Help On Almo Nature

warren · 05-26-2009, 06:08 AM

Help me choose between the puppy food please. **** Van Patten's Natural Balance, James Well Beloved because these are the only two brands in my opinion are the best from others I could find from online pet stores that can ship to Malta. Also if anyone knows of online pet stores that ship international please inform me. Help me choose between these two dog food. Thanks

rosemaryninja · 05-26-2009, 08:43 AM

Wow, I took a look at their website and I have to say their range is VAST... Anyway, I checked out a few of their formulas and their ingredients look fine.

warren · 05-26-2009, 09:42 AM

Do you reccomend it?? for my dog. Thanks

rosemaryninja · 05-26-2009, 09:49 AM

Yes, I would feed it to my dog.

jesirose · 05-26-2009, 10:30 AM

Which formula? I randomly picked one:
fresh salmon (>24%), maize, herring meal, beet pulp, chicken oil, barley, rice, salmon oil, yeast, whole eggs, whole linseed, herbs, minerals and vitamins

The salmon will still have water content, so it's farther down. Maize = corn. I don't like corn in dog food (or mine, really) the herring meal is good, beet pulp is controversial. Chicken oil = the last main ingredient, the rest is not that much.

Here is another:
Brown rice (<26%), venison meal (>24%), prairie meal, oats, chicken oil, beet pulp, sunflower oil, salmon oil, yeast, alfalfa, calendula, yucca extract, grape seed extract, green tea extract, minerals and vitamins.

What is prairie meal?

ETA:
Ew, I pulled up the cat section just to see. Their "easily digestible, with rabbit"

meat and meat derivatives (of which 45% rabbit, 26% fresh meat), cereal, animal fat, vegetable derivatives, yeast, vegetable protein extract, minerals and vitamins.

Meat and meat derivitives? that's how you end up with other cats in your cat food. Cereal? That's not an ingredient! What is cereal? animal fat? again, could be ANYTHING.

YUCK. Would not feed that to anything.

canteloupe · 05-26-2009, 10:46 AM

On dogfoodanalysis.com, the almo reviews I read gave it 3 stars (out of six). They said, "Insufficient meat content, mixed quality ingredients, controversial filler." The reviews were all of different kinds of "almo nature holistic croquettes" -- medium breed, diet, sensible, etc.
I've read worse reviews on dogfoodanalysis. It doesn't say carcinogenic preservatives, by-products, or fats of unidentified origins, at least.
They didn't have that many almo reviews. The link is here: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...type=1&si=almo. (Further down the page and on the next page.)

Jesirose, that cat food sounds frightful.

All in all, I'd say find something better.

rosemaryninja · 05-26-2009, 10:56 AM

Oh. Wow. I just looked up "prairie meal".

Quote:

Dried by-product of the manufacture of
maize starch. It consists principly of gluten
obtained during the separation of the
starch.
In the wet milling process, after the maize
germ and fibre are removed, the remaining
material is centrifuged to isolate the starch
from the gluten for further processing to
modified starches, sweeteners, etc. The
remaining gluten is dried and then
milled/sieved to produce a consistent course
powder high in proteins with a natural
pigment

http://www.countrywidefarmers.co.uk/...airie_Meal.pdf

>____< My bad...

warren · 05-26-2009, 12:42 PM

Ok it seems it's bad then. What would you say on Hill's Science Plan puppy food??? in comparison with Royal Canin. Thanks

jesirose · 05-26-2009, 12:51 PM

What do you think?

warren · 05-26-2009, 01:00 PM

I don't know lol that's why I asked =S

jesirose · 05-26-2009, 01:03 PM

Ever heard the phrase about teaching a man to fish?

Look up the ingredients, figure out if you are comfortable feeding them.

I wouldn't feed my dog a food made from corn, byproducts, questionable fat and sawdust, but that's just me.
My dog loves chicken feet, but she only gets them after she eats the chicken meat.

canteloupe · 05-27-2009, 04:32 AM

Warren, I think you should go and look on dogfoodanalysis.com.

They talk about how they review the ingredients of dog foods here:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/how-d...the-foods.html
This can get you started on understand ingredients lists yourself.

They give reviews of dog foods here:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

You can do a search for the dog food you're interested in, or you can just look through the six and five star brands and bring a list to the store with you. That's what I do.

PS: While I normally try not to rely so heavily on one source for information, I've found that this website is generally excellent and trustworthy. Once you understand what to look for, you can usually figure it out by yourself.