Need to change dry food

Tyson is currently on the Royal Canin for medium dogs up to 15 mnths. I have been looking for his next food but the pellets are too small. I have noticed that he does not like the smaller pellet and the one he is on is the same size as the adult one.

Endo is on the specialised Royal Canin for bull dog adults. These pellets are much bigger - almost like small biscuits and Ty seems to like these. I dont see much difference in the nutritional needs of bully versus staffie and am wondering if it would be ok to change Ty to this?

I guess so but I would double check as RC can very specialised for the specific breed/problem, Moo was on it.

Fish4Dogs is a good food with chunky bics and Moo loves it, even though it does hum a bit and she has fishy breath

The differences between the different foods (apart from shape) are generally minor so I'm sure it's no big issue feeding it - but you might find that the large breed (rather than medium) will work just as well and be much cheaper?! The breed specific ones are usually really expensive..

I compared the bulldog food to the regular RC food and it was pretty similar like I suspected. (Like all RC foods they are both quite full of rubbish, though.. Lots and lots of grains they sell you at a quite ridiculous price.. )

I thought RC was a good brand. He does not like the Eukanuba adult as the pellets are also small. Idont mind paying but I want the best.

Ty wrote:I thought RC was a good brand. He does not like the Eukanuba adult as the pellets are also small. Idont mind paying but I want the best.

They're not the worst, but they're not nearly as good as they claim to be. (They are better at advertising than at making food.) If you look at the first 5 ingredients or so they are usually meat meal of some sort and then grains. They split the grains into different categories to make sure they don't become the main ingredient. If we look at the first ingredients of the bulldog food: Chicken meal, rice, brown rice, oatmeal, pork meal, rice flour. If they hadn't split rice into rice, brown rice and rice flour it would have been the main ingredient in this food. They do this to trick the consumer as they know people look for a meat source as the first ingredient.

These videos are pretty good if you want to learn to read labels
https://www.youtube.com/v/aTWHxvjI_as
https://www.youtube.com/v/zdDPi-1Yjy0

I also looked at the medium breed version earlier - the bulldog version is actually better than the large breed formula. The large breed doesn't even have meat as the first ingredient, but have corn and corn meal as first and second ingredient!

Have you looked at foods like Evo or Instinct? Don't know if they are over there, but they are really high quality with bigger biscuits and full of proteins. Both have real meat and not just meal as well as being limited in ingredients. They have multi-source protein and single protein.

Thanks for all that info. Just one question: what is the ideal composition I should be looking for? (I intend to remain with dry food)

I have spent way too long looking at foods in the past. Essentially it is a balance. You want the highest quality proteins and preferably not meal listed first (i.e. Lamb instead of lamb meal). You also want the vitamins and minerals coming from natural sources and not added in. Probably most important you want to limit the number of fillers (often grains) as they aren't easily digested by a dog and pass through their system and just add volume. There isn't a perfect dry food either. Some will look great on paper, but the dog won't like it. Others will have some fillers etc or not be affordable. You basically will have to try some of the high quality foods until you find one Ty will eat and one he thrives on as each dog is an individual. Sorry I couldn't be more specific. Here are a few other brands in addition to the ones above that I have found to be high in quality and food sources: Taste of the Wilde, Wellness, Canadae and Blue Buffalo. Again, I have no idea if they are available in South Africa and I am sure there are plenty more that are similar. The videos that Ane posted above are also really good.

Ty wrote:Thanks for all that info. Just one question: what is the ideal composition I should be looking for? (I intend to remain with dry food)

Generally fewer ingredients is better and preferably you want to understand the label (it has things like chicken and rice and turkey not so much potassium chloride, sodium tripolyphosphate, L-tyrosine and other chemical terms). You need carbohydrates to hold a dry food together, whether alternative carbohydrate sources like potatoes or other veg is better than grains are debatable. You have some dry foods virtually without veg like Ziwi Peaks but that's quite pricey and it's not something you can get anywhere.

For comparison the first ingredients of a Orijen food "Fresh boneless chicken*, chicken meal, fresh boneless salmon*, turkey meal, herring meal, russet potato, peas, sweet potato, fresh boneless turkey*, fresh whole eggs*, fresh chicken liver*, fresh boneless lake whitefish*" You see lots of protein sources and not so much carbs. I'm not overly thrilled with the number of ingredients in their foods (makes it hard for people with allergic dogs, otherwise it's no biggie).

Thanks. Defo going to check the labels. Will have a good look over all the alternatives available at my vet. I never purchase supermarket brands as these are almost cardboard in general and the vet only has high quality and a good range

Not sure if you have considered Burns

http://burnspet.co.uk/products.html

They are a very reputable brand and available online and in a few pet stores excellent quality and they give fabulous advice with regards to your dogs needs

Ty wrote:I never purchase supermarket brands as these are almost cardboard in general and the vet only has high quality and a good range

Although you're generally right about the first part (super marked dry foods are generally low quality) vets get the majority (or all) of their training about nutrition from the big producers of dry food. There are vets out there with good knowledge about nutrition, but they are few and far between unfortunately. I've had vets say the most ridiculous things about nutrition to me (things like a cat/dog cannot be meat based as there are no vitamins in meat) that show they just have no idea about what they're talking about. If you use a "quality" dry food and it's not the one they sell they will often tell you it's not good - but once they start selling it it's really good after all.. Often foods that are sold in specialist pet shops or online are better than the food sold from vets as they spend their money on making good food rather than massive commercials and the stuff they need to become accepted into the vet's offices.

Both the pet shop and vet carry the same brands. Our vet has really small room and keeps food as a convenience to the regulars but will get me what I need if I ask. There are not a huge number of brands available locally. Seems that you have far mor up North.

You want to try james wellbeloved or taste of the wild which is the best complete on the market its 60 pound a bag but well worth it....