Dog Food Help

[amy]

Hi

I'll try to cut a long story short however I have fed my two pomeranians HiLife www.hilifepet.co.uk/osb/showitem.cfm/category/13 for a good few years now. However, they didn't have it in the shop so I bought Vets Kicthen www.petskitchen.co.uk/Pets'-Kitchen-Online-Shop-Vet's-Kitchen-Vet's-Kitchen-Natural-Dog-Food/c21_4_5/p94/Vet&%2339;s-Kitchen-Adult-Chicken-&-Brown-Rice-1.3kg/product_info.html

I know nothing about the appropriate protein levels and what "good" ingredients are so I asked for help on the H&H forum and seem to have struck great debate! I didn't realise that there seems to be a fraternity who promote you feed your dog cooked meat which I appreciate however I don't want to. IME, even the smallest amount of chicken runs through my dogs!

Anyway, I have since been advised that out of these two feeds, Vets Kitchen provides the better diet (is that right?) however one of my dogs has stopped eating it so I need to find an alternative - any ideas??!

[Muse]

Basically depends what you want to feed and/or what your dogs will eat.

Mine are on complete - puppies get a premium salmon and potato puppy until they are around 12 months of age and then they go onto a premium adult food, then at about 2 or so onto a maintenance adult food. I find complete is the easiest as it does everything for you - I simply don't have the time nor inclination to weigh out fresh food for all of my dogs and balance protein and fibre levels with vitamins, minerals, etc. That said, they will often get raw tripe, raw chicken, etc. with their food.

If you are going to feed raw food then AMP do a series of frozen minced meats which can be fed alongside fresh veg/fruit etc. the Ian Billinghurst book is by far the best reference on the subject: www.amazon.co.uk/The-Barf-Diet-Cats-Dogs/dp/0958592519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335270556&sr=8-1

[celticcob]

When we bought our jack Russell she had been on cheap puppy food, we tried mock her slowly onto more expensive food however it didn't agree with her and she stopped eating, became fussy. We have put her back onto the original food and discovered she will only eat it if its soaked. Shows you how they can be fussy depending on breeds.