Any recommendation for dry food?

Need help or advice on feeding your Schnauzer, whether it be kibble or treats, you'll find the information here. There is food reviews, recipes, remedies for poorly tummies and a wealth of feeding knowledge from your fellow Schnauzer owner. We cover BARF in a separate section.
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UrbanGypsyViv
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Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by UrbanGypsyViv »

Hello all,

I'm currently looking for some dry food for my brand new puppy. I am planning to feed dry&wet combined. Can you please give me some idea what brands are good for miniature schnauzer? I've found some brands that has good reputation by vets but you guys are the expert of this particular breed. Any experience with these brands? Or any other brands? Many thanks! :)

Hill's science diet, Orijen, Wellness core.
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by Oscar 12345 »

Hi there, to be honest I would never feed dry kibble as the main diet to any dog, it is so highly processed and dogs to better on a natural fresh diet in my experience and opinion. However, your choice clearly and I would recommend going on to the allaboutdogfood.co.uk website, filter on dry food and puppy or wet food and puppy and filter on nutritional ratings and you will see the range of quality to help you choose.
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by Dawnspell »

I wouldnt feed what a vet recommends its normally got a cash incentive for them behind it as they want you to buy from them.
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by GoEmGo »

Monty has a 80% wet to 20% (ish) dry ratio of food. Forthglade grain free turkey trays for his wet. And Lily's Kitchen Woodland Walk dry. He only has 25g a day of the dry so it lasts ages and it suits his tummy perfectly. We took so long finding the perfect grub for him and this works a treat. He loves it.
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by zeta1454 »

As said above, don’t rely on the vet’s recommendations which are usually the brand whose manufacturer gives a financial incentive to the surgery to promote the brand. Many of the large well known brands of dry dog food (kibble) found at vets are from companies that have little or nothing to do with dog welfare but have bought up brands to add to their portfolio of businesses. Hills is owned by Colgate Palmolive.

The problem with dry kibble is that the food is generally highly processed at excessive temperatures which destroy the vitamins and certain other nutrients which are then artificially added back in. This can lead to less efficient absorption of the nutrients by the dog as they are not naturally occurring in the way they would be in fresh meat as well as the risk of accidental toxic overdosing which happened in 2019 with some Hills products:

https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2020-02 ... procedures

Many of the dry dog foods made by multinational businesses also use the cheapest ingredients and bulk them out with cereals and plant proteins which are biologically inappropriate rather than meat which is what the dog’s digestive system is designed to absorb efficiently.

Always check the ingredients label of any type of food you decide to give and make sure that you are confident the meat /fish is from named sources not just ‘meat’ and that this makes up the largest percentage of the food (70-80%) and preferably no added grains.

I would also recommend the All About Dog Food website to check nutritional content of a range of different food for dogs. For our own dogs we have fed raw for well over a decade and would never go back to dry food for them.
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by Schnauzerluv »

I can't do raw either and it's def not for everyone. It's not a time thing for me, but more I'm grossed out by meat in general and I won't even say what goes through my mind.

But anyway, I was searching for what to feed to Ozzy (my new pup) as well. I saw a lot of good reviews for Origen here. Origen was a bit too pricey for me so I tried the sister brand Acana for Ozzy. He does very well on it, no problems whatsoever so far and he looks in great shape with lots of energy.

Because kibble has more starch, this contributes to more plaque in the mouth, it's important for me to brush his teeth with an enzymic toothpaste. It's really no problem since every time Ozzy sees me brushing my own teeth, we have to brush his right after. I keep his toothbrush and paste with mine in the cabinet and he gets his teeth brushed 2 or 3 times a day haha! He didn't let me miss a day, they are so curious and hate to be left out!

Anyway yeah I researched and looked at ingredients very carefully and picked a brand of kibble to try and I'm happy with that. I do give him bones to chew on.
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by UrbanGypsyViv »

Oscar 12345 wrote: 30 Nov 2020, 10:15 Hi there, to be honest I would never feed dry kibble as the main diet to any dog, it is so highly processed and dogs to better on a natural fresh diet in my experience and opinion. However, your choice clearly and I would recommend going on to the allaboutdogfood.co.uk website, filter on dry food and puppy or wet food and puppy and filter on nutritional ratings and you will see the range of quality to help you choose.
Thanks for the link, I will check it out! :-bd
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by UrbanGypsyViv »

