| Took an innocent pet food related question 21:49 - Jun 26 with 6340 views | textbackup |
To a dog breed specific forum earlier today…
I think you’d get treated better if you said, on here, that you supported Tommy Robinson!
They were not happy that I mentioned I’d be moving my puppy to dry food as opposed to raw meat (at a cost of £5 a day 😂)
On looking, most were based in the USA.
However, what do you have your dogs on? We have a 2 year old golden retriever, been on dry her whole life, beautiful coat, healthy, clean teeth.
Just added a German Shepherd, 9 weeks old, the breeder had him on 1kg of raw meat a day! (Not even puppy food, was adult stuff) to me, seems a little excessive… my last GSD was on Aldi mixer and Aldi tins, lived to 13 and had only 1 vet visit his entire life!
Any advice would be welcomed |  |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 09:43 - Jun 27 with 2088 views | DanTheMan |
So we used to have ours on Edgard and Cooper which we got at trade price through some family, that was really good quality but weirdly it randomly started upsetting our dogs stomach.
Switched over to Harringtons (their Just range) and she's been better since the move.
We do the above with some Forthglade meat.
The things we tend to look out for though are just how many ingredients, usually the lower the better. Any of the dog food padded out with wheat and other weird things we tend to avoid.
Tried raw diet when my dog was a puppy and it upset her stomach. Equally, can work really well for some dogs.
Just whatever works really. |  |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 09:49 - Jun 27 with 2066 views | soupytwist |
We had to say goodbye to our nearly 10-year old Cocker Spaniel 4 weeks ago after he was diagnosed as having a ruptured tumour on his spleen. He had been healthy until then, only ever been to the vets for his jabs and to have some work on his teeth. It was sudden, unexpected and has hit the whole family like a ton of bricks.
Being a spaniel, he would eat pretty much anything and we fed him on various generic dry foods from the supermarket.
Given some of the answers in this thread I'm feeling like I might have mistreated him. We're looking to adopt another dog, not sure that our previous approach will cut it with the various adoption sources. If we end up with a dog that's accustomed to specific food we'll continue with the same thing obviously. |  | | |
| More likely his Mum. (n/t) on 09:52 - Jun 27 with 2060 views | Bloots |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 09:37 - Jun 27 by textbackup |
His wife won’t let him have one, we all know that’s the issue here. |
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| "He's been a really positive influence on my life, I think he's a great man" - TWTD User (May 2025) |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 09:55 - Jun 27 with 2058 views | ScotBlue |
We have 2 ex racing greyhounds [1 a failed one saw life was better not racing!!!] Fed on dry Aldi biscuits all their lfe with us and have perfect coats. Will also eat raw veg so when cooking is a mad scram for the off cuts of carrots, peppers etc. Sometime mix other foods in with the dry complete such as rice, porridge oats (is good for their coat) and gravy. They do sometimes get bored of the same dry biscuits so I mix in some gravy periodically. They obvioulsy also get all the scraps from our plates as well. My family have had show dogs for generations and mix the wet and dry food so they are not on one constantly. We tried it but found the greys preffered the dry and were less stinky!! They could fart and win olympic medals when on wet!!!! but I do understand that people have different views and as long as the dogs are happy and healthy that is all that matters. |  | | |
| I very, very much doubt…. on 09:57 - Jun 27 with 2059 views | Bloots |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 09:49 - Jun 27 by soupytwist |
We had to say goodbye to our nearly 10-year old Cocker Spaniel 4 weeks ago after he was diagnosed as having a ruptured tumour on his spleen. He had been healthy until then, only ever been to the vets for his jabs and to have some work on his teeth. It was sudden, unexpected and has hit the whole family like a ton of bricks.
Being a spaniel, he would eat pretty much anything and we fed him on various generic dry foods from the supermarket.
Given some of the answers in this thread I'm feeling like I might have mistreated him. We're looking to adopt another dog, not sure that our previous approach will cut it with the various adoption sources. If we end up with a dog that's accustomed to specific food we'll continue with the same thing obviously. |
…that you mistreated him in the slightest.
Don’t beat yourself up about it, losing anyone you loved often brings up irrational feelings of guilt.
I’m sure he loved you as much as you loved him.
Get back on track with another ASAP, | |
| "He's been a really positive influence on my life, I think he's a great man" - TWTD User (May 2025) |
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| My ex racer farted…. on 09:59 - Jun 27 with 2046 views | Bloots |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 09:55 - Jun 27 by ScotBlue |
We have 2 ex racing greyhounds [1 a failed one saw life was better not racing!!!] Fed on dry Aldi biscuits all their lfe with us and have perfect coats. Will also eat raw veg so when cooking is a mad scram for the off cuts of carrots, peppers etc. Sometime mix other foods in with the dry complete such as rice, porridge oats (is good for their coat) and gravy. They do sometimes get bored of the same dry biscuits so I mix in some gravy periodically. They obvioulsy also get all the scraps from our plates as well. My family have had show dogs for generations and mix the wet and dry food so they are not on one constantly. We tried it but found the greys preffered the dry and were less stinky!! They could fart and win olympic medals when on wet!!!! but I do understand that people have different views and as long as the dogs are happy and healthy that is all that matters. |
….like a trombone whatever I gave her!
