Staffie feeding and nutrition

So lets discuss feeding our little devils. I was told in here that Skinners is a bad food (personally I think that title should be kept for Bakers and Pedigree) however I spend a lot of time reading ingredients. Can someone explain to me why these ingredients in a dog food would be bad:
Whole rice-40%
Duck meat meal-20%
Naked oats
Peas
Linseed
Sunflower oil
Beet pulp
Vitamins and trace elements

I feed her this in the morning and in the evening she is now on chicken carcuss, frozen vegetables and a piece of fruit.

I would love to feed the likes of Aatu/natures menu but it is far too expensive.

Thoughts and feedback would be great.

Bye for now....oh and HAPPY FRIDAY

Hiya

I personally don't mind Skinners, Its one of the better mid range foods and is very reasonably priced if your on a budget we used the Skinners duck and rice food for Harley when we ran out of his other brand and all was fine. I am not 100% sure but I think its something to do with the first ingredient should ideally be a protein from a meat and should be the highest percentage as that's what the main bulk of the food is made up of. Although rice content is a lot healthier than the likes of bakers and pedigree where they use maize and a lot of other fillers that are no good.
There is a website called 'all about dog food' that gives reviews of different foods and and explains what each ingredient is used for within the food. Hope that helps

It's more about the fillers/junk that goes into the Cheaper products and the way the meat is recovered. If you saw how they do it you simply wouldn't buy it.

Too much rice could be considered a filler but beet pulp definitely is. You really want to keep the fillers to a minimum.

I know there's an argument that dogs are ominivores and can eat pretty well anything (oh yes, and they do!) but I do believe their main source of food should be meat. They are omnivores but with a carnivorous basis. 20% meat (and meat meal at that) is not really enough. As Ian says, 40% rice, plus oats, peas, beet pulp... that's an awful lot of filler!

So it's not necessarily that the individual ingredients are 'bad' (if the quality of those ingredients is not bad), but more that the proportions are all wrong.

I feed raw and I don't think it is massively more expensive. I've just done a quick calculation and I'd estimate it works out at about 88p per day per dog, excluding the treats stuff I get for them. I do buy them more expensive things as well, so this month's order has salmon heads and whole turkey wings, but if I just take the basic feed and bones, it's about 88p (excluding delivery charge). Not really an awful lot for straight, good quality meat, I don't think. Using the 'All about dog food' site, a 23kg dog's cost per day on Skinners Duck and Rice would be about 73p (my dogs are 16kg, 23kg and 28kg). That's only 15p difference.

But at the end of the day, I think it comes down to feeding what you believe is the best for your dog. I take care what I eat and believe my dogs deserve the same level of care.

I agree with liz I also feed raw. and find it the best but really it is about what suits you are your dog

I feed part raw as I find it easier. She has chicken carcusses, vegetables and fruit of an evening.

Thanks b_phippsy for the web site recommendation, I have just sat down with a glass of something yummy and am going to have a look at it.