We are contemplating changing Parkas food (and Duffles when shes finished this bag of puppy food), I am certain hes not overly fond of it as it takes him ages to eat the stuff and sometimes hes doesnt eat it at all.

This is from a dog who once used to love eating his meals. He will eat everything thrown at him (we dont treat him that often though) but when it comes to his daily feed his just not interested 75% of the time.

We used to feed him Nutro, and most recently we have been giving him Beta as its what we were going to feed them both and he wasnt eating the Nutro (Duffle is currently on Beta Puppy).

Parka also tends to suffer from sloppy poo now and again, which is weird cause hes on a fully dry diet so thats another reason to change.

So, anyone got any suggestions on what to try them on, they are both terriers (lakeland cross and a border), small to medium dogs. I dont particularly wanna go down the tins route if I can help it at all, just need to find summat that Parka likes as tbh Duffle just loves any type of food!

Thanks

I feed James Wellbeloved and will be stocking that as well as Burns and Healthy Paws. I'll be stocking others - but they're the main three I think. They're particularly good as they're completely natural and hypoallergenic. Good for sensitive tums, too.

I've had great results from JWB but the dogs also loved eukanuba which is a bit more oily (so tastes nice and is good for the skin) but they went onto JWB when T's skin flared up - the flare up wasn't a result of eukanuba, she has had the condition before.
All are available in puppy too :)

pm or email me if you want any more info.

Cool thanks Lotti, after reading around, i think I will give either James Wellbeloved ago or Eukanuba. Eukanuba sounds the closet to what Duffle is eating (being a bit oily) so I may go with that first, just get a small bag and try it out, shes nearly ready for Adult food now as shes almost 6 months.

Parka is such a bloody fussy eater when it comes to his own food, if we gave him a roast diner everynight he would be perfectly happy though!

We feed both our dogs - 2.5 year old GSD and 6 month old springer on Burns :)

I feed mine on Eukanuba, at the moment at Pets at Home is buy one get one free. Saving of £12.99.

I am sure the offer ends on the 28 August, so be quick.

I feed mine on Eukanuba, at the moment at Pets at Home is buy one get one free. Saving of £12.99.

I am sure the offer ends on the 28 August, so be quick.

Is there only one flavour of Eukanuba? JWB seems to have loads of different flavours which seems really good!

Eukanuba has a huge range of flavours and size specific and even breed specific foods so plenty to choose from.

I dropped you a pm anyway.

Okay don't shoot me down. I'm oblivious when it comes to feeds. I see the stuff on the shelves Pedigree foods, Bakers, Butchers etc. I went into a shop and asked for JWB and got a pouch that wouldn't line the bottom of my pooches tum and its really expensive.

She is on a complete biscuit meal breakfast with half a tin of Butchers with mixer for tea once a day. She seems healthy enough, so whats the difference.

I used to feed the GSD on a cheaper dried food, think it was supadog or something. I mentioned to the vet about how much he poos, and that he regularly had sloppy poo, :gag: and the vet told me that with the cheaper brands of food, they contain a lot of stuff the dog simply doesn't need, just to "bulk it out" Therefore, what they don't need, comes out as waste. With the more expensive brands, you feed them much less, as they "need" everything that's in it. After we changed, the GSD cut down from about 5 turd piles a day, to 1 or 2. To be honest, thats the only reason we changed.

If she's happy on that then great Fox, some dogs aren't. Butchers is a terrible one for many dogs as it really sets off tummy upsets for them - however, if it did the same for every dog they wouldn't be in business.

Regular pet foods as opposed to 'premium' are usually full of additives and colours so if someone comes to me with a hyperactive pooch I often look at what additives they're putting into the dog before actually suggesting what training for it.
The JWB pouches don't have much in them at all and tbh, I have tried them on occasion just as a treat with some dry kibble but I have never fed them regularly - the supermarket and butchers tins etc are much cheaper and go further but are not actually nutritious in any way, shape or form - they are tasty, yes - and adding them to a good quality kibble can't hurt unless you're looking to cut down on additives or poorly tums but it certainly won't do anything nutritionally beneficial. If you look at the ingredients, there is barely any meat in it - it's meat derivatives, such as mashed up nails and beaks etc.
With the cheaper dry foods, you will find a lot of it is ash to make up the weight of the food as opposed to anything nutritional (edit: Which is what speed demon is talking about)

If she's happy and healthy on what she's eating and you're happy with it, then good for you but I see it a little bit like kids that live on junk food. Many don't put any weight on (probably due to hyperactivity from eating so many e numbers!) so don't look unhealthy but you wouldn't think it was a good diet for them.

