| Website | Stockman & Paddock |
| Country of origin | Australia |
Stockman & Paddock offer two formulas. A working dog formula (cheap, full of wheat), and the grain free which we’ll look at here. They’re only available in 20kg bags, and the grain free is marginally cheaper than Black Hawk as a comparison.
28% protein and 18% fat puts this food above average, and this means the carbohydrates will be lower than most which is a good start. The protein constituents of the food are beef meal, peas, and hydrolysed chicken protein (which is a protein supplement derived from chicken flesh). It’s likely the beef and peas are the bulk of the food and in similar proportions.
Most of the carbohydrates will come from sweet potato which is one of the better choices when it comes to grain frees. It’s lower GI than potato, and more nutritious than tapioca which has become increasingly popular in Australian grain free foods.
There’s some nice inclusions such as salmon oil and flaxseed for joints, skin, and coat. Chicory root as a prebiotic for gut health, plus carrots and blueberries. It’s nice to see natural antioxidants used as a preservative, which isn’t the case with their working dog formula.
Overall it’s a food better than most for a reasonable price. If you’re feeding the working dog formula then consider this as a better alternative.
Ingredients
Australian Beef Meal, Australian Peas, Australian Hydrolysed Chicken Protein, Australian Beef Fat, Sweet Potato, Beet Pulp, Natural Flavour, Salmon Oil, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Flaxseeds, Dry Chicory Root, Choline Chloride, Carrots, Blueberries, Natural Antioxidants, Essential Vitamins (C, E, B3, B5, Riboflavin, B1, B6, A, Folic Acid, B7, B12, D3) and Minerals (zinc, iron, copper, manganese, iodine, selenium) and Yucca Extract.
I know you don’t post comments that are critical of you, but I have to ask this. Do you actually analyze the dog food you review, to confirm it has the ingredients it proclaims? Or do you base your reviews on the ingredient list on the back of the product?
Hi David, I don’t mind comments which are critical of myself and the reviews – most of the time I welcome them.
Most reviews aim to offer more information on the pet food based on what we can determine from the ingredients and analysis, or how standards relate to them, but it’s not just that. I use consumer feedback a great deal, both direct to me, on other websites such as APOG on Product Review, or from experience and interactions with a manufacturer or various retailers.
For yourself as a reader you’re welcome to use that information as you wish – it’s free information which hopefully helps, but it’s fine if you feel it doesn’t. Many pet owners over the years have stated they feed one of the poorly rated brands and their pets have lived to a respectable age, whereas I may not recommend those brands based on being a significant amount of grains, food colours, or generally inappropriate for a cat as a carnivore or a dog as pretty much a facultative carnivore.
Fastforward to Dec 2023 and the difference in price between the grainfree and Blackhawk/Meals for Mutts is quite pronounced. This was the only budget grainfree dogfood in this price range I could find. So far, so good, dogs like it and it doesn’t seem to be increasing skin issues in the hot tropical summer up here.
I love this product but the last bags I got were powdery when I put the biscuits in a large sieve I found black bugs and small like worms that looked like mini maggots and some biscuits have white stuff on them. I cannot fault the company at all as they have been really helpful and very professional. I did further investigations myself and found out it’s a bug on pees and been yet the company when processing these dog biscuits boil it so I’m stumped.
I contacted Real Pet Food company regarding the Stockman & Paddock – Beef to find out the cereals used. Was informed that they use rice & oats, no wheat, barley, sorghum. No artificial preservatives used – only rosemary oil. Protein & Fat ratio good too. Pleasantly surprised considering the price.
We use it for our dog.
It is the only food that maintains her condition. We use less feed and she always looks trim and in good order. Not scrawny and frail like some other feed we tried, even when we increased her meal size.
Has the formula changed this year? Because the reviews here sound okay but my experience was similar to others on Pet Circle – voluminous, smelly, very very soft poops, and incredibly bad smelling flatulence (very noticeable with an inside dog). And my dog’s coat felt coarser.
I gave it a try because of the value for money. But you get what you pay for. My dogs had bad wind, made the house stink. Their poop was voluminous and stinky. I prefer Taste of the Wild but it is so expensive. Going back to Instinctive Bite, and Applaws as a back up.
It appears that Stockman & Paddock is now owned by the Real Petfood Company – I wonder whether there has been any change in the formulation as a result.
