Wet Food Additives

Dog food and feeding Feeding dogs with health problems
21

Vivann - cold pressed foods are a good choice. I used this type of food for quite some time beginning when it was not very well known about in the UK. The carbohydrate is rather high though. Check out the dials on the product in the Dog Food Directory.

Gentle, owned by Beate Rothon was the first UK company to sell this and their products are made by Markus Muhle in Germany. They have been manufacturing cold pressed food for a long time and have a lot of experience. Beate would be able to give you advice should you need it.

1 Like
22

I did see something about cold pressed food on here earlier but cannot find it now. I noticed that https://walkeranddrake.com/ were mentioned. Does anybody use it and if so, what is the verdict? I cannot see it on the Food Directory.

The details on the website look good and I am tempted to try it. I have just emailed them to ask about carbohydrates.

23

I havenā€™t come across that particular product. My feeling is that an elimination diet would probably be the best thing in the long run. It also has the potential to save money because it can be expensive trying different products. You donā€™t know why your dog is itching but trying a low carbohydrate diet is worth trying. Most dry foods (not all) have higher than average carbohydrate content.

1 Like
24

I have just found this brand on the internet and put the ingredients in the tool generator and found it to have only 36% . If you want a cold pressed dog food and need lower carbohydrates Cobby and Akela are your best option. Cobby is 34.6 for carbs and 88% for food rating and Akela is 37% and 86 on food rating. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
25

Iā€™ve been looking at Walker & Drake (Iā€™m a sucker for fancy packaging). The ingredients are good and Iā€™ve just put the ocean fish into the calculator and got 86% with no red or Amber ingredients showing. I might send for a sample to see what my dog thinks of it

26

I put Walker and Drake in the calculator, substituting the space and big dots for commas and got the same result. I emailed them to ask about carbohydrates as there isnā€™t a figure for that. I got a reply quickly and was told they are going to get that done as someone else had asked too. Richard included a code to get the sample pack free and it arrived yesterday - about 50g each of the chicken, duck and ocean. Just using as treats for now but going down well. I wonā€™t be purchasing until I get the carbohydrate percentage. It breaks into smaller pieces easily and the dogs seemed to like it. Fingers crossed - if the carbs are low enough I may well try it for my girl.

27

I have just put copied and pasted the ingredients in to the generator and still only got 36% not sure how other people are getting more.

28

I copied and pasted the ingredients including the added nutrients then went through the list removing the first space and big dot between each ingredient and replacing with a comma. Tedious but worked.

29

I also got rid of the dot and added a comma in between.

30

Aflora Cold Pressed - Beef & Whitefish - Grain Free Dry Dog Food

ingredients:
Dried Ground Beef 32%, Sweet Potato 30%, Dried Ground White Fish 10%, Peas 5%, Tapioca 6.5%, Beet Pulp 5%, Rapeseed Oil 3.5%, Linseed Oil 3.5%, Vitamins & Minerals 1.25% (Vitamin A, Vitamin D3, Vitamin E, Thiamine, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B2, Vitamin C), Dried Vegetables (Carrot, Celery Root), Dried Apple, Dried Herbs (Sage, Thyme, Oregano), Seaweed, Yucca, Fennel, Nettle, Chondroitin, Glucosamine, Turmeric, Dandelion Root.
I have found another cold pressed dog food, I have used it and it is good. It scored 90% when I put it through the generator.
I got rid of the dots and spaces and still only got 65% for the walker and Drake.

1 Like
31

To get an idea about dry food carbohydrate level just take the sum of protein plus fat plus fibre plus ash plus moisture and deduct from 100. This gives an approx level of carbohydrate or NFE (nitrogen free extract).

2 Likes
32

This is very confusing. I have just done the Walker and Drake chicken version in the instant food review and got 87%. I included the nutritional additives and removed the dots and replaced with a comma.

The Aflora Cold Pressed chicken looks good too.

33

The Instant Review Generator returned a nutritional rating of 88% when I tried it. The list only includes a percentage only for the first ingredient which is chicken. No mention of the percentages for the second, third or fourth ingredients, sweet potato, beet pulp and peas.

34

I can see that the instant review generator is causing a bit of confusion, for which I apologise. Iā€™m afraid itā€™s still a bit temperamental and if everything isnā€™t entered exactly as it expects, it can give incorrect readings.

First, you should only enter the ingredients list (sometimes called composition) so not the nutritional additives or anything else. And then all the ingredients need to be separated by a comma.

