Hi
The breeder suggested I feed me Akita Royal Canin, which i have done since 6 weeks, she is now 7 months old and will only eat the royal canin dried food when mixed with a little pilchards or tuna (having tried because she wouldnt eat it on its own, and i caught her finishing off the cats tuna and pilchards whist passing through the kitchen!!!) The dislike changed when i changed the food from 'Giant babydog' (1 and a half months ago) to 'Giant Junior' as recommended by the pet shop. I gradually changed over by mixing the two together first, I have approx 1 week left before I need another lot of food, and don't feel like i want the same - Any Suggestions as to what type of royal canin or other makes to get: I don't mind what it costs, as i realise royal canin is quite expensive. Thanks

Hi - Your Akita isn't a Giant breed!  Great Danes, Deerhounds etc are Giant breeds.  Akitas are Large breeds.

I also wouldn't feed Royal Canin as I don't think it's a good food.  More info about that here: http://www.acorndogtraining.co.uk/nutrition.htm

If you want to feed a dry food, I'd recommend Burns: www.burns-pet-nutrition.co.uk  or James Wellbeloved:  www.wellbeloved.co.uk

If you feed Burns you'll need to feed their Canine Extra food until she is 9 mnths old - that's what Burns told me when I called anyway.  If you feed James Wellbeloved, you have a choice of 4 different flavours (Duck and Rice is a favourite for mine though) and you'll need to feed their 'Junior/Performance' level of any of those flavours till she is 12 mnths old. 

Going by what you say about her eating food only when you add tuna or pilchards, it sounds like she would prefer a wet diet.  If you want to feed wet, Nature Diet is an excellent food:  www.naturediet.net   If you phone them and order it direct from them, it is only 50p per pack, compared to 65p per pack in the pet shops.  They have many different flavours and she would be able to eat the adult varieties of ND, because it is so high in protein.  (ND say to feed their Puppy food only till 6 mnths.) 

If you find feeding just Nature Diet would work out too expensive, what a lot of people do is mix some ND in with either Burns or JWB.  That helps keep the cost down. 

Thank you for your promt reply - I can't beleive the pet shop told me I needed giant dog food, this is my first dog so i don't understand what category the Akita comes under! (I know she's large) which is why i tried this forum. I'll take a look at those you recommended. Thanks!

Hi
Akitas are notoriously picky about their food, especially when they are young! My Akita & his litter brother were on Royal Canin as a puppies but I wasn't impressed by it, he was downright skinny,he also didn't like it very much. His litter brother developed excema due to an allergy to RC. I put mine on raw tripe & and ordinary mixer, gave him 10 minutes to eat it, then took it up. He's 8 now & has never looked back, never turns his nose up at anything, but will sell his soul for all things chicken (and all things chocolate )

Both Royal Canin and JWB are both made by crown pet foods, so they will source the ingredients from the same suppliers just the recipes will change. Crown pet foods are owned by the mars group who own pedigree. One of the changes in JWB since being bought out by Mars is the web site no longer contains a full breakdown of ingredients
This is a pure Pedigree marketing ploy investing in a name but not a product -Jo 

JWB has the advantage of being made in the UK (or so it says on the packs I saw yesterday!), so all the ingredients will be from human-grade ingredients.

Not disputing its not ,just pointing out that since being taken over it's now following Pedigrees ways of selling a product. Royal cannin dog food has the ingredients listed on its packaging in 15 different languages finding one in English takes some doing on a 15 kg bag. Likewise JWB has removed its ingredients list from its web site as is the Pedigree way. They prefer to sell a name and limit information about the true ingredients Yes it's on the bag but what's wrong with putting this information on the web site far easier than turning bags over to find the small print -Jo   

Well I have fed Royal Canin for three years now.  It is one of the few foods that don't set off Dally Rash on my Dalmatian. That alone proves to me there is nothing nasty in the way of additives in it.  My BC's coat shines so much people often ask what I feed her on.

Down to the same old thing, if it suits your dog stick with it, if it doesn't look elsewhere.

You can always ring Royal Canin and ask their advice on what type you should be feeding.

Sandra

Actually the ingredients list is on the website for each variety if you look carefully (it isn't particularly straighforward).

If you go into say the Lamb & Rice section, you then click Ingredients & Analysis, then click the tiny links up the top for each variety all will be revealed.

Saying that, I stopped feeding it a while back as it doesn't seem to do for my dogs since they started adding potato flour. I think that coicided with the buy out by Mars but am not 100% sure.

(it isn't particularly straighforward).my whole point why make it so difficult .When JWB WAS A PRIVATE UK COMPANY its web site was Straight forward, now its not. It's just now following the corporate edit .Image is everything, Content is nothing. -Jo 

I disagree with you.  JWB has been taken over, yes, but that has not affected the sources of their ingredients or the end product. 

In addition all the ingredients for the many different foods they sell are in fact on their website. 

JWB and Royal Canin have markedly different ingredients.  I would not be happy feeding Royal Canin, but I would be happy to feed JWB.

Sorry. post the link about ingredients and I will reassess , As regards Royal Canin and JWB using different ingredients , well they both produce from the same plant in Somerset but I doubt if they buy difference ingredients, economics in large industries would prevent this.-Jo

sorry, stand corrected ingrdeants found (salt thats a new one )-jo