Well over the past 10 months we have been trying/trialing and treating the puppies to many different foods to see what the right fit would be. To save you doing what we did, here’s our reviews of the companies thus far with all of our dogs over the years.
Pure pet food was something we had tried in the past with Bracken (The Moss of Climbing Moss). He was never particularly keen on the food but we thought maybe the Puppies would be different. So we set up an account and tailored two different recipes for them on the website, which you had to make a subscription for.
Cap had Salmon and Turkey – It literally just said that and didn’t give any details as to the full contents, it says something like ‘With a handful of this and a scattering of that…’ The month’s supply came in two bag and inside is just powder, ground down food to be mixed with water.
Loki had Duck and Lamb – not that you would know because it all looks the same, just a brown powder with a few specks of green.
The plan was £61.60 for both per Month, but obviously it would increase with their weight so that was just a starting price for the two puppies.
The food itself stank like manure and had the same texture and look to it too! The dogs were not impressed at all, though they both ate it, we were not however impressed by what came out of the other end.
So although the customer service was really helpful, but mostly that was trying to keep a new customer, the dogs did not approve and so it was quickly stopped.
One good point of the company is they make specialist diets, when Bracken needed a renal diet food they were able to make it for him – not that he liked it!
Tails was our next stop – with a Wet and Dry food combo for both dogs. On the website you entered in a couple of details (Breed, Weight, Activity Level, what they do in their free time, how would they stop world hunger, etc) and a kibble that was mixed for your specifications would be created. We got to choose the wet food, with no idea of the content, just that it is ‘Working Breed’, or ‘Toy dog’ etc you could choose the flavor but there was a limited selection.
The plan was £59.27 per dog per Month for just the kibble the wet food would be an additional cost – but obviously it would increase with their weight, so that was just a starting price. (Same as Pure). The website makes it seem really cheap but it’s simply not true.
The deliveries arrived damaged and the weight distribution was peculiar whereas one dog was given a pack of 6 – 500g dish of wet food with the concept of using 3/4 of the dish per meal. The other dog was given double the amount of tins (12) weighing 250g with the idea of giving them 1 and a 1/4 dishes per meal – there was absolutely no reason given but it made feeding times confusing as hell! The second delivery arrived and was a pack of 24 with the tins only weighing 90g so give the dog 4 and 1/4 tins per meal. The dogs both had a bad reaction to the food and had bad stomach ache and the humans were too confused and turned around at the stupid allocation of food.
So we stopped that too.
This was purely a Loki food, it was what the breeder had fed the puppies before we got him. The dry kibble did nothing other than make him have rage issues and very itchy skin. 1 bag of 7KG came to £40. We stopped that as soon as we ruled out all other explanations for the behaviour.
While Loki was on the Purina, Cappy had this from the breeder. We knew of Lilys Kitchen from Muffin and when it started back when it was a small company it was affordable and pretty good however over time they have grown and so have their prices! We kept Cappy on this for a month or so as all other kibble made his tummy hurt this was too ridiculously expensive!
£79.99 for 7KG and to be fair his tummy did not improve.
There are a number of smaller independent companies in this fashion normally with a blend of an Owner’s name and The Dog’s name like Bella & Duke and Wallace & Gromit!
In this vein we tried Edgard & Cooper as Solo had eaten and enjoyed the snack bars that she was given at Hydrotherapy.
So we tried the wet food, There was nothing to complain about honestly the ingredients were transparent, it was hypoallergenic, customer service was really nice and we had high hopes. Sadly the dogs tummies didn’t get on with it. The price was also a factor at £72.99 for 12KG it’s still pricey.
Another of the ‘Name & Name’ Brands this time its slightly larger – we had contacted them to see whether they could suggest anything for the puppies bad tummies and they had a couple of ideas. They sent us some Kibble to try and some Probiotics – the kibble did much the same as all the other kibbles but the Probiotic was a winner! The kibble came to £38.99 for 7.5Kg.
So we have ended up using the Bionic Biotic from Pooch and Mutt so they get the Vitamins, Minerals and Cultures that they are lacking due to not having kibble .
Home cooked
Both Muffin and Bracken were pampered to heaven with food, having to be hand fed and off of a golden spoon(Literally) with home cooked Steak, Duck and Chicken (Not our choice but Bob’s parents).
With the puppies after trying and failing all the other routes we began once again down the route we swore we would not do and started cooking Chicken Legs and making bone broth, Rice and some raw cut veggies. We kept our fingers crossed and over time they seemed to improve – no more awful messes, no more red eyed anger and no more painful tummies.
Over time they both became bored so we have ventured into the Turkey and Fish realms which seem to be working thus far – especially Sardines in Tomato sauce. Over all this is more cost effective but more time consuming to cook and prepare.
After the Amazon Pet Fest we found Protexin – which is another probiotic but with vitamins and their Plaque ease for teeth cleaning.
Raw Food
Our other dog, Solo (the Climbing of Climbing Moss) has been through every kind of food over the years, she is Hypoallergenic and most tin foods were not good, after a while someone suggested Raw and we found a London Based Company that sold a wide selection (Mobile Pet Foods), every couple of weeks we would get a delivery from them, of mince, Turkey Necks, Chicken pieces, nuggets and all sorts. We went for Nature’s Menu, the cheapest of the options. We were spending about £40 a month. You give your dogs about 15% of their body weight, so a BIG dog will still be expensive, but then anything is going to with them. If you buy Nutriment, which is a much more well known brand that amount would have been at least £200 a month (For comparison).
Apart from the preparation which involved a cleaver and a lot of smashing of bones, it was pretty good and she loved the food, it always sounded like really yummy, with her munching and crunching her way through the bowls of food. Unfortunately with the British Food Standards not curtailing to EU rules post Brexit, the standard of the food deteriorated and a lot of animal food did not have to go through checks and things like washing carcasis in bleach was once again allowed. A lot of dogs and cats started dying from Raw Foods and so we stopped feeding her that and started cooking the food instead, human quality versions of the same things and that is what she’s been on post Covid. Which is a shame because this is by far the best food choice (In Ash’s Opinion).
Overall having a dog can be expensive especially when allergies, taste and preferences come into play but at least you can see a comparison of all the things we have tried…
This is part one of the Puppies series more coming soon.
Climbing Moss 