Thank you Tink - that gives a better over all picture of your new pal. BTW well done for rescuing her and for giving her a new start in life. The good news is that you should be able to get a good quality product for your budget. What I would like you to do is to have a look at the Dog Food Directory
here. Go to the Filters to the left of the page and I would suggest that you select these although you can tweak them to suit yourself:
* Type of Food - dry (remove ticks from other boxes)
* Food Properties - place ticks in these boxes: Natural, Hypoallergenic, Grain free and Clearly labelled
* Rating - move the slider to 3.5 to 5.0 stars
* Avoid Ingredients - Place a tick in the box All red ingredients and in All cereals
* Nutrient levels - move the protein slider to 26% - 40%
*Click 'Go'This will give you four pages of good quality products and you now have to take a look at them to see which suits your budget and which you feel would be a good choice. My feeling is that you need to go with products that are sold in small bags - no larger than 2kg. This is just in case it doesn't suit your dog. Next, there are quite a few on there that are not easily available in stores so if you can identify products that are easy to obtain, that too will be a bonus because you won't have to pay carriage. However, if that is not a problem then you have a greater selection. Remember that better quality products are only found in pet stores or online so if you have a good store near you, so much the better. Two products on there that are available in Pets at Home are Fishmonger's and Wainwright's. Canagan is another that is sometimes found in pet stores - well, it is in mine. There may be more; you can find out the availability by clicking on the product itself and then clicking 'Buy/Store finder'.
When you have located a suitable food, don't take too much notice of the recommended daily allowance. They are usually set too high. Start right at the bottom end - even 10% lower might be appropriate. Knowing the breed well, I would say that a starting point of circa 100g per day might be about right but reduce by 10% if she puts too much weight on after the spey. Increase by 10% if she needs more. If you budget for this amount it will make the calculation easier for you. Divide the ration into at least two meals per day - never be tempted to just give one meal. Always weigh the food properly - a small digital scale in 1g divisions can be obtained for less than £10 - got mine from
Argos - worth every penny.
It is possible that your dog might be a bit 'iffy' with the new food, especially as she has been having Bakers which contains sugars. Transition to the new food gradually and if you can keep adding a bit of cooked chicken sprinkled over the food she should take to it fairly quickly. You will find that her poos will be much better once on the new food - see
Poop Points. In the space of perhaps a couple of months you ought to be seeing an improvement in her general condition - muscle tone, coat etc.
Please post back if you need any further help or an opinion on a particular product that you have selected. Also, it would be nice to hear how she gets on.