British bulldog advice

[berlingo]

We have a young French Bulldog, trumps like a trouper!!! It is a breed thing unfortunately. She is now on Royal Cannin French food, we also now just feed her twice a day and i put her food directly on the floor, not in a bowl anymore and she seems better

[ccit]

Chappie is a poor quality food - review. The tinned version scores even less.

 

Royal Canin is expensive and also not of good quality - review. Having just looked at the ingredient list of the French Bulldog version, it has rice and wheat as the first two ingredients - they are just fillers. It's got animal fat in it - no mention of what that animal is. For a dog that is prone to skin problems it is not good.

 

A good quality food has the named meat source at the top of the list of ingredients and is clearly labelled - no ambiguity. The purchaser should know exactly what it contains.

 

Here is an article about the domination of the big four pet food companies and the poor quality of some of their products.

 

Regarding the flatus, feed good quality, digestible food and that will lessen considerably. Soak dry food and give two to three meals per day. Use a slow feeder to stop the dog eating too fast and swallowing air.

Edited April 16, 2016 by ccit

[jzstumpy]

Have a look at the Oscars Puppy Food http://www.oscars.co.uk/products/dog/food/puppy-complete/healthy-growth

If you need any advice give them a ring on their 0800 number, they're very good and also have access to a number of specialist to seek advice from. https://www.oscars.co.uk/helpline

 

---------- Post added 16-04-2016 at 08:28 ----------

 

Have a look at the Oscars Puppy Food http://www.oscars.co.uk/products/dog/food/puppy-complete/healthy-growth

If you need any advice give them a ring on their 0800 number, they're very good and also have access to a number of specialists to seek advice from. https://www.oscars.co.uk/helpline

 

---------- Post added 16-04-2016 at 08:30 ----------

 

Sorry something weird happened with my browser hence the strange double, edited post above!

[ccit]

The first ingredient of that food is rice and it makes up 42% of the food. It is probably white rice which has some nutritional value for the dog but not a lot. Used in that quantity it is a filler. It also contains digest with no reference to the source. Puppy food needs to be at least 29% to 30% digestible protein i.e. derived from meat, poultry and fish.

[jzstumpy]

From the Oscar website

 

Whole-grain white rice is high in energy and low in protein. Brown rice is often perceived as the healthier option, but white rice is simply brown rice with the husk removed. Rice husks are of little nutritional value in dogs and are therefore excluded from OSCAR diets. Rice is a very digestible energy source and is used to promote a steady energy release throughout the day which also helps stabilise blood sugar levels. Rice is gluten free.

 

Chicken digest is a commercially produced powder or liquid made by taking clean chicken tissue and breaking it down into small particles, a process called hydrolysis. The digest does not contain heads, feet or feathers except in trace amounts which are unavoidable. Digest names must accurately describe their contents, so chicken digest must be made from chicken and beef digest must be made from beef. Homogenised meats, are very palatable for all animals and this is why they are used to feed critically ill and hospitalised humans, dogs and cats. OSCAR use digests in some of their pet foods to improve flavour.

[ccit]

It is understandable that Oscar present a positive spin on their ingredients. White rice is brown rice that has been milled and polished to remove outer bran, germ and aleurone layers. These contain the vast majority of the grain's nutrients and once removed the remaining white rice is almost entirely starch. Also, dogs need meat and protein - this should be first on the list of ingredients. This is the first rule of sourcing a good product to feed a dog.

 

As for digest, I wasn't able to discern the source but here is a clear explanation of it.

 

This isn't the worst food by far and Probably there are dogs that do well on it. However, when recommending a product it is useful to say why it is considered to be good and/or suitable.

[jzstumpy]

We could go back and forth quoting links all day couldn't we?

At least you can find the information on Oscar's web pages if you want to and they show all ingredients of their food on their labels.

 

Sites like AADF, that use a crude tool for analysing the food (eg scan the list of ingredients on the label and highlight in red the "bad" ones) penalise companies which are honest and list all ingredients. Dishonest companies that don't list all ingredients can therefore receive higher ratings.

 

On here we can only offer our opinions based on our experience and let the OP decide what they believe is best for their dog.

 

As long as the outcome at the end of the day is a happy healthy dog then all is good!

[beansforyou]

We use Fishmongers Finest

http://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/fishmongers-natural-tray-with-ocean-fish-395g

 

The food smells of fish of course, but the dogs never looked better, no skin flare ups, no urine problems from eating dry kibble and hardly any gas, certainly compared to when they ate chicken!

[ccit]

Wet food would probably be a good choice for this particular dog and Fishmonger's is one of the better ones. It has a nice simple recipe. Fish is easy to digest and therefore can be helpful for dogs with digestive issues. There are no vegetables in the formula but a few suitable cooked ones could easily be added if the owner wishes.