Dawnspell wrote: 30 Nov 2020, 10:31 I wouldnt feed what a vet recommends its normally got a cash incentive for them behind it as they want you to buy from them.
I see i see. Then I rather try the brands that people had experience with in this forum. I hope I find the one for my pup! :o3
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by UrbanGypsyViv »

GoEmGo wrote: 30 Nov 2020, 13:35 Monty has a 80% wet to 20% (ish) dry ratio of food. Forthglade grain free turkey trays for his wet. And Lily's Kitchen Woodland Walk dry. He only has 25g a day of the dry so it lasts ages and it suits his tummy perfectly. We took so long finding the perfect grub for him and this works a treat. He loves it.
Thanks for the reply! I will definitely check out Lily's kitchen. I've read some articles about mixing dry&wet food to feed and they say 2/3 dry and 1/3 wet. Is there any reason you give more wet than dry? Do you mix them together or give them separately in different times?

I did just as the article says for my previous dog for about 10years and he was always in great shape with muscles and he was very healthy. He was mixed Jack russell terrier.
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by UrbanGypsyViv »

zeta1454 wrote: 30 Nov 2020, 17:29 As said above, don’t rely on the vet’s recommendations which are usually the brand whose manufacturer gives a financial incentive to the surgery to promote the brand. Many of the large well known brands of dry dog food (kibble) found at vets are from companies that have little or nothing to do with dog welfare but have bought up brands to add to their portfolio of businesses. Hills is owned by Colgate Palmolive.

The problem with dry kibble is that the food is generally highly processed at excessive temperatures which destroy the vitamins and certain other nutrients which are then artificially added back in. This can lead to less efficient absorption of the nutrients by the dog as they are not naturally occurring in the way they would be in fresh meat as well as the risk of accidental toxic overdosing which happened in 2019 with some Hills products:

https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2020-02 ... procedures

Many of the dry dog foods made by multinational businesses also use the cheapest ingredients and bulk them out with cereals and plant proteins which are biologically inappropriate rather than meat which is what the dog’s digestive system is designed to absorb efficiently.

Always check the ingredients label of any type of food you decide to give and make sure that you are confident the meat /fish is from named sources not just ‘meat’ and that this makes up the largest percentage of the food (70-80%) and preferably no added grains.

I would also recommend the All About Dog Food website to check nutritional content of a range of different food for dogs. For our own dogs we have fed raw for well over a decade and would never go back to dry food for them.
Thanks for the information! it is scary now that I have read that article. However, I can't do raw meat for personal reasons but I can do cooked meat sometimes, not everyday tho. I should do more research on making homemade snacks for my pup.
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by Dawnspell »

Jasper gets fed True Instinct complete dinner which is freeze dried raw, due to him not really liking wet complete raw. These are dry nuggets no mess and they quickly breakdown once eaten. I know I put some in water and kibble to compare.
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by GoEmGo »

UrbanGypsyViv wrote: 01 Dec 2020, 19:16
Thanks for the reply! I will definitely check out Lily's kitchen. I've read some articles about mixing dry&wet food to feed and they say 2/3 dry and 1/3 wet. Is there any reason you give more wet than dry? Do you mix them together or give them separately in different times?

I did just as the article says for my previous dog for about 10years and he was always in great shape with muscles and he was very healthy. He was mixed Jack russell terrier.
We spent a long time hunting for the best grain free food for Monty and came across the Forthglade trays. He enjoys the turkey, duck and chicken ones. Limited ingredients and great quality grub in my opinion. However, we found his poop a little dry and crumbly. We added some of the kibble (substituting some of the wet and hey presto!) Perfect poop once a day. Monty also enjoys the crunch of a little bit of kibble!

We actually feed him three times a day (7am, 3pm, 10pm) because twice a day was causing hunger sick in the morning no matter when we fed him (bile type stuff) He has 90g wet for every meal and 12g dry for the morning and night feed. It really works for Monty but every mini schnauzer is unique so it's well worth doing research like others have said. Monty is 8.5kg and very trim!
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Re: Any recommendation for dry food?

Post by linda131 »

I read about raw dog food, that its much better to feed my dog in this way.
I Also found this typo of food: Dehydrated raw dog food from especially this company: https://gorocketo.com/
Have anybody of you guys try this out? Maybe know difference between it or any recommendations?
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