Hi

I have been approached to try F Plan Dog Food and wondered if anyone here had any experience of it.  It lists amongst its ingredients Maize, Rice, Barley, Meat Meal, Soya Hulls, Beet Pulp, Bone Meal, Oils and Fats.

Any experiences or opions of this food would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

h

>or opions of this food would be greatly appreciated.

My Opinion?? :D Go out and buy a bag of grains and maize and mix in a teeny spoonful of meat and a bog standard vit/min powder,it would be much cheaper....

Seriously though,going by your list of ingredients it does not look like a good food at all. Too many commercial foods are geared up to feeding omnivor's(because it's much cheaper to produce) rather than carnivor's.It's no wonder our's is not a healthy dog population at all :(

For comparisons sake here are the first few ingredients of the food i feed,Orijen:

Fresh chicken meat, chicken meal (low ash), turkey meal, steamed russet potato, fresh-caught Northern Whitefish, chicken fat, fresh whole eggs, salmon meal, salmon and anchovy oils, tapioca, chicken broth, sunflower oil, flaxseed, Atlantic kelp.....

70% meat and 0% cereals.

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/orijen

Ugh.

Im sure it would make a dog thin without them feeling particularly hungry - its all filler and v little actual food.

You could probably achieve the same effect by feeding a teaspoonful of meat mixed into a big bowl of polystyrene beans.... (please, no one ACTUALLY feed their dog polystyrene beans....)

Ktee that Orijen stuff does look nice and i am a die-hard raw feeder! I might get a few of the small bags to see if they like it, as that at least gives me someting to feed when i go away/the freezer dies/someone forgets to defrost something... (no way could i afford to feed FIVE on that at £40 odd a sack!).

If you are actually dieting your dog, feed less food, bulk it out yourself with chopped up veggies - celery is cheap, most dogs seem to like the taste/crunch and that will fill your dog up without all the yack thats in that food...

Theemx,

Dont forget you will feed much less of a high quality kibble, I use Innova Evo occasionaly and find that actually as I use much less than I would any other kibble... the price is then the same!.. or rather I get more for my money (and I import form Canada so have customs/tax etc on top :( )

Is it suposed to be a diet food? I know the "F" plan was a diet in the 70's? If you are after a food for weight loss,Burns would be much better :)

I'll second that - I think the only time I haven't had a struggle to control my boy's weight was when he was on Burns.  He'd be on it now if I could afford it!

That Orijen stuff looks fantastic - way too pricey for me, sadly.  I avoid any foods where a cereal is the first on the ingredient list - and ideally not in the first five.  There's no need for them for a dog biologically, they aren't digested very well and it's all just to save money.

Hi HJ,

My first question, as I feel this is most pertinent would be why you were aproached or,more importantly.why you are considering this diet?
the reason I ask is this;

>There is no need for them for a dog biologically<

The above statement made earlier is not strrrrictly correct (as a blanket statement)
Credible research (Borne et al (1996) butterwick/Hawthorne (1998) to name the primary research papers)
now substantiates the use of High Fiber diets in the dietary management of Canine Diabetes (except underweight diabetic dogs)

If however you are considering this diet to manage canine obesity then its worth bearing in mind that the primary research papers used to substantiate the High Fibre diets are from 1996/98 also...where as today we have more research for example This paper from Blanchard at National Veterinary school Nantes (there are many more in BVA journals) shows the success in using High protien low energy diets to ensure (what I'd consider) a healthier wheight loss (with no loss of lean tissue)

Anecdotaly I rescued an Obese (clinically) Siberian 2 years ago.. I used a high protien- low energy diet (I feed a raw diet but at this time used some commercial dry food but one available only in the states Innova Evo a high protien kibble) anyyway! point is I had to establish a careful diet/excercise plan within 8 months of this we had the right BMI for the dog :)
  I went down this route as Ive fed for 20 years a med-high protein diet (in conjuction with excercise levels!) but also as High Fiber can reduce bioavailability of Minerals (and my breed is susceptible to certain mineral deficiencies)

It would be fair to say,however, there is not enough research (still!) on how dogs use Fiber....... ;)

Hi

Many thanks for everyone's input.  Huskygal you have confirmed what I thought myself.  The food is actually something my friend was considering.  Her dogs (Golden Retrievers) have been fighting with their waistline for a number of years.

They have been a normal weight for a couple of years now but one of them really is hungry most of the time.  I do appreciate that they are Golden Retrievers and acting as if they are starving is the norm but Jemma really takes this to the extreme.

I do have a little knowledge of feeding but thought that I would see what some of the more experienced people here had to say.

Nikita I appreciate what you are saying about Burns but I thought that I had read on this forum of some dogs feeling hungry when fed Burns.  At the moment the dogs are fed James Wellbeloved Senior which has certainly done the trick.

She can not feed a high protein diet as another of her dogs is a Soft Coated Wheaten who cannot eat high protein food due to the breed's chances of getting kidney problems.

I have to confess that I was worried about the protein level in the food.  Although I do not know much I do know that there is a huge difference between the protein level stated on the bag and the amount of digestible protein available to the dog.

I think that I will suggest that she try bulking out her normal food with bran and carrot.

h