To all you food experts who know how to suss out a good food by reading the ingredients...please teach me :-D

A change in food is inevitable here and rather that just me ask "whats good, is this good, what do you think" etc. etc. I want to be able to read the ingredients because there are going to be limitations on availability in the area etc. and so I thought it would be a good idea to know what to look for and how to make a decision....other than how my dog does on a food, that goes without saying, but to know what to choose in the first place!

Any help much appreciated!

I would expect a commercial food to state the main protein source ie chicken, lamb, beef etc avoid those which say meat derivatives as you cannot possibly know what exactly this means and it also allows the content to change from batch to batch.

It should also state the minimum %age of the food which is meat.

As far as grains are concerned I would choose oats, rice, as the most preferable cereals, I would definitely avoid maize and wheat. 

Look for grain splitting which is used as a method of disguising how much cereal is actually in the food eg whole rice, brewers rice, rice flour etc is all rice.........

Sugar beet pulp is added as either a source of fibre or FOS, personally I prefer to avoid paying money for ingredients that have little or no food value.

Brewers Yeast can be problematic for some dogs as can flaxseed oil.

No food requires added salt or sugar or colourings................

Generally less is more IME.........

HTH

Thanks tohme, I begin my research today!

It's easy to read the ingredients you just pick up the packet and look! :)  The real question is does it meet all the requirements for a dog in terms of adequate nutrients and of course all the foods on sale in the UK do.  Then its just a question of what matters to you in terms of ingredients, obviously if an allergy is involved in this necessary change the lack of the ingredient is going to be very important but others will vary in importance to individuals for instance Tohme does not wish to feed derivatives or unnamed meats but you might be like me and have no qualms what so ever, certainly my dogs don't :) as long as the necessary nutrients are present and they enjoy it I'm perfectly happy with back end of Zeebu meat previously passed through a civet cat (did you know there is a highly prized coffee bean than is eaten and pooped out by a cat in S.America? :D).  Similarly sugars and indeed colourings may not be necessary but they do no harm either (unless the dog is allergic to them or diabetic of course) so again I would not rule out any food on that basis.  Never had any dog that had any issues with any grains either. The choice of whether these things matter to you is just down to you, really, you have to decide and then seek the particular food that contains, whatever, then just hope your dog likes it too ;)

Well you learn something new every day! :-D

I'm not sure what is important to me really, the reason for the change is that we had Millie on Burns for a year, but apart from being awkward to get hold of, she was also produced an awful metallicy fishy smell which she would leave behind after sitting on your lap - now she goes to the groomers regularly so we were pretty sure it wasn't an anal gland situation, but at the time she was being fed on fish flavour Burns, had tinned oily fish on fridays for her itchy coat and also had tuna occasionally for dinner, but usually at least once a week for a lunchtime snack when I have tuna sandwiches and so we considered it a fair possibility that someone who eats that much fish and fish flavouring is pretty likely to leave a bit of smell behind when she leaves so when the last bag of Burns ran out, we went for a temporary switch of foods.  For some reason I have no idea of, we went for Sainsburys Select Cuts, because we go to Sainsburys every week and was therefore convenient and I am wary of most other brand foods from visiting here, but why I thought Sainsbury's own brand would be any better I don't know, but it was a snap decision.

So anyway, the smell has cleared up considerably and with Sainsburys pet food factory burning down and the shelves being empty, it has reminded me that I need to make a definite decision about food.  I have had to switch to Chappie temporarily although she doesn't like it (*hear's tohme cringe at that remark!*) but obviously to avoid keep switching her about I need to make a decision once and for all and stick to it. 

The obvious choices are a different flavour of Burns although its awkward to get, and OH isn't a big fan of dried foods, or Naturediet from PAH but means a special trip to PAH and bulk-buying which isn't very good in our tiny victorian galley kitchen.  So I want to consider some other options of foods that are available from Sainsburys but I don't want to make a decision based on convenience for me if all the food available there really is cruddy, but at the same time I don't want to go to a big amount of trouble just to get Burns or ND if there's something I am happy with that can be picked up with my own food on a Sunday, so I want to do a bit of research and know what to look out for and what to avoid.

Sorry that was a bit long, I do try to keep them short but it never happens!

If all the food available in supermarkets really was "cruddy" the dog population would be in a bad way as a great deal of owners choose these and yet the dog population is at its healthiest in history :)  As I say all UK foods are safe and meet all the requirements of nutrition after that it is just down to you or your dog's preference.  I would just have a look at what is available without fish and try it, you will soon know if it is suiting your dog or not :)

You're right, that sounded awful what I put!  But you know what I mean, just that I want to be able to make a slightly informed decision rather than just picking the Pedigree because there's more yellow in the aisle than anything else :-D
For example, I know myself from experience when I brought Millie home on Bakers, that food heavily-loaded on the sugars and additives isn't really a good thing because I was cowering on the furniture to escape the half-crazed, wild-eyed, sugar-filled 8 week old puppy who was terrorising me!  So I try to strike a happy medium, I'll never be a barfer (too much organisation involved eg defrosting, shopping, planning) but at the same time I don't want to buy the cheapest one with the pretty shapes on the box, if its going to send my dog loopy :-D

Feel like I'm digging myself a hole here, just want to clarify that I'm not saying Bakers is no good, or any food with pretty shapes, coz I just remembered some people that happily feed that, just that my dog reacted badly to it and was completely fruitloop and....gah, I'm sorry, I love all brands of dog food and they are all superb, honest :)

Don't worry oh! humble creature :D we do know not every food will suit every dog :).  So we have narrowed it down to nothing with fish, colouring, possibly added sugar.  Most foods boast no colouring on the packaging if that is what they are offering and sugar will be listed on the ingredients (although I doubt a little will send your dog loopy)  What do you have on offer at your Sainsbury's?  What about any local pet shops, I know that is not quite as convenient as the family shop but it could widen your choice considerably.

