What brand food do you feed your dog and WHY?

[jen276here]

I will admit I feed my dogs whatever they will eat, which is pretty much anything. They have absolutely no health issues whatsoever and perfectly healthy per the vet.

[kawakii]

We Choose to feed Orijen 6 Fish in the AM and Pre-Made Raw at night. Orijen can be hard to find but is very well worth it. It leads to a great looking coat since it's made with 6 types of fish, and has plenty of oils. This can be a lot more expensive then buying a food at petco or the supermarket but at least I know every ingrediant in the food and why it's there. We do this because after reading many articles, books, etc... explaining the uselessness of grains in a dog diet. Also, I am concerned about preservatives in food, and most supermarket foods for dogs we have been told by our hollistic vet and regular vet is it is like us eating fast food every day, it'll fill us up, tastes good but isn't nutritionally sound. I want our dogs to be around for a very long time, to live healthy lives, and to spend less money at the vets in their old age. It is worth me to feed a high quality food even if I can't find great coupons to get it free. We have two 20-30lbs Puggles so they only get a small amount of dry 1/2 cup in the am, and only 2 -3 ounces or raw at night.

I wouldn't eat something with so many chemicals,preservatives, etc.. on a daily basis so I won't feed my animals anything less. They are like my kids. I always say feed what you can afford, and what you would want to eat or be putting in your body if you had to.

[manders13]

My dogs ONLY get iams smart puppy and THATS it. No canned food or other dog foods. That's what i started them on when i got them and they loved it.

No reason why really (other then it was super cheap!)

[Jasmin71]

Canidea....
exspensive but worth it.
Her hair is shiny, less Poop, he body is nicely toned.
Switched him to a cheaper food and ewwwwww Poop was stinkyyyyyy, and his Hair started to fall more .... and he ate a lot more.
So back to this one and all is fine. Farts are better too .....

[skw6559]

My dogs love TOTW food as well.

Originally Posted by justagirlnamedStormy We feed Taste of the Wild for the 3 younger dogs and Chicken Soup for the Senior for our oldest dog (though she gets the food the other dogs gets sometimes too). We currently have all the varieties of TOTW and the Chicken soup sitting in our pantry. We feed TOTW b/c we have one dog with sorta bad allergies and she does SOOO much better on a grain free food (which Taste of the wild is). Her shedding and itching has almost stopped. Plus all the dogs just love the taste. They are members of the family and I think they deserve human grade ingredients. I would NEVER feed any dog food that you could buy at a grocery store or Walmart, unless I just could not afford anything else. All the brands of pet food that can be purchased at places like grocery stores and Walmart are CRAP. Even 6 yrs ago when I was broke and btwn jobs I lived on easy mac so I could afford to buy my dog Chicken Soup dog food. It wasn't the best, but it was the best I could afford.

[Merczilla]

We're on an odyssey. lol We were using Nutro lamb and rice. We have 4 Saint Bernards, so go through a LOT of food. They went to 35lb bags and at $54 a pop, that's ridiculous. Just recently tried Nutra lamb and rice. Well, something in that gave two of the dogs the itchies so bad they were chewing themselves. Probably a combo of beet pulp and the fish preservative. I won't use anything that has corn in it, so that rules out all grocery store/Target/anyplace cheap foods. I also avoid wheat and now the beet pulp, etc. *sighs* I've been cooking up my own the last few weeks, but I'm about to run out of canned salmon. Not to mention it's a big hassle and a lot of food daily. lol The itching has stopped, anyway.

I know the one feed store has Taste of the Wild and some of the others, but I also know that they're over $50 for a smallish bag (which is anything under 50lbs). They are also frequently out of the brand you're looking for, so it can be really hard to keep the same food. Their stocking is terrible. So I don't know what we're going to do here. The price of dog food is just absolutely out there.

[kval07]

How many people actually read the ingredients in the dog food they purchase? When I first got Chester, I fed Purina Puppy Chow.

Purina Puppy Chow top 10 ingredients :
1. Whole grain corn
2. Chicken by-product meal
3. Corn Gluten Meal
4. Brewers rice
5. Soybean meal
6. Animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols
7. barley
8. animal digest
9. calcium phosphate
10. calcium carbonate

After some research of brands Petco/Petsmart sold (as they sell better foods than grocery stores) I now feed them Natural Balance. Right now they are eating Natural Balance® L.I.D. Limited Ingredient Diets® Potato & Duck Dry Dog Food.

Top 10 ingredients in NB Potato and Duck formula:
1. Potatoes
2. Duck
3. Potato Protein
4. Canola oil (preserved with natural mixed tocopherols)
5. Dicalcium Phosphate
6. Potato Fiber
7. Natural Flavor
8. Calcium Carbonate
9. Sodium Chloride
10. Salmon Oil


Then, what I am considering switching them to now is Innova Evo. Let's go with EVO Red Meat Formula as I think this is something my boys would like.

