Royal Canin vs James Wellbeloved ? or other ?

[Black Beauty & Silverfox]

Don't know about Royal Canin other than the assistant at PAH suggesting JWB was far better for puppies.

The only reason I'm responding to this post is to suggest the smaller 2kg packs may be a good idea. I bought a 15kg of lamb and Miya now struggles with but loves the JWB white fish.
They say variety is the spice of life and rotation of the flavours would prevent the "same old syndrum" develop in your puppy, bit like us I guess

Hope this helps

[cazza]

They say variety is the spice of life and rotation of the flavours would prevent the "same old syndrum" develop in your puppy, bit like us I guess

Sorry I disagree with this - Mine are on the same food day in day out - year in year out

It suits them (they are on different foods ) and there is no point in changing if it is a good quality food and suits them

A few years ago there didn't use to be all these differnet makes and the dogs used to live on table scraps from the humans meals - I use table scraps for my dogs when there is any that is (as my kids eat me out of house and home and hardly leave anything these days - not that I am complianing, but if they do then that goes to the dogs literally, minus any bones etc as these are cooked)

[Danni and Freya]

They say variety is the spice of life and rotation of the flavours would prevent the "same old syndrum" develop in your puppy, bit like us I guess

Sorry I disagree with this - Mine are on the same food day in day out - year in year out

It suits them (they are on different foods ) and there is no point in changing if it is a good quality food and suits them

A few years ago there didn't use to be all these differnet makes and the dogs used to live on table scraps from the humans meals - I use table scraps for my dogs when there is any that is (as my kids eat me out of house and home and hardly leave anything these days - not that I am complianing, but if they do then that goes to the dogs literally, minus any bones etc as these are cooked)

Agree with Cazza here, we cause "fussiness" by giving them too many options. If a food suits I stick with it and mine have never complained, they savour every meal 

[Black Beauty & Silverfox]

They say variety is the spice of life and rotation of the flavours would prevent the "same old syndrum" develop in your puppy, bit like us I guess

Sorry I disagree with this - Mine are on the same food day in day out - year in year out

It suits them (they are on different foods ) and there is no point in changing if it is a good quality food and suits them

A few years ago there didn't use to be all these differnet makes and the dogs used to live on table scraps from the humans meals - I use table scraps for my dogs when there is any that is (as my kids eat me out of house and home and hardly leave anything these days - not that I am complianing, but if they do then that goes to the dogs literally, minus any bones etc as these are cooked)

Agree with Cazza here, we cause "fussiness" by giving them too many options. If a food suits I stick with it and mine have never complained, they savour every meal 

So, just to recap.
If I give Miya Lamb, fish or turkey [ALL JAMES WELLBELOVED] and reduce the size of the bag  [which is all I said in my first post]  this would "cause fussiness"

[Danni and Freya]

Not saying it would at all. I'm saying humans who think it would be nice to give thier dogs a wide variety of foods CAN but not WILL cause fussiness, as the dog knows he can hold out for something better. If you keep offering something different he may quickly realise he can pick and choose which bits he likes

[Jane57]

Riley adores his food,he practically "inhales" each meal of jwb, he has the duck, lamb and fish, we have two flavours on the go at any one time. He is quite greedy so doesnt prefer one over the other, or at least he doesnt show it.
I would have thought rather than flavour changing causing fussiness it would be actually complete change of food, also adding "nice tasty" bits if they are a bit fussy, would have thought that would have made them more picky, not changing the flavour though.

[john51]

I've only had the kind of cocker that will happily eat anything, any time, anywhere. Fussy eaters will obviously be a challenge but I would have thought that most dogs will cope with changes in food type and variety without any problems. I believe that some dietary change is probably good thing, unless there are reasons why you believe it won't work for your dog. Feeding table scraps is probably good as well, as long as you pay attention to balance in the diet. However, table scraps are obviously going to provide a lot of variety so I'm not sure I follow cazza's argument.

I read this American article recently in which a vet reflects on advice on feeding. He comes to the conclusion that commercial grain-based diets are probably not ideal and that increasing the amount of meat helps in improving health of dogs generally. It is anecdotal, and provides no evidence, but is a point of view.

http://www.petmd.com/dog/nutrition/evr_dg_the_best_food_for_dogs

It does fit my prejudices which is why I usually feed Acana and am now trying Applaws which is 75% meat kibble. So back to the original question of the thread, while I am sure that both RC and JW are both foods with good quality ingredients, I would personally look for a food with a much higher meat content. I am also not very interested in advice from pet shop assistants!

[cazza]

However, table scraps are obviously going to provide a lot of variety so I'm not sure I follow cazza's argument.

As i said previously - mine don't get very often it is a treat, not a regulary occurrance!!!

My main point was that there was not ALL these different brands of dog food 40 or so years ago and they would only be fed scraps 

[john51]

You are absolutely right, and the article I referenced above suggests that this is not a good thing. The big manufacturers created foods with high grain content, even though it's not naturally a significant part of a dog's diet, because it's cheap. They also found ways of using meat-related    leftovers  from the by-products of the human food chain. Efficient: maybe, good for dogs: highly questionable.

[karendorman13]

i feed my older heinz 57 on JWB turkey, lamb and fish mixed with either a JWB pouch or a tin of sardines in oil we are getting our cocker in 6 weeks and once he is settled he will be getting gradually switched over from pro plan to JWB. If you are going to mix in a wet food remember to reduce the dry food i take 35g of for the JWB pouches and 50G for the sardines but my dog is on a diet she needs to lose 4kg

[harleys mum]

Harley came to us from his breeder with Eukanuba but his stools were unreliable and changed from solid to slimy and back again with great regularity - I really wasn't keen on the ingredients so I slowly changed him to JWB and he has been on this (mixed with a huge variety of hooman left-overs) for the last 5 1/2 years - his poos are small and solid, he is very fit and his coat is glossy.  When we rescued Rio we had no idea what he had been fed on previously so it was JWB for him too and he took to it straight away with absolutely no problems - I cant recommend JWB highly enough