Hi please can anyone tell me what they think of Barking Heads dog food please? I am wondering whether to switch my 5 month old puppy from Acana Puppy & Junior but I'm not sure what to switch to.  I find with Acana although it supposed to be a very good food that he has problems passing stools and that they are very hard like stones some times.  I don't know if this is normal or not.  He also goes in the morning at say 8 am then again at 10 then again at 12.30 and I don think he is evacuating his bowel properly.  So I wonder if perhaps the protein level in the Acana of 32% may be too high.  The food does contain unrefined oats and 60% chicken and veggies but I wonder if perhaps he needs something in his diet to help him go more easily.  They recommended Barking Heads at the pet store but I had not heard of it.  I would be grateful for your opinions. Thanks :-)

I tried it in the past and wasn't keen. My dogs seemed hungry in it but giving them more made them loose.  Seems to work well for some but I didn't continue after the first bag

Thanks for letting me know. I suppose it is like any food agrees with some but not with others.  :-)

Sorry I may not be much help as I feed raw meat and bone, our poos are always very hard and sometimes white and crumbly. I am sure the firmness helps express the anal glands too.

Nice hard firm poos are much nicer than the huge soft smelly ones!

I do however always keep a bag of kibble but just for treats, bed time and when we go out and leave them.
I have used and found that Orijen, Applaws and especially Millies Wolfheart (all grain free) are good foods, I will say that Millies Wolfheart does tend to soften their poos very slightly.
Try gently cooking/steaming some veg and add to his kibble.

Never used Barking Heads, dont want to either!

Poo shouldn't really be soft - well this is my knowledge from doing the same sort of research you are :) I looked at every food under the sun - rested on raw in the end. But acana is very close to a biological diet so the poop will be harder than if you were using processed kibble.

I tried Barking Heads for my westie but it brought up his allergies and on my girl it definitely didn't suit her tum.
I use Orijen Whole Prey Red at the moment for my boy and he loves it and so far no allergies from it at all as it is chicken free and doesn't seem to have any grain. Unfortunately - that one still didn't suit my girl and the only one that she is okay on is Hill Science Plan Rd low calorie food (which is hideous quality rubbish and my boy would definitely not be able to eat it but for some reason it suits my girl).
Orijen might be worth a go but to be honest you probably need to think about how many times you have changed food and over how many months - it takes quite some time for them to settle with any change of diet in my experience and probably more so with pups. Is Acana the first food your pup has been on with you or have you already changed him because of any problems - he might have a delicate digestive system like my girl does - in which case you have to try changes very very gradually and give them time to settle.

I just wondered had you have gone for a dry food over raw what would you have plumped for? I am hearing really good things about Millies Wolfheart but if the stools are normal on Acana and hard is ok I may as well leave him on it because he is fine otherwise.

I probably would have gone for Orijen or Acana (but it was so hard to get hold of locally and I'm rarely in at delivery times), another I was really keen on was Germany's Platinum - but it was only just coming into the UK at the time so wasn't readily available. I now use it as treats :D I had tried Ekuanuba and Iams but neither were appealing lol!

All of my dogs eat barking heads and raw (my choice and we are happy with our feeding) and they do very well on it. One of my girls has allergies and another had coat issues, both of which have calmed down A Lot since switching them. My boy also enjoys their 'fat dog slim'. He isn't fat or overweight but most other foods meant feeding him more and using a meaty topper to encourage him. With this, he'd quite happily eat it on its own. He eats less than any of my girls and so requires enough to keep him feeling satisfied between meals. We find the protein content good and enough for our lot. Their poos are well formed and not soft. There isn't a huge amount of it and it is easily picked up. There is also less farting!

The customer service department is really good and they sent me some sample packs when I rang to ask questions. Millies was too rich for my lot. I was feeding the lower advisable amount but they weren't getting enough and if I upped it, the poo was like dream whip topping. They lost condition and weren't happy. It was far too rich for the puppy we had at the time too. The fact they didn't like it coupled with cost meant I didn't persevere.

They have also tried arden grange - not interested, james wellbeloved - went on hunger strike, life stage - enjoyed, did well on it, good on budget BUT they changed the recipe, chappie - good but my lot got bored on it so we went raw and have barking heads too.

As for feeding raw, I have been advised that white and crumbly poos mean the dogs are not getting enough meat and too much bone. We usually up the meat or add another egg and lessen the bone content until poo is back to rights. Hope that helps.

As a raw feeder I agree with your advisor that a large amount of edible bone at one meal will be the cause of white crumbly poos the next day, but that does not mean that other meals will contain such a large amount of bone content though.
A natural raw diet will ballance itself over a period of a few weeks, it does not have to be ballanced every day!

I use Canagan and find it very good. Use the Salmon one.