Hi I recently acquired a lovely 6 yr old Golden Retreiver (Rescue). She had been used purely for producing puppies and was dumped in Rescue kennels after her use was over. She had puppies not long before I got her and also had been spayed. She was a little thin. The owner of the kennels said to feed her Chappie original with some dried food. They used Chappie as it didn’t have lots of additives & her system had ben a bit overstretched. I have continued with this - giving her half a tin of Chappie with about 140 grms Burns Adult dried Chicken & Brown Rice twice per day. She has put on weight & is looking ok but I would like some advice as to what other owners feed their Golden Retrievers. I don’t know if she’s getting the best food & also I don’t want her to grow enormous. She seems happy with food we are giving her but I’m not up on all the ins & outs of it & wan’t to look after her without giving her oroblems. Her weight gain might be just a change in circumstances & level out - we have only had her 4 months.
Your Golden Retriever is looking good so well done for rescuing her and providing a lovely new home and family.
Chappie is often recommended for dogs with a sensitive digestive system. The review of it is here. Burns dry food is reviewed here.
A good indicator of the suitability of any particular food is the output. What is your dog’s poo like? It should be firm, easy to pick up and not too copious in amount.
Normally, the advice is that if the dog is doing well on its food then there should be no reason to change. If you want to change to a higher quality product then you can use the filters in the Dog Food Directory to source something. I always start with Properties>clearly labelled and Avoid ingredients>all red/all yellow.
There is a thread here which might be of use. The protein source (meat/fish/poultry) should be at the top of the list. Dogs can digest protein more easily.
Also this thread about enhancing dry dog food with fresh food.
If you do decide to change to a higher quality food, to avoid potential digestive upset, as a start it might be best to just use a higher protein/lower carbohydrate dry food and continue with the Chappie used as you are currently doing.