Hi My 7 month old lab is on Royal Canin junior. She is constantly having loose stools and mild allery symptoms, red eyes and itching. I want to change her to a low allergy food but need to keep the price reasonable. I pay £2.22 per kg at the moment and everything is so expensive. Has anyone got any experience of james wellbeloved range or can you recommend a good dry kibble or cold pressed food that doesnt contain grains, egg, soya etc that I can try? I'm in the UK. Thank you! Xx
Skinners is excellent, especially the salmon and rice. I pay £26 for 15Kg of Skinners, delivered. https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0296/skinners-field-and-trial-salmon-and-rice Here is the puppy version - https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/dog-food-reviews/0010/skinners-puppy (Ignore the ratings they are rigged by the firms imo, look at the ingredients) .
Thank you, my only concern is Skinners is a working dog food, she is domestic and only walks once a day most days. Would it still be suitable for her?
My dogs both have Symply kibble. I get it delivered directly from them, it’sreasonably priced and both dogs are doing well on it.
My dog was on James Welbeloved and it just never settled with him. His poo's were not runny as such, just never firm. He's on Canagan now which is expensive to be honest (£5.50 a kilo) but he only goes through one bag a month so it works out about £32 which isn't too bad really. Skinners is fine even though it's working dog food - most of the dogs on here don't work & are fine on skinners
The title ‘working dog’ just means it’s VAT free, the ingredients are fine for pet dogs. My Tatze is healthy, slim and glossy on it. But the pack quantities are too much, she’s on far less than the recommended quantities. Keir is on RC and I don’t like it - his poos are never as firm as Tatze’s, but I have no choice what to give him, all GDs are on RC. I understand why as they do have a large range. I get my Skinners from Amazon. She gets through one bag every two months. .
Thank you for all the advice! I'll try the Skinners and see how we go. When switching, is it better to mix a little current food into the new food and reduce the old food in stages? Or cold turkey? Bet she is going to love the change
Before you change to a different dog food, check the main ingredients on the Royal Canin packet. Look at the top 3 ingredients, this will give you a clue to what the allergen might be. Most commonly it is chicken, followed by beef and actually, wheat is not as common as you might think, (cue very effective marketing from a lot of companies!). Switch to a novel protein source if you can. This means a protein source that is not historically, the main ingredient in dog food. Some examples would be, duck, venison and lamb. To be on the safe side you could also exclude wheat in the first instance then rechallenge later if the initial allergy symptoms clear up. Check all your treats, most of the commercial ones have chicken in some guise often called poultry meal or by-products. Of course, finally, I would just run this by your vet, as I am sure you have already had some discussions about your pups itchiness.
I didn't realise chicken could be a problem, thank you. dogfood is so confusing! There is so much conflicting advice out there. Her current food top 3 are poltry protein, animal fats and maize! I have had some suggestions to try fish protein which I am considering. I'll check with her vet, they suggest science plan but I'm not keen on that one. V expensive too, hence the search for a good food.
I have a thread about the same subject at the moment, I have settled (for now) on Pets at Home Fishmongers Finest for 1 year olds, but they do a puppy version too. A nutritionist at my doggy day care warned against foods containing rice, wheat, grains etc. suggesting salmon and potato were better. The price is pretty good compared to some. With some better dry foods though, you do not need to feed so much so they may work out more reasonably priced than you think. Also beware of the vets recommendations, mine promote Royal Canin which are really expensive but contain rice as the first ingredient. I would follow the advice of lab owners on this forum that do not need to promote a product.
I feed James Wellbeloved to my two and fed it to all my previous dogs. They are fine on it. Molly also had sensitive skin and eyes when she was a pup - seems to be better now she's grown - both dogs will be 2 in April. One other point, I always add a forkful of tinned Chappie to their kibble - again because it has always gone down well with all our dogs. Our previous lab was epileptic and on meds that caused bleeds in his stomach on occasions and he was only able to tolerate tinned Chappie at that time. Good luck with finding a food to suit your youngster.
Could you possibly do me a favour and ask her to provide links to research that shows that these are problematic for dogs? I've looked and looked but I can't find any scientific evidence of this. The research I've found shows that the proteins in beef and chicken are hugely more likely to cause problems than any carbohydrate source. I assume as a nutritionist she will have better access to the scientific articles that show that rice, wheat and grains are bad for our dogs, and it would be really helpful if that could be shared. Thanks!
T They did not say grain was bad, but not as healthy as potato as a filler. Salmon and potato was recommended rather than what I am feeding which is chicken and rice Arden Grange, a healthier option. I think the emphasis was not on the chicken but the amount of rice in the food as with Arden Grange it is the top ingredient, what I have switched to has Salmon as the top ingredient, much healthier (I hope). This is what they have suggested for Maisy and I am happy with that as she has really gone of the Arden Grange and loves the salmon and potato she has tried so far.
I understand, but I'd still be interested to hear if you could ask her for any good resources. I'm always trying to learn and this is something I can't find any information on, so pointers to some scientific articles would be brilliant if she can offer them
Do you think so? I thought the strength of the allaboutdogfood website is that it's done by an independent chap in order to avoid bias?
I couldn't possibly say how biased or not it is, but I do think there's always an element of doubt when there's a reviewing system on a site that has financial links to products. There's obviously an affiliate program on the site for buying dog food, so that raises alarm bells. I'm not saying you can't remain impartial and also monetise your site, but, still, that element of doubt remains.
Royal Canin is a 2.5-3.0 rated dog food(out of 5). You can do better. It has both wheat and corn in it, both of which many Labradors are allergic to. My previous Lab continuously itched, despite many kinds of medications, but within 2 weeks of stopping corn, he never scratched(itch) again. https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/royal-canin-medium-dog-food/
