which is the best dog food and why.
i just want to get a few opinions so i can decide for myself

I feed raw which I consider the best for MY dogs.However if I were to feed complete I would feed Autarky
Archer

The one that suits your dog! :D  There are lots of "best" dog foods and you will get lots of answers ;) personally I think the best one to start with is the one recommended by your puppies breeder as she will know what suits her breed and will have successfully reared her dogs to a condition that made you consider buying a puppy from her in the first place :)  Often during the first few days people have problems with the puppy feeding or getting upsets that may be the food but are very often from other causes but I think you should stick with it until pup has grown on a bit if you still find it is not suiting them then I would again consult the breeder first for possible alternatives.

elliebellis pup is 6 months old and I believe she has been following the breeders advice till now but is unhappy and wants to change...think thats what I understand from her other posts
Archer

I hadn't noticed elliebellis's posts but having gone and read them now my opinion remains the same :) and I think Nursey has hit the nail on the head in her reply on the other post.

archer has it dead right. currently feeding euk and unhappy cos of all the testing. also slightley underweight want to change at the end of this sack but unsure what to change to am considering nature diet  is this suitable for a puppy and where do you get it

As Nursey has said it is quite natural for boxer puppies to go through a "rangey" stage and I think it is important that larger breed puppies are not "rushed" on.  But if you feel this is more than that then I would contact the breeder and ask if this a normal phase for her puppies if not what would she give in addition or change to.
As regards the stories about testing I think you need to consider the source of these stories it is very often web sites run by people with another agenda for instance anticapitalism or even anti-pet owning!
When you think about it running an animal experimentation laboratory would be a very expensive enterprise how much cheaper it is to conduct quality control by such things as buyer satisfaction surveys or obtaining data via blood tests, stool and skin samples etc off their dogs :)  I don't think I would like to buy a food that had not been tested and found to meet the dogs nutritional requirements.

Skin samples-please tell us your joking, you don't need to cut an animals skin off to find out what the foods about.-jo   

No you are right Jo, you don't need to cut of the skin to get a sample :) you scrape a few cells off as vets do often when investigating skin problems no more uncomfortable than an injection I would say.
ellibelli, perhaps you see now how misunderstandings about testing abound :)

I have just changed to nature diet from a complete dry food, and I must say, it's disappearing fast and both my two are VERY happy it's dinnertime!

Hi Elisha,

To answer your question,  Nature Diet is a very good quality complete moist food and they have a specific puppy formula.  It is easy to get from Pets at Home or you can buy it on-line.  It comes in plastic trays with a peel off top, not in tins, is very easly digested and most dogs thrive on it.  It can also be warmed a little in the microwave - if your dog is fussy at all this often helps.

Good luck, Regards Teri :)

Our Bichon has nature diet and loves it :-) he always eats it all up straight away and it smells lovely when warmed in the microwave.

We now feed Burns, well Idõ has always been on since weaning, and we are pleased with the food and the fact that Burns deliver it next day, for free. Chloe has been on quite alot of foods, due to being a typical fussy young vizlsa but as she's got older she's got better and now will eat with a bit of gusto :D

We also feed chicken wings/legs/carcasses, ribs, raw mince, tripe etc etc as they dogs really love to tuck into to a RMB but we don't, unfortunatley, have the space to feed raw but if we did then we would feed raw, its very satisfying to see a dog cruching up a chicken wing, despite being a vegetarian, they aren't so what ever is best for them is fine by me :)

As has been said, the best food is the one that suits you and your dogs and it can years to find out about all the different options!

Emily

My dogs also love naturediet!

ive recenty switched mine to oscars. judging by the poos...im very impressed!!!!

The one my dogs do well on becaus eI want them to be healthy and happy! :)

Most proprietary brands developed with nutritionists so there isn't necessarily a 'best' one.  I've kept show dogs for a long time and most of my labs get an economy working dog food at £7per/15kg at  are healthy, and regularly hit 15yo. A bit of cod liver every other daygets a good shiny coat.

If you have a more delicate breed, or have trouble keeping condition on i's go for beta or chum (complete). 
If there are digestive probs i'd go with burns.

I remember meeting this bloke a few years ago with a stunning German Shepherd Dog.  This dog looked the absolute picture of health and I asked him what he fed him.  He said it was Eukanuba.  So for a while after that I fed mine Eukanuba thinking it was one of the best foods on the market.  My bitch did very well on it, my dog okay but his coat wasn't the best I've seen. 

Anyhow, a friend of mine told me she didn't rate the ingredients in Eukanuba and spoke unfavorably about the animal experimentation and testing they have been alleged to do on animals.  This made me question pet food and after reading the literature on Burns, I thought I'd give it a go.  From my dogs point of view it was the best thing I ever did.  His coat now is the best I've ever seen it and he looks radiant.  My bitch on the other hand still looks as good as she did when she was on Eukanuba.  (I also add a spoonful of naturediet)

When my Grandparents had working collies, 40 years ago.  They were fed scraps of the table and if there weren't many scraps, my grandmother used to give them mashed white bread in water, sometimes she used milk.  It sounds horrifying now.  The dogs still did very well on it and lived without a medical problem until they were in their teens.  (Please don't think I'm suggesting you feed dog's white bread in water or milk, far from it) :-)

I think the trick is to find what suits your dog and with all the pet foods on the market today, that can be a long drawn out process.