food(there was a TV documentary about them on the regional TV station)This was no offshoot it was in the next building to where the sheep meat was put into the cattle feed & the dog & cat bodies were clearly visible, this was before most people had their animal cremated & was  the  results of the animals being PTS or dying at the vets(my vets did not use them)something which has always been against the law)PETA did nothing against them !This company under new ownership now only does rendering of farm anilmals & no longer makes any animal food stuffs-they were closed down legally by the council & the then MAFF

For your information the makers of Arden Grange were the original first main distributors of IAMS products in the UK & did so right upto launching their own brand

Hi Moonmaiden, sorry this is diverting from the OP's original question, but I was just wondering how you know any pharmaceutical drugs you might take haven't been tested on animals?

Because I am used for testing them I am a human guinea pig I take no off the shelf medicines unless they are homoeopathic ones. I am heavily involved with a group of specializts in the UK & abroad who are like minded & have research scientizts who also do not believe in animal testing. Some of the scientizts in the USA were the voices that upheld the decision of Dr Frances Oldham Kelsey to not allow Thalidomde to be used in the USA this link  link might be of interest

It was the report of Dr  Kelsey's findings that stopped me taking any animal tested drugs along with the smoking beagles & a youthful involvement with an animals rights group.

Basically if there is a new drug that can treat my illnesses then I take it & the side effexts are noted. Some other drugs are tested in the USA on prisoners who are never going to be released(voluntarily) & even some who were on death row who have had their sentences commuted along with other people like myself

I am very careful what I eat etc & my dogs are fed only organic food( I have gone out of my way over many years to cultivate local organic farmers as friends & although I am a vegan my dogs(& cats)that I have owned are not & need meat in their diet At least I ensure that the source is treated ethically

Thanks, I was just intrigued! :) My apologies to the OP for wandering off topic! :)

Sharon
they are well known for there experiments on animals I'm afraid...very sad.
Archer

Hi i`ve been feeding burns to my patterdales and they luv it there coats are nice and shiny,and funny enough it seams to have calmed them down .There nice and lean and i would recommend it as i`ve been using it for 1yr .

The only thing that put's me off of Burns is that they use rice as the first ingredient Any nutritionalist worth their salt knows that meat should be the first and foremost in a dogs diet.Theres nothing wrong with rice persay but it should be the third or fourth ingredient,not the first!