Any knowledge of Arkwrights?

[ClaireEM1073]

When I rehomed Billy from the SSPCA they were feeding him on Arwrights complete dry food mixed with a little wet food. Has anyone any knowledge or experience of this food? There are loads of reviews when you Google search but it doesn't come up on any comparison sites.
He eats it and seems ok but he does produce quite a bit at the other end and it stinks!

 

[JudyN]

I've found the ingredients list for a couple of varieties and detailed they are not... The main ingredient is cereal, followed by meat and meat derivatives and not much else... The minimum amount of meat is 4% - it may be more, but it's still going to be very low. So basically, it's a pretty crap food and the more crap goes in, the more comes out!

You want to look for a food that has meat (and not meat derivatives) as the first-listed ingredient (they are listed in order of % content). Grain-free is best, and will produce much smaller, less stinky poos. This website is really useful for finding good-quality foods in your budget: https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

Or consider raw feeding - we can give you all the info you need if interested. Even on high-quality kibble my dog's wind was so bad you could cut slices out of it, but cleared up instantly when he moved to raw.

 

[ClaireEM1073]

Thanks. I use that website anyway. Just wondered why this food that Scotland's main animal charity uses isn't on it. It's very cheap which is explained by the ingredients but except for the stinky large quantities coming out Billy seems fine on it.
I can't afford to feed raw and also don't have the space for the amounts required. My kitchen is the size of a decent cupboard and I have 2 freezer drawers.

I have spent so many hours on the internet researching food for my old dog that I think I've gone dog food blind!!

 

[JudyN]

Animal charities do have to keep costs down of course, and sometimes dog foods that don't look good on paper are found to be quite gentle on sensitive tums - Chappie springs to mind. Maybe though Arkwrights doesn't contain lots of 'good' stuff, it also doesn't contain common ingredients that disagree with a lot of dogs, so it's fairly reliable.

Raw feeding can be very cheap, depending on your supplier - but I agree, lack of freezer space is a problem if you're not spitting distance from a cheap supplier.

 

[ClaireEM1073]

It just puzzles me that it isn't on the food review forums or even the Pets At Home site that tells you what's in it. Very odd.

From memory I think the nearest raw food supplier only delivers up here once a month but I remember it wouldn't work for me when I researched it previously.

 

[JudyN]

My guess is that they don't include foods that don't give a detailed ingredients list online because they've little to go on - even if it's printed on the pack, they're not going to want to have to buy a bag to find what it contains.

 

[ClaireEM1073]

Ha you could be right! The lazy devils

 

[Rhythmpig]

If you tap In Arkwright dog food reviews you will see one for the Horse and Hounds forum. Someone as put a dog food review of lots of different dog foods using a traffic light system. It flags up red, no good I'm afraid,but have a look you could get some good pointers for better food.

 

[Rhythmpig]

If all else fails,you could always ask

Gr Gr Gr Granville


I'm sorry,someone had to do it.

 

[arealhuman]

We use Gentle Dog Food which seems to go down well.