One of the biggest dilemmas when owning a dog is deciding what to feed them.
Where do you go for advice?
How do you actually know what's best?
How do you know your dog is doing well on your choice of food?
Here at Dog Stop, everything we sell supports quality feeding.
All the treats and chews we sell are 100% natural and additive free so you know exactly what your dog is getting.
The Dog Stop Testers are usually raw fed. I look for quality foods but at affordable prices. There are so many different raw options from complete DIY to one of the more expensive e.g. Nutriment, Natural instinct. It depends what your pocket allows. Tag & Ripple tend to be on Just Natural or Finer by Nature. These meats are a chunky cut and are 80/10/10.
But what does 80/10/10 mean?
It means the food is made up of 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% offal. Beware of foods that have added rice or lots of vegetables, this is taking down the desired protein level and is then not grain free!
The other more popular option is kibble. But this is a minefield! So many to choose from.
Many have the first ingredient as some kind of maize. There's no way I would want to feed my dogs that.
I have just started to sell a new range of foods Dog Stop Grain Free which has an extremely high meat content and the only extras are sweet potato and balanced vegetables.
As I'm going away in my caravan for 10 days I just can't take 10kg of raw food with me! Therefore I have gradually moved them onto my Grain Free food. Even Tag who has an extremely sensitive tummy is doing so well on it! It's superb!
So how do you know your dog is doing well on a food?
Poos: they shouldn't be pooing elephant sized poos. They should be firm with minimal smell. A smelly poo is often the sign of a high maize diet. A soft huge poo is often a sign of being overfed!
Coat: Your dog's coat should be glossy and healthy with no scurf or dryness.
Energy: Your dog should have energy, just not too much! A poor diet can lead to excess energy. Think 'giving a child blue smarties' and you've got the idea. There's an extremely popular complete food advertised on TV (rhymes with makers) that is full of additives and other unmentionables. I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. Bright colours do not encourage dogs to want to eat, it's just makes us feel better.
Whatever you do when feeding your dogs, think carefully, read the ingredients, don't just plump for the cheap supermarket food, quite often it's cr*p!!
Enjoy your dogs
A x
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