# Dry Dog foods - Preferences



## Jack Spaniel (Jul 6, 2012)

Reading throughh many reviews, posts on this and other sites, it seems that there are many opinions held on the various available dry (kibble) dog foods. One can find stories of dogs that refuse to eat almost any of the well known brands, owners who object to the colour and/or smell of the food, plus there is an amazing range of prices. Cost of a 15 kg bag can range from £10 to £45, dependant on make or vendor. When reading the ingrediants there does not appear to be much difference between the cheapest and the most expensive. My previous dog had Wagg (one of the cheapest) all his life and loved it,(he hated Science Diet). He was healthy with a shiny coat and I can't believe his dog food and any cause or effect on the cancer that ended his life.
Can anyone make case for or against any of the dry foods on the market? Is it necessary to pay the top end prices? Is the name on the bag important? Do we believe the 'own make' and generally cheaper brands are bad for your dog? 
What do you think? Which do you use?


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## Woo (Oct 5, 2011)

I will be very interested in this thread as I have just asked a question about a food brand that someone (not on here) told me was the "worst food I could feed".


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## wendybuck (Aug 29, 2012)

Good question, its all quite confusing. I too will be interested, we pick our pup up on Wed and so far have not bought any food. (The breeder uses Royal Canin). It would be handy to have little taster packs available to buy. Our previous dog had Iams all her life with no problems, but these days it seems a bit of a minefield.


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## n1ven (May 29, 2012)

We use Royal Canin, Bobby was fed it by the breeder too. The odour is not overpowering and he seems to like it. 
I too would be interested to see the responses as we've been considering Wainwrights - the Pets at Home own brand.


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## Stanhope (Apr 23, 2012)

We had royal canin, until we went to puppy classes and the 'expert' with '20 years dog' experience said its the worst food as its full of maize and is making her hyper! I'm not a fan of this woman as you maybe able to tell, but my wife seems to believe every word she says! We are now on burns, i can't see a difference in a week!!


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## Woolacombe (Feb 28, 2011)

*Dry foods*

My boy Dexter aged 4 has been on Vets Kitchen for the last 12 months and seems to be thriving on it.


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## Jack Spaniel (Jul 6, 2012)

Seems like people are using the £50ish for 15kg bags end of the market.
Is anyone using the bottom end, e.g. Wagg, supermarket/Pet store 'own brand', and do you have any comments? Wagg is on sale all over the place so there must be loads of dogs eating it and I don't read any horror stories. I looked at Fishmongers on line and it was around £62 for 15kg which really is expensive to my way of thinking.


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## Hfd (Aug 19, 2011)

Billy came from his breeder on Royal Canin and stayed on it till he was about a year but he never seemed to particularly enjoy it. 
We changed him to Barking Heads a couple of months ago and he likes that better - maybe in part that there are 3 different flavours so he gets a bit of variety.
A respected dog lady near us who used to do crufts with her dogs for many years told us 'if you can buy your type of food in a supermarket don't feed it you your dog'. Maybe a bit extreme?!! 
H x


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## Jack Spaniel (Jul 6, 2012)

Well I hope none of you drink any wine bought from a supermarket then.


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## RubyCockapoo (Feb 5, 2011)

We use Natural Dog Food Company - it was cheaper than Royal Canin and had better ingredients. I've posted on here before that the Royal Canin we needed to move to contains Taurine - the active ingredient in Red Bull (hence the name I think) and Ruby didn't need an energy boost!

Ian


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## theaccessman (Mar 12, 2012)

I used the following link to educate myself on dog food

Hope it helps

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/


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## Cat 53 (Aug 26, 2012)

I swapped my mini to Burns because I was looking for a wheat free brand for her. She had very flaky skin and was scratching all the time. She enjoys it, but minis are not fussy eaters. Her skin has improved and she is not pooing as much. Our new puppy is being fed Fish4dogs by the breeder. I may put them both on that, or I may swap Max to Burns.


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## jenlee (Sep 25, 2012)

We are switching to Horizon Pulsar now. We checked the Food Dog Advisory board for ratings and found that Royal Canin had quite a few products in it that there may be problems with... Pulsar has only 1 and got a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars which is great! Our local pet store also loves it which we found out after our research. We'll see how it goes.....


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## Hfd (Aug 19, 2011)

Jack Spaniel said:


> Well I hope none of you drink any wine bought from a supermarket then.


Oh I'm much less picky with my wine, quite happy to have that from anywhere!!
H x


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