Skinners Field and Trial

Hi,

I'm just after some opinions on this dog food. My staffy x boxer Khaleesi has a wheat allergy and we currently feed her on Wainwrights and a tin of sardines each day split over 2 meals (the vet said the sardines are fine), she's doing well on Wainwrights but I've seen some good reviews about Skinners too. Wainwrights is currently £38 for 10KGs and Skinners is less than £25 for 15kgs so much more cost effective.

Does anyone have a dog who has a wheat allergy and is on Skinners field and trial and is doing well?

Wainwrights has a higher protein content which I've heard is more beneficial for dogs, but could the amount of protein in the Skinners and the sardines combined be enough?

If Wainwrights is better for my dog then I'm happy to stick with this, however if she will do well on Skinners then obviously it would be more cost effective to change over. We're not tight on money or anything but obviously it's always good to get the best value for money but in no way would I want our girl to be any worse off just because of a few quid a month.

What do you guys think?

I think you need to look at the ingredients to get a good idea of which food is best to be honest. This site http://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/ gives you all the info about what is in the food if you click on the item itself. From the limited reviews Skinners doesn't sound too bad but I haven't done a comparison with Wainwrights.

Yeah I've looked at that site, Skinners filed and trial is at 3.5/5 and Wainwrights is at 4.4/5 which obviously suggests it's a better dog food. I'm not sure what's good with regards to protein and ingredient content. I know both are grain and maize free, Wainwrights is 25% protein but over 20% meat) and Skinners is 22% I think this is all the meat. Reviews seem good on both but obviously one is a fair bit cheaper than the other. I'm wondering if it's the protein/meat content that's giving the Wainwrights a higher score? and if the Sardines I add to the food would be good enough if I was to purchase Skinners.

Hmmm, I'm not an expert on food to be honest, hopefully someone more knowledgable will be able to add some more for you.

mia was on barking heads pricey but worth it . theres a site called tails.com they cater to your dogs needs im quite sure they give you a couple weeks food see how your dog gets on

Personally I wouldn't Skinners or Bakers. It's not only a question of the numbers, it's also a question of the quality and additives. I think the additional price is worth paying, I would much rather pay more for something worth having than try and cut corners and regret it later. I believe you are what you eat, but sometimes we don't know what our food is doing to us until later on when problems develop.

One of the problems with the cheap end of the market is that they are full of 'derivatives', which means anything at all, really. You don't know if the chicken is meat or feet, and it's more likely to be the latter. I don't believe the stories you hear about dog collars and stuff ending up in dog food, but I do believe they use the cheapest rubbish possible, much of which is low nutritional value. I wouldn't eat it myself and I don't want my dogs to eat it.

Another problem is additives. Some foods contain additives - I believe Bakers has food colouring in (which is why Bakers dogs do orange poo), some contain added sugars, which dogs don't need.

Have a look at some of the better brands, there are others that are better value than Wainrights. I use Millie's Wolfheart - you buy it online so won't find it in your local shops - which was just voted Your Dog Magazine dry food of the year. It rates more highly than Wainrights and many of their mixes are cheaper. If you have storage space, it's even better value as they do multi-bag deals, plus once on their emailing list you get money off deals from time to time. I got 7% off 2 months worth a couple of weeks ago.

https://www.millieswolfheart.co.uk/

It is a minefield but it's one that, to my mind, is worth exploring. Our dogs deserve the best quality we can afford.

Thanks for your responses. I know Bakers is supposed to be bad, but what's in Skinners Field and trial that's so bad, looking at the ingredients it looks fine to me, I know it's cheaper than some other dog foods but I think lack of VAT makes it a bit cheaper that way.

It depends on the quality of the ingredients. You can made dog food with human grade meat or you can make it with offal like lungs that has minimal nutritional value. Both could be called 'meat'. When adding something like wheat, you can use the kernel or you can use wheatgerm. Both are wheat but one provides nutitional value and the other is just bulk.

Think of it like human food - you can get processed junk food that may appear to have an ok list of ingredients but the quality and nutritional value isn't the same as a better made meal that on the face of it should be similar but isn't.

ive used it for 21 months, its the only hypoallergenic food that cleared up Kaisers skin within two weeks, he also has wheat allergy. hes been on the salmon one since he was 6 months, and his skins the best its ever been.

all works differently on our dogs i guess,glad it helps Kaiser Char