feeding?

after a bit of recearch and help from some doggy nuts i found out that what i thought was a good dog food is actually quite bad
ive been feeding jack royal canin for the last few weeks and tho hes doing well on it i want to feed him the best i can can any one recomend a good dry food???


what im feeding now-
Maize, poultry meal, vegetable proteins, maizegluton, Beef fat, animal fat, animal protein, beef greave meal (dehydrated beef protein), dehydrated fish, beet pulp, rice, vegetable oil, fish oil, soy oil, taurine, hydrolysed crustaceans (source of glucosamine), hydrolysed cartilage (source of chondroitin, minerals, trace-elements (including chelated trace-elements), fructo-oligo-saccharides, DL-methionine, egg powder, casein, vitamins.


the respones i got about the quality of the food-


Ingredients are listed largest single ingredient first.. so:

Maize - well its a cheap cereal, but dogs are carnivores, so thats not good. Cereal, especially maize is cheap, and the cereal used in dog food is going to be pretty much the lowest grade available (as human food takes the better stuff).

Poultry meal - well thats... ground up bird. Could be chicken, could be turkey, could be duck... as long as its bird. It also, afaik, doesnt have to be what you and I would recognise as meat. Its skin and bits of flesh and bone and blargh thats left - not that dogs have a problem with these things but its not the best meat there is.

vegetable proteins - again this isnt lumps of carrot or peas, this is the basic proteins left over. The fact that this is the third largest ingredient says a lot... most of this food is maize and vegetable protein. Ie two sources that are not the dogs ideal sources of energy/protein.

maize gluten... its another source of protein. its also a good thickener/binder to stick things together. they have listed this seperately from the maize so its been added on purpose and i would hazard a guess that its because the maize, poultry meal and veg proteins dont add up to sufficient protein to feed a dog on. Its commonly used in the human food industry to create fake meat for vegans/vegetarians.... now why wouldya wanna put fake meat into dog food.... hmmm.

beef fat - flavouring and energy, dogs need a fairly high fat diet...
animal fat - v cheap as its a waste product on the whole. again by adding these two fats they are adding back IN what is missing due to the diet being vegetable/grain based.

animal protein - well its protein derived from animal sources. Its worth bearing in mind here that protein is present in most things. Like meat... and like feathers and leather and ..... do you see where im going with this?

beef greave meal - another extremely highly processed meat by product made from waste meat/fat.

Dehydrated fish - at a guess id say this is fish but again its not going to be the best bits of fish, however its not 'fish meal' which is a lower grade product (and 'fish derivatives' is even lower quality still).

beet pulp - this is the mess thats left over after processing sugar beet, i would expect the higher quality beet pulp goes into horse feed (as you cant get away with feeding horses complete rubbish, they tend to die if you do), so this is likely low quality. Its a filler, it provides some insoluble fibre which is not a bad thing... if it appeared nearer the beginning of the list id be more worried by this! Basically.. this creates poo.

rice - is just rice. Its likely the lowest quality, after the rice you buy in a bag from the shop, then the rice that goes into making a finished product, and the rice used in brewing... so this is the lowest grade broken up diddy bits of rice. Doesnt say what type of rice and thats probably to cover them using any type they want as supply dictates. Ok if your dog is fine with rice but some types are more digestible than others, if your dog has a problem with some rices, you wouldnt be able to tell from this label.

pretty much the rest of these ingredients are to give the manufacturers the right to put such claims as 'aids joint mobility' on the pack (ie the hydrolysed crustaceans, hydrolysed cartilage, DL-Methionine and the oils).

They will also give your dog a shiny coat and the appearance of being healthy.

Sooo... after that epic journey through the ingredients.... no i wouldnt feed it.

Thats not to say some dogs wont do well on it, dogs are well adapted to survive on seriously poor foods. It is worth bearing in mind though that a great number of health and mental problems in dogs, are caused by poor quality/unsuitable foods.


plus thought some one else might find this intresting reading ?

i dont really know wot to sugest of the top of my head...
but that was good reading....
helpfull post...

If I had the money ALL my dogs would be fed on James Wellbeloved... No additives, no animal by-products, no artificial colours etc.

Sigh...

where would you get this? is it dry? my dogs are as fussy.

Yes, it's dry food. IMHO the best there is. I don't know about suppliers in your area but I suppose that would be easy to find out. I have yet to meet a dog who doesn't like it. They also make food for cats and ferrets .

http://www.wellbeloved.com/

must try it cause me staff is a nearly a year old and a was tinking wha food to give her. cheers.

I checked the site i dont think we can get it over here vin..just have to try ebay and buy a van load

i sent them a mesage there askin who sells it my way

I know of alot of peeps who buy it here in Ireland. I used to get the ferret food in Limerick.

which flavour do u tink br the nicest (for the dogs ofcourse)

www.pet-bliss.ie stocks it but be warned, JW is VERY expensive...

I would start with the 2kg bags and see what the dog likes best.

thanks a mil sarah have they a shop r they just a web shop? sory bout all the questions but i found it hard to find a good food

egar wrote:If I had the money ALL my dogs would be fed on James Wellbeloved... No additives, no animal by-products, no artificial colours etc.

Sigh...

Must confess that while many recommend that food I dont like it

My eldest is on a barf diet

Imagine BARF for 33 dogs, I'd be elbow deep in dead animals all day long .

egar wrote:Imagine BARF for 33 dogs, I'd be elbow deep in dead animals all day long .

Rattytooee

egar wrote:Yes, it's dry food. IMHO the best there is. I don't know about suppliers in your area but I suppose that would be easy to find out. I have yet to meet a dog who doesn't like it. They also make food for cats and ferrets .

[url=http://www.wellbeloved.com/

http://www.wellbeloved.com/[/quote[/url]]

Joe is alergic to something in that food, he has so many allergies that is was very difficult to find a food that he wasn't allergic to. He is allergic to brown rice but fine with white and this seems to be getting more and more with dogs.

i bought a 7.5kg of wellbeloved online tday.. i will let u know how we get on... could somebody recomend a good vitamin to give my dogs??

If you are feeding complete food like JW and your dog is healthy otherwise then I would stay away from supplements as you can overdose a good few vitamins. Unless your dog is into heavy performing I'd stick to a good dry food.

rite so. that answered that. cheers.

got a bag of the james wellbeloved a few days ago and the girls are wolfing it into them..mixed it with tripe tnite and is was gone in 1minute.