Pet
Food
Review

UK Dog Food Reviews and Articles

This website started off as a place where you could find reasonably impartial reviews of the UK pet food market - but it has grown to become something much bigger, mainly as people have asked questions about the ingredients that go into pet food and the differences between the various brands. Questions such as:

Why is there such a difference in price between one dog food at £10/15kg and another at £48/15kg and is the difference worth it?

Are artificial preservatives healthy?

Why is salt added to pet food, isn't it harmful?

What's a food intolerance or allergy?

Pet food prices set to rise this year!

There is no doubt that over the past 12 months there has been a considerable amount of price inflation on pet food, with a lot of 15kg sacks going up by pounds rather than pence.

Why is this? One big supplier to the pet trade says this:

"Over the last 12 months our sector has been subject to repeated increases in raw material costs pushing inflation to new levels. Increasing demand coupled with poor harvests have put considerable pressure on the carbohydrate markets... The concern we continue to have is with proteins. The competition from developing economies such as China, Africa and the South Americas continues to drive demoand and price of a finite resource. Proteins have risen 40-80% in the last period and we don't see an end to this market run..."

So expect to see the better quality foods increasing by several £/bag over the next 12 months!

For this reason it makes sense to make sure that you are getting best value for your money. There are discounts, particularly if you can buy 2 big sacks - and online retailers such as Pet Supermarket and G J Titmuss (See below) offer this option. There are also pet food comparison sites such as Dog Food Price worth taking a look at.

Feeding Moist Food to a 20kg Dog

If you're think of feeding one of the many quality moist foods out there to an average sized dog, then it's not enough to look at the price of the tray of pouch, you need to look at how many a day you're going to have to feed. Costs/day can vary considerably - on the ones we've looked at it can mean anything between just over £1/day to over £6 - Read the review

Latest pet food reviews

Alpha - A cheap option compared to many foods out there, but mainly based around beef as a source of protein. (more...)

HiLife- Not as widely available as some, maybe not as well known as some, but it sells well, and offers better value than others we think (more...)

Laughing Dog - Laughing Dog is also based around Barley as a cereal rather than the usual rice, and its 25% protein is higher than many for an adult food (Burns is 18%) but there's a lot of thought gone into choosing the ingredients, and it's a much more interesting option than many foods at similar prices. (more...)

JB Good Food - Typical of many 'own brands' which offer excellent natural food at lower prices than many big brands because they cut out wholesalers, large marketing budgets and storage, selling direct to the pet owner. (more...)

Arden Grange - Arden Grange have been around for years, but they've introduced a couple of new super-premium recipes with fresh meat which may interest you (more...)

Symply - You'll not find it in the pet supermarkets, only in your local pet shop. It's good quality food, but not cheap! (more...)

Vitalin - Not sure why we missed Vitalin, perhaps thinking they were just cheap and cheerful, but in fact there's some excellent food in their range. Check them out (more...)

Tear Staining - Causes & Treatment!

Lots of small dogs, particularly those with white fur such as Poodles or Bichon suffer with discolouration around their eyes, mouth and feet, but what causes tear staining and what is the best way to eliminate the problem?

If it just a problem of poor diet? Probably not, but we have managed to find some really good advice, so read all about tear staining!

Dogs with sensitive skin or digestive problems

If your dog or cat has a prolonged or recurring period of digestive upset, or suffers from excessive itchy skin, is constantly licking paws red raw or has hot spots or balding patches due to excessive grooming you need to take veterinary advice as there might be an underlying medical condition, or parasites that are the cause of the problem - don't second guess because the health of your pet is at stake here!

Having said all that, and assuming that there is no underlying medical condition then the suggestion is probably going to be made that at some point of treatment your pet goes onto a veterinary prescription diet alongside maybe some medication to calm down the condition. More about sensitive dogs

Anal Glands - What are they good for?

Well, they are two glands found on either side of the dog's anal opening.

They are part of the dog's excretion process and emit an  'interesting' odour - almost certainly something to do with territory marking if you observe dogs over a period of time. Could be a bit like our fingerprint, it identifies us - so does the 'sweet perfume' of a dog's anal glands!  Read more about anal glands and what goes wrong!