Anyone know about Burns Pet Nutrition Dog Food?

[Holly]

http://www.burnspet.co.uk/dog/dh_anal_glands.asp

They seem to be based in the UK, but I think it's also available for the US. Does anyone know if this stuff is any good? I'm mainly interested in it because it claims it can help with the anal gland issue. I'm not sure if that's true or a bunch of hype though. Any input/feedback would be great!

Thanks!

[dwerten]

are you feeding wet or kibble? I have not had this issue with my dogs and they are on kibble as i think the hard helps them express the glands easier and extra fiber helps like organic canned pumpkin and i think with raw feeders the bone helps express the anal glands. I have not heard anything about this food sorry My cousin just had her dogs glands removed and she has a big dog as he was getting infection after infection and she feeds dry food so it is a tough one. I do not even express my kids glands nor does groomer so i feel real lucky in this area. Hopefully others can help you more

[lorraine]

I have been feeding Burns Mini Bites for about 2 years and only wish I had found it sooner. Fortunately my dogs have never had AG problems but they absolutely love the food.

There is quite a large selection and, hopefully, you will also be able to get samples from your supplier. All Burns animal feed seems to be well balanced, wholesome and nutritious. Although I hadn't read "The Science Bit" in your link before I can confirm the volume of my pups' poos is greatly reduced and so I have no reason to doubt that, as they say, their products minimise the amount of waste matter in the body which can cause blocked anal glands.

[PreciousPrince]

I just looked at a couple of the foods in the link and they had rice as the first ingredient, not meat.

[Holly]

QUOTE (PreciousPrince @ May 11 2009, 07:04 PM)

I just looked at a couple of the foods in the link and they had rice as the first ingredient, not meat.[/B]

Sorry, not real knowledgeable on dog food. So I take it the first ingredient should always be meat? He's on dry kibbles, Purina Puppy Pro Plan now.

[roxybaby22]

QUOTE (Holly @ May 12 2009, 04:27 PM)

QUOTE (PreciousPrince @ May 11 2009, 07:04 PM)

I just looked at a couple of the foods in the link and they had rice as the first ingredient, not meat.[/B]

Sorry, not real knowledgeable on dog food. So I take it the first ingredient should always be meat? He's on dry kibbles, Purina Puppy Pro Plan now.
[/B][/QUOTE]

Well not necessarilly, the first ingredient does not have to be meat, but it is preferable. However, the Burns food has a grain as the first ingredient and I don't think that is desirable, but the food still seems good according to the ingredients. There are foods that don't have meat first, like Natural Balance limited ingredients, and a lot of people feed that. The difference between Burns and NB is that NB's ingredients starts with potatoes, which of course isn't a grain.

I think any high quality food would be effective at expressing anal glands, as your pup would produce firmer stools. But nothing is ever guaranteed to work.

Hope this helped!!!

[PreciousPrince]

Unless they have some sort of condition where they would need a low protein diet or something, I would want meat in the first ingredient. So I don't like that, and there is a meat meal (the one I looked at for this is the puppy small bites), as opposed to something specific like chicken meal, lamb meal - what kind of meat or meats is that? Could they vary between batches, since it's just "meat"? What if your dog had an allergy to something in the food, how would you determine what it was if you don't know what some of the ingredients are? At least it doesn't have by-products, animal digest, fillers such as corn gluten, etc like the Purina puppy chicken formula does, but you can do a lot better. I think the Burns claim on helping with the anal gland issue is summed up by this quote from their article:

"In fact, if the anal glands fill up and cause trouble it is due to low-quality diets which create an excess of waste matter in the system. Feeding Burns results in very low amounts of faeces being produced yet Burns is an excellent food for avoiding anal gland problems because it minimises the amount of waste matter in the body. "

They think they are a great food. So if feeding a quality food does help that, and it makes sense that it would, then any quality diet would help, and there are much better than that. I'd go for organic, or make sure that the meats are hormone/antibiotic free at least. I know of several premium ones that aren't organic, but are very good and use good meat sources. Usually a foods website will tell you that, but if not you can always contact them. There's lots of great info in this food section, and here are a couple sites that carry some good brands to help you get an idea of the selection that's out there:
Only Natural Pet
<a href="http://waggintails.com/" target="_blank">Waggin Tails
</a>K9 Cuisine (this site also has samples of some of the foods they carry)

I don't know anything about anal gland problems, luckily I haven't had to deal with that. Perhaps being on a (truly) good food will help, perhaps you'd have to add something like Debbie's suggestion of pumpkin, or chia seeds for the extra fiber, talk with your vet, etc, but getting on a good food is definately important to health in general.

[Holly]

"At least it doesn't have by-products, animal digest, fillers such as corn gluten, etc like the Purina puppy chicken formula does, but you can do a lot better."

Hmmmm.... Purina Pro Plan or Science Diet was what my vet's office recommended, which is why I went with that. Now I'm beginning to realize just how little I understand about good dog food and nutrition. The Purina Pro Plan Turkey and Barley (which is what he's on) did get an A+ (103) on the Dog Food Rating thing that's somewhere in this forum, but I see that Science Diet didn't do so hot (F's). I hope the vet isn't just recommending certain foods due to some sort of agreement with these companies.

I'd really like to get him on the best food possible but there are so many choices. Natural Balance seems to score really high and I've seen a lot of posts about it. But if the Pro-Plan is already okay, then maybe I should stay with it and consult a professional about adding pumpkin or fiber of some sort. Then again, I didn't read the entire thread, so maybe the Dog Food Rating thing isn't the only thing I should go by.

Wow this is confusing.

[PreciousPrince]

Ok the turkey formula is a select formula. When I went to the page I just picked a puppy pro plan, the chicken. The pro plan select puppy, the turkey, is better than their regular puppy formula as it doesn't have the by-products so that's good at least. The second and third ingredients of brewers rice and corn gluten meal are fragments/fillers - not a bad food per se but there's better.

[roxybaby22]

QUOTE (Holly @ May 13 2009, 09:39 PM)

"At least it doesn't have by-products, animal digest, fillers such as corn gluten, etc like the Purina puppy chicken formula does, but you can do a lot better."

Hmmmm.... Purina Pro Plan or Science Diet was what my vet's office recommended, which is why I went with that. Now I'm beginning to realize just how little I understand about good dog food and nutrition. The Purina Pro Plan Turkey and Barley (which is what he's on) did get an A+ (103) on the Dog Food Rating thing that's somewhere in this forum, but I see that Science Diet didn't do so hot (F's). I hope the vet isn't just recommending certain foods due to some sort of agreement with these companies.

I'd really like to get him on the best food possible but there are so many choices. Natural Balance seems to score really high and I've seen a lot of posts about it. But if the Pro-Plan is already okay, then maybe I should stay with it and consult a professional about adding pumpkin or fiber of some sort. Then again, I didn't read the entire thread, so maybe the Dog Food Rating thing isn't the only thing I should go by.

Wow this is confusing. [/B]

I think this website www.dogfoodanalysis.com will help you. Just click on the reviews and check out foods scored 4 or higher. I don't think ProPlan did well at all. I think there is a search, so you can type in the brand, and see the rating easier.

I know how you feel, I was baffled by learning what foods were nutritional and the ones that were not. I also listened to my vet when it came to my late yorkie's diet, but later found out that most, not all, know little about proper dog food.

Be weary of the 6 star foods, as some can be too rich in protein. My Roxy does fine on Orijen puppy (high protein, 6 star food), but all dogs are different.