Josh has a bit of trouble with his tum. He has been on Burns for 5 weeks and still having problems. The vet suggested Chappie but somehow it seems strange to give my dog one of the foods that I used to consider to be bottom of the range!
I have read some good reviews on it for dogs with iffy tums but unfortunately also came up with loads of information about additives and chemicals in commercial dog foods which can ultimately lead to renal failure. (not particulary aimed at chappie but general on commercial foods) eeek :o Does anyone make their own food, have read up a bit on this too, but remember giving him minced turkey once and wow talk about runs! Just wondered what general opinion is on here?

you can't feed a dog purely meat for starters - so tht may explain that one

Chappie was something we regarded as cheap many years ago - but it was the food that didn't upset our JRT's tum, so that's what he had :)

Apparently so I have been told by many people, vets included, you should try to keep an eye on the meat content. A lot of foods have a description of 7% meat content (includes derivitives) derivitives are claws, beaks, eyes etc. We changed our dogs to Hi Life which is 24% meat & no derivitives. This is a wet food, mine are not keen on dry food but I do throw a handful of wainwrights (again same kind of content) in for their teeth.

Chappie has been known to sort out dogs tums (high fish base). However It does have a lot of crap in it as Lindsey has discribed. I think they are also owned by Pedigree Masterfoods / Mars, who test on animals if you are bothered by that. (You dont need to answer that question as we have debated this many times on the forum) but some people want to be aware.

yes - Chappie is a Pedigree product

I dislike using masterfoods products, but when my dog had stomach trouble (colitis) chappie helped. (it was pretty much the same in texture etc as the ?science diet? in cans(?)

He has dry food these days, high in chicken and rice. He rarely seems to get colitis these days (unless he's been a little tinker, and pinched the cats food or something) thank DOYC.

Red meats and game are definitely too rich for his poor old tum.

My youngest Sam has problems with intersting bowel movements due to a sensitive tummy. He does well on JWB ocean fish for his regular meals and I give him Nature Diet once a week for a treat.

It smells! That's my opinion, lol!
I can't feed it to my dog as the smell of it makes me feel like I'm about to throw up. My husbands parents always feed it to her and their dog after we've eaten, then they both come up to me with their stinky breath and argh, it's not nice to smell anyway but especially not after eating, lol!

Does anyone else think it's stinky or is it just me?
Other foods seem to smell quite yummy, haha!

Our vet had positive things to say about Chappie when we were looking to sort out Raymond's Inflamatory bowel problem. However, we ended up putting him on Hills Prescription w/d, which is keeping him stable (along with medication). My friend who lives in Camberley was similarly recommended Chappie by her vet.

my parents mix a few hand fulls of dried food with cooked rice. This is ligher for his stomach. they mainly do this for weight control, but also feed more rice if his tummy is upset.

your vet is right. chappie is the best food on the market for all doggies alike. i have a rescued elderley yorkie who could not seem to stomach anything without it shooting through the other end faster than the speed of light. so i tried it and never looked back. there are 2 flavors original or chicken and rice which was more suitable and natural for my lad. introduce slowly over 10 days or so. chappie also do complete biscuits aswell. i feed a bit of both. biscuits mainly for teeth. best place to get both of these is morrisons. hope this helps. be interested to know how you get on if you try it.

your vet is right. chappie is the best food on the market for all doggies alike. i have a rescued elderley yorkie who could not seem to stomach anything without it shooting through the other end faster than the speed of light. so i tried it and never looked back. there are 2 flavors original or chicken and rice which was more suitable and natural for my lad. introduce slowly over 10 days or so. chappie also do complete biscuits aswell. i feed a bit of both. biscuits mainly for teeth. best place to get both of these is morrisons. hope this helps. be interested to know how you get on if you try it.

They're bold statements! You can't blanket the best food for all dogs alike!

Besides, what makes Morrisons the bes place to buy it from? Just out of interest, of course!

Well after the last thread about Chappie we are trying it on our dogs. Albert has a sensitive tum and tilly guts of steal. We have been using it for about a month now and i have to say i am not right impressed. We were using Jollyes own brand kibble which has no derivatives, gluten and preservative free and aimed at those who are sensitive and both dogs were fairly ok with it but ALbert would have some tum trouble every now and again.

Chappie is much cheaper we paid about £13 for 17kg in my opinion much cheaper than must other brands. We are using the chicken complete dry food at the moment. It has turned there faeces into a bright yellow colour and i am convinced they are passing more than they were previously not to be to graphic but much bigger amounts each time they go. I do not feel Albert's tummy is getting better to be honest i think it is getting worse and i am seriously considering changing back gradually and getting him back on the old food. I have half a bag to go so will see how he goes over the next few weeks.
Tilly has been ok although she has had some loose movements and i have never seen this in her before so not a great result but she is ok now.

