Burns Pet Food

[Pushkin]

I have been searching for a supplier of Burns pet food in France.  I have been given a contact by Burns UK.  I presume that if I post a link to their site it will be construed as advertising.  Therefore, any one wishing to have the suppliers web address please contact me by e-mail or pm.  For orders over 39€ delivery, (anywhere in France I believe), is free.  They also supply Arden and Autarky pet food.  I found them exceptionally helpful and knowledgeable and have now placed my order.

Please note that I am not mentioning them for any gain, financial or otherwise, just to assist others who have itchy, scratchy, delicate stomached and lord knows what else, dogs and cats!

Pushkin

[Russethouse]

Pushkin, Genuine third party recommendation is allowed[:)]

[Pushkin]

Thank you Russethouse.  Here is the contact/web site details for anyone interested:

Seulement Naturel | Tél: 08 72 77 39 16 | www.seulementnaturel.fr

Pushkin

 

[mossie]

Yes, I use them too and they are great.  They even sent little bags of treats for my new pup.  The order usually comes about two days after I ring for it.  Also they are very friendly.

[mossie]

I have to say, I originally rang Seulement Naturel wanting Burns puppy food but they didn't have any in stock so I started him on Arden Grange and he is doing very well on it.  The lady there did say Burns is very low protein and does not suit all dogs.  She has labs and said she took her dogs off Burns for that reason.  However my best friend has a lurcher who thrives on it, still has plenty of energy and a glossy scurf free coat which is a first for him.  It seems to be down to the individual dog.

[Deimos]

For me the Seulement Naturel is one of those totally anonymous sites.  No details whatsoever about the company.  No postal address for them, no telephone number (except UPS's telephone number).  If you want to e-mail them you have to use a web form on their site.  Personally I will never deal with such a company.  If they are not prepared to allow you to contact them are they the sort of place you really want to be doing business with ?

I'm unsure what is happening with the distribution of Burns these days.  Used to be imported by somebody with an exclusive agreement with Burns for France.  They then sold their business and somebody else purchased the distribution.  They have now sold it on and I occasionally get mails from them (from strange e-mail addresses but content is fine) but no web site, nothing.

I used to feed my two Burns (for some time) but over a few years noticed they were both suffering a lot of muscle strains, then limping and having to stay indoors for ages resting to recover.  After a couple of years I started wondering about this as it never used to happen pre-Burns so I switched back to standard stuff (Royal Cannin) and for the last year no limping problems whatsoever - so I have unscientifically put it down to the food.  That is not to say it is bad stuff - if fact I'm sure it is excellent stuff and I fully agree with their principles.  Just that it is not right for every dog.  I wish I could find something better than standard Royal Cannin for mine as I'm sure it is not great and might not have "decent quality".  That said, I only pay 45€ for a 15Kg sack of Royal Cannin (through my dog club).  Burns used to be not to expensive (even after the delivery costs it was still only around the same as Royal Cannin from the supermarket).  I guess this has now changed.

Ian

[mossie]

I have now had a reasonable amount of contact with this company and have found them very good.  I will mention the lack of postal address etc when I next ring an order in.  Some of the problems with communication are I think because they are in (or near) the Alps and have had a lot of problems with their communications set up.  I think they told me last time they were having to use Skype as they couldn't get a conventional set up for whatever reason.  I don't think they are being deliberately elusive.  Also each time I order I get a card with a little note on the back.  Also printed on it are all their contact details, phone, fax and address.  My first contact with them was by phone, I think it was the Burns UK people who gave me the number.  I was very pleased to find them because I had been trying to find a distributor in Normandy but they were truly elusive, even my e-mails to them bounced back.

As I said in my previous posting, they were also very open about the possible drawbacks of feeding dogs on Burns, saying that though it is very good food, it definitely does not suit some dogs.  Given the previous posting's experience, I think I will also keep my adult dogs on Royal Canin which they seem to thrive on but the pup will stay on the Arden Grange which SN supply.

[Pushkin]

Ian,

When I contacted Seulement Natural I had a very nice e-mail back which included the following details:

Sue Lynam Seulement Naturel | Tél: 08 72 77 39 16 | www.seulementnaturel.fr

Sue Lynam seems to be very knowledgeable about dog food.  She took the trouble to phone me up and she was at pains to emphasise that Burns is not suitable for all dogs.   I told her that the dogs were on Royal Canin at the moment but I wasn't
happy with the food as they have developed flaky itchy skin.  She said that Royal Canin was good but they did use a chemical preservative called Bh(?) something, (which meant nothing to me), and some dogs reacted to it.  All in all I couldn't fault her.

I am going to try Burns as many years ago I had an American Cocker Spaniel who had all sorts of allergies.  When I tried her on Burns she was a different dog.  I am hoping that I will be able to say the same about our current four dogs!  We have a rescue 4 year old Rottweiler Labrador cross, two Lhasa Apsos, 9 and 11 and a 10 year old Shih Tzu who is also a rescue
and a recent addition.  One of the Lhasa Apsos, Thomas, has had mega problems since he was one when he developed allergies to everything known to man! Unfortunately, after tests at Cambridge University veterinary hospital, it was discovered to be an hereditary factor and he has had to have a desensitizing injection once a month ever since.  He is also on steroids which I hate but I can't see him suffer.

