The (Available in CH) Dog Food Review Thread

[meloncollie]

Following on from this thread:

Grain free dog food (near Zurich)

It was suggested that we start a dog food review thread.

Compared to other countries, the choice of products here in Switzerland is quite limited, and many of us are forced to change from the foods our dogs do well on back home. If you've ever had a dog with a sensitive stomach, allergies or a nutritionally-influenced medical condition, you know how difficult change can be, and what a challenge it can be to find an appropriate new food.

So, I'd be very interested in hearing what fellow dog owners are feeding their dogs, and a little about the food chosen. It would be helpful to include things that influenced your choice, like the age of your dog, activity levels, special nutritional needs, etc. Also, if there are other concerns please mention them. (For instance, I look for meat - not meat meal - in the ingredients, ethical production is it is very important to me, as well as - following the melamine scandal - full disclosure of origin of all ingredients, and that the company allows independent review.)

Also, if you would mention where the product can be bought that would be a help.

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I'll start:

For years I fed my dogs on Burns products, which ticked all my boxes for quality, ethics - and my guys thrived on their products. I was able to buy Burns via found a distributor in Tessin - but unfortunately, that distributor has gone out of business, and the brand is no longer available in Switzerland. Which began the search for new products.

I have senior dogs with fairly low activity levels, a middle aged dog who is 'normally' active, and a youngster who is a whirling dervish on speed (and that's her slow-motion mode. ). My dogs are shelties and rough collies.

One of my seniors has IBD; he can only tolerate non-greasy, very low fat foods and needs low protein content - but the protein source must be high quality. Because the IBD is a b**** to manage, a food with few ingredients is best. At present I am feeding him Magnusson, a Swedish food that is baked, not extruded. Magnusson is KRAV labeled. He has done well on this food, and the IBD flare-ups seem to be under control. Magnusson is available at Meiko.

http://www.hundmat.com/en/

My others have been on Magnusson as well, the seniors on the light version, the youngster on the regular, and have done well. However, it doesn't agree with my new addition - so I am in search of something else for him. As he is still a bit too well upholstered , I'm looking for something with a reduced fat content.

Another thing I'm curious about is protein content - I've always had my guys on moderate protein foods (20-24%), as they are not working dogs. Those of you who feed Orijen or similar ultra-high protein foods: can you tell me about your dog's activity/energy levels? I'm wondering if my Whirling Dervish would bounce off the walls with that much protein, or not...

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So over to you all - product reviews and experiences welcome.

[dibbydoo]

I have had the same problem with food for my 2. I feed them a good quality brand in the UK (JWB) and have also tried Burns but it didn't suit my 2. I have struggled to find something for them here. I think mainly because I don't know enough about the brands to make the same decisions I would have made in the uk.


I did resort to bringng loads of JWB back with me when we drove over to the UK but I knew that it couldn't be a long term solution. Now they are on IAMs. Not completely happy with them but I decided it was the best I could do.

They are both different. One quite laid back, fairly good eater and not prone to weight gain. The other is completely mad and a bit hyper - always a greedy guts but on meds for juvenile arthritis. So I am always watching her weight.

I like to know that there is not rubbish in the food they get, but also that its produced ethically.

Finding a food for them has probably been the most challenging part of the move to Switzerland.

Thanks for the thread. It will be really interesting to see what others are feeding their dogs.

[fduvall]

I have been getting Super Premium foods from FAX TRANSMISSION www.solidgoldswiss.ch
It is a husband and wife team, and very customer oriented.

We get Natural Balance Lamb & Rice and mix it with a Dutch high protein mix called Predator. It is pricey, but our Lab does well on it. They have lots of other stuff, too.

They used to carry Solid Gold, which is what we bought in the US. But it does not seem to be exported to Europe anymore. That was our favorite, and I would love to find it again.

fduvall

[ulaula]

Oh, great!

here are our experiences:

When our girl was a puppy we got Pro Pac dog food from her breeder. She had gas and diarrhea so we switched to Proplan. Than, because it was the same (still a lot of gas), we tried Nutrience (it is crap, I don't recommend at all). Soon we have realized that she suffer from allergies (like a diarrhea or constipation, dandruff, skin problems, lose of energy,...) and than we have been searching for new food for a long time. Our vet recommended Hills z/d for us. That was a big mistake. Our girl was very allergic on that food. She got a terrible gastro and intestine infection, her faeces were full of green mucus.
Than another vet recommended Forza10. It was a bit better, but again with a lot of digestion problems.

