[nico8]

It's just about time for me to pick up a new bag of food for Nico and I'm sitting here trying to figure out if I want to try yet another food or keep her on what she's been eating. This got me to thinking about the foods I've tried in the past and how they all measure up. Here's my list in the order that I fed them, with a few reasons for each rating. I'd really like to know how all of yall feel about certain foods and why you've come to that conclusion. This is base on your personal experiences...there is no wrong answer.

Blue Buffalo Lamb and Rice- This was the first food I fed Nico when I got her and I must say I was thoroughly unimpressed. She never liked the taste,had horrible gas, and her stool never firmed up. For $55 a bag I felt like I could be getting much more. 5/10


Wellness Core-Actually really liked this food. Nico seemed to like the taste and the ingredients are top notch. Her stools firmed up and the gas almost totally went away. It's the best smelling food I've come across yet. I was just a little uneasy about the price and wanted a food with a higher k/cal to help put some weight on her. 8/10


Taste of the Wild Wetlands- Switched to this after Core because of the price and I really wish I hadn't. She never liked the taste and she seemed to scratch constantly while on the wetlands. Love the price but that's really about all. 5/10


Taste of the Wild High Prairie-Maybe she'll like this flavor better than the wetlands? Not a chance. She never at more than 1/2 a cup a day of the HP and by day 4 she began throwing up 3-4 times a day.Not to mention her stools were crap (pardon the pun). Nico was listless and obviously miserable so I took her completely off TotW after a week on HP. 4/10


EVO Adult formula (small bites)- Put her on this right after the TOTW debacle and it seemed to clear her up quickly. Her stools went back to normal almost immediately and she seemed to be OK with the taste. Not really thrilled with the price though... 7.5/10


EVO Red Meat (large bites)- Was hoping she would like the taste a little more than the regular EVO , but no luck. She wasn't really crazy about it and her stools went back to being less firm that I'd prefer. Tons of gas too. Shame because I love the ingredient list. Still a little more than I feel comfortable paying. 7/10


Solid Gold Barking at the Moon-One of my favorites thus far. She seems to like the taste more than any of the others. Zero gas, her stools are great, and no scratching. Not crazy about paying over $60 a bag , but if she's happy and healthy then I'm happy. 8.5/10

So that's where I am now...I'd love to see which foods yalls dogs have done well on.

[FaithFurMom09]

** mine are not in order as i cant quite remember

Bil Jac- She did OK on it. 4/10

Kroger brand (great value?)- We were low on money (hubby out of work) and it was around $2, not the best food at all. 2/10

PuppyChow- She actually did the best on this 6/10

Ol'Roy- I bought it thinking it was good, nope, about as bad as Kroger. 3/10

Kibbles N bits Wholesome Medley- shes on this now and she seems to be doing ok, but we are only on day 2. ?/10

and i think theres another brand or two i have tried, but shes done the best for weight gain on PuppyChow and the best for poop has been Bil Jac & PuppyChow.

[railNtrailcowgrl]

She came to me eating Nutro Small Breed, ok poops, not too much itching or scratching, until it made her sicker than a dog, $200 vet trip later at about the same time as all Nutro's recalls, got her off that ASAP. 0/10

Low on money we tried Purina Pro Plan Selects next, thought I was getting a comparable food as Nutro, similar ingredients (before I knew anything about dog food project). She had horrible gas, diarhea, she didn't really like the taste. Kept weight on ok, fed more than recomended to do so. 4/10

NV Venison and Millet & NV Chicken Instinct-good BM, wasn't crazy over the taste or shape of the kibble or all the 'dust' from the pro-biotics added to the kibble coating. Kept weight decent on right around the recomended feeding amount. 5/10

Wellness Small Breed-not good at all, she hated the taste, BM were OK not great, expensive for what I got and I had to feed WAY more than the recommended amount she was eating 2+ cups of food/day and loosing weight. Didn't feel like I was getting my money's worth at all. 3/10

Currently feeding in rotation...