They do seem to like it more so it must taste better Albert was indifferent about dry food before but he does like this better than the last. They like the wet stuff but it does stink and made him smell as well so we have avoided that and for our little treats they still have nature diet.

I don't particularly feel comfortable using a food with unknown parts so i think i shall be changing back to our food anyway at some point.

They're bold statements! You can't blanket the best food for all dogs alike!

Besides, what makes Morrisons the bes place to buy it from? Just out of interest, of course!


I think you misunderstood what i said about food for all dogs alike.
1. In all the dogs i've owned i have tried nearly all brands and this has suited them the most.
2. I didn't mean Morrisons was THE best place to buy Chappie. Its just the only place i have managed to locate it in smaller quantities of purchase locally.
PS: i am not a fan of Morrisons otherwise. I am an ASDA Shopper.

Check out the ingredients on the tin this is usually an indicator that what you are actually paying for is:

a bit of meat (usually about 4% in most tinned food) and the rest is crap and water.

I think you misunderstood what i said about food for all dogs alike.
1. In all the dogs i've owned i have tried nearly all brands and this has suited them the most.
2. I didn't mean Morrisons was THE best place to buy Chappie. Its just the only place i have managed to locate it in smaller quantities of purchase locally.
PS: i am not a fan of Morrisons otherwise. I am an ASDA Shopper.

Sorry, reading that back it does sound like I'm jumping down your throat a bit.:blush:

It's just reading what you said at face value says that Chappie is the best food for ALL dogs with no consideration at all for their breed/type/physiology. If that's not what you meant, I got it wrong.

Oh, and obviously I need to state at this point that The Mutts Nutz is the best place to order your dog food from, indiscriminate of what brand it is :heyhey:

I feed Chappie... can't say I've particularly noticed it being good for their tum as Takara's poos have been bigger (and softer) since being on it (but not runny).

I feed it because it fills her up, it's the only food that's done that - and as she started putting weight on following her spay, it's good as she need less of it and it's lower in fat. It also doesn't have too much of a high protein level.

I can't say it's the first food I'd recommend and was shocked at having three different vets recommend it for my dogs but Takara is healthy on it and Eddy will be starting on it when his current bag of food runs out as he prefers hers to his :rolleyes: and I feed sardines with it a few times a week to keep her coat in good condition.

Morrisons sells it (Tesco doesn't) but don't know about other supermarkets... I buy it either from my vet or local pet shop (at least they have some clue about dogs and business unlike some of the sources listed on this thread ;) )

many thanks for your replies. I have decided against Chappie despite the vets recommends and am giving a barf diet a shot. I have read so many good things about barf, and have spoken to quite a few gsd owners with dogs with funny tums.
I spent hours on the net last week researching dog food and was amazed and horrified at what goes into them and also how we have changed the way our dogs like to feed naturally.
There are many many reports of good results from feeding an all natural diet and if it helps Josh I will be over the moon.
Would be interested if anyone else has tried barf and what results they have had:)

Update, have been away for a few days and started putting barf into Joshs normal foods. Amazingly his runs have all but cleared up. Coincidence - dont know but I was getting so worried about the constant re occurance of runs and the anti biotics and anti inflammatories the vet was pumping down him. If this works for him its got to be better than a life of medication

Morrisons sells it (Tesco doesn't) but don't know about other supermarkets... I buy it either from my vet or local pet shop (at least they have some clue about dogs and business unlike some of the sources listed on this thread ;) )

Makro sell the dried food too, so if you know someone with a card then you could bag a ride and check out the prices there to compare costs.

Update, have been away for a few days and started putting barf into Joshs normal foods. Amazingly his runs have all but cleared up. Coincidence - dont know but I was getting so worried about the constant re occurance of runs and the anti biotics and anti inflammatories the vet was pumping down him. If this works for him its got to be better than a life of medication

It's not the sort of thing that you can assign as a success after such a short time, but it definitely sounds promising.

Crossed fingers that it keeps Josh happy and healthy.

Our GSD (RIP) was fed on Chappie - it wasn't her main food as I recall but I think she had it a couple or three times a week and absolutely loved it. Does smell vile though - that didn't put her off it thought, clean bowl, every time. She was a very healthy active dog living to 15yrs ish (not contributing that to Chappie as such, but it may have been a factor) I'm pretty sure our vet (or my parents rather) suggested it when she was having some tummy problems as a puppy.

Sometimes I put a bit of Chappie in with my dogs complete food to make it a bit more interesting for them, they really love it...but yes it does smell :gag: