What is the best dog food for a Cockapoo?
First and foremost, you should be looking for what makes dog food great for any kind of pooch. That’s things like natural ingredients, no added nasties, and avoiding highly-processed foods.
But to keep your cuddly Cockapoo as happy and healthy as possible, there are a few breed-specific needs to fulfil. These will include avoiding allergens to prevent sensitivity in their skin and stomach and natural ingredients to encourage fussy eaters. But why does this make the best dog food for Cockapoos?
Stop stinky ears and soothe sensitive skin
Cockapoos often inherit gorgeous long ears from their Cocker Spaniel ancestors, which look adorable, but can often become smelly and prone to infection. More often than not, smelly ears and infections are provoked by skin problems, usually caused by an allergy.
This might mean your dog has come into contact with something that has irritated their skin, such as grass seeds, or more commonly they have eaten something they are sensitive too. So what’s the best dog food for ear infections?
The most common causes for allergies and irritation are meat, eggs, dairy, and gluten. Switching to a new protein source and cutting out grains is usually enough to put an end to ear and skin infections.
If your Cockapoo is particularly prone to ear infections, your vet might advise switching to a hypoallergenic diet. Pure is tailored dog food, everything being specifically curated for your dog. All of our ingredients are 100% natural and human-quality, and our recipes only contain a handful of carefully chosen ingredients you will always recognise and want to use yourself.
However, not all hypoallergenic diets are created equal. Kibble diets offer low digestibility and lower nutrition due to the destructive manufacturing process used to create biscuits. These diets often attempt to add nutrients back in artificially.
If your dog is prone to sensitivity, finding a dog food with a limited list of natural ingredients will help to minimise their exposure to potential irritants, be gentle on their gut, and still provide all the nutrition they need.
Natural ingredients to settle sensitive tummies
As mentioned above, Cockapoos can often suffer from allergies and sensitivities caused by their diet. This irritation can cause gastrointestinal illness, such as diarrhoea, and can even manifest in skin problems. Cockapoos are known to have sensitive stomachs and can be quite fussy eaters too, meaning some owners struggle to find a dinner that gets their dog digging in.
Pure avoids common allergens and there is never any nasties. Our recipes all use a limited list of whole ingredients designed to prevent irritation while delivering complete, quality nutrition.
Most of our foods avoid eggs, and each recipe uses a different protein source provided by fresh cuts of human-grade meat. Not only does our food contain no nasties, but it’s also tasty too. We’ve won over plenty of fussy pups who now can’t resist our recipes. In fact, 97% of fussy dogs who tried Pure are now wolfing down their dinners with enthusiasm!
Finding perfect portions
Cockapoos come in as wide a range of sizes as they do colours. The size of your Cockapoo will have a big impact on their dietary needs, especially how much they should be eating. But rather than trying to guess what weight of food your dog needs, or how to balance each dietary component to create the ideal meal, you can look into tailored dog food.
With tailored food, you will be advised on the best dog food for your Cockapoo based on recipes that suit your pup’s tastes and sensitivities. They will also take into account your dog’s size and activity levels to suggest not only the most appropriate food but the perfect portion sizes too.
This includes automatically changing the portion sizes as your puppy grows too. So whether that means avoiding certain ingredients because of an allergy or fussiness, low-fat meals for lazybones needing to lose a few pounds, or more meat for an athlete, a tailored diet is perfect for packing the right nutrition and portion for your pup.
What is the best dog food?
As the Cockapoo Club of Great Britain explains, “Some of the best-known brands are amongst the poorest nutritionally, so the best way to judge them is to read the list of ingredients and aim for the most natural ingredients within your price range.”
The importance of natural ingredients can’t be stressed enough no matter what breed of dog you have. Whole, natural ingredients are closer to what your pooch would eat in the wild, are less likely to upset their digestive system, and provide greater nutrition.
Great dog food will ensure your pup is as happy and healthy as possible, perfect for keeping your Cockapoo clownish and cheerful. Healthy dogs live longer lives, so choosing a complete, natural diet for your pooch is the best way to prevent unnecessary vet visits and prolong the time you have with your furry friend. So what should you look out for?
Make sure it's real meat
The best foods will list the specific animal and body parts used, for example, chicken thighs and chicken breast as opposed to chicken derivatives. Specifics matter when it comes to meat. If a dog food says it contains “60% chicken thighs and breast” you know it contains exactly that.
Meanwhile, food that is “with chicken” legally only has to contain up to 4% chicken as an ingredient, alongside a mash of other meats. That’s not nearly enough to provide the protein your pooch needs and can be a pain for pups with allergies.
On the other hand, meat “derivatives” could contain almost anything that is wasted from human industry. Meanwhile, “meal” will contain animal meat, organs, and bones that are not fit for human consumption. These are ground down and cooked at extreme temperatures to form a powder which is then added to the food to provide protein.
Using these by-products and leftovers is an easy way for manufacturers to create “high protein” food, but the quality of that protein is severely lacking. Not to mention, the processes the food undergoes will destroy a significant amount of it’s remaining nutritional value. Both derivatives and meal are hardly the most healthy way to provide protein and are proven to be less nutritious. Therefore, try to get your paws on real, whole meat.
Avoid harsh processing
The high processing of meal limits the digestibility and availability of essential amino acids. Raw chicken is significantly more digestible than rendered meal, meaning it is easier for your dog to digest and provides greater nutrition. (According to their digestibility scores, raw = 88.2% vs. rendered = 80.9%)
Not only is the meal already highly processed, but the dough it is added to is then subjected to destructively high heat and extrusion processes to form biscuits. These processes don’t just further destroy the nutrients in the food, the chemical reactions create carcinogenic by-products that have been linked to conditions like cancer, heart disease, and brain damage.
More and more owners are moving away from ultra-processed food to find diets for their pooch that contain only natural ingredients and avoids harsh processing. Pure is natural, wholesome dog food, using real, human-quality ingredients and gently air-drying them to remove moisture and lock in all of their goodness.
If you’re curious about how air-drying compares to other methods of food preparation, here’s how it adds up.
Raw (No heat, so risks of salmonella, E.coli etc.)
Air dried (40°C 90°C)
Cooking (90°C +)
Extrusion/rendering dry dog food (120°C – 150°C)
Retort canned food (121°C)
As you can see, air-drying uses the lowest temperatures possible and is even gentler than cooking, which many owners consider their gold-standard. Air drying removes moisture from the food to preserve nutrients naturally while eliminating the risk of harmful pathogens like salmonella and e.coli.
Air-drying is especially important when a food uses natural, human-quality ingredients to lock in all the nutrients and ensure those quality ingredients and all their goodness isn't wasted.
How do I choose the right dog food for my pooch?
Choosing the right food for your dog will come down to many different factors ranging from their breed, age, neutering status, and activity levels.
You can spend hours researching and trying different doggie dinners. Or by telling us more about your bundle of fur, we can create the best personalised dog food for your Cockapoo in the perfect portion sizes to keep your pooch happy and healthy for life.
Pure Pet Food is always made from 100% natural, human-grade ingredients so there is never any nasties and you’ll always be able to recognise what’s in the recipes. Our food is formulated by nutritionists, backed by vets, and trusted by thousands of owners.