What do you feed your dog or cat?

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Maya J — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:46:27 GMT

my cat gets royal canin.

a. because he likes it and it keeps his coat good and shiny.

b. because i get it free !!!

maya

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

salome2001 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:26:15 GMT

I have 2 cats, 5 and 7. My personal choice is Royal Canin as I think their science has been more up to date (especially with the feline side) than Hills in the last 10 years. However they prefer the Hills Oral Care so they generally get fed that rather than the RC Dental.

My 7 year old cat threw up on Hills Indoor Cat (immediately on changing the diet, tried twice). Kudos to Hills though as they honoured the guarantee and credited me a bag.

I have to admit that they're on Iams Ocean Fish at the moment as I'm "between jobs" and that was the best thing Sainsburys had.

I was given the appealing spiel on the Orijen food at the London Vet Show but as they haven't sent me my free sample bag yet, the kitty jury's out.

They don't get wet food: the older cat won't touch it and though the younger one prefers it, it's a rare treat. I bought a box of 12 sachets of RC Young Female last xmas and half the box is still there. She goes bonkers though if I say she can have it: she knows it as "crap".

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Suzi McIntyre — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:46:11 GMT

[quote user="Jacquin Mitchell"]

I've just been to the local pet shop for more guinea pig food and they have the obligatory stand of Hills in the corner, with 'Vets' no.1 choice' emblazoned all over it.

Now, I fed my cats and dogs Hills for years but switched to Burns a couple of years ago after doing some up-to-date reading about dog and cat nutrition. I've done a quick poll of 5 vet friends and all of them a/ used to feed Hills and b/no longer feed Hills. Their reasons for changing include they've found a dried food they prefer, they've found something cheaper or they now feed a raw food.

So I thought I'd ask on here and see if Hills is still 'vets' no.1 choice' !

1/ What brand of food do you feed your dogs and cats?

and

2/ why?

Jacq

[/quote]

I feed my 2 dogs and 1 cat on raw meat and bone with liquidised greens and Pet Plus powder mixed in. They are superbly healthy with beautiful coats and clean teeth and gums, with absolutely no homecare. (I set up BVDA, hence my obsession with oral health!)

I used to feed Iams dried cat biscuits 20 years ago having been convinced by the rep that this was the best and had the right mix of fatty acids etc etc. I changed onto Prize Choice raw food when a friend suggested it might be a way of stopping the fleas that had suddenly invaded us, as an alternative to the usual chemical onslaught. Amazingly enough, the fleas did all vanish after a few days on raw food. I know they left the house as well because they stopped biting me!!

Since 1996, I have been adding a fantastic nutritional supplement called Pet Plus to their food and they are bursting with health and vitality. I now import it from USA and redistribute it in Europe. It makes all the difference to health, even if people still insist on feeding processed food. We did a pilot study in 1997 and found that adding Pet Plus to the food (all these pets were on processed food) after a scale and polish maintained and improved their oral health. Even cats with chronic feline gingivostomatitis eventually got better. Good news! Also, digestive disturbances get better, skins get better....in fact, it provides the nutrients the body needs to repair and heal, so most problems recover more quickly with Pet Plus and preferably a raw food diet.

I now use Darlings excellent quality raw dog and cat meat mix from www.darlingsrealdogfood.com It is the absolute best I have ever found! I also add the liquidised greens and Pet Plus and haven't had a flea on them for about 17 years!

Have you tried raw food on your dogs and cats?

Suzi (McIntyre....nee Penman)

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Libby Reys — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:46:20 GMT

Rabbit (with bones, kidney, liver, heart), quail, poussin, turkey chunks, turkey hearts, horse chunks, ostrich chunks. Yum. Bon appetit! What did you expect?

Lib x

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

HERETIC — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:25:32 GMT

Chappie is great! The best for diabetics, better than I/D for iffy guts and good for weight control. I was shocked to see that there was a vet out there who thinks its a low quality diet. Meanwhile there isnt a clear consensus BUT Hills certainly isnt the number 1 vets choice. Do we have a case for the advertising standards people?