If Burns proves not to be the answer then I will have to investigate further but I do like the thought of feeding my dogs on something that isn't packed with additives, colourings or any other nasties.  It is a bit of a minefield but, when all is said and done, I just want what is best for my faithful friends.  A 15kg sack of Burns Chicken and Rice is costing me 61€ including delivery.  A 14kg sack of Royal Canin Maxi Adult costs me 56€ from a pet shop so, not much difference really.

What I would really like to try is a plain, additive free mixer which I can mix with meat or fish but there seems to be no such thing in France.  I used to do this in the UK and in winter a little cod liver oil was added plus some garlic granules all year round.  The dogs thrived on it.

Pushkin

[Christine Animal]

The only "mixer" I can think of Pushkin is Pedigree, but it does have 4% meat and 11% protein.

http://www.pedigree.fr/produits-chien/Produits-ParAge/Adultes/PEDIGREE-Mixer.htm

What about rice ?

 

[Pushkin]

Hi Christine,

Unfortunately Pedigree mixer now contains flakes of maize which the dogs hate and is really a no-no for Thomas and I don't consider it a mixer if it already contains meat.  (The manufacturers idea of meat is toe curling to say the least)!  I have a feeling or thought I read somewhere that it is no longer made in Melton Mowbray but in an East European country or have I got that terribly wrong?!  In the UK I used to buy a sort of terrier mixer which the dogs, big and small, really enjoyed.  I would add some chicken or fish to this as I said before.  It was just good basic food and the dogs stayed fit and trim on it.  The vet always commented that there wasn't an ounce of fat on our dogs, it was all muscle which he really approved of.  I wish I could say the same of them all now, though Poppy the Rottie x Lab is thank goodness but she too is an itchy, scratchy dog.  Never mind, I am sure we will get it sorted out eventually.

Pushkin

I have tried rice.  Poppy blows it out of her mouth and sprays have the kitchen with it!   I have a feeling that it isn't her favourite food!

[mossie]

My springer pup too had some fun with rice.  I cooked him a little bit of basmati rice one evening as he must have eaten something disgusting (we had had the boiler serviced and I think there was a connection!) and he had been really sick.  Can you imagine my adorable springer pup with sticky basmati rice stuck everywhere a pup can get rice stuck.  He looked a right state with rice stuck all round his race and caught in the long fur on his ears.  He had even trodden it around on his paws, having put his paws into the bowl.  I have also taken the hint now that rice is not his favourite food!

[Ligs]

Hello there, Sue Lynam here, I heard about this conversation on-line and I thought I would add my personal thoughts and clarifications on the topic.  I hope I am not breaking any rules, please let me know if so!

You are right, the Seulement Naturel site is not very personal and that is being addressed, our engineer was worried if we put address details etc we would have unwanted traffic.  The phone number is actually our phone number which comes with our internet, courtesy of Free hence the 08 number, not that of UPS, we thought we would be more accessible if the phone number was on the front page...I had not thought that its positionning would make people think it was the number of the transporter, we will need to change that.

With regard to natural pet food, I think the best approach has got to be to decide whether a natural pet food is what you want for your pet, whether for health, allergy, ethical reasons etc, and then look for one which fits your price bracket.   Happily there are now quite a few to choose from and which are available, for reasonable cost, here in France.  Transport is extremely expensive in France as compared to other countries for some reason, hence the prices are a little higher than in the UK for example.   

If Burns does not work for your pet, it is likely that Arden Grange will, these are top of the range Super Premium products, the same quality standard as Hills and Proplan, but natural, no chemical and top notch ingredients, and in my personal opinion a lot better for your pet.  With Arden Grange you will also find that there are more calories in general per 100g than with many other dog foods, so you will use less for each meal and thus a 15kg bag will last you longer than the cheaper brands, and very often also than with other Super Premium brands, natural or not.  Not marketing just fact here, compare calories per 100g of the foods you are using, to see how economical it is per bag.

If these are too expensive, Autarky is the value option, still Super Premium, but at a lower price, it has a lot of corn (cheaper ingredient than rice but good carbohydrate), but if you dog is fine with Royal Canin, there should be abolutely no reason why it should not be fine with Autarky.  Most brands will offer volume discounts to individuals and dog clubs etc if you ask them, even the natural ones!  Royal Canin by the way is classed as a Premium level product, which is why the price is lower than Hills or Proplan etc which are Super Premium.

I got into the Natural pet food business simply because it took me 3 years to sort out the digestion of my male Labrador Scramble,. NatureDiet moist natural food sorted it out straight away, it just took me a very long time to find it, trying almost all other major brands in the process.  We wanted to make sure that other owners with similar problems did not take as long, and that their pets would not suffer for as long as Scramble did.

I hope that gives you a little background on us and Natural pet food to help us be a little less anonymous, if you have any questions, please let me know!

S