I know there are going to be many different views on this, but I wondered if you could all let me know which of the millions of commercial dog foods you think are the best. By best I mean, no cereal, high meat content and good for fattening up underweight dogs! :-)

Thanks in advance.

Hi

I don't believe there is any one best food or even one best feeding regime, although people will have ideas of which suits their own dogs best.  The dog is a very wide and diverse species developed and adapted to a wide range of environmental pressures of the various breed origins.

Some breeds are said to thrive better on a diet including cereal because of their origins eg Collie breeds on oats and my own breed, the Finnish Lapphund, developed, reputedy on a diet of cooked stew of mainly rye and reindeer blood.

Julie

Like Julie says above there really is no best, it is whatever suits your dogs.  Burns is considered to be one of the better ones but this didnt suit my BCs so they are now on Pro Plan which I have had remarkable results from, yet some say it has too much cereal.  Different horses for different courses!

Claire

I found Autarky very good for putting on weight...its also well priced and has no additives etc and a good meat quantity
Archer

Autarky is a maize based dog food, that is its largest single ingredient:

Maize, Chicken Meat Meal, Rice, Chicken Fat, Carrot and green leaf vegetables, whole linseed, beet pulp, mixed herbs and spices, yucca, yeast.

THere is no commercial dog food that contains no cereal.  All are at least 50 - 60%, most considerably more as it is cheap.

If you want to put weight on quickly, add oil.

abady kibble is easily the best commercial food because all the protein is found by way of animal protein and not from any other source its a shame its not avalible in the united kingdom its very expensive but i guess no one was ever dissapointed with buying the best and yes my dogs have used this stuff we have it sent over from the usa

I think you will find that Abady DOES contain cereal................ cereal contains protein.

THe only commercial dog food I know of that contains ABSOLUTELY NO CEREAL AT ALL is EVO in the US.  As close as anyone can get to a dry version of raw; an excellent product not available in the UK.

>abady kibble is easily the best commercial food because all the protein is found by way of animal protein and not from any other source

McCoy, this is not true, their website state that a percentage of protein is cereal based, so where did you get your information????

hi ya on the abady web site it states that there puppy ganules is 95.8% animal protiein so were does all the grain come from

I believe Landywood do some cereal free products and naturediet has less than 50%.  Not kibbles I know but there can be little doubt that they are "commercial" :-)

Julie

Can you tell me exactly where it says the Naturediet products contain less than 50% rice please?

Thanks.

http://www.naturediet.net/products/index.html

I've just had a look at a couple of their products and meat content seem to be around 60% and cereal (rice) ~15%

Moisture is 75% but listed ingredients seem to be in dryweight.

HTH
Julie

well no, not dry weight duh.....just weight. Presuming the rice content is calculated after cooking, not when dry as that would alter its proportion considerably.....hmm interesting.

Julie

I think you will find that this is not the case.............

I did email naturediet at the time to ask about this and today I've had a reply.  They say the propotions are calculated after cooking so Naturediet really does have a very low cereal content.

Julie

I have always been led to believe adding oil is not good because too much fat can cause problems with the pancreas.

My biggest problem is he has got very sensitive digestion and most foods will upset him. I tried him on Arden Grange and it went straight through him, same with JWB. Other than that he has been on BARF, All in One and Burns but he looses so much weight on them.

I agree with Archer that Autarky is good.  It's been a great success with my dogs and was the only food I have tried that put weight on my skinny springer.  He has never been food orientated but likes Autarky.

It has a good balance for a dry commercial food and is very reasonably priced.  Its also gluten free.

I have found it to be the only food (including BARF) that stopped the periodice bringing up of yellow bile and grass eating in my 10 year old bitch.  When I ran out and was feeding them all just the Arden Grange for a week or she started having episodes of being sick and eating grass in the mornings.  I found even half and half with the Arden Grange and this stopped.  I have recently started feeding the 3 Veterans just on the Autarky as their complete.

Good recommendations for Autarky, I'm going to give it a try :-)

Do they have a stand at Ch shows?

Julie

Julie I don't know anything about ch.shows but they do visit gamefairs.  Give them a call or email if you need any info because I have always found them very very helpful (they even persuaded my local animal feed place to stock Autarky for me!).  I can buy small bags in my local Tesco/Sainsbury/Co-op if necessary but my usual stockist charges £11.50 for a 15kg sack.

They do have a website but for some reason I can't find it via google.  When the torrential rain stops I'll go down to the kennel and look on the bag for you!

Thanks jj :-)

Julie

Don't know about the best but some companies are more ethical than others and I would not buy any dog food that was not on the BUAV List. 
Burns Pet Nutrition Ltd, Europe Pet Foods Ltd,Fromm Family Foods, Harbingers Of A New Age,Leander International Pet Foods Ltd NatureDiet Pet Foods Ltd, Top Number, Trophy Pet Foods Interesting thing about all these companies is that their food tends to be at the quality end of the market.-Jo

Leander is Arden Grange ranges :D