I used to feed my doggy poison. :D

[Cardinal]

Good for you for switching your dog!

It's better than Pedigree, but Symply contains a lot of rice/grain ingredients, which are fillers and can be hard for certain dogs to digest. Yes, you get the meat listed first, but after that you get grains and fat/oils to make up for the lack of meat and/ or "truly filling" ingredients. But Symply, overall, is good.

Here's a link I found: http://www.best-dog-food-review.com/68005/68201.html

So looking at that, Natural Dog Food Company and Symply are the best. And although I haven't done a thorough analysis of both company's ingredients, I'd say Natural Dog Food Company is tops, although Symply is 2nd by a nose. Below Symply would be James Wellbeloved.

Hmm. Does Britain simply not have a lot of natural dog foods (or just decent ones) besides the four on the website? Compared to the US, you guys are simply lacking on both ingredient quality, percentages/ratios of ingredients (this is the biggest difference), and variety. No offense, of course. (:

Natural Dog Food Company - All In One Adult Chicken

Dried British Chicken (min 22%), Fresh British Chicken (min 21%), Whole Brown Rice (min 21%) Whole Oats, Mixed Vegetables and Herbs, Whole Barley, Refined Chicken oil, Sugar Beet, Linseed, Brewer’s Yeast.

Typical Analysis - Protein 20%, Oil 8.5%, Fibre 3%, Ash 5%

Symply - Turkey and Rice

Dried Turkey (min. 26%)
White Rice (min. 26%)
Rice Bran
Rice Flour
Oats
Sunflower Oil (min. 9%)
Beet Pulp
Dried Egg
Seaweed
(Protein 22%
Fat 12%
Fibre 5%
Ash 7%
Vitamin A 13,500 iu/kg
Vitamin D3 2,000 iu/kg
Vitamin E 200 iu/kg
Copper (Copper Sulphate) 10 mg/kg
Linoleic Acid 5.1% )

Natural Balance - Synergy Dog Formula (What I feed my dogs here in America.)

Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Beet Pulp, Pearled Barley, Lamb Meal, Salmon Meal, Oatmeal, Dried Egg, Oat Fiber, Natural Flavor, Flaxseed, Brewers Dried Yeast, Dried Carrot, Salmon Oil, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Inulin, Vitamins (vitamin E supplement, niacin supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, vitamin A acetate, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement,folic acid), Minerals (zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, sodium selenite,calcium iodate), Psyllium Seed Husks, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, L-carnitine, Kelp Meal, Dried Cranberries, Dried Parsley, L-lysine, Dried Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Spinach

The main difference I wanted to show you is the meat vs. grain quality.

I guess we might not have as good dog foods over here xD Natural Balance does seem quite a bit better than Symply.. Anyways, glad that Symply's a good dog food(At least for us in the UK xD). http://www.best-dog-food-review.com/68005/68201.html was actually the exact same site that I looked at when I was looking for better dog food xD

Do you guys not have Acana or Orijen? These foods are sold all over the world and are top of the top when it comes to kibble.

[Darkest.Nation]

I typed in "British natural dog food brands" and Acana and Orijen did not come up at all. Perhaps I need to type in something else?

[Cardinal]

http://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/?

[Imzadi83]

Was there as many good dog food brands before that major run of pet deaths and all those massive recalls? My impression is dog food and awareness of has changed a lot here in the US. And a sudden awareness/interest would leave the door wide open for better dog food where before not as many wanted to spend the money for a better quality food.

[The Love Of Horses]

i see what you guys are saying but i have switched dog food like a million times and my dog still wont gain weight what should i do

[Darkest.Nation]

At that point, if your food is nutrient dense and has a good amount of meat in it, visit the veterinarian and/or a pet nutritionist to see if you can come up with a diagnosis and/or a food plan so that your dog can gain weight.

Also, are you transitioning the food gradually instead of going cold turkey?

[Jazi]

x2 on going to the vet. I've seen puppies fail very quickly due to something wrong with their organs and the first symptom was that they weren't gaining any weight. Go sooner rather than later just to make sure. Hey, if nothing else, your vet could give you a clean bill of health and you'll just have to ride it out til the next growth spurt.

[.muse.]

Funny, I had a dog, she was a Lab Airdale mix, she was fed Pedigree from the day she was weaned from her mother to the day she died. She had kibbles in her bowl for whenever she wanted to eat, she got a can of wet food in the evening when we ate dinner, and all her treats were pedigree as well. That dog lived for 14 years, and until the last year of her life she was active and healthy and you'd have thought she was 5 by her energy.

