How to choose a good quality dry dog food

[gmacleod]

Please see this article for some good information on how to choose a good quality dry dog food: www.boxerworld.com/feeding

A dog food can only ever be as good as the ingredients that go into it, and that page tells you what to look for, what to avoid - and why ;) With the information there, you should be able to make a fair assessment of any food based on the ingredient list on the packaging.

[gmacleod]

For members in the UK:

Quality dry dog foods in the UK are fairly rare. The best food that was available here was Fromms Four Star (available from http://www.postalpetsproducts.co.uk ) Unfortunately, it is currently not available (and the other Fromm products are not great). According to postal pets, it should be back early in 2006 - so is worth looking out for (although since it will be being produced under licence, it will be worth checking that the formulas do not get changed).

The next best food available here is Solid Gold. Their products are available online from http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/solid_gold and there is information about Solid Gold's foods at http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/

The next best foods available in the UK are Burns and James Wellbeloved (which you'd find easily in petstores). I do not think they're as good as the Solid Gold though (they don't contain enough meat).

For dogs suffering from food allergies, good quality suitable options are Fromms Four Star (when it returns); Solid Gold's Holistic Blendz; and Techni-Cal's Canine Sensitivity+ Easy To Digest formula (not so impressed by their others, but that one looks OK). It's available at http://www.pet-supermarket.co.uk/erol.html

An update to the above with sources for several top quality foods at http://www.bulldogworld.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25253