TOTW High Prarie, TOTW Wetlands, & TOTW Pacific Stream all comparable in energy, stamina, weight gain (& now holding weight well) awesome BMs, her coat is super shiny and soft, no more itching & scratching. The most economical grain free food I've found, price is great. All comparable in my opinion 10++ but Pebbles says as far as flavor goes TOTW PS-10, HP-9.5, WL-9

[dieterherzog]

Whee! We rotate kibble so we've tried a lot of doggie kibbles:

Nutro Max Mini Chunk: Dog came with it, no comment except that he ate it and I really have nothing to say except that I read the ingredient list, found out a little more and felt really bad. 4/10

Acana Priarie Harvest: Wonderful mid-level protein, grain-free dog food first introduced to me by our holistic pet food store. For the first time dog had no anal gland problems, seem to LOVE his food much much more. 8/10

EVO Red Meat Small Bites: Gave him the runs, smell was a little weird after Acana and I constantly worried about it being to small and causing him to choke. 7/10

**** Van Patten's Natural Balance Duck and Potato: We mixed this in with the EVO to offset the high protein content and it worked much better and saved us money too! The limited ingredients were also good for when he started vomiting bile for no reason. 7/10 (Hee! They censored the name )

Taste of the Wild High Prairie: Anal glands starting working up again, didn't like the taste. 6/10

Earthborn Holistics: Probably the worse food of the whole lot even though it's mid-range protein and grain free. Gave him A LOT of gas and threw the whole anal gland thing off the track. 4/10

Acana Grassland: Great food, helped doggie have less of stink - anal gland problem didn't go away entirely but he seemed to like the food a bit more (then again he's a greedy dog). 8/10

Orijen Regional Red: The best, period. He finishes it in 20 seconds flat, the smell is like fresh meat, ingredients are AWESOME and helped somewhat the anal gland problems. 9/10

Orijen Adult: Not as good as Regional Red in terms of the effect it had on the dog - high protein caused runs sometimes, comparable to the Acana stuff and Acana is much cheaper! 8/10

Nature's Variety Raw Venison Medallions: Poop came out solid and tiny and chalky, dog LOVES it and slorps it up in seconds. 8/10

[canteloupe]

Originally Posted by nico8

Blue Buffalo Lamb and Rice- This was the first food I fed Nico when I got her and I must say I was thoroughly unimpressed. She never liked the taste,had horrible gas, and her stool never firmed up. For $55 a bag I felt like I could be getting much more. 5/10

Did you ever try Blue Buffalo Wilderness? It's very different than the lamb and rice (I just compared ingredients lists), and it's one of my top 5 for both the ingredients and palatability. Both my last dog and my cats loved/love the canine and feline versions, respectively.j

ETA: It's also cheaper than you mentioned. It's $48 for 26lbs at petfooddirect.

[nico8]

Originally Posted by canteloupe

Did you ever try Blue Buffalo Wilderness? It's very different than the lamb and rice (I just compared ingredients lists), and it's one of my top 5 for both the ingredients and palatability. Both my last dog and my cats loved/love the canine and feline versions, respectively.j

ETA: It's also cheaper than you mentioned. It's $48 for 26lbs at petfooddirect.

I originally went into the store looking for Wilderness but apparently nobody in my area carries it. Out of 3 stores that stock Blue Buffalo , none carry Wilderness. Talk about a bummer... I'd love to be able to find it locally (I'm still a little uneasy ordering things online...I know I know) because the ingredients look great.

[ZerotheHero3]

Originally Posted by nico8

I originally went into the store looking for Wilderness but apparently nobody in my area carries it. Out of 3 stores that stock Blue Buffalo , none carry Wilderness. Talk about a bummer... I'd love to be able to find it locally (I'm still a little uneasy ordering things online...I know I know) because the ingredients look great.

Do you have a PetSmart nearby? They carry it. If they don't have it in stock just ask a manager for it and they are usually happy to order it for you.

[Sable's Dad]

Since my girl is only 6 months, I only have a little experience with a few puppy foods.

1. Solid Gold HundchenFlocken(sp) Puppy food
Ok she started off having runny stools with this. After I started adding some Solid Gold Seameal to her meals the stool did firm up for the most part. But she would still have loose ones more than I would like to see, especially for the price. (6.5/10)

2. Innova Puppy
Good. Her stool is almost always firm. She tends to chew the triangle shape of this kibble more than the round shapes, which is good since she tends to inhale her food. I also don't need to feed as much of this, since it has a higher caloric content. (8/10)

3. Innova Large Breed Puppy
Not good. The place I get her Innova Puppy food from didn't have any left, and I was out so couldn't wait for them to order more. I bought a 6lb bag of the Large Breed since it is the same formula for the most part. She is half Lab half German SH Pointer, so I debated whether she should really be on this anyway. Well...she had really soft stools when I had her on this for a couple days. Also, the bag suggests you feed A LOT more since it has a lowere caloric content, so expense would go way up. (4/10)

I think I will keep her on the Innova Puppy until she is a year and then switch her to adult food. I will probably put her on Innova Adult first, and then try out some grain free. I still add SeaMeal to her food and alway plan on doing this. It makes her coat amazingly soft and shinny, plus it helps with the consistency of her stool.

