My lot are all quite fussy especially my very actice gsd x ess, they are on AG salmon and rice with a bit of naturediet mixed in.  My OH says all this "expensive" food is not worth the money as they don't eat it.  This is an ongoing argument in our house.  I always feel I am doing right feeding expensive foods BUT he has a point.  Problem is what food would I try that is cheaper but good quality as I know if it wasn't I just would'nt stick with it.  I am sure there are many dog owners who never worry what food their dogs have and they probably live a long and healthy life but I'm afraid I am past that as have read too much into it all!! It drives me mad sometimes, but can't help it!! Any help please

Hi I also have a fussy eater and also one that is no problem to feed both toy poodles, I have like you read up on the various different brands of dog food and tried several. I have settled now on Royal Canin mini sensible which I put in Kongs for them in the morning and they then have a sachet of natures menu between them at night. I try not to worry if they don,t eat the dried food in the morning but the younger of the two is always ready for his food at night although his older brother sometimes doesn't eat his immediately so I pick it up and offer it again later in the evening. These foods are also expensive but they are supposedly good quality food which is why I buy them.

Hi STREETMUTT...one of mine is very fussy...she will pick at her meal eating only small amounts. I bought some mixed frozen farmhouse veg from tesco £1.03 a bag for 1.2kg and boil it up each day for their tea...a bag lasts 3 days between 2 of them mixed in with their complete.
she loves it and never leaves a morsal,and of course its good for them....you can cut down on complete as well. HTH.

Have you tried adding different things each day in small amounts, like Tripe, sardines, tuna, other meat etc? Or giving the occasional chicken wing? (I am assuming you have tried putting the food down for a short period, picking it up and not feeding till the next meal?)

My husband is always moaning at me to buy cheaper dog food, especially when someone told him they feed their great danes on Wagg, at £8 a bag or something. I just tell him I woudl rather eat beans on toast every night than give my dogs cheaper food...

I just tell him I woudl rather eat beans on toast every night than give my dogs cheaper food...

Totally agree with you!!

As you can see from my post above I feed Natures Menu and Royal Canin Mini sensible to my two poodles, I buy these 2 foods as my local Pet Corner in Horsham and also the one in Crawley Pets Corner advised me to choose foods that did not have Meat and Animal Derivatives in the ingredients list. This of course limits the choice to the more expensive foods such as Natures Menu, Nature Diet, Nature Harvest to name a few,but as I was advised to feed these I am happy to spend the extra on them. I am of course not trying to say that some of the cheaper foods are no good but when you have been given advice it is hard to ignore.

I was mortified when my WSS pup turned down almost everything I offered him, including the exact foods he'd been eating with gusto at home with his litter mates...suddenly everything seemed to bore him--except what was on our plates. It got to the point where I was embarrassed for his breeder to see him in case she thought I was starving him. I even cut down on his exercise. Some wise person at a show recommended sticking him on tripe dinners and although I was a little sceptical he has done well ever since on a mix of Prize Choice (tripe and beef, chicken, but especially rabbit), mixed with a good complete meal. He is one year old today and this is the first time I can honestly say he looks well filled out. Good luck and persevere!

As for cheap foods, we pretty much know what happens to people when they live on poor diets--there's always the exception, but how much of a gambler do you really want to be with your dog's health? Whatever you save could disappear on the first of many vet bills.

I wonder if any of you could give me an idea as to what I feed my 5 dogs is considered to be 'cheap food', I would hate to think that they are on a poor diet.

The adult Golden (nearly 10 years), Border Collie (nearly 10 years), and Sheltie (nearly 3 years) are all on IAMS with occasional helping of Butcher's tinned or sardines.
The 2 Sheltie pups (6 and 7 months) are still on the same food as the breeder was feeding which is Pedigree Puppy Complete mixed with Pedigree Puppy cans or pouches.

I feel very mean as I do not give any treats ecept the odd raw carrot.

Nicola i class iams on the same scale as Science plan...Inflated prices for a substandard food. It's not a terribly bad food,but you could feed a much better quality food for a similar price or cheaper.

>some mixed frozen farmhouse veg from tesco £1.03 a bag for 1.2kg and boil it up each day for their tea...a bag lasts 3 days between 2 of them mixed in with their complete.
>she loves it and never leaves a morsal,and of course its good for them....you can cut down on complete as well. HTH.

Can i just add my opinion on the last sentence :) I wouldn't cut down on their normal food if feeding veggies,they are usually used to bulk out a "dieting" dogs food,temporarily.They don't get a great deal of health benefits from veg as i understand it,they are after all carnivores.

Real meat usually tempts fussy dogs ;) I think the only dogs who happily eat boring old kibble are the chow hounds of the dog world.

> you could feed a much better quality food for a similar price or cheaper.
>

I agree Ktee :-)  There really is no corelation between cost and suitability.   Nobody should feed something to their dog that does not suit them but they should never feel in the least bit guilty about feeding the cheapest that does.

How about going raw. If you can get it from a reasonable source. I believe  now after using completes that it is the best for my dogs and is certainly no more expensive and can be cheaper if you are careful. Once you get going it is really easy

I would simply give them the dry and if they don't eat it then it goes down for their next meal, saves a lot of waste.

I have had two fairly fussy and one extremely fussy one.

Got some frozen tripe mince yesterday, added that to their meals, they were going crazy for the smell until I put the dishes down! Then when they realised it was mixed with complete (AG)  my fussiest walked off, the others picked at their dinner. Is it possible to feed a balanced diet with these frozen meats and veg etc.,?

