Dried dog food - Bakers

I have been feeding my dog Bakers for the past 10 months, but just read on here how bad it is. What's the best alternative out there?

http://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t598-dry-food-recommendations?highlight=dry+food+recommendations

Have a little look at this, may help x

woody liked bakers and even when i changed him on to other food he didnt become any less hyperactive ( i hoped for a miracle and it didnt happen) - i know this may not meet with everyones agreement but i think its whatever suits your dogs taste is ok, if they like it and are ok on it i dont think its wrong to feed them it

Bruno was on Bakers small dog when we picked him up, but he didn't eat much when we first got him, so we just put it to settling , but when we saw the vet she said to put him onto puppy food, So we put him onto James Wellbeloved Lamb and Rice which Bruno loves, Tried Turkey and Rice and it didn't seem to agree with him, so now he's back on the Lamb and Rice and so far he's been already, she says touching wood but look at the list Janey put the link to. Maybe more help

nicolalouises wrote:woody liked bakers and even when i changed him on to other food he didnt become any less hyperactive ( i hoped for a miracle and it didnt happen) - i know this may not meet with everyones agreement but i think its whatever suits your dogs taste is ok, if they like it and are ok on it i dont think its wrong to feed them it

The problem with Bakers isn't just the hyperactivity, it's all the additives/colours that are in it. None of them do your dog any good whatsoever, and none of them are there for the dog - they're there for YOU so that the food looks better to YOU.

A dog doesn't need colours in its food (they're colour blind, and can't see things too well when they're right under their noses), neither do they need pretty little shapes - what do they care what shape a bit of kibble is?

I'd always much prefer to give a food that has little or no chemical additives and is reasonably natural.

if your on a tight budget and your looking for a alternative for bakers in the same kind ov price bracket and easy to get from all supermarkets the best would be harringtons complete you can get in all majer shops now

I think you're right Caryll, and I've fallen for it for convenience sake. I've been picking it up from asda when I shop, perhaps I'd be better off looking at other stores. Do you know which supermarkets might stock something like Harringtons?

You might want to try searching on line - you could get better prices than the supermarkets.

Another one to consider is Wainwrights dog food - it's Pets At Home's own brand, and it's a cheaper premium food.

Something else which has started to worry me recently, as more and more dogs close to me are getting malignent tumours, is what are we actually feeding our dogs?! After doing an animal management course, a large part of which was nutrition, I was shocked. Dog food manufacturers are charging a lot for substandard food, just because its all mushed up into a kibble and dried out it looks attractive to the owner. Add some colour and make the kibble different shapes and it become even more pleasing to the human eye!

The vitamins and minerals which are added to a lot of the 'high-street' food brands and the cheaper foods are banned in human food. Because these vitamins dont come from natural sources they are manufactured and have been known to cause cancer in humans. A particular food which my parents have fed for years was questioned in this research, both of my mums recent dogs have developed cancer, one has died one is going in for a lumpectomy. This alone is enough to persuade me to change my dog's diet.

Mine all get raw now, and it saves my pocket too. The expensive JWB that I was feeding before at £36 per bag used to empty my bank accoutn quicker than you can say 'Din-dins'. Now I just buy their food every two days, its costs about £5 to feed two dogs for 4 days.

Well, yes, I feed raw too, and Dempsey thrives on it. But it's a lot of work when you first start (research, trial & error etc) and not right for every one.

I would always recommend that you try raw feeding, but you have to put a bit of brain power into it - it isn't quite as simple as putting a bowl of raw meat down every day!

I also wouldnt really reccommend Harringtons, its okay but has a high maize content and only 14% meat on average. I really like the look of wainwrights, I would feed this if I fed dry

Nosipho wrote:I also wouldnt really reccommend Harringtons, its okay but has a high maize content and only 14% meat on average. I really like the look of wainwrights, I would feed this if I fed dry

i was only on about for a budget but you got to admite its 100,000 times better than feeding bakers lol

I found Jwb ok moneywise but then i have only got 1 puppy and a 7kg costing around £20 last about 4 weeks or maybe more at the moment, of course i might have to get a bigger bag as he get older.

Course its much better than feeding Bakers. All of the ingredients are good apart from the high content of maize! Apart from that its one of the better ones. Probably the best you will find on any supermarket shelf!

I'v been seeing more and more people buying Wagg does anyone know if its any good or not.
I used to feed my lot on beta but that didn't agree with them then i went to homebrand and stuck to it so i want to know if Wagg is good or not.

I've used the Wagg treats but not the food. If I give Dempsey too many Wagg treats he gets the runs, but That might not happen with the food.

Think there was a thread on wagg before and the ingredients were not good If I remember right

Never known anyone who fed Wagg so I did some research. I would say again it has been filled with cheap grains, not much meat and poor quality at that. I would steer clear. I looked at Wagg complete chicken and veg, below is the review. and nutritional values

Wheat, Meat Meal, Wheatfeed, Maize, Chicken Meat Meal (min 4% in Chicken Kibble), Oils & Fats, Carrot (min 20% in Carrot Disc), Linseed, Rice, Beet Pulp, Peas (min 4% in Pea Kibble), Lucerne, Vitamins and Minerals. Added Citrus, Yeast and Yucca. With Antioxidant: EC additive.

The main ingredients are low quality grains. Wheat is believed by many to be the leading cause of food allergies in dogs, and in wheatfeed form, this is a grain fragment we consider primarily filler. Wheatfeed is a byproduct (think floorsweepings) of processing wheat for human foods - that is, the remainder of the grain after the nutritious bits have been removed for other purposes. Maize (corn) is a difficult to digest grain of limited value, and which is also commonly associated with food allergies in dogs. Even if these had been decent quality grains, we would still note that this food is based heavily on grains which are an unnatural foodstuff for canines. Dog foods should be based on meat.


The first meat ingredient is meat meal, second on the ingredient list. This is a low quality meat product. "Meat" could be anything and ingredients of unidentifiable species and source are usually of very low quality. A second meat ingredient, this time a named meat meal, is fourth - but in quantities of only 4% in a portion of the food, this is far too low to provide meaningful meat content to the food.


The fat and oil content of the food is undisclosed and, as the meat ingredient above, is likely to be of very low quality. Carrots and peas are decent quality ingredients, but beet pulp is controversial filler. It is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fibre is required.


The food has added vitamins and minerals, but no information about these is given and it may contain synthetics. Likewise, the preservative is undisclosed and may be chemical preservatives such as ethoxyquin, BHT and BHA which are allowed in pet products but are banned or heavily regulated in human food due to the belief that they are carcinogenic.


Typical Analysis
Protein 21.00%
Oil 8.00%
Fibre 3.00%
Ash 8.00%

Wow ok then staying clear of that stuff.
Trying to find a good dog food for a good price especially over here is hard unless i get it online and i can't always do that.

I feed Hollie on Wainwrights from Pets At Home n she loves it, £33.50 for a 15kg bag, she has a lovely shiny coat and is very healthy on it, I also buy the Wainwrights treats as others tend to give her the runs...

i like to give my a mix of dog food and meats...

i might use harrintons as a mixer when i do them chicking breast.... or jwb with some webbox wet food.. or triep and good dry mix....

MissRogue wrote:Wow ok then staying clear of that stuff.
Trying to find a good dog food for a good price especially over here is hard unless i get it online and i can't always do that.

i go on about how good iv found pero and thats a company from wales so you cant be doing to much reserce lol