Tails is a very popular brand. Their glossy website appears to be great. They specialise in tailoring their food to your dog.
One can customise by dog size, age, breed, lifestyle and health condition. They even have a nutritionist recommending the food on the website!
So, should you give Tails a go? We have done the homework for you.
We sampled 5 different recipes for different breeds and health conditions. The results are not good.
The ingredients are pretty bad. When we see ‘’poultry meal’’, ‘’potatoes’’, ‘’maize’’, ‘’poultry’’, ‘’poultry fat’’, ‘’poultry gravy’’… we don’t like it.
In all recipes we tailored, the carbohydrate intake was over 50%. Dogs do not need that many carbohydrates. They have 8 hormones to raise sugar levels and only one to bring them down, they have no salivary amylase and their pancreas secretes limited amylase to break down starches.
Simply put, your dog is more at risk of developing insulin resistance issues, pancreatitis and overall health issues.
Tails wants you to pay top dollar for filler and poor quality animal ingredients.
So, what should you look out for in dog food?
1. Good quality, recognisable ingredients. Fresh turkey, fresh angus beef, raw herring, freshly prepared salmon...
2. Low glycemic carbohydrates. If you are feeding dry food, the very thing that glues all ingredients together is carbohydrates. So, to a certain extent, all dog foods will have carbs (otherwise you would be paying a lot of money for just meat, as meat is expensive). So, sweet potato, oats or vegetables are preferable.
3. Good quality minerals or amino acids (but not too many!). For example, taurine is present in meat, fish and eggs. It's an essential amino acid for cats and a highly recommended one for dogs. What we don't want is manufacturers to add these minerals and additives instead of good quality ingredients. But things like glucosamine are always a good one to have.
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