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Amie Glaves — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:29:43 GMT

My 2 cats used to have Whiskas dried but recently my Persian X started with diarrhoea and the only thing that seems to work is Royal Canin Persian food. So, regrettably they're both now fed that. But hey what I spend in food I save in J-cloths and Flash!

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Rex — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:12:30 GMT

You can get Orijen from vet wholesaler Centaur. Or from them direct same as Burns

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Jacquin Mitchell — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:49:28 GMT

[quote user="Mike Martin"]

So having gone through the list, of all the dog foods others have recommended on this forum thread, none gets a 1 star or better. Some because they are not rated.

Of the 6 star foods on this website, I've heard of none and my supplier does not stock them.

[/quote]

Burns gets between 3-4 stars

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=1955&cat=all

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=368&cat=all

Orijen gets 6 stars

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=2299&cat=all

You can buy Burns from the manufacturers and Orijen from the importers. Not sure about wholesalers sorry.

If you read the whole blurb, scroll past the ingredients and adverts, you will see a good paragraph or two about each food which explains how the rating is arrived at. It's pretty straightforward.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Mike Martin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:36:37 GMT

I am stupid........well spotted. I wonder how many of our clients make the same mistake.

So having gone through the list, of all the dog foods others have recommended on this forum thread, none gets a 1 star or better. Some because they are not rated.

Of the 6 star foods on this website, I've heard of none and my supplier does not stock them.

I guess the point I'm trying to make with my 'Devil's advocate' banter, is that it is not easy to rate the quality of dog food for a vet, let alone the public. Of the ratings given on this forum, apart from 'so called' reputation (how is that achieved?) how does one assess the 'scientific evidence' for a good quality food.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Rex — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:33:48 GMT

Sorry, recomended food is at the bottom of the review page.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Rex — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:32:38 GMT

Thats a Google advert link. The top foods are the 6 star rating foods, Bakers get a zero rating. There are also a list of recomended foods at the bottom of the home page.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Mike Martin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:23:41 GMT

[quote user="Jacquin Mitchell"]

[quote user="Mike Martin"]How do you know if the ingredients are good or processed. That does not seem clear on the label to me? [/quote]

I use these guidelines:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/how-do-you-rate-the-foods.html

[/quote]

Thanks. When I followed that link, it leads to the "top dog foods" recommended by this site............ Bakers is on the list.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Emma Jarratt — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:54:47 GMT

I actually chop and change a bit depending on where I am working!!! I tend to default towards James Wellbeloved cereal-free range (feeding dogs grains just does seem odd generally when you think about it), but happily snap up out of date/free bags at practices, for example she was on Royal Canin mini adult for a while when I got a free 10kg bag through work, and have fed her several bags of hills that have gone out of date/returned from clients at various places. She seems to do well on most things.

My 'nutrition talk' for clients tends to go along the lines of: there are 3 types of food, supermarket cheapies (bakers, chum etc), premium brand (hills, royal canin etc) and 'holistic/natural/hypoallergenic' (burns, james wellbeloved etc), I prefer people to avoid the supermarket cheapies (poor quality ingredients, poor quality protein, additives, colours etc) but don't mind at all between the other two (generally better quality ingredients, better quality protein, no unnecessary colours etc etc).

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Emily McAteer — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:33:20 GMT

Hills has always been my favourite. I would not feed anything else nor do I recommend anything else. This is after nearly 20 years in practice.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Jacquin Mitchell — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:24:55 GMT

[quote user="Mike Martin"]How do you know if the ingredients are good or processed. That does not seem clear on the label to me? [/quote]

I use these guidelines:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/how-do-you-rate-the-foods.html

I'm not sure about the ratio of protein/grain thing for dogs but I am convinced that the quality of protein makes a difference. Do some reading and make up your own mind.