I have started using this after using Canidae, which seems quite similar but at a better price and locally grown. My labby loves it but the real surprise was consistent stools which did not use to be the case even with Canidae.
Ever since I got a bag of this dry food, my dog has had really stinky, smelly diarrhoea and flatulence. Attempted to return to the store where I bought it and they are disagreeing with a return . will never buy this again. My dog is working Dog and not tolerating this food at all.
Thank you very much for this review. I just thought I’d let you know that your affiliate link goes to the working dog formula (the one you didn’t recommend) rather than the grain free formula .
Hi, my name is Ekaterina. I am a registered breeder of several breeds of dogs in the dog club. After I started giving my dogs food STOCKMAN & PADOCK, I looked attention to their toilet after they ate this food. Their toilet did not become more like mashed potatoes, but rather became sausages and it became much easier for me to clean up after them their sausages than mashed potatoes. Therefore, I opted for this food, and I would like to know what is the price of this food if it is bought at a competitive price in bulk in large quantities, it is not profitable for me as a breeder to go and buy a couple of bags, and even with a large margin that sellers put in STOCKMAN & PADOCK. Therefore, I decided to turn to you for help in this matter, because I have not one dog that would have enough one 20 kg bag for a long time, but several breeds. I am looking for a company that sells this food in bulk and at an affordable price if you buy a lot. And another question for you; Do you give a discount on food to registered breeders?, if not, please give the details of the company that does this.
Regard Katerina
If you’re a reputable registered breeder please consider a more appropriate diet for your dogs, this a cheap and nasty kibble which is not suitable for nourishing bitches that are welping pups.
not sure where you live but just brought 6 bags from e a salce pet shop thornbury vic they had at $70 a bag that’s 1or 6 but l think you find it a great price. Hope this helps
The stool results of my dogs using stockman & paddock is very good compared to the leading brands you buy in supermarkets. Very satisfied.
Hi Ekaterina, I’m not sure if anywhere does bulk per se, but Pet Circle have a discount for auto delivery which can save around $5 per bag, and their prices are usually very competitive as well.
I love this website and have been using it for many years to source quality dog and cat food. I recently got onto Stockman and Paddock as I could get it with free shipping to a remote place I was living. I have to say that it has been great. My Bull Arab rotates mainly through Canindae and Savourlife (plus I’ve tried others) and Stockman and Paddock grain free seems to sit the best with him. Good product at a good price!
I started using the grain free product for my Border Collie, after Black Hawk changed. I only feed him 2/3 a cup 2 x a day, if I feed him the prescribed amount he gets fat, I add grated carrots and apples to bulk up his dinner and keep his weight down. I did try a bag of the grain product, but went back to grain free because, now I have two BC’s the pup is fussier and much prefers the grain-free. Stockmans Paddock is all Australian, competitively priced and my dogs look great – their stools look healthy, I am glad I found it, would not use anything else.
Hi Abigail
Would you know when BlackHawk may have changed as you say? I am wondering as there was a period in 2018 or 19 when my BullDog Cross started having skin lesions etc. Since then we have moved to other foods but never on grain free diets.
He probably gets allergic over a period of time on the same food. When I reintroduced BlackHawk early last year her started having skin issues in 3 months. And stopped a while after stopping BlackHawk.
So not sure if it is the meat or grain or other content.
Thank you !
Hi,
I use to feed my dogs black hawk and they too had issues like you have described. I’m assuming it might be the chicken in it.
I’ve gone to feeding some ocean brand from petbarn (which are great results) but was wondering what brand you’re currently using since our situation is similar! 🙂
Quite often a formula won’t change, but the ingredients (or quality of ingredients) can vary between batches. I get this impression often with some brands.
I don’t see what’s wrong with the Working Dog formula, apart from it being quite cheap. My dogs think that it tastes good. It has Australian Beef as the no.1 ingredient and 26% protein, 16% fat sounds fine. What’s wrong with using some wheat? I fail to see the benefits of grain free diets for dogs.
Hi Anna, the cereals used are rice & oats. No wheat, barley or sorghum. Seems comparable to other kibbles which are classified as premium and cost to match.
Without percentages and companies refusing to tell you how much meat is in the product you can quickly discern based on price that the food is probably 20% meat and 70% wheat and 10% other ingredients. Unless you’d like to ask them how much of the protein is from meat and see if they reply. The balanced canine asked a few companies and some were pretty bad.