Top ingredients in EVO Red Meat Formula:
1. Beef
2. Lamb meal
3. Potatoes
4. Egg
5. Sunflower Oil
6. Buffalo
7. Lamb
8. Venison
9. Herring oil
10. Natural Flavors
11. Apples
12. Carrots
13. Tomatoes
14. Alfalfa Sprouts
15. Cottage Cheese

Or Weight Management Dry Dog Food because the vet says Chester needs to lose a pound or two:
1. Turkey
2. Chicken
3. Chicken meal
4. Turkey meal
5. Peas
6. Pea fiber
7. Natural flavors
8. Pumpkin
9. Tomatoes
10. Herring oil
11. Apples
12. Carrots
13. Potassium Chloride
14. Cottage Cheese
15. Dried Chicory Root
16. Eggs
17. Alfalfa sprouts
18. Minerals
19. L-Carnitine
20. Vitamins
21. Direct Fed Microbials

If I knew then what I know now, I would never have fed Purina. That stuff is junk. I will admit, I am turning in to a dog food snob.

I think lack of knowledge leads to poor choices. When I first got Chester, I fed him something cheap because of coupons. Then I started doing more research in to what other foods were out there. Reading the ingredients from each brand will tell me what the obvious choice is for my dogs. Feeding junk like Purina is not what I want my dogs to eat now that I know there is better stuff out there than 'McDonald's' brand food. See, dog food snob.



I've seen this on quite a few sites. It is not scientific, and may not be that accurate, but I think people should be reading the ingredients in their dog's food.

Dog Food Analysis & Grading

To grade any dog food using Sarahs' dog food comparisons technique, you need to start with the list of ingredients (it's fairly easy to find an ingredient list for any particular food on the manufacturers website, or use the one on your dog food bag etc.)
Start with a grade of 100 points, then …

1. For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points
2. For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points
3. If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points
4. For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source subtract 5 points. If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer's rice", "rice flour" are all the same grain), subtract 5 points
5. If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2 meats in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points
6. If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points
7. If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points
8. If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 more points
9. If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2 points
10. If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points
11. If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points
12. If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points
13. If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to beef), subtract 1 point
14. If it contains salt, subtract 1 point

Extra Credit:


If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points

If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or nutritionist, add 5 points

If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points

If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points

If the food contains fruit, add 3 points

If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points

If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points

If the food contains barley, add 2 points

If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points

If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point

If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point

For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein source, but "chicken" and "fish" as 2 different sources), add 1 point

If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point

If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are pesticide-free, add 1 point

Scoring
94-100+ = A
86-93 = B
78-85 = C
70-77 = D
69 = F

[motherofmolly]

Originally Posted by Merczilla We're on an odyssey. lol We were using Nutro lamb and rice. We have 4 Saint Bernards, so go through a LOT of food. They went to 35lb bags and at $54 a pop, that's ridiculous. Just recently tried Nutra lamb and rice. Well, something in that gave two of the dogs the itchies so bad they were chewing themselves. Probably a combo of beet pulp and the fish preservative. I won't use anything that has corn in it, so that rules out all grocery store/Target/anyplace cheap foods. I also avoid wheat and now the beet pulp, etc. *sighs* I've been cooking up my own the last few weeks, but I'm about to run out of canned salmon. Not to mention it's a big hassle and a lot of food daily. lol The itching has stopped, anyway. I know the one feed store has Taste of the Wild and some of the others, but I also know that they're over $50 for a smallish bag (which is anything under 50lbs). They are also frequently out of the brand you're looking for, so it can be really hard to keep the same food. Their stocking is terrible. So I don't know what we're going to do here. The price of dog food is just absolutely out there.

my grandma use to make her own food..i remember the smell when you opened the door when she was cooking...had a lab live to 17 that lived on that stuff. when she got sick i had to make it...from what i remember it had:
2 big containers of oats
2 cups barley
3 bags of carrots peeled and chopped
livers and gizzards (usually at least 3 packages)
2 bags of celery chopped
gosh wish i could remember the rest....she spent one day chopping everything...and the next day tossing it in a big pot to cook...it cooked all day....

[NIGHTB1022]

Well old Budman gets Purina, everything else I ever tried him on gave him the trots like there was no tomorrow, and the Chef Michaels was just a gaseous disaster for days. I also give him about a half of a can of pedigree meat chunks with gravy on his food, and of course I am bad, he gets snackage from the table LOL!

But he's 9 years old and one big Weimeraner, the vet said he never saw such a big Weimeraner, he was just born a big galoof, but what a loveable doggie he is, he's spoiled rotten!

[kval07]

Originally Posted by kval07 I think lack of knowledge leads to poor choices. When I first got Chester, I fed him something cheap because of coupons. Then I started doing more research in to what other foods were out there. Reading the ingredients from each brand will tell me what the obvious choice is for my dogs. Feeding junk like Purina is not what I want my dogs to eat now that I know there is better stuff out there than 'McDonald's' brand food. See, dog food snob.

I should note that I don't want anyone to take offense to my snobbery. I realize people sometimes just have to do what they have to do. Others (like me) just have to learn that when your dog's poo smells exactly like the can of Mighty Dog you are feeding them, something's gotta change.