Recommend me a dry food

[Dakaras]

My boy isnt a deer dog but its a I figured theres a wealth of experiance on here

Ive a German Shepherd / Flatcoat cross, family pet and ruined for anything by fireworks
He is getting on for 9 and recent xrays have shown he has dodgy hips so he is now no longer able to come to work daily with me and is restricted to a couple of walks a day.

Im after a dry food that will maintain him at a healthy weight (currently 38kg which for his size is about right)

Any recommendation would be gratefully received.

The boy Oakley

 

[gundog]

Tried most of them settled on Arden Grange from Berriswood wholesale
run 5 cockers seems to work for me

 

[gundog]

Forgot to mention lamb and rice is what i use
great product any advice from our vet on this site would be grateful

 

[stone]

why are you looking to change his food
is he starting to loose condition in any way??

 

[Dakaras]

We were on wet food and biscuit mixer and he was out running round with me all day everyday, once he came up lame we did the whole vet thing and the xrays showed the hip problem so vet advised a science plan diet due to his now reduced excercise but frankly its through the roof expensive. Ive tried him on a local petshops own brand dried stuff thats got a reduced protein content to help keep weight down when excercising less and he just hates it so looking for alternatives .

 

[BuckarooUK]

I've pretty much tried them all but have now settled on CSJ dog food. It was recommended to me buy a guy who's a competitive dog sled racer and his dogs are real athletes. It's salmon based, great quallity and all of my 4 dogs love it - 2 chesapeakes, 1 springer and a border terrier:

http://www.csjk9.com/productcart/pc/viewCategories.asp

I use 'Hike On!' in the winter months, before i take them out working and 'High Lost' during other times.

 

[stone]

Hav you looked at brands of complete food that do a senior diet
but also don't be to hasty in choosing reduced protein foods
as your dog will still need protein in it's diet to help stay active and keep weight on, all you will need to do is just reduce the amount of food in-take per meal
plus you may also need to start adding extra's like Salmon oil to complete food with reduced contents
Chudleys does a good allrounder at about £12 a bag which should last about a month, just add a bit of bisto or the likes to get them started on it and possibly Salmon oil at a later stage to help with body condition if you feel the coat starts looking a little dull in colour
tit bits from "Fish 4 Dogs" also will help mantain health
also if you don't already, feed twice a day,
makes a big difference in the long run, but it may take a little time for your dog to adapt to it's new life style and food choice

 

[Kit]

Dry Food

I use Countrywide maintenance with a 50% mix of raw meat mainly lung from the butchers or local slaughter house and just increase the amount of meat acording to work load.If dogs need a bulk up carrot is good either raw of cooked.
Added coldliver oil to my old cockers food when he got stiff with half an asprin he had to be put down at 15

 

[countrryboy]

Stone makes some good comments in first post, if nothing wrong why change. If there anything wrong with his current diet, he is in good nick and enjoys it, could u not jist feed him a bit less and watch his condition or mix some low protien stuff into it to bulk it up if he misses the quantity of food. Also adding some oils may help esp as an older dog.
All dogs are different and will have diferent tastes and put on or lose condition differently, even changing the kennelling adding/ removing dogs can affect an others appetite.
For the thread my dogs on wagg worker and seems to suit them fine,apart from the oranage poo, but fairly active (beat/picked up 50 odd days last year, on 10 already this season)so not really suit urself, 6 month pup on chudleys puppy/junior

Also i'm no dog nutritionalist but does the protien value have that big an impact on the dogs, in the past i have looked at the protien% of different brands and generally between 18-25% and sometimes only 1 or 2% difference between 'normal' and 'high protien, worker' mixes of same brand. i have also noticed 'normal' on one brand being higher protien than another brands 'hig protien' mix. Can't really see how couple of % will make a massive difference (althou no vat on worker mixes) esp when the portions are made to suit the dog

 

[limulus]

WAG.
If your dog doesnt take to it boil a few rabbits up in a large pan of water (bigger the better and the more rabbit the better). Boil until the meat falls off the rabbit (2hrs or so) strip the meat off the bone then roll the meat up in some cling film so its approx a sausage size 'tube'. Freeze this. Into some old dog food tins or other similar containers pour the 'gravy' from the rabbits and freeze these also. Bit of rabbit (it just breaks up into the size you want from the freezer)and some warmed up gravy and your dog would eat a a well seasoned piece of oak

 

[paintandpins]

With a premium brand dry food, you shouldn't need to supplement, it's counter productive, you are a paying a premium price for a premium product. I use royal Canin and it has always suited, they do a variety of feeds. It is very digestible and with very little waste. you can get it form petshops and it is quite often on offer at Pets at home, otherwise you can get a good deal direct from Royal Canin, if you have a kennel name.