I'm not about to judge anyone who feeds a cheaper food but I will always recommend the stuff that's more nutritional.

So, (I can agree with the poo scenario :) ) what are we all recommending, how much and in what quantity? She is the pooch in my avatar, a staffy x (looks like a boxer/beagle x tbh)

edit: She's a pup she's happy on brillo pads and shoes :D however, I understand what you are saying Lotti, so give me some ideas. I don't see these quality foods in the shops, where are they how much and well.. you know the drill.

Well ...... with Burns (and i assume others) there is a feeding guide on the back of the bag, but my 37kg GSD has 2 cupfuls twice a day, the 10kg springer pup has half a cup twice a day, bless her. So for yours... maybe a cupful twice a day, something like that?

edit: the poo situation really does change - we noticed it BIG time, more or less straight away :D

I'll have a look through my many many pieces of literature for what weights etc. I personally prefer Burns, James Wellbeloved, Arden Grange, Royal Canin and Eukanuba but there are some foods I have no experience of which may be good too.

I don't know how much you'd need to feed but can find out tomorrow. Really it depends what you want for the food, if you're wanting less additives if your pooch is hyper or finds concentrating difficult, or just for better poos, to maintain weight or keep weight off etc. etc.

If you want to put meat/wet food with it, I often use sardines/pilchards or sometimes tuna (all in sunflower oil) which brings their coat out really nice or try adding real stock if you have any, alternatively almo nature do some really nice tinned wet foods but I think they're quite high in calories and energy and not a lot is needed at all.

Oh i was also told dried food is much better for their teeth, which is the main reason i decided to feed entirely on dried. And having 4 cats who eat wet food, i don't think i could cope with the smell of 2 dogs on wet stuff too. To me, it's the worse part of having my cats, cos their food smells mingin! :gag:

Porscha is staffy brain, she is permanently giddy therefore any food that can calm her would be welcome. ;)

:lol: hehe well I kind of assumed she was a tad giddy but didn't want to say anything and offend...

I will have a look! Burns pride themselves on being good for giddy dogs or those who have difficulties concentrating as it has no additives and has quite a low protein level (although the protein vs excess energy debate is ongoing and I'm struggling to keep up!)

I await your advised research Lotti, (with anticipation)

edit: never offended, used to others crossing the road because when knackered she has the staffy smile (which of course means she will eat your firstborn :rolleyes: )

Also used to loving doggy people throwing themselves at her and being licked within an inch of their lives as she only needs one iota of attention and she's all yours for the rest of the day :hihi:

I'm new to the breed so any advice is welcome.. (however I know she will be sleeping on my head again tonight :rolleyes: )

Hmm... I have enough trouble with the cat waking me up sleeping on my head let alone a dog!! :lol:

Cheers Lottie, just sent you a reply :)

Theres lots of good info out on the web about Burns and JWB, good read :)

Is there only one flavour of Eukanuba? JWB seems to have loads of different flavours which seems really good!

Not sure how many flavours there is, i will check next time i go in.

Wainwrights comes highly reccomended by myself.

Okay, I visited my pet food suppliers today (pets and gardens in Hillsborough) and they were fab, explained all about Burns and JWB and another one, Countrylife I think :huh::huh:

The owners only feed on Burns for their pooches and when I mentioned Wagg and Bakers a customer was horrified and said it was awful for dogs.

So they kindly gave me some sample of JWB and Burns to try on Porscha and I think I'll be changing her food. Saying that she had Cod and brown rice for tea. (not dog food, fresh cod with rice :hihi:) So she may have issues with changing to a dry feed :rolleyes:

:lol: You can still feed treats with dry food fox

Sorry I've not sent you any info yet - I'm just reading up now but had a manic day yesterday and haven't been very well.

Do you still need it?

Bakers creates a windy condition with many dogs that is often nicnamed 'bot rot' so you'll see why the customer was horrified :hihi: Eddy came to us fed on Wagg and I immediately changed it - he improved quickly on other food, but lots of other changes were made at the same time so I can't say it was all down to the food!

Like I said, I would usually feed sardines with JWB dry kibble and sometimes put left over dinner, stock etc. on it too so it needn't be boring :D