We have other blogs, one of which is all about our dogs, Jessie the Cockapoo and Max too.
A couple of recent entries on the "Dog Blog" have been about dog food, whats in it and why we are unwittingly feeding our hounds that they cant digest... The vast majority of modern dog food is high in grains and low in meat. Which makes for food a dog is not designed to digest. Back in the day, when I was younger, dogs ate table scraps which were probably meat and two veg ! But for commercial reasons manufacturers have convinced us that our dogs should eat grains, why, probably because they are cheap to produce and have a pretty good mark up.
We have done a fair bit of research and we now feed our dogs EDEN Holistic dog food
Launched in September 2012 it is the first pet food with an 80% Meat content.
The remaining 20% is made up from Fruit, Herbs, Vitamins and Minerals.
Basically it is all the foods a dogs ancestors would have had access to and therefore what a dogs digestive system is designed to cope with.
Note Eden Food contains NO grain or Gluten which is cheap and often used to bulk out commercial food, but has no food value to a dog.
The following is from the Eden Home Page
Based on the Ancestral diet of your pet with a diversity of meat, fish and eggs
Biologically Aligned with 80-20-0 profile
Nutritionally Aligned complete food with a high content of quality animal protein
Formulated without Grain or Gluten
Freshly prepared meats are prepared to an equivalent human food grade standard
Salmon and Herring packed with Omega 3
Low Carbohydrate content with fruit and vegetables
Prebiotics to support digestion
Health supporting Herbs, Vitamins and Minerals
Additional Joint Supplements
Made in Britain and very proud of it!
Our decision to use this food was based on considerable research into dog foods and nutrition and we have found both of our hounds are thriving on it
We would strongly recommend that you visit www.whichdogfood.co.uk
which is an independently run site aimed at advising owners about the content of the food they use.
Check out what you are giving your dog !
Interestingly Eden is the only Kibble to gain a 5 star rating.
A Typical Meal
Both our dogs eat the same food, Eden is not breed or age specific. It is highly nutritious and you don't need to feed large quantities. The only problem we have found, is that having changed from a high grain content food, the dogs think they need more food than they do. For that reason we add additional raw chicken to add some volume. The Chicken is minced and includes meat and bone to further enhancing the dogs Biologically Appropriate diet.
The pink bowl is Jessies and contains 70g of Eden
which is one of two meals she gets each day as a 9.5Kg dog.
The blue bowl is for max the puppy and has a little less. Note he has an anti gulp bowl...
He likes his food so we need to slow down his eating !
The white bowl is some chicken mince to add in.
Note both bowls of Eden Kibble also contain boiling water to soften it and release the smell.
Above the meals are ready to go with the chicken mince added
Jessie use to pick and choose at her old food,
she is now really keen and so we slow her eating down by making her
eat around a large pebble
As you can see above, the smell is captivating !
The picture above is not out of order, its not the before but the after,
you can see they don't leave anything
Above is the bag of frozen chicken mince we use. Many Eden users add extra chicken in the form of a couple of raw whole chicken wings per week, we are honest and say we are a bit squeamish at that thought.
Out of interest at the same time as switching to Eden we bought a set of scales to weigh the dogs. We wanted to be able to adjust the feeding to keep weights as they should be.
We found that switching from a feed with a high grain content resulted in a dip in Jessie's weight. This was only brief and as she replaced a bit of lost flab with muscle, the weight came back. She is now more toned and lean. Max being younger hadn't had a chance put on any excess, as his graph shows he is growing at a very steady rate.
We did experience a period of detox during change over ( A few days of loose poops) Several articles we have read point out that many commercial feeds contain twice as many preservatives as a BigMac ! So its not surprising really ! Plus if the feed they are having contains grains and fillers they cant digest, at some point they will come out !
Conclusion
Eden sounds like a luxury food, it actually works out cheaper than the Royal Canin the dogs were on.
Cheaper per Kg to buy and as the portions are smaller its lasts longer too.
It is considerably dearer than a food such as Wagg, but when you read that foods contents, you may as well feed them the bag it came in. The hidden saving is in vet bills. More and more people are realising the cost in health that feeding inappropriate foods brings. Allergies in dogs is rising along with skin complaints and all manner of other ailments. Hardly surprising if we continue to feed inappropriate foods.
Our dogs eat a healthier diet than we do, but that's because we can choose what we eat, they don't have that luxury so its our responsibly to make wise choices for them.
Further info about our change over ..
