Tasty, Meaty, Fresh & Natural (Nature Diet Premium Range Dog Food)

Member Name: FourPaws

Product:	Nature Diet Premium Range Dog Food
Date:	30/03/09 (544 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fresh, natural ingredients, healthy, no artifical junk, affordable, variety of flavours

Disadvantages: The trays are a pain to open!

*What is Nature Diet Dog Food?*
This very high quality natural pet food is product by the Nature Diet Pet Food company who make and produce a large variety of natural wet foods and treats for cats and dogs of all ages, from puppies and kittens, to adults and right up through to the senior citizens of the animal world!

*The product itself*
Choosing the right food for your dog is one of the most important decisions you can make as a pet owner, and one that will affect them constantly throughout their life- a healthy diet means a healthy dog, and obviously a bad diet means a dog in bad health. It is so confusing though, especially for first time dog owners, with so many different foods produced by different brands all claiming to have different qualities and ingredients, it's so difficult to know what one to go for- dry or wet? Premium or economy? Fancy or basic? Those are just the first things to decide upon before settling on a brand you'd like to feed, and even then, it will be a case of trial and error as not all foods will suit all dogs!

Even after owning dogs my entire life, choosing the right foods for them is still a subject that wrecks my head entirely! I want a food that is made from fresh and natural ingredients, one that is of very high quality, hypoallergenic and one that the dogs will enjoy eating at meal times, lastly, I want a food that is affordable, although I don't mind paying that little bit more for quality. With my current two dogs, Grace and Benson, I have found the feeding method that suits them best is a high quality dry (kibble) food as the base of their diet, supplemented daily with healthy 'extras' to prevent them from getting bored and to add a bit of variety and different tastes to their diet. Whilst James Wellbeloved or Burns is the only kibble I'll buy for them, the 'extras' they receive vary from day to day.

This is where Nature Diet comes in. It is a moist or 'wet' type dog food which can be fed either exclusively to your dog to form their entire diet, or in the way I use it, to supplement other forms of feeding. The most popular brand of wet food available today is probably the Pedigree cans, which most people are happy to feed their dogs on a daily basis without knowing that feeding Pedigree daily is the equivalent of us eating McDonalds daily- without meaning to offend anyone who does feed it, the food really is rubbish in a can- mostly water, animal derivates, artificial ingredients and cheap fillers and very little which is actually beneficial to the dog. Nature Diet offers a healthy, nutritious alternative, but still with all the flavour that your dog loves of canned food.

Nature Diet comes in 390g plastic trays which are sealed by a sheet of plastic and these provide around 1 serving for medium sized dogs and help to keep the food fresh until you serve it. What sets Nature Diet aside from other wet foods on the market are the ingredients in which it contains. Nature Diet is made purely of a minimum of 60% real, human grade meat, vegetables and cooked brown rice with the additions of natural ground bone for calcium, kelp and herbs to help with digestion and optimum levels of omega 3 and 6 which are provided by fish and flax seed oils. Compare this with the 4% meat you will find in Pedigree cans, and its clear what food will be healthier, not to mention, tastier for your dog!

Admittedly, the food doesn't look all that appealing, it looks like a pale slab of pâté when still in the tray, and has a similar consistency and texture to it, with the pieces of vegetable and grains of rice visible within the meat but the smell really is lovely, and that's coming from a vegetarian, it really does smell like what it should which is a refreshing change, again when compared with the Pedigree cans. Nature Diet is 100% gluten free making it suitable for dogs who require a diet free from this and contains no artificial colours, flavours, preservatives or additives.

*Packaging*
As I mentioned earlier, Nature Diet comes packaged in pre-portioned 390g plastic trays sealed with a thin film of plastic to keep the food fresh and moist until required. The covering film is brightly designed with the Nature Diet logo, a couple of rather gorgeous looking dogs and also all the usual information you would expect to find such as ingredients, nutritional information, feeding guides and contact details for Nature Diet, should you have any questions or comments. The plastic trays can be rinsed out and recycled when empty.

*Price & Availability*
Nature Diet is one of the more premium pet foods on the market and only available from specialist stockist or online, you will not find Nature Diet in any supermarkets. It comes in a variety of flavours including chicken, white fish, lamb, rabbit & turkey and salmon & prawn, all with rice and vegetables and there is also special varieties available for overweight dogs, seniors (dogs aged over 7 years) and puppies (under 12 months). From Pets At Home, a single 390g tray will cost you 75p, although they often have offers on such as buy 16 trays and get 2 free, which are worth taking full advantage of as the trays do have a good shelf life!

*My opinion*
If I was to go on Mastermind, dog food would rather sadly have to be my specialist subject, I've spent so many hours over the years researching the best ones and trying to find ones to suit my dogs, that I probably have a geeks knowledge of it! All this research has really opened my eyes to what goes into a lot of dog foods and I'm now even more careful to ensure I only buy high quality dog food made from fresh and natural ingredients to feed to Grace and Benson. They can have the treats from the cheaper ranges but for their main meals, only the best will do!

This is why I've become such a fan of Nature Diet. As I mentioned earlier, I feed the dogs mainly on dry food -either James Wellbeloved or Burns, they'll have this alone for their breakfast but for their dinner, I feed a meal half of their dry food and half healthy 'extras' to provide some variety and different tastes and textures to their meals. 'Extras' are either some cooked vegetables, boiled pasta or rice, raw meat/offal or a bit of moist dog food and I choose something from that selection every evening to give them. On the days where I give moist dog food, I must admit I would normally use any brand of cans, as after all they were only getting a can between them and that little bit wouldn't do any harm. That is until I discovered premium wet foods were also available, produced by companies such as James Wellbeloved, Burns and of course, Nature Diet.

Grace and Benson are walking dustbins who would eat just about everything they get their paws on if they given half a chance, but it is massively clear that they absolutely adore the Nature Diet food, as soon as I dish it up and tell them they can eat, noses are in the bowls and they don't reappear until every last morsel is licked up. My dogs don't really have sensitive stomachs and are lucky in the sense that they don't have any skin allergies but even so, this food completely agrees with them, they're never sick after eating it and thankfully have never suffered an upset stomach afterwards either too.

When they get Nature Diet, I split a tray between them so they get half the pack each and on top of their normal dry food, it makes a filling and tasty meal for them which they absolutely adore. Upon opening the trays, a rich meaty smell hits you, which actually smells very pleasant and appetising, and the dogs certainly seem to think so as well, no matter where they are in the cottage, you can guarantee they will turn up at your feet the second you open a tray of it. The food has a pâté type texture and appearance to it, and is easy to cut up or mash into pieces for your dog to eat, it also covers kibble very well which may encourage dogs who are not normally keen on dry food, to eat some. The packaging also states that Nature Diet can be fed warm, it just requires 30 seconds in the microwave to heat through once you have removed the plastic film off the top. I haven't tried this yet, but I dare say the dogs would love it and it's something I'll have to try them with soon.

My one little complaint however is that the trays are a nightmare to open! They have a little raised tab which you are meant to pull to rip the plastic seal off the top of the tray but it almost never works, and I have to use a knife to get in to the tray, which is only a minor problem but annoying all the same!

Overall, a great product which I am extremely happy with and will continue to feed to Grace and Benson. They've tried all the flavours within the range now and love them all equally, it is also nice to find a dog food which comes in a fish flavour, as my dogs love the taste of fish but this is normally reserved for cat foods! Admittedly, it would be very expensive to feed your dog entirely on, and it wouldn't be very good for their teeth at all, but for a tasty topping for dry food, I can't fault it.

Summary: Yes, my dogs do eat better than me :)