[nico8]

Originally Posted by ZerotheHero3

Do you have a PetSmart nearby? They carry it. If they don't have it in stock just ask a manager for it and they are usually happy to order it for you.

Petsmart is where I originally went to get Wilderness but the people there were less than helpful. I'd honestly rather ask the owner of the local pet shop to order it for me than go back to Petsmart... do they normally order food for just 1 customer?

Originally Posted by Sable's Dad

I still add SeaMeal to her food and alway plan on doing this. It makes her coat amazingly soft and shinny, plus it helps with the consistency of her stool.

I've been looking into maybe getting some seameal for Nico... Was there really a noticeable difference in yours dog's coat after you started adding the seameal?

[nac1089]

I've been through a lot of foods with Sasha, so here goes

1) Purina Pro Plan - She came to me on this, good BM, she was itchy and began developing bad breath. She'd constantly chew and lick her paws after awhile.

2) Nutro Puppy - Good BM, complete turn around from the Pro Plan, itching stopping, her breath improved. This was before I heard all the bad things about Nutro.

3) Nutro Adult Small Bites - Everything the same, again I wasn't aware of the bad reviews about Nutro.

4) Solid Gold Just A Wee Bit - The breeder I got her from was feeding her a mixture of Pro Plan and Solid Gold. I stuck with Pro Plan because at the time, I couldn't find a store that sold Solid Gold, but after doing research and learning about foods, I found one that did. Her coat drastically improved and became super soft and shiny, but she began to get bored of the flavor after 2 bags.

5) Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Fish (dry & canned( - I tried a LID food instead. She really liked this at first, but then started becoming bored with it after 3 days. I started mixing in some canned food with each meal which helped for awhile, but then she even grew sick of that.

6) Blue Buffalo - Liked it the first few days and then began refusing it. Still no problems with it though.

7) NV Raw Medallions & Prairie kibble - LOVED the raw, gobbled it up in no time. I'd free feed her kibble all day which she wasn't crazy about. After 2 months, she began to refuse the raw, even when I changed the flavors she just didn't want it anymore. Had no interest in the kibble at all either.

8) Merrick (dry & canned) - She would eat the kibble if I added some water to it to make the gravy, but grew sick of it over time. I began adding some of the different canned foods to the kibble which she LOVED, but it gave her the runs big time. Went back to just feeding the kibble and she hated it. She'd sometimes go 2 days without eating.

9) EVO Small Bites - LOVES this food. I now am doing a rotation diet between grainless high protein foods. I was able to actually go through an entire bag of this food. No problems at all.

10) TOTW HP - She's eating this right now and LOVES it. No problems just like on EVO.

I also plan on using Orijen in the rotation and if I can find it, I'd like to try Acana as well.

[NCKevin]

I got lucky on the first food I bought for her. She loves it, is very energetic, and her coat looks great. Shedding is down from when I first brought her home. I will probably have to rotate and find others she likes, but for now she's loving this one.

Taste of the Wild High Prairie

[croll326]

Nutro Something or other
This is what the person we got him from was feeding. He hated it and would hardly eat it.

Purina Pro Plan
Reccommended by someone at Petco. We bought this the second day we had him so we were dumb and didnt know any better. It was a puppy formula and sound good from reading the bag.

Blue Buffalo Puppy Lamb and Rice
LOVED this food but poo never firmed up to where I wanted it to be plus I wanted to go grain free. No real complaints. I do like the thought of having the cold formed bits. Not cooking vitamins out of food might be a good thing or just a good marketing scheme...not sure. Price slightly higher than TOTW.

TOTW HP
Just finishing up a 15 pound bag and his poo was solid for a couple weeks but has since gotten soft. I think it might be because of his rawhide bone but I am not sure and now with the grumblings of Diamonds food quality we are switching to EVO. Great price for a grain free kibble. $42.99+tax for 30 lbs.

EVO Red Meat Small Bites
Day 1 was today. Just gave him a small amount with the TOTW HP and he gobbeled it down no problem. We will see how he takes to it. Kind of expensive though but hes worth it. $60+tax for 28.6 lbs.

[StellaLucyDesi]

Over the years, I have used alot of food for my 4, so here I'll just rate the foods I've used recently:

1. Wellness CORE Reduced Fat - Desi did very well on it and like it, but he likes everything. Lucy wasn't all that keen on it, but then again, she's my pickiest. Stella liked it ok. Dogs' poop was okay. I didn't have Hazel at the time. 7.5/10

2. Merrick - Dogs love their can food and I have used them alot with good results. Lucy loves the kibble, but I want a grain-free and none of the dogs like BG. Poops okay. Again, didn't have Hazel yet. 7/10

3. