Understanding Ingredients In Commercial Foods And Breeders Club Progra

[Antoun]

Good evening,

This subject has probably been asked soo many times so excuse my ignorance.

I have GSD's.

I am looking at what is the best commercial dog food, quality to $ ratio etc.

There is too many options available on the market, some are very expensive (Pro Plan, Royal Canin etc) and there is cheaper ones, i.e. Bonnie, Supercoat, Pal etc.

I have heard a lot of mixed feedback on what to stay away from etc.

Something i've heard over and over again; "Stay away from corn." - yet so many commercial dry foods have it in there????? WHY!!?

Also, another one people said to stay away from is "By-products" etc - is there any commercial dry product that does not have this? Should I be concerned?

Something i am considering is based on price vs quality vs quanitiy is Bonnie working mix - one place I found online has it delivered to your door for $42.50 per 20KG bag (you purchase 4 upfront, so it makes it about $180 upfront (but I have a number of dogs)

Another factor with the cost of the foods is the clubs that each brand offers and the benefits for breeders.. i.e. with Purina for every bag of bonnie you buy, you get 10,000 points, that means with this one order i am already 40,000 points upfront etc. http://www.purina.com.au/proplan/pdf/premiums_form.pdf <-- shows what you can redeem points on.

I am open to your suggestions and feedback.

[Jumabaar]

I find that I have to go with what my dogs do well on. So buying 4 bags up front would be a big ask as I can't be sure their coats will all stay glossy, that I will be happy with their stools etc.

I also found that I couldn't compare how much I was paying per kilo, I had to compare how much I was paying to keep condition on my dogs. Some of the cheaper foods I tried ended up costing as much as the more expensive brands because I had to use more per dog per day to keep weight on them. My dogs do flyball, show and do agility etc so I notice the difference quickly when the food is not giving them enough.

Personally I prefer foods with only one meat source- so only chicken or only beef etc. This means if a dog disagrees with their food I can look at changing the protein source and seeing how that goes. I think you need to initially decide on a brand, buy a bag and see how your dogs go with it because they don't read the labels so you can only give it a go!

[oakway]

The best food to feed is the one your dog does best on and that can sometimes take a while to find out which it will be be.

It all depends on the dogs as to which one it will be.

With a few dogs you may find that you might have to feed several brands.

What one dog does well on another may not.

[Antoun]

how long is a safe time to try your dog on a new food i.e. to give for the dog to react to the new diet etc

[Nekhbet]

depends - what do you find and acceptable level of condition and what do you want from your dogs? Even when I had 5 dogs I still paid whatever I could to buy food like Royal Canin. After trying so many foods I found it the best across the board but it's price has gone up recently.

See what condition you get for the price. You will notice within a few days the consistency of the poos, the energy level, farts etc if its going to happen. Coat condition can change quite quickly as well. If you're happy by the end of the bag stick with it. Saying that I will never feed any of the cheaper foods, I would rather raw diet and make it up with something like the Vets All Natural powders to make sure they're getting the essentials then something roughly with the same constituents as most commercial chicken pellets.

[brighton]

This site is very good for an explanation of ingredients

http://www.xp3020.com.au/ingredients%20explained.html