People think that because a dog food has a certain chemical in it or a certain grain, it's not good for the dog. That can't be seen as a general thing among all dogs. Yes a Raw diet is the best thing you can give your dog, and yes foods with less grains and more meats are healthier. But some dogs do genuinely well on 'lesser' brands. If hundreds of dogs were getting cancer or tumors directly linked with dog food ingredients. Those foods wouldn't be around for long.

It's like going to the store and seeing Kraft Mustard then the store Mustard. Which are you going to get? Some people think, oh name brand that must be better. Some people go with the store brand because it's cheaper. But in the end, it's still mustard. You didn't prevent yourself from getting any medical side effects be going with Kraft, and on the flip side you didn't just subject yourself to death for going with the off brand.
Just because it's not the best, doesn't mean it's poison.

Oh and by the way, that chemical propylene glycol, your dog would need to consume roughly a 50 pound bag of dog food daily, for that to ever effect them. And another fun note on that chemical that is found in Car Coolant, the reason people think it's poison, it's in toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, nearly every bathroom product you use on yourself.

[Cardinal]

Propylene Glycol

A cosmetic form of mineral oil found in automatic brake and hydraulic fluid and industrial antifreeze. In the skin and hair, propylene glycol works as a humescent, which causes retention of moisture content of skin or cosmetic products by preventing the escape of moisture or water. The Material Safety Data Sheet warns users to avoid skin contact with propylene glycol as this strong skin irritant can cause liver abnormalities and kidney damage.

Sounds mildly toxic to me.. I wouldn't feed this to an animal even if it took 'x' amount to causes harm. It has no place in a k9's diet.

Ethoxyquin is used as a pesticide but accepted in pet food up to 75ppm, whereas in human food its limited to .05... Huge difference. Last time I checked pesticides were a toxin.

1
a : a substance that through its chemical action usually kills, injures, or impairs an organism b (1) : something destructive or harmful (2) : an object of aversion or abhorrence
2
: a substance that inhibits the activity of another substance or the course of a reaction or process <a catalyst poison>

They sound like poisons as well. Hrm.

BHA and BHT

The toxicology of the food preservatives butylhydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylhydroxytoluene (BHT) as well as the naturally occurring vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) is described. In high dosages all three compounds induce in animals impairment of blood clotting, which can be explained by an antagonism with vitamin K. Specific toxic effects to the lung have only been observed with BHT. The other described toxic effects of BHA and BHT are less characteristic and often occur only after high dosage and long-term treatment. However, BHA induces in animals tumours of the forestomach, which are dose dependent, whereas BHT induces liver tumours in long-term experiments. Because there is no indication of genotoxicity of BHA and BHT, all published findings agree with the fact that BHA and BHT are tumour promoters.

These chemicals also have NO PLACE in the k9, or any other, diet.

Grains are virtually impossible for a carnivore to digest. They are indigestible filler and give your dog no benefit.

This is the primary evidence: dogs fed a raw meaty bone diet produce stools that are one-third the size of the voluminous stools of kibble-fed dogs. That equates to a two-thirds size reduction in fecal output!! This indicates a higher digestibility; vets and dog owners know this very well. Smaller stools = better digestibility. Raw diets are 90-97% digestible (includes the bone!!), whereas most kibbled foods are 40-70% digestible (some of the better, holistic kibbles have higher digestibilities than this figure). This explains why most kibble-fed dogs have such huge poops: most of it is undigested grain and filler, also known as "fiber". Even premium dog kibbles, while more digestible than many other kibbles, yield stools that are rather large compared to a raw-fed animal's poop.

I had a lab growing up. He had awful rough fur, hot spots the size of my palm, smelled terrible, and had numerous fatty tumors. He was fed crap. Would he have done better on another food? I honestly think so. Where a pet parent can improve the lives of their animals.. they should. Why settle for less? Pets are not a right, they are a privileged and should be treated as such. He lived to be 11 or so, which is a long life.

My rottie girl has undergone a complete transformation after switching to a better food. My cats that were 'fine' on crap food have also shown amazing improvements. A carnivore should be fed like a carnivore.

[HyperJax]

Hai, back.

I know that it's better for bones to be in a dogs diet, but I was just wondering if there would be a possibilty that while the dog would be eating the bone, that the bone would break in two, or maybe just splinter, and that the shards might hurt the dog, maybe even lodging in the throat.. Just wondering if that could be a potential danger of feeding your dog bones.

Peace out,

HyperJax