Skinner's Life Range?

Hi, new to the forum here and just looking for a little advice/recommendation.

My little Beagle, Rio, is 6 months old and up until now I have been feeding him on Royal Canin Medium Junior, by recommendation of my vet - but then I stumbled upon some reviews that weren’t that great with some not so good ingredients being listed.

I have now decided to try him on Arden Grange Puppy/Junior, however he doesn’t seem overly impressed by it and I am now searching for a cheaper alternative thats going to be beneficial to him.

I have read some good reviews on Skinner’s Field & Trial but I understand this is a working dogs food and will give him increased energy (which he definitely doesn’t need) and may result in a weight gain.

I haven’t seen many reviews on Skinner’s new life range so just wondered if anyone could provide any info on this, whether it would be a good food to feed him on?

Thanks for any advice,
Aaron
x

Hello and welcome to the forum,
I haven’t had any experience with Skinners. It has an average rating on the dog food directory although the varieties seem to vary a lot in ingredients and therefore ratings. The fat levels also vary some may cause weight gain and others not.
It is difficult to recommend any particular food as what suits one dog may not suit another. There are so many variables and each dog is different. Most have us have settled on a food that suits through trial and error.

You can look at this thread to see how to search for a suitable food. It should give you some ideas. I hope this helps. You can put your budget in and see which foods match. Good Luck.

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I have fed my Lab quite a few kibbles including Arden Grange (AG) . I moved away from it after the composition changed on one of the specific AG products I was feeding…specifically I switched to Skinners F&T.

I fed Skinners Field & Trial , mainly the duck or salmon varieties.

It contains grains so you need to ensure you are happy with that ingredient. I later changed to grain free kibbles but at the time only did so as my Labs anal glands were needing to be emptied periodically…I had read online that removing grains can allegedly sometimes help improve this clinical presentation. I am NOT alleging that any particular brand or food contributed to that problem.

Skinners have their own mill & are confident they can trace key ingredients right back to the ship they arrived on. Customer service down to earth without any spin.

My personal opinion is that the Skinners F&T varieties are acceptable quality as far as grain ingredient dry extruded kibbles go…I actually moved on to more expensive dry extruded kibble products which were grain free & had higher meat content with mixed results & in honesty without any considerable obvious benefit. I have since changed to feeding a raw complete based dog diet. I appreciate you are not asking about this type of food, however, I feel it only appropriate to clarify that I currently do not feed dry extruded kibble.

I chose to feed Skinners F&T as at the time & for my then needs I considered it better value than AG &/or Burns. I would not have introduced it at the time if I had concerns re the composition. The F&T varieties may be worth a trial for a few weeks. Autarky Salmon, (which I have not fed), is worth a look too if looking at dry extruded & within a fairly similar price bracket.

If later considering higher price bracket foods then maybe look into cold pressed foods.

Do bear in mind that there are differences between various F&T products as they have different protein sources. I should also add that there are a variety of different product lines made by manufacturers. Skinners product range is varied. Some are arguably better quality than others…I am not familiar with the New Life product line.

As for energy level concerns…Sometimes dogs can be restless or even a bit hyper, there can be various factors. It is quite common for young dogs to have high energy levels. In my experience appropriate levels of exercise can take the edge off an over energetic dog, (assuming joints adequately developed). Some foods can allegedly cause some dogs to be a bit hyper, not necessarily due to higher protein levels but rather down to questionable ingredients etc.

There is no hiding the fact that some foods contain higher protein levels than others, however, I have fed high protein diets of various food quite different types of well exercised dogs without any hyperactivity issues.

I am not a nutritional expert…In terms of weight gain &/or loss, some may talk about specific percentages and amounts of fat, carbs, protein etc…Whilst such detailed thinking can be of real value I am of the belief that active relatively healthy dogs can have weight adjustments made by tweaking the daily feed amount &/or exercise levels.

Finally I should add regardless of reviews, rating scores, compositions &/or recommendations…some foods do not suit some dogs. i know this as I have prior fed a food (not named in this thread), that looked good “on paper” (sorry for the tired cliche), but in reality it did not suit my dog (he lost muscle condition & energy levels were down despite the food having good reviews & being initially recommended by manufacturer & online reviews).

A lot of info above to digest…PLEASE return to this thread & update us (unfortunately many new contributors do not do this).

Good Luck.

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Hello and welcome to the forum. I haven’t used Skinner’s food for my dogs but I helped my friend choose a suitable product for her three Labradors and this came up as the best one for her, particularly as she is on a tight budget. She feeds Skinner’s Field and Trial and the dogs all do well on it. The protein is a tad modest so a few times a week she tops up with various protein containing foods.

IMHO Skinner’s Field and Trial is a better choice than your present food. This is a complete food but as your dog is very young I think that topping up a few times a week with suitable protein would be useful e.g. chicken, eggs, fish, sardines etc. It’s worth looking in the supermarket for offers on meat etc that is about to go out of date. Once properly cooked, it should be safe for the dog. You could also consider giving suitable cooked and pureed vegetables. Why adding human food to your dog’s diet is so important might be of interest. Some variety in a dog’s diet is said to be good for them.

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