We did some tests than and realized that she is allergic on corn, poultry, beef, eggs,... So I started to cook for her again, this time only salmon and rice and for quite a long period.

Than we started with Regalhttp://www.meiko.ch/index.cfm?shopar...9D1A76B97B8F26
and it was ok, until we have realized that the food was not the same all the time. For example, we bought one pack and it smelled good and our girl ate it and than we bought another pack, which was without any smell, very pale (not as dark as the first one), our girl did not want to eat it, but because she did not get anything else, she ate that, but she had diarrhea. And that happened to us several time (we played this lotto game for about 6 months) and it happened either in Switzerland, Austria, Germany or Slovenia. So I started to cook for her gain... and "googled" a lot...
We have tried Select Gold http://62.206.221.27/fileadmin/pics/...tive_dtsch.pdf
but she went "to the toilet" for about four times a day and I found that very strange.

Now, finally, we have tried Acana Pacifica http://www.editrust.ch/files/upload/...Endverkauf.pdf
and for now, everything is ok. Her coat is shiny, her digestion has never been more regular and she loves this food from the first time she tried it and this is very unusual, because she is a very picky eater girl.

I hope Acana will suit her also in the future, otherwise I will start cooking for her again.

Oh, and about Orijen... I also did not want to tried it, because it is realy a high protein food. Althoug my girl is a husky I dont think she needs so many proteins. Has anyone tried Orijen? And what did you fed before?

[Libellula]

I have tried quite a lot of foods for my 4 year old weimaraner, but always gave him good foor and very little, if any, human food. He is mainly on a dry food diet with soft food treats every now and then.

I founf Royal Canin to be the best for him. He loves it and it seems it is best on his intestines.Eukanuba he won't eat it for some reason, purina is good but effected his intestines

[Mrs. Doolittle]

Our dogs were all rescues born in Japan and we brought them home with us. We brought enough dog food with us for the first few days until the container arrived later in the week with about a month's supply. For all but one finding the right food was never easy and we didn't want to make an immediate switch. Here is the summary.

Eldest dog (8 1/2) eats Select Gold Lachs Adult Light (available at Freesnapf).

Middle dog ( 6 1/2) was on Nutro Lamb and Rice for a long time, then she wouldn't eat it anymore. We switched her to Hills Chicken Light.

Youngest dog (4 1/2) She was very ill when we got her having been locked in a cage for 8 months and underfed to keep her small. As a result, she has an extremely sensitive stomach with a tendency towards diarrhea and all the tests have turned up nothing but the only food she can tolerate is Hills i/d. We don't know why this is so.

Our dogs are not very active and Bassets are predisposed to back problems so keeping their weight stable is a priority.

[dragonblu]

Mrs D - where did u buy your Nutro Lamb and Rice from? My dogs are on this now and we are moving soon and I hope to continue with it until I find an alternative. I intend to switch as I hear that the US FDA is investigating it's food.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...ro_foia09.html
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/nutro.html

[Mrs. Doolittle]

	Quote:	dragonblu
	Mrs D - where did u buy your Nutro Lamb and Rice from? My dogs are on this now and we are moving soon and I hope to continue with it until I find an alternative.

They seemed to have supplier problems on and off but Fressnapf and Qualipet have this food, at least near where we live.

[Merrylegs]

	Quote:	Mrs. Doolittle
	They seemed to have supplier problems on and off but Fressnapf and Qualipet have this food, at least near where we live.

That is interesting. Nutro has not been available in Swiss Romande for at least 18 months/2 years now.

[ulaula]

For all the dogs which are allergic on "normal" dog biscuits and treats:

My girl is crazy about Fressnapf Select Gold Stars sticks. Here, at page 9 http://62.206.221.27/fileadmin/pics/...tive_dtsch.pdf

These are the only treats she can eat without having digestion problems.

These sticks are made of potato and are gluten free.

We have sticks size S for our husky, because they are big enough for a little snack.

For now I can only recommend them.

[kri]

Good thread

We gave our bulldog Royal Canin for puppies. Then we were tried to rule out food allergies so we switched to Vet Concept food (delivered by Eisenhut Vet). He gets their sensitive diet food.

We also tried the royal Canin bulldog food "anti smell" (for those who know bulldogs... their fart quiet a bit ) but it was really not so good.

Now we stuck with the Sensitive Diet food even though he does not have allergies as
1) He is less smelly and fit with this food (good poop, no vomiting etc)
2) They have a super and free delivery service! you order one day and it is on your doorstep the next FOR FREE! So compared to Qualipet where we paid 14CHF this is great!

