[gale]

We were feeding Premium Edge but our supplier is an hour away and I am getting tired of making that trip. No store near us has any premium brands. So anyway a local ag dealer can special order California Natural so we had him get us 2 bags of it (we haven't started on it yet-we still have some of the Premium Edge food left). The Calif Natural is pretty expensive so if he can get Healthwise I was thinking of switching to it. The dog food analysis site only gives it 3 stars but I can't see where it's *that* much different than Calif. Natural which gets 4 stars. In fact it says that the reason it gets only 3 is because only one meat source and two grains in the top 4 but the Calif Natural also has only one meat source and also two grains in the top 4. Does anyone here use it? Here are the ingredients of both (btw I should probably add that our dog doesn't seem to have problems with any kind of food):

California Natural Chicken Meal and Rice
Chicken Meal
Brown Rice
Rice
Sunflower Oil
Flaxseed
Natural Flavors
Potassium Chloride
Salt
Vitamins and Minerals: Ascorbic Acid, Beta Carotene, Biotin, Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Iodate, Choline Chloride, Cobalt Carbonate, Cobalt Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Dicalcium Pantothenate, dl-Methionine, Folic Acid, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Niacin, Potassium Chloride, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin C Supplement (Sodium Ascorbate), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement (Alpha Tocopherol), Zinc Proteinate
Rosemary Extract

Healthwise Chicken Meal and Oatmeal
Chicken Meal
Oatmeal
Brown Rice
Chicken Fat
Flaxseed Meal
Natural Flavors
Herring Oil
Avocado Oil
Garlic Powder
Dried Kelp
Potassium Chloride
Choline Chloride
Calcium Carbonate
Vitamins and Minerals: Ascorbic Acid, Beta Carotene, Biotin, Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Iodate, Choline Chloride, Cobalt Carbonate, Cobalt Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Dicalcium Pantothenate, dl-Methionine, Folic Acid, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Niacin, Potassium Chloride, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin C Supplement (Sodium Ascorbate), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement (Alpha Tocopherol), Zinc Proteinate

**vitamin and minerals lists say "Included in our foods are some of the following vitamins and minerals" so it doesn't really say exactly which ones are in which foods-it says this on both foods**

thanks!

eta: if it matters our dog is a lab/australian shepherd mix and she just turned 1 last month.

[Kathyy]

Looks like a pretty even match to me. Does the site rank fat types? Chicken fat is better for dogs than vegetable oils. Herring is a better fat than flaxseed. I bet the ranking is because the Healthwise has two different grains in the food.

[GreatDaneMom]

firstly, you have two different grains. id rather see that then all that rice. oatmeal and rice will be digested differently. second, cali natural lists salt as a main ingredient... dogs dont need that kind of amount of salt in their diets, thats rediculous to me personally. theird- i like that there is kelp in the healthwise, kelp is a great supplement.

personally, in BOTH foods id rather see different meat sources instead of just chicken meal, but again, this is me talking. basically the big ones that turn me off of the cali natural is seeing two listings of rice in the top 3 ingredients, and seeing salt listed as a main ingredient.

[HersheyPup]

I thought the ingredients looked very good and considering that it is made by Natura it should be a better quality food. I tried the Lamb formula, but it gave my dog the worst gas...I mean the worst! I haven't tried any of the other formulas, though. My dog may just be sensitive to some of Natura's products, though, because regular Innova did the same thing to her tummy.

[gale]

Thanks everyone. I did several google searches and found very little real experience with Healthwise. Maybe it's just not as readily available as the other Natura brands. I'm glad I'm not crazy-I was sure by looking at that list that it is pretty much as good as the Calif Natural. And I was surprised to see the salt too.

btw I did a comparison of the analysis too and don't remember it exactly but most of them were almost identical. A couple of things had a bigger difference. Fat % maybe was one of them. It's tedious looking at all these ingredients and nutritional analyses and stuff.

[gale]

Well it doesn't matter anyway-he can't get the Healthwise. It stinks to live out in the middle of nowhere. *grumble*