Pretty sure water made her fart.
Funny though. | |
| "He's been a really positive influence on my life, I think he's a great man" - TWTD User (May 2025) |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 10:19 - Jun 27 with 2002 views | gtsb1966 |
P.s....if anyone feeds their dog on Lily's Kitchen food you earn too much. |  | | |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 10:21 - Jun 27 with 1997 views | itfckenty |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 09:49 - Jun 27 by soupytwist |
We had to say goodbye to our nearly 10-year old Cocker Spaniel 4 weeks ago after he was diagnosed as having a ruptured tumour on his spleen. He had been healthy until then, only ever been to the vets for his jabs and to have some work on his teeth. It was sudden, unexpected and has hit the whole family like a ton of bricks.
Being a spaniel, he would eat pretty much anything and we fed him on various generic dry foods from the supermarket.
Given some of the answers in this thread I'm feeling like I might have mistreated him. We're looking to adopt another dog, not sure that our previous approach will cut it with the various adoption sources. If we end up with a dog that's accustomed to specific food we'll continue with the same thing obviously. |
if you gave him care and love you didn't mis treat him. dogs are like humans, you can be the heathiest person in world and still get something terrible, I know someone who hasn't drunk, smoked and only ate healthy foods and they have terminal blood cancer.
sometimes it's pure luck. don't beat yourself up over it. |  | | |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 10:23 - Jun 27 with 1983 views | hoppy |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 21:57 - Jun 26 by Daninthecampo |
Burns is the best dry dog food, no idea of the cost as sadly cant get it here in Spain |
Do you just have to whack it in the bowl? |  |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 10:48 - Jun 27 with 1935 views | giant_stow |
I visit the mother in sort of law's lovely staffy cross, who was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago. She only eats chicken and is still going strong despite being ancient. Never used to understand dogs until I met Minty - she's the most lovely creature ever (as long as you're not a hedgehog, squirrel or cyclist) |  |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 11:24 - Jun 27 with 1898 views | Ryorry |
Worth noting that many boarding kennels won't accept dogs on a raw diet, & it could also be an issue if your mutt needed to go into vet. hospital.
Plus it needs a lot of freezer space! I tried the compressed 'Raaw' packs recently, which 28Kg Lab seemed to like - but they're v. small, cig packet size, & 3 a day for his weight just wouldn't fill him up, which I know would encourage his tendency to scavenge & eat non-food items.
Raw diet's difficult to get right nutritionally & needs additions of vits/mins in correct balance to do it well enough.
Alternatives:
Kibble - is *very* highly processed & many so-called top-brands are full of rubbish - meat "meal", "derivatives", floor sweepings ... read the ingredients labels - do good, decent ingredients like fresh meat, potatoes or rice, veg, broth, add up to nearly 100%? The one I've fed all my dogs on is made by a small family firm in Lancs, Simpsons Premium, & consists of nothing but fresh meat & either spuds or rice, plus veg, vits & mins. My large breed old boys lived to 14 & 13.5 respectively. Pricey but worth it, & reductions available for gundogs, no VAT.
I wouldn't stick with just kibble though, however good. Would you eat nothing but baked beans your entire life, even if you loved them? So I make kibble 50% only, the other 50% being either tins, trays or pouches of wet food -again, read the labels - best brands I've found are Pooch n Mutt, Naturo, Nature's Menu (also do tins of rabbit, which are brilliant); Thrive, Scrumbles, AATU, Fortheglade, Edgard & Cooper.
Single proteins in a meal are easier to digest than 2 or more.
I also add small amounts of highly flavoured fresh veg like peppers, tomatoes, cabbage to each meal - an anti-scavenging tip which my vet passed on to me which does seem to help (gives them exciting flavours which they might be craving, esp if young dogs like my now 15 month old). NB onions, leeks, garlic, tomato stems, raw potato, grapes - are all toxic to dogs.
Pet Supermarket (used to be Fetch, then Paws - the pet branch of Ocado) - do a great range of pet foods often not stocked anywhere else. |  |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 11:31 - Jun 27 with 1885 views | Big_Jase |
We feed our GSD, Raw, 1kg seems excessive as that’s pretty much what he has a day he weighs 50kg.
Have you tried Primal Raw? Prices aren’t too bad and based just off Dales Road.
We also top up his diet with eggs and veg.
