Suggestions on a good dog food in South Africa

[Lauren]

Hi all,

I am going to take a chance and hope that someone on here is from South Africa or can help me on what to feed our 2yr old female? During the puppy stages I found she had a very sensitive stomach and if anyone fed her anything else besides her normal food she would get an upset stomach. We started her off on Pedigree for the first year which didnt seem to do much for her.

We then switched over to Montego which contains Ostrich which Iv heard many people highly reccommending. She did really well on this but lately I have noticed her condition has been deteriorating. I am not sure if its related to her now being on heat but I was wondering if anyone can suggest a different kind of dog food that we can try her on?

Or if there is something I can add to her diet to help bulk her up a bit as she seems to have lost some weight recently? Although she has always been a bit slim.

thanks so much

[Jens Gunther]

Hi Lauren,

You could try Jock, which has given good results at a reasonable price. Raw is of course another option. Once you get the hang of it, it'll work out about the same. There are lots of guidelines here.

If you live in an area with lots of rodents/wildlife/raptors/hadedas, shorten your deworming intervals. I'd also have her checked for Giardia and Ehrlichia, just to be sure there is no chronic protozoa related infection.

[Tracey Bodington]

Hi Lauren,

I had similar experiences with my female pup, she suffered with a very sensitive stomach. I was scrambling around for months with vet visits and trying different dog foods, we also tried the Montego for large breed dogs but our BB had a bad reaction to it. We live in Gauteng and we have access to a wide variety of dog food brands (which just adds to the difficulty of making a choice) I agree with Jens perhaps get a vet check just to make sure that you are not dealing with a nasty virus and then go from there to find the dog food that works best for your dog. If you can get your hands on Jock we had a reasonably good result from that. I was trying to find Grandeur which is made by the same company that makes Jock, however I have yet to find a supplier that stocks it, I understand that it is their top of the line product. We also had fair results with Hills but we have settled on ProPac for Large Breed puppies because we got the best results from it, our puppy no longer has a runny tummy or big grainy stools, her growth and weight gain has been steady, we follow the feeding instructions on the pack religiously but we also add raw chicken necks and tripe on a weekly basis. Our puppy is 6 months old now and weights 33kg at her last weigh in. She appears on the lean side but I am not in a hurry to bulk her up as I don't want to cause developmental problems with her bones. I understand from experienced breeders that how you feed your puppy in her growing years has an influence on her bone formation and ultimately her hips and elbows. Good luck and let us know your end results.

All the best Tracey