 

[stone]

Mark/Alison ( not sure which )
That is very true what you say. A premium brand should not need any futher supplement , as it should be as it says a "Complete food"
Just over the years I hav found unfortunately not all premium brands are the same and quite often they lack something or hav lower levels of certain ingredients than the next brand does for the same money
which can always be a problem when changing to a lesser or better quality food
This can then become a bloody minefield and exspensive when you start looking into it, especially if you hav a dog/s with Allergies or special requirements, Labs seem to fit this bill quite a lot
so any extra help to try and keep weight on or a healthy coat in ways of a supplement is always welcome
As even some of the best bred labs from the top lines in this country need this from time to time
but you hav no idea of this when they are purchased as pups

countryboy
I'm not sure how much difference it makes between the differing protein levels when you are talking about working dogs like spaniels for instance
because I was always taught to up the food intake during the working season anyway to compensate
and when they were not working go back to normal feeding routine
But apparently 23% was the premium percentage for working dogs and 18% when not working
How true this is I don't know
Now Skinners (I think) do a senior food, which I think is 25% ? which to me makes sense , as when your dog starts gets older it usually needs all the help it can get to stay fit , healthy and keep weight on
the choice is yours and there seems plenty of choices out there to pick from these days that will more than do at a sensible cost to the pocket
picking the right one , Well....... thats always good for a debate!!!!
ATB

 

[SC243]

I recently changed my Spaniels food as one of them just went off the complete food I was feeding them, don't know why, she just decided she didn't like it! I was feeding them Beta Active, which isn't a cheap food anyway so I welcomed the change, although I don't believe in feeding them rubbish. I've tried various different foods over the last while including the Wagg Active, but as already stated they developed orange poo's that kind of put me off, although their condition stayed good. I've settled on the Skinners Field and Trail Working 23, a bit cheaper than the Beta, a bit dearer than the Wagg but the dogs love it and their condition is really good. I think their coats are in better condition than before but I could just be fooling myself!! I'll be monitoring how they get on this season, the training regime has been increasing recently and come October they'll be earning their stay!!!!

 

[geoffrey]

Hi I have tried many of the dry dog foods and have settled on arkwrites, at £7.99 for a 15kg bag, my five year old cocker has fantastic energy, a lovely coat.
he works three days a week during the season, the only addition to his diet is a daily cod liver oil tablet.
cheers geoff

 

[SC243]

Hi Geoffrey,

How often does he get the cod liver oil tablet and is it for joints? The reason I ask is that one of my spaniels had an operation on one of her front legs when she was a pup, the elbow joint was screwed together. Although she has no problems with it now I sometimes wonder what she'll be like in the future, I might try her with cod liver oil if it will keep her joints good. What sort of tablets do you use?

Cheers,

Scott

 

[geoffrey]

Hi Scott my cocker gets a 550mg capsul every morning, these ones are natures aid with vitamins a,d,e, 120 capsuls for £2.99 from a high street chemist.
every body remarks on his coat, he has no joint problems and gets very excited when i am opening the container,
regards geoff

 

[martinl]

I had a ESS for 13 1/2 years and for his last couple of years he was on a Cod oil capsule every day and we also got him a Magnetic collar to help his joints. The collar made a huge difference in his mobility.
He was a working dog, lived outside and fed on quality complete dry food all his life.

 

[SC243]

I think I'll start them on some of these suppliments, hopefully make life easier for them later on.

Cheers

 

[RED-DOT]

Hi, i mix Chudleys working crunch with an equal amount of Skinners Muesli mix and once a week a tin of runny stuff to give them a wee change... my 2 Chesapeakes are in great condition and i rarely give them treats.
Look at the dentals in my "gallery"......

 

[SC243]

Red-Dot, been messing about with photo-shop there, those are some nashers!!!!!!!!