We did hand feed to begin with with James Wellbeloved Dry Food, and he still has this on walks instead of treats, it’s about 50 quid for a 15kg bag. |  |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 11:52 - Jun 27 with 1859 views | MattinLondon |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 22:06 - Jun 26 by redrickstuhaart |
Noisy messy animals. This country is infested with them. Time we did something about it. |
I do like dogs but I do find some dog owners to be selfish - letting their dogs off their leash in a park to run up to small kids who don’t know that their ‘dog loves children’. Particularly dogs who in comparison to a young kid is like an excited horse running up to a grown man. |  | | |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 12:20 - Jun 27 with 1822 views | Ryorry |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 22:51 - Jun 26 by redrickstuhaart |
Nope. I am making a key point, tangential to the OP.
If people stopped having dogs, these issues wouldnt be a concern and the country would be a better place. |
You've been proved wrong in numerous studies - here's just one link outlining some of the benefits of dog ownership.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/get-health
When I moved to my new house a few years ago, I met most of my neighbours (now friends) through walking my mutt - here, as in many other parts of the UK, there's a very friendly 'canine community' - pretty much everyone will stop & chat about your/their mutt, & the convo then goes onto other things (a bit like on here).
Tho I do agree with Matt that some dog owners need to be a lot more considerate. | |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 12:44 - Jun 27 with 1772 views | textbackup |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 09:49 - Jun 27 by soupytwist |
We had to say goodbye to our nearly 10-year old Cocker Spaniel 4 weeks ago after he was diagnosed as having a ruptured tumour on his spleen. He had been healthy until then, only ever been to the vets for his jabs and to have some work on his teeth. It was sudden, unexpected and has hit the whole family like a ton of bricks.
Being a spaniel, he would eat pretty much anything and we fed him on various generic dry foods from the supermarket.
Given some of the answers in this thread I'm feeling like I might have mistreated him. We're looking to adopt another dog, not sure that our previous approach will cut it with the various adoption sources. If we end up with a dog that's accustomed to specific food we'll continue with the same thing obviously. |
Sorry to read this.
When my boy went it was the worse moment of my life. Couldn’t really comprehend what had just happened, and what I’d do without him.
It’s taken me nearly 3 years to get another (German shepherd) as the pain was evidently still there.
And on the mistreating point… I beat myself up for a long time about every time I moaned that he was in the way etc. but then had to tell myself he’d got 2/3 walk a day for 13 years, been fed twice, with treats (daily) was never at home for more than 4 hours alone, had a garden to ply in, and helped me go from being just me and him, to me him a wife and two kids!
He had a bloody good life, and made that time for me fantastic too. | |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 12:58 - Jun 27 with 1754 views | DarkHorse |
My vets have always argued against feeding raw food due to the contamination risks to both dogs and humans.
Had all sorts of problems in the past with his diet, but currently using Pure Pet Food (air-dried powder which you just add water to), supplemented with Pooch & Mutt kibble, and his poos are lovely  |  | | |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 13:57 - Jun 27 with 1710 views | ElephantintheRoom |
Having worked on dog and cat food development for over a decade perhaps I could add my tuppence worth.
The best nutritionists work in dog food for a very simple reason. A tin of Brand X has to provide complete nutrition for a pooch the size of a rat - or one the size of a donkey. So commercial dog food in the UK is incredibly well researched and complete nutrition.
A lot of horse sh!t is talked about dog food which is not surprising as they love eating it. Dogs are opportunistic scroungers and will eat anything. So it hardly matters what you feed it - but there are one or two pointers.
1. Price. The big pet food companies make a killing repackaging cheap dog food as premium dog food and selling it through niche distributors such as vets. One global company made more on flogging dog food through vets than all its toothpastes, mouthwashes etc combined
2 digestibility. The more digestible a food is the less comes out the other end. Sounds great - except a highly digestible diet marketed as City Diets aimed at urban pooches backfired spectacularly when it gave large breeds rampant diarrhoea. Luckily it was only test marketed in Mexico City
3. What’s in it. Most decent dog food is made from human grade food so you can’t go far wrong. But if you buy diets for fat dogs, old dogs, less active dogs be warned you’re paying a premium for air and roughage.
Puppies need a lot of protein to grow - and an Alsatian has a lot of growing to do. But they need far more than meat alone - and different meats have very different responses in the gut. Dogs also need a lot of fat for palatabily. An Alsatian will probably take a year longer than a medium sized dog to mature.
Dry food will maintain teeth better. Wet food guarantees tooth decay. A bit of both is probably welcome to your retriever too.