For Ktee and Isabel

Seeing as how IAMS is not the cheapest going, could you suggest some brands that would give me better quality for a similar price? When I eventually get round to weaning the pups off the puppy food I had intended to put them on whatever the adult dogs are on, so suggestions there would be useful

My Cocker has natures best and eats v.little. Border is on Beta from day 1 and clears the lot. Whistler will go about 2 days and on the third clear the lot. Ive started him on a small N.Best breakfast and a small tea and that sems to work better. we tried Jake on a "better" feed but he got the runs and was best on what he knew. But Jake eats 2 bags to Whistlers 1 so it cost about the same in the end. Id stick to what they know and just add some veg on occassions for a change.

I feed Beta.  Don't know if it is the cheapest.  I have fed it for years with very good results so don't spend any time comparing but I think it would be cheaper than Iams.  If cost was an issue to me though, I would be happy to try any of the foods on the UK market as they are all of a standard to meet the requirements of a dog and just see what suited them.

>How about going raw. If you can get it from a reasonable source. I believe  now after using completes that it is the best for my dogs and is certainly no more expensive and can be cheaper if you are careful. Once you get going it is really easy

I totally agree and if my dogs don't want to eat, i just take the dish away and put it in the fridge. They always wallop it back the next day. A day of starvation is good for dogs anyway. They wouldn't eat everyday in the wild.

Liz

Nicola,check out;

Arden Grange
Jameswellbeloved
Wainwrights
Wafcol salmon&Potato
Kirkland

My personal favourites are Orijen and Timberwolf organics,available from http://www.zooplus.co.uk

If you're concerned about ingredients and want to give your dog a food without fillers and other unnecessary ingredients stay away from Beta,purina in general, and pedigree.

Oh boy, it seems as though this feeding malarky is almost a Science in itself :)
I must admit I was always under the impression that all of the commercial products all had to be of a certain nutritional value to maintain a healthy dog, and that the more expensive foods were due to better quality ingredients being used.

I didn't realise that some completes are packed out with fillers and other unnecessary 'stuff'.

I have over the years with my older girls used Hills Science Diet (no go nobody liked it) Eukanuba and Beta (Collie wouldn't touch it) James Well Beloved (gave Goldie the trots) Bakers (I didn't like it, well the colours actually not the taste!!), they all like IAMS, Pedigree even dare I say it Tesco's own and Winalot.

So I can only conclude that my girls do not have a discerning pallete between them and have absolutely no class, mind you saying that anything that can relish fox muck or a rank dead fish carcass has no sense of taste. :)
I will however check out some of your suggestions and see if I can educate the pups :)

> it seems as though this feeding malarky is almost a Science in itself

Yes, nutrition is a science! :-D

> I didn't realise that some completes are packed out with fillers and other unnecessary 'stuff'.

They are not necessarily unnecessary :-).  Fibre is more important to some dogs than others.  It helps maintain healthy bowels and empty anal glands and, again, importantly to some fillers help match an appetite to the nutrition they really need.
Another error is to equate expense to quality.  The cost of an ingredient is dictated by the cost of its production including rising transport costs not by the level or quantity of nutrients it holds.  Similarly just because a food is cheap to produce and consequently commonly used does not mean it is not perfectly nutritious.  Like you say all commercial products have to be fit for purpose and dog food is no exception.   I expect a lot of people will be rediscovering this fact as the recession continues :-)

Isn't it odd how perfectly normal sensible adult women can get so involved in our dogs guts and bowels :)
Luckily for me at the moment my girls are happy and enjoy the IAMS which is just as well as Tesco had a stunning offer a few months back and I bought £200 quids worth for half price!!!

Only about 6 more sacks to go!!!

All complete dog food contains the 52 amino acids that are necessary for a dogs diet. That is a fact, otherwise they wouldn't be allowed to market themselves as a complete food.
Saying that the pet food market is as wide ranging as the human food market.
I could probably get all my days nutrients from poor quality cheap processed food, I'm lucky im a human and can make that choice for myself.

> Saying that the pet food market is as wide ranging as the human food market.
>

Not really, despite what students may say about Pot Noodles there really is not equivalent complete human food. :-)

>I could probably get all my days nutrients from poor quality cheap processed food

Then how could it be described as poor quality?

I'sa a gettin lost here honey's :)
Is somebody saying my girls are on cheap processed food?

Yes, but they are also saying it will meet all your dogs needs :-)  No wonder people get lost! :-D

Cheers Isabel your a star.
I am quite new to the forum and I have to say some times the threads go off at such a tangent that I basically 'lose the thread' :), mind you I s'pose that's not surprising when a bunch of women get gassing :)

>> it seems as though this feeding malarky is almost a Science in itself

Yes and no :-D It's not that difficult once you know the basics. I find feeding my dogs is not a whole lot different to feeding my children. They get plenty of fresh,whole foods,lots of variety is the key here.And when i feed a packaged food i look for one with the least amount of fillers and unnecessary crap as i can find,in my dogs case this means a product that is meat based,colour free,no nasty preservatives,low/no grain,by product free etc etc.

Pet food manufactures would have us believe that feeding our pets is an exact science,and that only they can produce a "complete and balanced" food,and us lay dumb dumb's couldn't formulate an adequate diet for them.But this couldn't be further from the truth,as myself and millions of other pet owners have been feeding our pets from our kitchens since the dog/human relationship evolved.

Good nutrition is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to maintain the good health of our dogs.It is one of THE most important things we can do for our beloved companions.

>I'sa a gettin lost here honey's

>Is somebody saying my girls are on cheap processed food?

To be fair,you did ask :)

>I wonder if any of you could give me an idea as to what I feed my 5 dogs is considered to be 'cheap food', I would hate to think that they are on a poor diet.

well i'm not saying there is a complete human food- pot noodle or whatever, i was trying to imply that for example, you can get vitamin c from a fresh orange, you can also get vitamin c from from a glass of something like 'sunny d'.