Dog food recommendation? Jack Russell - 7 years old?

We feed our Westie on tinned sardines in vegetable oil, and left over vegetables.

She used to suffer with constipation and eczema, but she is a picture of health now!

To be honest, I don't know what all is available in the UK. I also know that not every dog that does well on one kind of food will do well on another. I work in a petstore and usually recommend people check the ingredients labels.

The first ingredient should always be meat. Be it Chicken, Lamb, Venison, Salmon, or something else. It doesn't matter. Stay away for vague meat referrences like meat and bone meal or meat by-product. If you can't know for sure what type of meat it is, chances are, the company is using the cheapest meat they can find. Meal is dried meat and bone mixture. There are different levels of protein quality of the meal since the majority of it is the remnant after the breasts were cut from the chicken or the steaks from the cow. I know Timberwolf Organics use meals with high protein content and low ash (which comes from the bones).

You want to stay away from foods with a lot of corn, wheat, and soy in their top ingredients. Also, keep an eye out for foods that split grains (i.e. lists multiple same grain products). Personally, I'm not a big fan of by-products, but that's a whole big debate. By-products are parts of an animal that are not generally eaten by humans. I personally am not against eating hearts and livers (great for protein), but I worry about kidneys, intestines, and other organs considering the functions they play in the body.

Stay away from artificial preservatives (BHT, BHA, ethyoxiquin). Find a food that uses mixed tocopherols.

I saw a food earlier that had lard as it's 2nd or 3rd ingredient. Is that much lard healthy for us? We are not that different from our dogs and cats.

Fruits and veggies in food is good (or just add the left over veggies your kids didn't eat at dinner to your dogs bowl, that's what I do).

Be aware that too much protein or fat can be problems for older animals (imo 7 for a JRT isn't old, it's middle aged). Have an organ screen done at your vet at least every other year (every year is better) to just monitor the function levels of your dog's organs.

Glucostamine, Condroitin (sp), and L-Carnitine are great supplements (usually already in high quality foods). The Glucostamine and Chondroitin help with keeping the cartiledge supple for a JRT's happy jumping. L-Carnitine helps keep from putting on too much weight.

Hope this is helpful.

I can really recommend Nature Diet

http://www.naturediet.net/

It is natural and contains more 'real' food than other dog food. It even smells OK. It is a wet food but I fed it to my two Jack Russells from the age of about 6 onwards and they did great on it.

It's not that expensive, at the time about 60p for a carton that was enough for one dog for 2 days.

Available in quite a few pet shops and when I moved I asked my local pet shop to get it in for me which they were happy to do.

The suggestion of an obedience class is an excellent one. Read here https://tr.im/rn8fI

It will help your dog learn to behave around other dogs, and help keep your training moving forward as you'll want to be prepared for the next class. Also, a good instructor can be a wonderful resource, someone to help you with any questions or concerns about your dog. Leash training can take a LOT of time and patience, depending upon the dog. I'm not sure what you mean by 'horrible on a leash' but my basic suggestion is that you take a lot of yummy treats with you on walks. When your dog behaves well on the leash (not pulling) praise her and give her treats. Change direction a lot so that she learns to pay attention to YOU and where you are going. It's also helpful to teach a "Watch Me" command such that whenever your dog looks at you you praise her and give her a treat. About chewing, yes a Kong is a great chew toy. Some dogs also like Nylabone brand bones. I suggest also teaching a "Leave It" command. You use this when she shows interest in chewing on something she shouldn't. Then immediately give her something she is allowed to chew, such as the Kong stuffed with somethig yummy. This same command will be helpful on walks when she wants to sniff or eat something she shouldn't. Again, when she does leave the item alone, be sure to give lots of praise. I would look into an obedience class right away. I think that you'll find that a good obedience class can help enormously! Good luck and enjoy your new dog.

Hiya!

You don't say what ingredients it is that you aren't impressed with...

However, as a manufacturer of dog food, I can only presume that you might mean some or any of the following:

'By products'- such as bread and supermarket waste- you'd be surprised how many manufacturers make food from this (because cereals which are usually used to make dog food and these are very expensive- particularly at the moment as wheat and maize prices have gone through the roof- So it is sometimes cheaper for some factories to use old bread- yuck!)

Artificial Colours, Flavours & Preservatives- ought to be avoided really as are associated with causing hyperactivity.

BHA/BHT- This is also an artificial preservative which is an E Number

Soya Replacer -This is a protein source which comes from crushed soya beans- and it's considered to be a 'filler'- it is also known to cause allergic reactions- as is Wheat Gluten.