HTH

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Mike Martin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:09:54 GMT

[quote user="Jacquin Mitchell"]

so I'm happy to pay for something that I know has good quality ingrediants.

Some cheaper foods ( and some not so cheap foods with better advertising) contain things you wouldn't want your pet to eat in an unprocessed form.

[/quote]

How do you know if the ingredients are good or processed. That does not seem clear on the label to me?

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Jacquin Mitchell — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:51:32 GMT

>So at risk of showing my ignorance here, how does one know what is a good or bad dog (or cat) food?<

I guess it depends on whether you really want to know what goes into your pets food? I do, so I'm happy to pay for something that I know has good quality ingrediants.

Some cheaper foods ( and some not so cheap foods with better advertising) contain things you wouldn't want your pet to eat in an unprocessed form.

I'm probably fussier about pet food since I had kids, and had to think about what I was feeding them.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Clive Ansell — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:55:59 GMT

I feed my dog on Chappie original, I don't know whether or not it is a good food; but he looks good, is very active and has a great coat and teeth. Seems ok to me.

It is not the most palatable food in the world, but he is a Labradorus and will eat anything that is edible. In fact he will eat almost anything that is inedible too.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Mike Martin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:57:53 GMT

So at risk of showing my ignorance here, how does one know what is a good or bad dog (or cat) food?

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Niall Taylor — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:41:29 GMT

[quote user="HERETIC"]I find their marketing grates[/quote]

There's nothing annoys me more than unsubstantiated, grandiose claims - like a red rag to a bull to me !

Niall

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

HERETIC — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:45:13 GMT

I feed a staple base diet of cheap UK produced dried food with liberal supplements of raw meaty bones.The dog always looks at her best when the RMBs are plentiful and she has great teeth and a stable gut.

I wouldnt buy Hills -too expensive and I find their marketing grates.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

James Allsop — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:05:14 GMT

[quote user="Martin Jones"]Bakers Light - great diet food. We certainly see a lot of obese dogs on it.[/quote]

How true - I see this all the time - they never seem to loose weight though do they.

I feed Royal Canin to my 2 cats and 1 dog, the cats also get some Felix tinned food as they stay indoor and I feel it helps to maintain water intake rather than a 100% dry diet. All seem well on it except approx 18months to 2yrs ago when they changed the formulation of the cat food (removed beet pulp and replaced with chicory) which caused a spell of vomiting typical for IBD. This has settled now and they have progressed to the Mature range.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Rex — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:47:57 GMT

I was introduced to Orijen when I was in Canada 2 years ago. My rather elderly border collie has done extremely well on it and so the rest of the dogs and cats all get Orijen now, including a diabetic cat.

Previously they had Royal Canin, as fo the protein I belive it's the source (and quality of protein that is important. I took some convincing of this theory!

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Utlendigur — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:52:41 GMT

Two cats (one 18yrs old) on Felix pouches (occasionally others if on special offer) plus some dry food, usually James Wellbeloved, Purina, Hills. Younger one also partial to Pesto sauce. Both fairly slim.

Collie and JRT on Pal or Butchers tins plus James Wellbeloved and some Hills TD as a treat. Both extremely fit.

We used to stock a lot of Hills but increasingly selling more James Wellbeloved instead. Also some Wafcol which is useful as a cheaper option.

Re: What do you feed your dog or cat?

Martin Jones — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:45:28 GMT

We have a phrase for Bakers in the practice (don't tell the lawyers) - which I won't mention, but which may or may not - as the case may be - allegedly etc - align the food with a certain fast food chain with golden arches. All was well, as clients understood the meaning, and a bit of light hearted banter would tend to put them on the right road. Until............. one lady replied 'actually, I'm restaurant manager at the xxxx branch' and went right off on one. Apparently they ARE that litigious.

Bakers Light - great diet food. We certainly see a lot of obese dogs on it.