[Mad4Dogs]

Sadie is on Pro Plan too!

[EXBCMC]

Originally Posted by tirluc

but this is what happened to my dogs when they were put on Canidae....their coats got crappy, their energy level was down, and they had to eat 2x as much to maintain their weight....plus they went to pooping 3-5 times a day instead of the 2x on Pur. One.....even my vet was appalled at their condition after 4-5 mo on Canidae.....i still maintain, feed what works best for your dog(s)

I realize this post has gone on forever and I've done my best to read them all. One just caught my eye. MY DOG is on Canidae, for perhaps two months now and she pooooooops many times per day too. Any comments as to why? I'm happy with the food, but we have 3 large dogs and the trash company is about to surcharge me for the amount of waste! I'm happy with theri coat etc, but they do poop.

[Leanie]

Originally Posted by Ilovemydoglala

My dog Lala loves this food and its very healthy!Does anyone else have any dogs that eat purina?

Mine couldn't handle it, she threw up about 11 times after eating it and we had to rush her to the vet at midnight! Changed her food and she never did that again. She also had diarrhea from it to.

[EXBCMC]

Originally Posted by Leanie

Mine couldn't handle it, she threw up about 11 times after eating it and we had to rush her to the vet at midnight! Changed her food and she never did that again. She also had diarrhea from it to.

I'm wondering, did you switch brands gradually? From what I "understand," and I'm new to all this, you must switch foods slowly or that'll upset there systems. Just a thought.

[Cheetah]

Originally Posted by EXBCMC

I realize this post has gone on forever and I've done my best to read them all. One just caught my eye. MY DOG is on Canidae, for perhaps two months now and she pooooooops many times per day too. Any comments as to why? I'm happy with the food, but we have 3 large dogs and the trash company is about to surcharge me for the amount of waste! I'm happy with theri coat etc, but they do poop.

The answer is that not every dog is going to do the same on each food. My two are on Canidae and they both poop twice per day (sometimes once). Not every dog is going to have the same results. Their bodies are all different, just like ours.

[007Dogs]

First let me start off by saying there are TWO PURINA'S. The one owned by Nestle, that makes the Purina products you will find at Petsmart and other pet food outlets. The only Nestle based food sold under the Purina name at Wal-Mart and grocery stores is the Purina One.

I do feed Pro Plan and have for a long time. I have top ranked show dogs who do well on it. They are in good condition, with muscle tone, great coats and happy personalities. Is it the food or just good breeding, not sure. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They are also supplimented with raw chicken or turkey.

If you attend a dog show in the USA, and ask handlers what they feed their top show dogs you will find most to answer ProPlan, next would probably be Eukanuba or BilJac. I think having dogs live a healthy life of 18 years would not make me consider changing foods. I have fed Canidae with out success. I have fed Timberwolf, just because I won a big basket full samples at a dog show.(I liked the food, but not easy to get in my area) I have fed Wellness, when I lived in an area where I could get it. If my dogs would eat it, I would gladly switch back to Premium Edge Chicken and Rice also made by a subdivision of Diamond. As for the ProPlan Selects I was not impressed enought to make the switch. I think out of all the formulas, the ProPlan sensitive skin has the best ingrediants. I have tried the High Proformance, but find that it tends to burn out my dogs coats. I think everyone needs to just pick the food that best works for there dogs and budget. There are times when I have 3 different brands of food here, if something I am feeding is not working for a particular dog, I change it.

[Pawper]

How do ya'll feel about his whole feeding raw thing? I have to admit Ive done my research and it has left me nothing more then CONFUSED

I consider myself well educated on dog food and dog food ingrediants, which is good, which is not good, what ingrediants are bad and what ingrediants are desirable, but the RAW DEBATE has my head spinning.....I can see both sides! Anyone have any lgiht they can shed on the issue?

[FredMom]

Originally Posted by 007Dogs

First let me start off by saying there are TWO PURINA'S. The one owned by Nestle, that makes the Purina products you will find at Petsmart and other pet food outlets. The only Nestle based food sold under the Purina name at Wal-Mart and grocery stores is the Purina One.

I do feed Pro Plan and have for a long time. I have top ranked show dogs who do well on it. They are in good condition, with muscle tone, great coats and happy personalities. Is it the food or just good breeding, not sure. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They are also supplimented with raw chicken or turkey.

If you attend a dog show in the USA, and ask handlers what they feed their top show dogs you will find most to answer ProPlan, next would probably be Eukanuba or BilJac. I think having dogs live a healthy life of 18 years would not make me consider changing foods. I have fed Canidae with out success. I have fed Timberwolf, just because I won a big basket full samples at a dog show.(I liked the food, but not easy to get in my area) I have fed Wellness, when I lived in an area where I could get it. If my dogs would eat it, I would gladly switch back to Premium Edge Chicken and Rice also made by a subdivision of Diamond. As for the ProPlan Selects I was not impressed enought to make the switch. I think out of all the formulas, the ProPlan sensitive skin has the best ingrediants. I have tried the High Proformance, but find that it tends to burn out my dogs coats. I think everyone needs to just pick the food that best works for there dogs and budget. There are times when I have 3 different brands of food here, if something I am feeding is not working for a particular dog, I change it.

