Hi guys

I have feed pedegree chum complete to my three shih tzus for the past 5 years howver since getting my newfie pup everyone is telling me how rubbish pedegree chum is for the dogs? Im a bit concered now and wondered what dried foods do you feed?

Everyone will have different opinions on what is best to feed. My friend feed Pedigree, and her dogs looks great, however, I wouldn't ever feed it.

To find a good food, you need to bear in mind that a dogs diet should be about 70-80% meat and 20-30% fruit, veg, nuts, seeds and oils. Their digestive systems are really not designed to cope with large amounts of cereals, yet most complete foods do contain large amounts. This can especially lead to problems when the cereals are those other than rice, as most dogs seem to tolerate rice better than any other cereals.

You need to look at the ingredients list on the bag. The first ingredient should always be a named meat (eg. chicken, lamb etc, not just 'meat') and it should be first because it is the largest. Some manufacturers list all the cereals seperately in order to make meat seem the greatest ingredient. Most foods do list a percentage of meat on the bag, and this should be as close to the 70-80-% mark as possible, but if you get voer 30%, you'll be lucky! Some foods only contain 4% meat.

Also, if the food does contain cereals (and it almost certainly will, because cereals are cheap!) then make sure thye are named. Some manufacturers simply put 'cereals' on the ingredients and this is so that they can use whatever is cheapest at the time, so the food won't be the same every sack.

Finally, make sure you can recognise the rest of the ingredients and that there are no or very few additives or colouring. There should absolutely be no sugar in any dog food.

If you have a giant breed, then you need to make sure really that you are feeding a breed specific or giant breed food to minimise the risk of joint/growth problems. The only exception to this for me would be if I were feeding 'Orijen' food as the protein in it is from a good source.

Hope this helps.

I feed raw but in my opinion the best dried food is Orijen.

Would have to agree with Jackson on this one, Many people feed PC and their dogs do look stunning on it. Infact PC by some (my mother swore by it) is considered by many to be the best. I feel it is nly when one looks at the ingredients we beginn to question! In my opinion Arden Grange is hard to beat, BUT , having said that I much prefer Nature diet (which is wet). BUT have just found a new food which I am finding difficult to get locally, it is made in Doncastor and recommend for working labs, the one we tested was the Gold verion and my old dog (cat iron consumption) loved it , and he is a piccy eater.
Cannot remember the name but it's one I plan on looking out for when my pupster has fully matured - think the maker is sneyds
regards
Sue

i have always fed Arden grange along with raw wings & lamb ribs my dogs are great on this diet, but thanks to your post Sue i have contacted the manufacturer of the food you have mentioned (as i live close to Doncaster)
its called wonder dog & the chicken & rice premium sounds very good, its developed by someone who worked for arden grange & contains 35% chicken is gluten free so ive ordered a sack to try, it will be here thursday so i'll let you know

I have always fed my dogs James Wellbeloved, just really because it has less ash than the others.. more of the good stuff and its hypo allergenic..
Usually i just look at the price and go for the top end stuff like science plan for young dogs.. and then when they get to about 2 go onto James Wellbeloved.

I feed Chudley's original from dodson and horrell at the moment but at the end of the day you just want to find a food that works for your own dog. Some do better on some foods than others.