So for Walter & Drake Ocean Fish, the ingredients list should read:
Dried Ocean Fish 42%, Sweet Potato, Beet Pulp, Chicken Oil, Peas, Fish Oil, FOS Inulin, Yeast Bio-Mos, Psyllium Husk Powder, Apple, Carrot, Tomato, Seaweed, Cranberry, Flavour Bioflavex, Glucosamine, Fenugreek, Green Tea Extract, Fennel Seed, Blueberry, Yucca Schidigera, Chondroitin, Marigold Powder, Devils Claw Root.
Which provides a nutritional rating of 86%

And for Aflora Beef and Whitefish:
Dried Ground Beef 32%, Sweet Potato 30%, Dried Ground White Fish 10%, Peas 5%, Tapioca 6.5%, Beet Pulp 5%, Rapeseed Oil 3.5%, Linseed Oil 3.5%, Vitamins & Minerals 1.25%, Dried Vegetables (Carrot, Celery Root), Dried Apple, Dried Herbs (Sage, Thyme, Oregano), Seaweed, Yucca, Fennel, Nettle, Chondroitin, Glucosamine, Turmeric, Dandelion Root.
Which provides a nutritional rating of 87%

I hope that helps.

35

Yes, very helpful thank you David. Just tried the Walker and Drake Chicken menu and it comes out at 87%, Ocean Fish menu 86%, Duck menu 88%. The Alflora Chicken is 78%.

One thing puzzles me, with the W&D menus they only give the meat or fish percentage of the ingredients so how can the calculator work it out accurately? I notice Alflora give more information regarding percentages of ingredients.

36

Great question Vivann. The rating algorithm essentially takes whatever percentage information is available and uses it to fill in any blanks by calculating the possible range of percentages for each ingredient in the food.

Wherever information is not provided, it always assumes the worst. So when the percentage of a desirable ingredient like meat is missing, the algorithm will assume it it the lowest percent possible and for undesirable ingredients like fillers etc, it will assume it is the highest possible percentage.

In this way, even when few or even no percentages are provided, we are still able to get a fairly good estimate of how much of each ingredient a food is likely to contain.

Of course, this could result in a score that is lower than it would be if all of the percentages were provided but as a general rule, companies only withhold information if they believe it is in their interest to do so, so by assuming the worst you usually get quite close to the truth.

Weā€™re also huge advocates of clear labelling so are keen to reward those companies that have open, transparent ingredients lists and downgrade those that do not.

I hope that all makes sense.

2 Likes
37

I have been looking at various cold pressed foods and have come across Walker and Drake https://walkeranddrake.com and Itsdogfood https://itsdogfood.com/pages/why-cold-pressed

I wonder if anyone has fed either of these brands to their dog/s and if so what do you think of them.

I notice that these two manufacturers talk about lower temperatures but they use different temperatures to each other to cold press.

I am also struggling to find something with a low carbohydrate content, only found Akela 50:50, Cobbydog Fish supper (cold pressed - seems to be the only cold pressed they do) and Pure (air dried) chicken that have lower carbs. Pure donā€™t do samples and I have spoken with a poodle breeder who usually has six dogs in residence, she tried Pure (a couple of varieties) and not one of her dogs would eat it!

1 Like
38

I have no experience of feeding Walker and Drake cold pressed food. It has only fairly recently come on to the market. Finding a low carb dry food is problematic because they need starchy ingredients to give form to the food. There are a few that have average carbs but they are usually the high quality, high protein ones. Setting the carb filter to 1% to 30% returned three pages of products with an average carb content. High protein/high fat is a feature of this type of food. You can search for these using the filters in the Dog Food Directory. AFAIK the best way of reducing carbs is to feed a good quality wet food, raw or fresh cooked food.

39

I donā€™t want to feed raw and I have tried Natures Menu Country Hunter and their Original wet food. Mia doesnā€™t like the chicken one and it seems to upset her stomach - happened first with the Country Hunter which is 80% meat so I assumed too rich for her but happened again with the Original 60% meat. Strange that the was turning her nose up at it as she loves chicken or turkey. Have been cooking meat and vegetables for her and adding to her kibble. Tried the Walker and Drake samples as treats and she is very happy with it but I suspect it may have a high carb content - they donā€™t know as havenā€™t had it evaluated for that.

Have thought about using Pure Vegi plus and adding home cooked meat - I think you have mentioned before it does get very expensive trying these different foods!

Better mention that I am looking for lower carbs as I suspect the high carb in the Purina HA she has been since December is what is making her more itchy than before - just a theory but worth a try.

40

Yes, I did mention Veggie Plus Mixer. It might be worth a try. Home cooking is an option but it is essential to research it. Calcium needs to be added and oils for omega 3:6. Meat content is usually ok at 60%. Did you check out Different Dog? Their varieties mIght be useful - carbs tend to be low average.