Cheers,
K

[summerrain]

I too, am a fan of Burns but its a pity that its not available here.

My dog is on Bosch (Junior) at the moment. 2 meals a day with one dog biscuit (Lecky brand) every morning which can be bought at Qualipet for 6 CHF per pack.

So good so far - no farts, no loose stools - except when he helped himself once to something on the ground when I wasnt looking. A diet of boiled chicken breast and rice for 3 days cleared the tummy. Other than that, no human food for this dog over here.

Brands available in Switzerland like Rinti and Gimborn are avoided as the food is high in water content, which makes the dog bloat and fart.

[argus]

Eukanuba 'lamb & rice' flavour, supplemented with 'Primar Hefe' yeast tablets. Shiny coat, bright eyes, firm small stools (unless she's been eating something outdoors). She used to fart quite a lot as a small pup but now quite seldom - at least as far as I could tell.

[ulaula]

Hello,

Does anyone know how can I order dog food from Editrust? I did sent an order using this link http://www.editrust.ch/firma/kontakt...er%20bestellen
but nothing happened so far. I also called them, but get no response.

Previously I ordered "our" food at zooplus.de (but that was few weeks ago, when I was in EU) and now (back in CH) I don't want to risk with all the customs costs etc. so I decided not to order from Germany.
So I tried Editrust, but as I said above, without luck.

Any experiences with editrust?

Or any experiences with ordering dog food from Germany (using zooplus.de) to CH?

Thank you!

[ulaula]

Regarding Editrust:

I have just received our package.

They have a strange system (ordering & delivery) but otherwise everything is fine. I did not get any confirmation via email or phone (which is strange to me). I just ordered and few days later the package (accompanied with the bill) arrives. Because I ordered more than 50chf, delivery is free of charge.

They use DHL delivery service (I have only best experiences with DHL) but today they were not ringing or contacting me by phone, but I just found my package at the top of our mailboxes in front of the door which leads into the building. That is not such a great idea because the sun was shining directly into the package. I hope the food is ok. I am not sure how many hours the package was there before I saw it.

[Switzerland2009]

	Quote:	ulaula
	Oh, and about Orijen... I also did not want to tried it, because it is realy a high protein food. Althoug my girl is a husky I dont think she needs so many proteins. Has anyone tried Orijen? And what did you fed before?

We are still in the US but have had our puppy on Orijen for 6 mo and it's been great - small dog - 10 lbs. I want to keep him on Orijen but is it even available in Zurich? I know it's made in Canada and even hard to find in the states. Would love to know if you have seen it around. Thanks,

[ulaula]

Our girl eats Acana Pacifica. We buy it at Editrust. You can send them an email in English. They will understand.

If you order more than 50chf than delivery is free of charge. They also have Orijen. Here you will find the prices.

I think only online stores are selling Acana and Orijen here. I did not find any other "normal" (not online) shops here.

	Quote:	Switzerland2009
	We are still in the US but have had our puppy on Orijen for 6 mo and it's been great - small dog - 10 lbs. I want to keep him on Orijen but is it even available in Zurich? I know it's made in Canada and even hard to find in the states. Would love to know if you have seen it around. Thanks,

[baselboo]

Hi All,
We just tried BioMill Adult Sensible Grain-Free dry food from Qualipet in Basel. Upon opening the unexpired bag of food, we were super surprised because the food was covered in mold! Maybe we got a bad batch, but for the money, we're not taking any chances! Thanks for recommending editrust for Acana, as it is really great dog food. If anyone knows of a place to buy Acana in Basel, please let us know.

[flacaflaca]

	Quote:	baselboo
	Hi All, We just tried BioMill Adult Sensible Grain-Free dry food from Qualipet in Basel. Upon opening the unexpired bag of food, we were super surprised because the food was covered in mold! Maybe we got a bad batch, but for the money, we're not taking any chances! Thanks for recommending editrust for Acana, as it is really great dog food. If anyone knows of a place to buy Acana in Basel, please let us know.

I don't know of a local source for Acana in Basel, but I add my recommendations for editrust.ch. I've been using them for over a year now to get Acana Pacifica for my dogs, and their service is wonderful. Place the order online (I just type what I want in their order box in English), and you'll have the food at your door in 1-2 days, in a box that includes a payment slip.

[eng_ch]

I like the idea of free delivery! And Acana looks cheaper than most others in Qualipet/Fressnapf... Which do you recommend? I have a deerhound and a giant schnauzer and usually just go for the large breed type foods (they love the royal canin one, but I'm not necessarily 100% convinced it's the best as it seems to leave them hungry)