If you are looking for a food that does not contain any of the above then you may find that you need to pay a premium price. Some people also prefer to avoid food that contains beef- as it is also known to cause digestive upset in some dogs. James Wellbeloved, Burns and Arden Grange all have hypoallergenic foods which may be of interest to you- but they are rather expensive.

If you are interested in looking at my site the address is:

www.mymaddog.co.uk

I have a full range of different dog foods available which are available to buy direct from our factory (so a lot cheaper than what you'd pay in the shops). We manufacture using good quality ingredients- no GM cereals, Human Grade Meat used only, no soya protein, no dairy produce and definately no Waste or By-products!! A few of our foods do contain colourants (which may be natural- i.e. iron oxide, or man made- but our labels and descriptions always state if this is the case).

The one particular food that might be of interest to you is our Premium Chicken with Rice. This is Wheat Gluten Free, and has no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. It is preserved using vitamin E. We manufacture for a range of suppliers- Can't say who for legal reasons- but our feeds do sell through retail outlets under bigger brand labels and names for a lot more.

Whatever you choose, I would definately go for dry food. Tinned food is made in exactly the same way as dry food (the little meat chunks or pieces in the tin are extruded biscuits which are manufactured just in the same way as dried complete is- except that they are put into tins with 80-85% water and jelly and other yucky additives. This means that there is only 15-20% nutritional content when you compare it to dried). All in all, dried is better as you get more nutrients from it, and the crunchy texture helps to keep your dog's teeth clean. If your dog likes a bit of variety then most dry completes can be wet (ours are all fully soakable with warm water)

I hope that this is useful!

p.s. If the famous one that you have chosen not to name is the one with 'the moist and meaty chunks', then I am not surprised to hear that it sends your dog loony- It is full of sugar and acid in order to achieve 'the moistness'. There is nothing meaty about it. It is also full of colourings which can't be great either!

AVOID AVOID AVOID!!

We actually feed our 1 1/2 year old Jack Russell Iams Complete which he seems to really like. We were feeding him Newman's Own Organics but it is incredibly difficult to find and was giving our dog running stools. We also had quite a bit of success feeding him Dick Van Patten's natural choice, lots of good ingredients in it.

You are asking and you will get umpteen different replys!! Everyone will say something different!!

My mum was feeding Iams, but the dog was hyper. The behaviourist she went to said that the food wasn't helping the dogs behaviour as it was too high protein. This behaviourist told mum to give the dog "Burns" food as its natural etc. You can buy it and they deliver it to your door.

I feed my puppy Eukanuba complete puppy. she seems fine on that.

Jack Russells are rather hyper and active anyway though aren't they? They say small dogs need higher protein and higher calorie food because they burn it off a lot faster. Some brands have specific "types" for small breeds.

You will get a lot of different answers all saying use this one... and people will give thumbs down to all the other replys saying anything different! So don't expect to have a conclusive reply!!

- Best of luck.

I've recently changed all our dogs over to a tripe diet (not tinned crap I maen fresh tripe). They were on Eukanuba but I feel you will never know what you are putting into your dogs untill you make it for them yourself.

They have been on a tripe diet for 2 months now and they are all blooming I've never seen my JRT looking so well and they are all really shiny, not totally hyper and there bowel movements are not sloppy or too hard anymore.

I add pasta and veg to their tripe and they love it.

Check out www.prizechoice.co.uk they have loads of info about natural diet for the dogs, the BARF diet etc etc.

Good Luck

EDIT: I just thought I'd add NOT ALL JRT's are hyper thats just not true I have one and we had his father too and neither are (or were) hyper, snappy etc they have always been really chilled and lovely affctionate dogs, with the right training, exercise and food you can have a lovely tempermented dog.... whatever the breed!!

My 13 year old jack russell is on Chappie Complete and it is wonderful. Not only is it tasty - she really enjoys it! Its also very cheap. We tried various tinned foods and it gave her the runs. The dried dog food with vegetables - well, she ate the meat and refused the vegetable bits. She is in fantastic condition and the Chappie was a vet's recommendation.

Regardless of what 'choice' you decide to go move your JRT on to, remember to introduce the new food gradually. JRT's are famous for having an 'iffy' tummy! I have 2 JRT's that have fresh meat every day, which i mix in with eukanuba, and so far, we have been very lucky. My male JRT is hyper whatever i give him, he just likes getting lots of attention!!! My female is a lot more laid back..... Good luck!

7 years old jack russel needs less energy than younger russels and fi she likes lamb try to feed her with eukanuba lamb&rice for medium breed or large breed which have less energy than eukanuba small breed per portion. it's more expensive than pedigree but worth a try. Good luck