I am trying to decide which puppy food to change my beardie pup to she is currently on pedigree chum tinned puppy and dry complete mixed. I prefer the idea of wet food as it isnt so processed and my last dog did really well on naturediet but I have been reading some worrying threads on that? also some of the dry foods such as Orijen look amazing with all those great ingredients but is it tasty and would it work out very expensive? Im afraid this site is too good and the more info I trawl through the more confused I am!
cheers for any ideas
Emma

Hi Emma
I have similar feelings about dried food and do try to feed mine a raw diet, but when I can't manage that I feed them Forthglade - which is pretty similar to Naturediet and try to supplement with fresh veg and bones.  Could I ask you what has worried you about Naturediet?
Carina

hi Carina thanks I will look up Forthglade, when I typed naturediet into the search bar on here there seemed to be problems with supply, sick dogs and exploding packages

Sorry Emma but tinned pet food and dried pet food are equally as processed, except your paying for the added water in the tinned.

If you really want less processed then either go the Total Raw route or raw meat and mixer.  there are also frozen complete meals by some dog meat retailers.

hi Brainless,
I thought that a lot of the tins could be processed but surely the packs of food eg naturediet are closer to nature than dry food? please could you tell me the name of the complete frozen food if you know it and would I need to supplement it? I am vegetarian and not too keen on meat chopping although frozen would be fine I am interested in the raw food idea as I have explored the idea of raw food for my family (david Wolfe etc) and think it sounds very sensible.

AMP produce a range called Natures Menu.  I have always found Forthglade vacuum packs(older than nature diet) more like real food, and not found the problem with exploding packaging in hot weather.  they do frozen food too, believe they are based in Devon.

hi thanks for your advice, I found the frozen food in pets at home looks really good I think I would need to see about getting a spare freezer if I took this route as mine isnt very big. I also saw some other vacuum packs think it was wainrights? if i chose not to feed raw at the moment do you think vacuum packs are the next best thing?

>but tinned pet food and dried pet food are equally as processed

Dry food is more processed than wet food,the latter needs far less temps than dry food,it is cooked in the tin so the nutrients stay in place,and the extra water is beneficial,much more so than dehydrating pellets.

Although i am talking about premium wet foods,which pedigree is not.Tinned food is only more nutritious than dry if the ingredients are good to start with

>If you really want less processed then either go the Total Raw route or raw meat and mixer.  there are also frozen complete meals by some dog meat retailers.

I agree :) Even the best dry food in the world is still a processed diet,and as we all know all living creatures need fresh,whole foods to properly thrive.Which is why i always add fresh foods to my dogs complete....and i feed orijen,one of the best foods on the market today IMHO.

hi Kate
thanks for your comments I did fancy orijen it has amazing ingredients, would it be an idea to use this instead of mixer biscuits with a good quality wet food and if so which would you reccommend?

I'm with brainless on this one. Dry food seems yuk! I sure wouldn't like to be seved breakfast cereal without milk all my life.
Everbody has a preferance though and I guess you feed what suits your dog. Mine have raw mixed tripe/beef etc with veg and a basic baked wholemeal only meal mixer. I buy the tripe in bulk. It comes in frozen 1LB blocks and I just defrost, open pack and tip into dish, hey presto. It's quick, easy and clean. And more importantly,it's healthy for my dogs and they love it.

Sorry,...now I've confused you even more??

mine have wet in the moring nature diet then dry in the evening product bring with E

Actually I do use dry for the convenience preferring to go with one that has a reasonably high meat content.  I do add things to it, but at the moment haven't freezer space (ickle dog freezer inaccessible due to redecorating).  Otherwise I like feeding half and half good dry with raw.

I have in the past fed all raw, and to be honest the dogs have done well on it and enjoyed it, but they do equally well on the dry, and enjoy their meals too.

My Dad saves all the household suitable edibles in Ice cream containers in his freezer, so they often get granddad specials as a treat. Nothing left over here goes to waste either it gets shred between them and their rations cut to take it into account.

As otyers have said dogs are individual, and most very adaptsable and will thrive on lots of different feedign regimes, so go with what suits your dog, you and your purse.

I would just generally stay clear of the very cheap completes, tin or dry.

brainless, your bit about your dad made me smile remembering a neighbour I had years ago. he lived alone, and any leftovers of food he had he passed onto me for my dog....he had really good food, so my boy became quite cheap to feed. Nice memories :)

waste not want not.

I only feed my dog dry food.  Although there are also plenty of scraps and treats she gets.  Such as going to "Grandma and Grandpa's" to get a special of treat of steak scraps and various bones or cheeses and such.
I do however spend an hour or a few of them each time I go into a petstore reading and comparing every ingredient label in dry and wet varieties and brand types.  There are so many choices of premium organic and "natural" and meat first varieties that prices, i notice are beginning to be pretty reasonable. 
Googling keywords like dog fod comparisons or various brands have also helped me to figure out what to look for in ingredient labels and what not to buy.  I have found the following article extremely helpful!

Scroll down to "The Manufacturing Process: How Pet Food Is Made"  It will also go further to explain common misconceptions of types of food, ingredients, and labels on products used for marketing purposes.

http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1

http://www.api4animals.org/articles?p=361&more=1

http://www.api4animals.org/catalog/index.php?main_page=document_general_info&cPath=20&products_id=95

Even given that this is an American site and would be of limited interest to most of our posters as completely different laws cover what goes into food here and how it is labelled, I think you also have to consider from want point such a site is setting out from ie an opposition to the whole pet food industry, globalisation, large business etc