Have been given a few different suggestions for more natural alternatives to Bakers Dog food but unfortunately I have the memory span to rival a goldfish. Please could you post your suggestions. Tilly is a GSH/Akita with lots of energy but we're intrigued to find out how much of this is additive induced.

JWB is a good one

The main hypo allergenic/no additive foods are Burns, JWB, Royal Canin and Arden Grange. On average, I'd say that Arden Grange is the cheapest and Royal Canin the most expensive (For example AG is still £30 a sack whilst RC is in excess of £40 a sack).

These companies all do free samples though so you can try before you buy!

Hello Tilly's mum :wave: As i mentioned, Blade and Tilly are fed on Burns. I can bring you a bit to dog training to try if you like? I pay just over 40 quid a sack for it. It's expensive, but didn't half reduce the "turd mountain" Blade used to produce!

Thank you for your suggestions, Hello Lisa, forgot the name almost as soon as I left the class last week. lol. How long does the sack last you?

Don't mind paying a little bit more if it does her right. A Bakers 30kg sack lasts about a month or so.

oops think its a 15kg sack not 30kg

Hi Tammy :)

Burns are now doing a working dog food that I'm going to be stocking. It's not got high levels of protein in, instead it just has extra anti oxidants (keep the brain working) and joint supplement I believe.

Because this is classed as 'working dog food' it means it's tax free so is only £38kg a sack as opposed to £43!

This may be useful for you, Lisa?

Anyway, I'll bring some info to class tomorrow :)

It's about £42 for 15kg sack. But, think how much Bakers you feed - I know I used to fill his dish when he was on a food similar to Bakers. Blade has 2 cups (roughly the size of a normal mug) per feed, and Tilly has 3/4 of a cup per feed (twice a day)
Lotti - not sure about a food for working dogs - do they make one for lazy dogs? lol

i use wainwrights turkey and rice for my 6 from pets at home, its £29 a 15kg sack and they are all doing fab on it, its really about the tops we can afford as we go through about 4-5 sacks a month. annax

Dont 'working' dog foods have things in them to give them energy to work? Might be a silly question but when my dog was put on a working dog food she seemed to have stupid amounts of energy lol.

Anna, someone recommended that to me too - do you think it's as good as the likes of Burns and JWB?

Diamond Girl, generally 'working' dog foods are bulked out with a lot of cereal and ash to make them cheaper for people who keep dogs purely for work, you generally don't know where the meat comes from and yes - they are much higher in protein.

What Burns have done is make a 'working' dog food that isn't higher in protein so it doesn't send the dogs mad, it doesn't have the usual rubbish in it that working dog foods tend to have and all the ingredients are from good sources.

They have added antioxidants to keep the brain alert, but not overfill the body with energy and I think (will check in a moment) that it has joint supplement as working dogs usually take more impact to their joints.

Burns are very interested in dog behaviour too, and they are very careful not to make dogs hyper. Protein actually doesn't have that much of an impact on hyperactivity but they have been careful not to make the protein level high which is good for the likes of me as I own dallies - a breed that can't handle high protein levels.

Because dogs that take part in a lot of exertion tend to use the goodness from their diet faster and therefore can lose muscle/coat condition etc. it's more about maintaining condition for dogs that do a lot of exercise than giving them extra energy.

Hope that helps...

So for the normal family dog with standard exercise I wouldnt give it working dog food then?

Erm... You can... Good quality working dog food can be good for the average family dog with poor coat condition for example.

I suppose really it depends how much exericse your dog does on standard walks. For instance, I have a dalmatian that will swim non stop for an hour if given the chance or run like a maniac or chase a ball for the full hours walk twice a day and I've fed her working dog food when she got a skin condition - it was fantastic for her but it was a cheaper food and I wasn't sure where the meat was sourced from so stopped feeding it.

I've just looked it up, not sure there is any extra joint supplement although there's more calcium, more vitamins, and the protein is 24% so higher, but not high (I'll have to check that with the literature I have though because I'm sure it said 20%...

To be honest, I've never tried Burns working dog food so can't really comment (some working dog foods would increase hyperactivity purely due to additives and preservatives etc.) - it may be too much for a standard family dog with standard exercise but it may be ok.

Your best bet is to give their helpline a call and ask 0800 083 66 96 - they do other dog foods so they're not going to push the working food at you, but they will tell you exactly what you need to know. Until I've tried it and spoken to people who have had their dogs on it, I can't tell you for sure.

I totally agree with everything that Lotti says, i would just like to add a few snippets.

Some years ago, a working dog food was exactly that, a food for working dogs. Then for some reason the Customs and Exise decided that working and racing dog food should be exempt from VAT. This led to many companies renaming their foods "working dog food". This was namely at the lower end market, to make the cheap foods even cheaper.So generally, now, a working dog food just means a cheap (but not usually good) food.
A lot of people put a lot of relevance on the protein content, but with most of the lower end foods, this is not necessarily the case as, a lot of the protein is of the non edible type, therefore you have to feed more of the food to be of any nutritional value, and hence you clean more up at the other end.

With the premium foods you get premium ingredients (plus the extra needed minerals and vitamins) and therefore you feed less for the same nutritional value and as a bonus you get less to clean up after.

If you work out the cost per meal, the premium food is not much (if any) dearer than a cheap food and is much more beneficial to both the dog and the owner.

Here i may contridict myself by giving a couple of tips for the people who do feed their dogs Bakers.
A company buys up surplus stock from Nestle Purina, the Bakers is then repackaged and can be bought as "BEN", this retails for about £12 per 10kg
They also do a mix of Bakers and Beta, this, though,is not consisent and each batch, although being a mix of Bakers and Beta will be different, this can be bought as "BREEDERPACK COMPLETE WORKING DOG FOOD". this can be bought for about £10 or even less for 15kg.

So ben is bakers? wow. Bakers 15kg is £22 roughly. So thats a saving of £10!

Excellent post nikonuser - far more eloquently put than my post! :lol: I'm not very good at explaining things...