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Best Dry Dog Food?


Cooper10
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Hey folks,

We have just got a new Staffie puppy. He is 8 weeks old and is currently fed on Advance puppy food. I am thinking about changing his food as he doesn't always eat much of this.

Can anyone recommend the best dry food for a puppy? I was thinking about Eagle Pack... any thoughts?

I was also thinking about mixing in a little wet food just to make things a little more interesting, any thoughts?

Thanks :eek:

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Eagle Pack would be my choice. Failing that Natures Gift Biogest. Both are the healthiest and best companies I've been able to find so far for my dogs needs.

There are an awful lot of threads on this topic in here tho so it might be worth doing a bit of a search (if you can get the search thingy to work - I seem to be completely unable to do that LOL)

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Feed the puppy what the breeder was feeding him until he's settled in to your house - 10-14 days usually. THEN if you want to change the food, change it slowly - mix the new with the old. IMO Staffords do best on a mostly raw food diet, but if you want to feed dry or mostly dry don't fall in to the trap of adding wet food or mince or other things to entice the pup to eat - it will pick out the nice food and leave the dry food and you will find yourself feeding him more and more wet "because he won't eat the biscuits without it". As for type - everything from Uncle Albers to Artemis has been and is used by various people, so it really is a matter of what suits you, your budget and your puppy. Eagle Pack I've heard is good, never used it; look at Nutro, Royal Canine, Artemis. I would avoid anything with too much wheat or corn and wouldn't recommend Science Diet.

Where's the photos :eek:

Edited by Sandra777
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Just curious about what's wrong with science diet? Our puppy had runny poos when we first got him and after the vet's nurse suggested Science Diet, he's been great. Solid poops, shiny coat and seems very healthy and happy. I didn't realise that it wasn't a good puppy food.

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Thanks for all the replies :eek:

I am not sure whether I want to spend a fortune on food. There is so much talk about there on premium foods. Are they really that much better? They are so expensive, but are you getting a better product? Is it ok to go with 'supermarket' brands like Optimum or Pedigree?

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Optimum is the better of the supermarket brands. The premium foods are certainly worth the $, you feed less, the dogs crap less. The cheap foods are pretty much full of grains ( fillers ) and what they call meat, are disgusting parts of the animals.

A large bag of Royal Canin will last you months for one dog.

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Genevieve is on advance.... I looked into it a bit before we bought her home and I thought that would be the way to go, given the amount of money I wanted to spend on her food, what I felt was important etc. Previous family dog always ate Eukenuba and did very well on it, that would have been my second choice, only because I was familiar with it.

Genevieve also came home with a bag of advance as that is what the breeder had been feeding her. Great! I thought. BUT... she didn't want to know about it when I gave it to her! :) And if I moved away from her, she would abandon her food and follow me!!! I was really worried as I had all this food and she wasn't eating it! It took her about a fortnight, but now she guts the stuff down!

I was really worried that she wouldn't eat, or just pick at it, because I had been led to believe that Cavvies are little piglets! When I spoke to the breeder, she said that I shouldn't worry, it is because she is used to eating with the other pups. Sure enough, now she lives up to the reputation of piglet and will guts down anything we give her! And her poop is how it should be...

So my point is, he could still be adjusting to his new home, it may not be that he is completely off his food! Try giving him a bit of puppy milk, they seem to guts that up!!! :) Changing food prematurely may make for a fussy dog.

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Optimum is the better of the supermarket brands. The premium foods are certainly worth the $, you feed less, the dogs crap less. The cheap foods are pretty much full of grains ( fillers ) and what they call meat, are disgusting parts of the animals.

A large bag of Royal Canin will last you months for one dog.

I agree, Optimum would be the better choice.

I feed Advance to the Pointers here, and they do great on it. One bag lasts us a month, thats being fed morning and night (smaller amounts instead of one big feed)

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Thanks for all the replies :rofl:

I am not sure whether I want to spend a fortune on food. There is so much talk about there on premium foods. Are they really that much better? They are so expensive, but are you getting a better product? Is it ok to go with 'supermarket' brands like Optimum or Pedigree?

With more expensive food you usually have to feed them less of it because its got more good stuff in it and less fillers, so it can actually be quite cost effective because while the initial outlay might be lots it will last longer because you feed less.

Having said that if you are looking for a cheaper option have a look at Uncle Albers and Great Barko. http://www.lauckemills.com.au/dogfood.html

If you email them they will send you a sample pack of each.

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I tried many different brands of dry food with our stafford pup... Great Barko, Advance, Super Coat,... and finally settled on Artemis. It is a super premium food, and we feed him much less than all the other brands. He absolutely loves it and jumps out of his skin when it's dinner time, but most importantly he has never been in better condition. Shiny coat, well toned, lots of energy, no allergies or itching. i would never consider a cheaper brand ever again. He also gets raw food for breakfast every day.

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Our puppy loves Royal Canin.

It was recommended by our vet- we bought our first lot from Petbarn but then discovered that it's different to the vet formula. We now buy it from our vet. Codi really likes it. :rofl:

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This question is probably akin to asking what the best breed of dog is.

The short answer will be the food your dog does best on.

Determining what that is will be governed by your budget, some research and your dog's individual digestive system.

My dogs do well on Artemis but it its not the bulk of their diet. They eat more raw meaty bones than anything else.

The only advice I can give is to remember that your dog is a carnivore to to err on the side of foods with more meat than cereal. For a breed like a Stafford that's prone to skin issues I WOULD feed a premium kibble and I'd avoid gluten where possible.

There are websites that review foods but they are not Australian based.

Edited by poodlefan
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