Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:39 am Post subject: Where on earth do you start?
We are about to adopt our first labrador (possibly a 15 months old ish chocolate bitch) and have been researching foods goodness me! How do you choose?
I have been looking at wainwrights (we have a PAH down the road so very handy), skinners and simpsons? Any advice between the three? I know part of it will be what suits the dog but i need some kind of starting point! Im not sure what she is currently on in rescue but i will find out.
Also how much roughly does 1 labrador go through each month? have been looking at fish4dogs but i think it might be out of our price range. (i realise that all dogs will be different based on weight/appitite etc but just as a rough idea)
Also do you feed just dry or add wet too? I have an idea of £25-30 per month for dog food (main meal not including treats etc) so im wondering wether i need to feed wet along with dry or wether I can spend more money on better dry food?
I did wonder about feeding just kibble and then adding some sardines a couple of times a week or similar?
we have looked into raw but i dont have the freezer space and no room for another freezer at the moment...if that changes then i would be interested in trying raw for sure!
We fed ours Wainwrights and they were fine on it. Beware, the salmon one stinks a bit! LOL x
We fed ours one scoop a day, that was all. They got little treats as well but were a bit weighty so one a day it was. Perhaps the vet or rescue people can advise.
____________ Nala, Yellow Lab 2000-2008 (RIP)
Nero, Black Lab 2002 - 2011 (RIP)
Koli, Black Lab 2011
I use CSJ dog food (champ). Has all the nutrients needed and Mylo does very well on it, lots of energy, a fantastic coat and stools are solid so easy to clear up. I get this from a local breeder and the the best bit...£11 for a 15kg sack which lasts about a month
A good place to start is budget! You've decided how much you want to spend so thats a great place to work from.
Every feeding guide for each food is different, so it can be a bit tricky working out how long each bag will last. I would say on average I don't feed mine more than 300g a day. I have quite small labs though. So take somewhere between 250-400g as a range you might need to feed.
The poorer quality the food, the more you need to feed. And also remember, the feeding guides are just that, guides. They want you to use as much food as possible obviously as you will spend more money on their products!
Some of the brands that are heavily used around here are Skinners, Burns, Arden Grange, Chudleys, James Wellbeloved, Barking Heads.
I personally tend to avoid the big brand name foods, but thats just me.
I feed Orijen which is a bit on the pricey end of the scale. Before that I fed Burns which I probably still would feed, but for the fact we have Pasco with an odd gut condition that rules it out.
Burns feeding guide is leaner than most. You feed 10g of food for every kilo the dog weighs. So although the price of a bag may seem like a lot, you are feeding less. I feed Hudson on it currently (until its finished) and a bag of the working formula (Burns Active) 18kg will last him 70 odd days!
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you don't need to feed a wet food, so just dry is fine. Some people soak the dry food to release the flavour or just feed it dry or do what i do and add some water so their eating rate is slowed down! Lol
make sure the meat part of the food is the first ingredient on the list so biggest percentage. Also being able to understand and pronounce the rest of ingredients is also a good rule of thumb.
My two are on a mix of skinners and orijen.
Another point to mention re skinners the field and trial range is fine for most dogs. The field and trial just means no vat! their best one is duck and rice or salmon and rice
____________ Sam, Coal & Finn
It�s never too late to be what you might have been
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Mines 17months and has been on Skinners all through with no probs easy picking up poos etc. He s on duck and rice at moment I3/4 mugs twice a day and is a steady 29kilos. He also has veg when we have spare and Sardines a
bout twice a month.
The only certain thing about dog food, is that you could spend your life trying to find the perfect one.
I seem to be one of the few on here that uses Hills Science Plan. People keep telling me it's rubbish, but Indy looks better on that than he has ever done on anything else, so I'm sticking with it.
We have had Ellie for nearly 3 weeks and she is a 7 month old rescue where she was in foster they used James Wellbeloved Lamb and Veg - which she is thriving in - it was £30 for 10kg sack at PAH with free delivery and it should last us about a month.
She has one scoop twice a day with a little water to slow her down - she is at the bottom end of the recommended amount as she also gets stuffed Kongs in her crate when she is left alone
I might add some raw veg in if I have some extra and occassionally she might have some tuna or sardines - again as a treat but this would on a day when I haven't fed her a Kong or been using high value training treats.
I would however get hold of some of whatever the rescue have been using so that you can introduce whatever food you choose slowly.
was just wondering why royal canin maxi junior or maxi adult ( for the poster's 15month old lab) was not mentioned? Is there something undesirable about royal canin that i do not know about?
You can just feed dry thats fine, with a tin of sardines in tomato or oil mixed in twice a week. Mine are fed a small mugful each of dried twice a day.
Plus when we have a chicken they have the wings raw
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goodness me! How do you choose?
