[pegshort]

Greetings to all! I am new to this board but stumbled upon it an believe that some of you can help me eliminate some of my frustrations.

We have 3 dogs:
Gizmo, Shih Tzu, 8
Buster, Golden Retriever, 4
Riley, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, 6 months

Here is my dilema. Prior to getting Riley, we fed the dogs Iams mini chunks. I thought I was doing a good job (how little I apparently knew). The day we picked up Riley, we stopped at Petsmart to pick up some puppy food and the Royal Canin rep was there (I am sure you can guess where this is going). Anyway, we left with a bag of puppy food, Shih Tzu food, and Golden Retriever food. My husband was thoroughly impressed with the kibble shape "science and research" that she stated and given Gizmo's eating habits of taking small amounts of food to the next room and eating then going back, we thought this made sense. The dogs all took to the new food with no GI upset and seemed to be doing fine but I have noticed them all passing foul smelling gas and as of recently the puppy seems to not want to eat his food and tries to get the Shih Tzu's food. Because I know we are only about 4 months away from adult food, I started questioning what I was going to feed Riley then since R.C. doesn't have a breed-specific food for him. Unfortunately with all of this searching, I find myself questioning all of their diets.

We are a busy family so home-prepared foods are not feasible and we live in a small town so I am limited to access. There is a Petsmart and Petco about an hour away which is not a problem to get to and I see on Petco's website, they have different foods to choose from. So, the question (finally) is what recommendations do you all have for my boys?

Thanks for taking the time to help me!

Peg

[briteday]

I would start by looking at the food subforum threads here on the board. And you can also do some research at dogfoodanalysis.com Try to come up with a list of 4-6 foods that you think might suit your dogs and nutritional needs. You might want to focus on the 5-6 star foods. Then find a store that carries some of these brands (Petco often carries Solid Gold -6 star, Natural Balance-4 star, ...Petsmart has Blue Buffalo -4 star food). You may want to go to manufacturer's websites and see if there are independent retailers near you that carry other top brands. Be sure to look for farm feed or ag stores as they often carry high quality brands of dog food. My local farm store carries Taste of the Wild, a 6 star food, very cheap compared to other stores. The independents generally have free small sample bags so you can try before you buy. If the stores are too far to go to then sometimes teh manufacturers have a contact that you can email and ask for them to send you samples. Since I have 3 dogs and I'm not a buffet line I found trying out til I found what all the dogs would eat was a big benefit. Nothing like buying something I think they should eat only to find out that they hate it.

Once you get some samples, try them out for a couple of days each. Find out what the dogs seem to like and then you'll know what to buy.