New member, confused about using best dog food

[Stars_bright]

Hi, I have used this website previously and chose to feed my 3 dogs (2 cavalier King Charles spaniels and a Yorkshire terrier) with Markus Mulhle. I chose by filtering on dry complete, 4-5 ratings and ordering by price. I'm looking for a similar quality food at a similar price but a smaller kibble size as the pieces are quite big for the small dogs. However now when I try to do a similar filter and order by price the order doesn't go by price. I'm not sure whether it's me or the website? i would be grateful for any advice

[Dottie]

Hello and welcome to the forum. No need to change food - Markus Muhle NaturNah now comes in a mini version - link, as does Gentle - Gentle Small Bites.
If you haven't tried it already, cold pressed food moistens very nicely. It can be made like a wet food with a consistency of your own choosing, just by adding more (or less) water.

[Stars_bright]

Hi and thank you for the replies. When I used the link you supplied the search worked so I'm not sure why it's wasn't before. Also I hadn't realised you could add water so I might try that. One of our dogs has a habit of pulling one piece of food out of the bowl and running around the house with it, so maybe that would stop that haha. How pulls yu compare the Markus with the Gentle? I'm quite new to feeding dry food as I used to raw feed but one of my dogs kept getting the runs and since they have been on the Markus we have not had any more upset tummies but I have noticed they drink a lot more water

[Dottie]

You can use the compare tool on the Dog Food Directory to more clearly see the comparison. They are similar in composition and my experience is that dogs can have a change of cp products from time to time with no digestive problems. 

Gentle contains green lipped muscle meat, as does Guru. This is reputed to be good for joint health so might be particularly useful for middle aged to senior dogs. On the Dog Food Directory maize is flagged up as a red ingredient on NaturNah but my understanding is that it is the maize germ which is used, not the whole plant.

Soaking cold pressed food works well, not least because it takes the dogs longer to eat it. Also, it takes care of any after meal thirst. It needs about 10 to 15 minutes to soak and you should use warm or tepid water, never boiling water.

[Stars_bright]

Thank you, I have emailed Gentle and they are sending me a sample, which is a relief as I had to buy a massive bag of the other food which could have been wasted if they had refused it.

[Stars_bright]

Having done a comparision I see that Eden gets a rating of 5 and doesn't contain any maize but it is extruded and not cold pressed. My yorkie who us 9 does have joint pain so the green lipped muske you mention in the Gentle and Guru. I'm wondering how much of an advantage having the cold pressed is compared with having the Maize free. I also wonder how Eden gets 5 stars when it's extruded if cold pressed is better? Need to lie down in a darkened room!

[Dottie]

I understand your confusion.  There is a thread here which is relevant to your question about extruded v cold pressed and the ratings issue.  David, the site owner has been working on the rating algorithm and asked for opinions.  Some people feel that processing method should be taken into account when scoring.  It is a matter of opinion whether extruded food should achieve a 5 star rating. 

Whilst scores are important, as Meg has said it is what suits the dog.  You give the perfect example of this in that your dogs did not do well on a raw diet.  On the Dog Food Directory a number of these raw complete foods are very highly rated, some 5*.  Many pet owners want the best food for their dog but it is sometimes necessary to try a few different ones to see which suits the dog most.     

Gentle and Guru  both contain green lipped muscle, as does Black Angus. As you say, this could be useful for your nine year old.  As she is already used to cold pressed food I would imagine that she won't have any problems with any of these products.

Edit - with reference to your post about trial quantities, have a look at this thread - there is a post about small bags available from Zooplus.

[Stars_bright]

Thanks so much for the help. I requested a sample of Gentle small bite, it arrived today and is an ideal size and the dogs loved it so I'm going to go with that x

[Dottie]

That is good news. I hope it suits them. Please let us know how you get on.