More important really than food is lifestyle and training. You may be aware that alsatians have been bred for deformity for so long in the UK that their chances of avoiding crippling back and hip problems are almost non existent. Best to exercise regularly and keep the dog stimulated as an active dog is a happy healthy dog. 90% of dogs are overweight due to too much food and not enough exercise
But in answer to your question you’ll find the best quality foods are now in supermarkets - and dry is outselling wet food now because it is convenient and balanced. Don’t be fooled by chicken and rice, venison and avocado etc etc that just to fool owners and done by an active dog food if your active breed isn’t very active. Don’t buy the most expensive - ideally go for a cheap or mid priced product - and have a look what’s in it.
IF your dogs are active then it makes sense to buy a premium active dog mix IF it isn’t exactly the same as their cheaper range. Helpful hint, read the label. It costs more, but you feed less / and scoop up less poop (an important consideration when you have 2 large dogs) | |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 05:00 - Jun 28 with 1607 views | ITFC2324 |
Alot of the premium priced brands aren't actually good quality products.
My 10-year-old GSD has been on this German stuff for years, after it was recommended by a colleague (who'd been advised to use it for her own GSD by a qualified animal behaviourist they were using at the time). It's sometimes advised to avoid a very high protein content if there are any issues with anxiety/energy/being reactive/aggressive. Not relevant to you but it was meant to be a good food in general anyway.
It's relatively cheap because they don't bother spending money on marketing, hence why it doesn't look pretty enough to sell here. Mine's large for a GSD (weighs about 42kg and still lean despite his age). A 15kg bag (£39) lasts a month (250g x 2 a day). Vets always say his teeth are good (never cleaned them and only started giving him a denta stick as a treat every evening relatively recently).
Zooplus is a good site too. Delivery has always been quick, even when I've ticked the eco box when not urgent (I stay a 15kg bag ahead in case of world issues as can't buy it here last time I checked) . I bought the yearly discount code they offer to knock a few quid off each time and you get points for purchases too (doesn't help with away games but useful when he needs big new Kong squeaker balls!)
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/markus_muehle/14524?variantId=1 | | | |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 05:10 - Jun 28 with 1600 views | tcblue |
My dog's absolute favourite thing to eat is the poo of other dogs, so I don't really think he's much of a connoisseur. Maybe I should ask the owners of the dogs what they feed their dogs to make their poo so delicious.
TL;DR - whatever is on sale at Costco | | | |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 08:36 - Jun 28 with 1522 views | ElephantintheRoom |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 05:10 - Jun 28 by tcblue |
My dog's absolute favourite thing to eat is the poo of other dogs, so I don't really think he's much of a connoisseur. Maybe I should ask the owners of the dogs what they feed their dogs to make their poo so delicious.
TL;DR - whatever is on sale at Costco |
We’re looking after my son’s Jack Russel and moggie at the moment I was wondering why there was nothing disgusting in the cat litter tray to pick up. Then I noticed the dogs breath smelt. Cuts down the food cost I guess.
Poo eating is something that God thought a great deal about. On the 6th day after he’d finished making Ebola he got around to horses and gave them a fermentation chamber in their large intestines. Only snag with that design is that to get the nutrition released from the fermented grass, horses have to eat their poo - which people with green wellies and a range rover don’t like to see. … so the next day God designed cows and camels with a fermentation chamber before their intestines. That worked a treat before guardian readers reckoned the gaseous products of a vegetarian diet is killing the world. So God stopped work on the 7th day. | |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 08:58 - Jun 28 with 1502 views | redrickstuhaart |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 12:20 - Jun 27 by Ryorry |
You've been proved wrong in numerous studies - here's just one link outlining some of the benefits of dog ownership.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/promotions/harvard-health-publications/get-health
When I moved to my new house a few years ago, I met most of my neighbours (now friends) through walking my mutt - here, as in many other parts of the UK, there's a very friendly 'canine community' - pretty much everyone will stop & chat about your/their mutt, & the convo then goes onto other things (a bit like on here).
Tho I do agree with Matt that some dog owners need to be a lot more considerate. |
Thats not proof im wrong. No stufy has shown life without them.
Its a very selfish attitude. You like dogs and they are good for you, so who cares about people who dont like them but still have to step in their mess, listen to their constant yapping, and change where they walk because of dogs of leads bounding up when unwanted. | | | |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 09:56 - Jun 28 with 1463 views | Buhrer |
| Took an innocent pet food related question on 08:58 - Jun 28 by redrickstuhaart |
Thats not proof im wrong. No stufy has shown life without them.
Its a very selfish attitude. You like dogs and they are good for you, so who cares about people who dont like them but still have to step in their mess, listen to their constant yapping, and change where they walk because of dogs of leads bounding up when unwanted. |
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| Took an innocent pet food related question on 10:01 - Jun 28 with 1446 views | Lesta_Tractor |
Our cockerpoo has dry food plus a scrambled egg at the weekend.
Treat wise she gets a lot of chickens feet and dried sprats. |  |
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