Working dog food.. which is best?

[Aimeetess]

I've had real trouble with a food my 5 month pup gets on well with. I'm a fine believer in feeding good food and wouldn't feed crap to any of our dogs.

He was on Lilys Kitchen since a small pup and done well on it (60 meat/40 veg) but at £39 for 7kg I wanted something cheaper. Tried Millies Wolfheart, Ranger recipe as they recommended it. Worked out quite a bit cheaper. He was clearly allergic to something quite badly. Suddenly watery diarrhea, very itchy and he dropped A LOT of weight quickly. Put him back on Lilys Kitchen, the weight flew on and he looks great, diarrhea instantly stopped.

I'm really wanting something less than £39 for 7kg (£5.57 a kg!!) which is what I pay for Lilys, and thats the cheapest I can find it. Millies Wolfheart have now recommended another recipe, but I find their foods confusing as its all different percentage of meats/veg etc. Hunter recipe looked good, high meat, low veg good protein but they've said it may upset his stomach as its rich so go to with countryside which is lower in protein and higher veg. He isn't the best 'doer' in all fairness so needs something with alot of carbs but nothing to rich.

I've red a few comments I've noticed a lot on forums, Facebook, reviews, where dogs had similar problems, itching, loosing weight with Millies Wolfheart which puts me off.

I've looked into Eden dog food, which works out fairly expensive (£4.30 a kg) and Akela (£4.9 a kg) which look very good foods but still rather expensive, they're both higher in meat content and Akela do a sensitive version which is mainly turkey for puppies. I want a good food but don't really want to spend over £4 a kg. I know there are tons about in that range, but does anyone have any recommendations?

Thank you

[Gundogs11]

Everyone would recommend something different, but remember that different things work for different dogs.
There is a good website https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/ which gives you an idea about the ingeredients and other peoples reviews.
Personally we feed raw and all the dogs do well on it.
We pay £150 to £160 per month for raw for 7 working dogs.

[Aimeetess]

Thank you Gundogs11,

I have bought Millies Riverside mix but only a small bag to try for a week or so.

That websites great, been using it for a few months now! Luckily this food is 4.8 on their scale.

[Contender]

A 5 month old puppy should really be on a puppy food if you feed complete - all to do with the CA/P balance and also the protein/fat content plus minerals. I know that the food your pup was on is a bit pricey BUT if it's doing really well on it, then I wouldn't swap that's coming from someone that's actually looking after the Breeder's scheme/bulk buyers for another feed company.

Natasha

[Aimeetess]

Thank you for commenting Contender,

I have compared ingredients in the foods and Millies has more/if not better vitamins, minerals and meat content. I've only got a small bag to try so will see. Hes doing good on the pricey food BUT we can't get his weight about 11kg and hes very lean, also very itchy so it could be worth a try? Will keep some of the expensive food in case it doesn't go to plan - the lab can eat the sack he doesn't!

[Granthmax]

One person do alright iss not notjers person alright.sum like the pup big fat rollin side side wen walkins wen young pup but not good to hav it tht wey.keep pup slim but good food calsium an proteen not sluge to just pick off kenal floor that gets strayt threw the pup veg meets good biscit like high proteen but not to get pup fat like a ball like sum like to sea.old skool big round pup

[Springfield Pointers]

One person do alright iss not notjers person alright.sum like the pup big fat rollin side side wen walkins wen young pup but not good to hav it tht wey.keep pup slim but good food calsium an proteen not sluge to just pick off kenal floor that gets strayt threw the pup veg meets good biscit like high proteen but not to get pup fat like a ball like sum like to sea.old skool big round pup

Good heavens. Not even spellcheck would help this cause. Thanks for the effort though.

[Contender]

Thank you for commenting Contender,

I have compared ingredients in the foods and Millies has more/if not better vitamins, minerals and meat content.

I know that the particular food you're trying out, is VERY high in Ca which is not particular what you want for a puppy as this could lead to too fast growth at a too quick a rate. It's also very high in ash which generally means that they have to add a lot of minerals and vitamins because there aren't enough in the raw materials going into the food - most would recommend this to be around the 8% mark.

Anyway, dog food is a minefield but generally, as previous mentioned, I would always use a puppy food up until 12 months of age...

Natasha