Every brand on this page is dog food, in dry, wet and freeze dried. If you already know what you feed, go straight to the brand. If you're choosing between them, the groups below are the honest way to think about it, because most of these brands are aiming at different dogs rather than competing head on.
High meat, grain free, dearest per kilo
Orijen, Acana, Carnilove, Eden and Country Hunter. High animal protein, no cereals, and a price to match.
Carnilove is the one worth knowing about if chicken is the suspected problem, because the dry range leaves out chicken and chicken fat entirely. That's unusual, and it makes an exclusion trial much easier to run.
Vet-led ranges, with a normal range alongside
Hills, Royal Canin, Purina Pro Plan and Eukanuba. Each of these sells an everyday food and a separate veterinary line for diagnosed conditions.
You don't need a prescription to buy the veterinary ones. They're pet foods, not medicines. But they work by restricting or adjusting things a healthy dog needs, so they aren't a general upgrade. If your vet named one, buy that. If nobody has, speak to your vet before you start.
Made in the UK
James Wellbeloved is made in Somerset and leaves out beef, pork, soya, eggs, dairy and wheat, which is the whole proposition and it's printed on every bag.
Simpsons Premium and Skinners are both British. With Skinners Field & Trial the number in the name is the protein percentage, so Working 23 is 23% protein. Handy once you know.
Ours
Ferguson and Ramsay Originals are our own brands. That's why they cost less than the imported grain free foods sitting next to them: there's no brand marketing to pay for, and no importer taking a margin on the way through.
We'd rather say that plainly than pretend they arrived here by accident.
"Top" doesn't mean best for your dog
These are the brands we sell most of. That isn't the same as the right food for the dog in front of you, and the gap between a good mid-range food and an expensive one is far smaller than the gap between the right portion and the wrong one.
A mid-priced food weighed out properly beats a dear one fed by eye, every time. If your dog is holding a steady weight with a decent coat and firm stools, the food is working and there's nothing here worth switching for.
How to narrow it down
Lifestage first, because it removes the most. Then breed size if your dog is at either end. Then form, dry or wet. Grain free and hypoallergenic come last, not first, because they matter enormously to a few dogs and not at all to most.
If the brand you feed isn't here, try our other dog food brands.