I haven't got as far as finding out what they have at Sainsbury's yet, that's the next step in the investigation!

We have a couple of tiny petshops in town, one is only half a petshop, the other half being computer games but herein lay the other problem that I don't drive so I would either cart home bags of Burns on the bus, or on the occasions I would get OH to town at weekends, the whole place is pedestrianised and having just shut down two car parks there is a real town crisis going on with no parking except for those who get there at 7am on a Saturday morning.  Which takes me back to Sainsburys ha ha.

Progress report, I've turned OH into a food snob in the past ten minutes, and now he is all concerned about animal derivatives and has given a committment to taking me to PAH every week if there is a food there I like.

One thing I have noticed from looking at the commercial foods online is that although I know they usually over guesstimate, they tend to suggest that Millie should have anything from 3-6 cans or pouches a day depending whereas one tray of Naturediet would do the same job so that has now become a main factor. 

I'll get there, isn't this fun! ha ha :-D

So the next time you make a roast and use the animal derivatives in the pan to make a lovely gravy he's going to turn his nose up? ;)

make gravy?  MAKE it??!!!

jess, if your dog does well on Chappie then only a food fascist would cringe, it is after all, your dog not mine :D

Don't forget a lot of people will deliver food such as Burns, Naturediet etc which may help. 

At the end of the day we all have to make compromises of SOME sort. :D

tohme, it wasn't the fact that she was temporarily on Chappie that would make you cringe but the fact that she doesn't 'like' it much - i know your views on that and I sort of agree too, that a dog will eat what its given and she does eat it eventually if her other choice is 'no food', just I know she isn't 'as keen' :-D

I've had Burns delivered, its just that to make it economical I usually order a couple at a time, and then I have to find somewhere to put them as we only have half a cupboard spare, so we have Burns on top of the fridge, Burns on the counter, Burns in the cupboard...and also I am very unorganised and don't always remember to order in time before we run out :p

I know the feeling, I myself live in a rabbit hutch and food storage can be a problem.

TBH I like my dogs to ENJOY their food though :)

jessthepest -

If I understand this right, you want to switch to a brand of food which is available in your Sainsburys, but you're not sure which one is best - is that right?

If so, give us a list of which foods are available there.

And why don't you want to order it online and have it delivered to your house?  That way your choice of food is much larger.

One fact to remember is that food with higher meat content is more bio available to a dog than one with a high cereal content -high meat and rice content less stool production, high cereal content loads of poo-jo 

But is low output a good thing?  I've certainly owned dogs that did not do at all well on low output foods infact was so horribly constipated she cried as she pooed :(  We went straight back to a diet with at least 3% fibre.  I find large well formed fibrous stools much more effective at emptying my dogs anal glands too something a lot of other posters have attested to.

Even a dog food with a high meat content can contain at least 3% fiber, I know the food my dog is on contains 60% rice and meat and 4% fiber, don't be confused that what a dog cannot absorb must be fiber its not its undigested cereal and the like-jo 

Sorry jo, but if its not digested and passes through thats fibre to me :)  It's not just the meat content though that particular dog, very prone to colitis, was much better on a grainy food and indeed all of mine have done well on them.

But most dogs do not have colitis and that's a different scenario, if you add the fiber that's put in the food to the undigested cereal content of waste could be as high as 40%
Now that's a hell of a lot of waste and you will have to feed more of a high cereal based food in order to maintain the correct levels -JO  

I'm sure the celulose part of the cereal is already counted within the fibre content as that is what it is.  As I say all of my dogs have done well on them.  I'm not bothered about the waste, it is biodegradable so won't destroy the planet :) and its just as easy to scoop up a nice fat poo as a little bitty one :) and best of all nice fat poos empty anal glands very effectively.  Feeding more bulk is a good option for the trenchermen amongst dogs too!

there was a little research in humans into whether more fibre was better or worse. basically there were done in a tribe in south africa that eats loads and loads of fibre and there poos were larger and less firm against those people in another country that don't eat as much fibre and therefore their poos are harder. anyway i am not too sure of the exact details but they found that the tribe had a much lower insidence of bowel cancer than the other group as the larger poos cleaned out the system more effectivly.

i am not sure it really matters in dogs as they don't live nearly as long but it is just another aspect of this discussion.

hope this makes sense
anna

I did read somewhere that fibre is useful in helping the residue pass through the alimentary tract in dogs, as well as providing consistency to stools......

I am no expert & don't know whether the following commect is true (perhaps there is someone reading this who does know)..but, I was told by a breeder of GSD'S that fibre fed to dogs has the opposite effect on them, that it does to humans. It was recommended to me to feed extra fibre to get a bit of weight on my dog. I have not tried it, as I have found a food that does suit my dog. I have been feeding Burgess Supadog Lamb & Rice Sensitive for the last 6 months or so, and we have not looked back. My dog is coming up for 3, so it could also be an age thing, as I know some are late to mature.

If you want to find out what an ingredient actually is, go here:

http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=ingr-wiz-results&pxsl=%2F%2Fingredient

Very good site  for information -JO

>>Very good site  for information

Thank you.  I like it for their ingredient information. 

I am pretty ignorant.  I have no idea what Defluorinated Phosphate is, for example, when I see it on an ingredient listing, but that site will tell me.

http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/index.php?page=main

... another good site... if you are more intelligent than me and can make sense of it all!   ;)