I feed my basset, PURINA Pro Plan for Sensitive Skin and Stomach. The main ingredient is salmon and it doesn't contain corn, by-products, or soy, which causes problems with odor and anal glands with some bassets. I must say that the Pro Plan fomula Fred is on is FABULOUS!! His coat is shiny, he has small, firm stools, and he doesnt have the basset odor or itch.

007, you are SO RIGHT ABOUT PURINA PRO PLAN and I am so happy that I switched from Diamond to Pro Plan. It has done WONDERS for my dog.

GO PURINA GO!!

[Shalva]

Originally Posted by Pawper

How do ya'll feel about his whole feeding raw thing? I have to admit Ive done my research and it has left me nothing more then CONFUSED

I consider myself well educated on dog food and dog food ingrediants, which is good, which is not good, what ingrediants are bad and what ingrediants are desirable, but the RAW DEBATE has my head spinning.....I can see both sides! Anyone have any lgiht they can shed on the issue?

there are a multitude of threads about raw feeding on this board if you do a search.... i have been feeding raw for over 7 years and while there is a great deal of misinformation around regarding pathogens... there are some very knowledgeable people on this board who have been feeding raw for a long time.
I am surprised considering your leanings toward naturopathy and holistic vets and such that you don't feed raw.
s

[Willowy]

I do think certain Purina foods are better than, say, Ol' Roy or store brand foods....and I guarantee you that your average dog owner is not staying up late reading about proper dog nutrition, they just buy whatever looks the shiniest or is the cheapest.

For instance, my grandma used to buy that nasty semi-moist "burger" food from Sam's Club. It was the most appealing to her and her dog liked it. It's not cheap, but she didn't care---it looked yummy! She also said that he needed it because he was old and his teeth were bad. Her dog had constant ear infections and smelled bad. He was overweight and had potty issues. But you couldn't tell her a thing about dog nutrition----"he likes that brand" she'd say.

Her dog had a stroke, and while he was at the vet's office recovering (she couldn't take him home because she wasn't strong enough to lift him), they fed him Dog Chow Senior, and sent him home with orders to feed him that brand, moistened, no more burger stuff. He actually improved quite a bit, and lived a decent life for a few more months. She actually let him go for far too long and he was suffering near the end, but that's another topic. I think the improved diet helped him some. It wasn't much improved, but it was better than that burger stuff.

Another story---a low-income friend of the family fell on harder times than usual, and they could not afford to buy dog or cat food, not even the store brand they had been feeding them. They only had one small dog and one cat, and it should not have cost more than $5.00 a month to feed them store brand......that's what happens when you marry a good-for-nothing gambler---but I digress. Anyway, my mom bought them some pet food, Pedigree for the dog, and Cat Chow for the cat, and the dog's health improved dramatically (well, the cat improved, too). Her coat improved, her teeth were noticably cleaner, and she smelled better. Just after a couple of weeks of eating the Pedigree. Sadly, they went back to the store brand when the bag of Pedigree ran out, and the poor dog's health went back to "normal". The friend dumped the husband, and the dog eats better now, this incident was quite a few years ago. I know Pedigree isn't a Purina brand, but I consider it to be about the same quality as Dog Chow.

The point is, you could certainly do worse than the higher-end Purina feeds. Even regular Dog Chow is better than the lower-end alternatives. They aren't anything I personally would feed my dogs, but aren't too awful, all things considered. I regularly recommend Purina One to friends who have no inclination to travel to buy their pet food. Some people never leave town, and it would be hard to convince them to drive an hour just to buy decent dog food.

[digimom]

Well, now, I'm totally confused on the whole subject. Currently Brandy (5 yrs) is on Iams Naturals and new puppy (home today) came with Science Diet Puppy. I was thinking of going over to Iam's puppy, but after reading some of the Dog Food Forum posts, I've gone back and forth to thinking about getting Candidea (sp?) for both or Wellness. I can get both "locally", but not at regular hangouts, it would be a special trip to get their food if I went with these other two brands.

My parents have always fed Purina Pro to the dogs and all except one 1yr old stray (died of cancer) have lived long lives (lived on farm). My parents never give heart worm meds and after 33 years of dogs, they have never had a dog die of this either. I do give my dogs heart worm meds.

I guess I'll just have to weed my way through different dog foods (slowly adding to each serving over 2 weeks) to see what they would like most and what would seem to do best for them. There are just too many way on the right and way on the left of this issue and both sides of the issue make good reasonings for their side. The only thing I won't do is raw diet. I barely have time to cook for myself and family, let alone the dogs too.

This has been interesting discussion and I hope to learn more.

Thanks,
Karen