More and more of us are choosing to feed our dogs a more natural diet now and although I am the first to admit that raw is not for everyone it will always be my first choice for the spaniels. That said, ever since I’ve started this blog I’ve been open to review other types of healthy dog food as I believe that if for whatever reason feeding your dogs a biologically appropriate raw food diet is not an option or choice it’s good to be aware of what the healthiest alternatives are.
Over the years Maya and Lucia have taste tested quite a few dry foods, well some dog’s got to do it, but there’s no way they can try every food that’s been offered to them so there has to be something that stands out about the brand in order for me to agree to review it, because ultimately I passionately believe that raw is best
I haven’t come across a manufacturer of dry dog food before that felt the same way about a raw diet but it turns out there is one Lovel Pet Foods, a company that truly are an advocate of natural pet foods and are the folk behind the well established Taylors Pet Foods in Attleborough, Norfolk. Although they feed their own pooches a predominately raw diet they are so passionate about healthy nutrition for dogs that they decided to create a dry food that they believe is the best alternative that it can be as well as a RAW range and a selection of healthy treats.
Lovel Dry Dog Food
So let’s look at the dry range first. The food is in the form of extruded kibble which has one major advantage over RAW and that’s convenience. Not all kibble is the same though, some contain a large proportion of fillers and additives that are of no real benefit to your dog so it’s really important not to be overly influenced by branding and packaging and instead pay attention to the composition of the food.
Lovel Dog Food is produced using a grain free recipe and comes in two types Salmon and Chicken, Turkey and Salmon, the meat and fish is obtained from a human grade source and it contains a high proportion of meat, which I always like to see.
My dogs sampled both types and although I can’t say they were exactly doing the dinner dance in anticipation they chowed it down enthusiastically enough. Personally if I was going to feed Lovel Dry Dog Food to my girls it would be the Chicken, Turkey and Salmon recipe which contains a 75% of animal ingredients, sweet potato and a nice selection of fruit and vegetables as well as prebiotics and Glucosamine and Chondroitin to support joints.
One thing that really impressed me about this family run brand is that they are totally transparent about the ingredients that go into their food (check out the full ingredients here) and the process used to manufacture it. It’s important to say that some dry dog food manufacturers gloss over the contents and production methods so it is really is impressive that Lovel do not.
They have produced a healthy, nutritionally balanced dry food that is completely free from preservatives, additives and artificial colours. The food is quite high in it’s protein content compared to many other commercially produced dry dog foods and is suitable for active dogs of all life stages.
You can order the dry food from the Lovel website for delivery UK wide.
Lovel Raw Dog Food
Lovel and I both agree that feeding a biologically appropriate diet is the optimum way to nourish your dog and so I was happy to find that the guys also produce a RAW range. The Lovel Fresh Range consists of 2 varieties of Raw Complete food, Chicken and Lamb, which is packaged in 500g recyclable containers, at the moment you can only buy this in store but paws crossed as the brand grow it will be more widely available. The recipe contains 90% meat and bone and 10% fruit and veg and there is no need to supplement the food. You literally have to just defrost and serve – that’s convenience in my book!
Maya and Lucia normally eat a 80/20 BARF diet that I prepare from scratch and had never actually tried a commercially produced variety before but they wolfed it down! Perhaps that had something to do with LOVEL being a variant of the name Lowell which means ‘little wolf’, but more likely because, like most dogs, the spaniels just love raw food!
It was the Lovel range of treats though that got the biggest paws up from the girls, the little fishy and meaty treats are just the perfect size for everyday training and what dog worth their salt would turn their nose up at sprats!
I am really impressed by Lovel’s passion to produce healthy food for every dog, because at the end of the day all most of us dog parents want is the peace of mind that our pooches are eating a healthy, balanced diet. I can’t wait to see how Lovel evolve and it will be great to see if they expand their Lovel Fresh Range.
Remember always check the ingredients of a new dog food carefully to ensure your pup is not sensitive to anything and change their diet gradually, unless of course you are transitioning from dry food to raw or visa versa in which case it’s best to start feeding just the new food at the start of the day.
Love
Sal. Maya and Lucia xxx
*** Lovel Gifted us a supply of food in return for an honest review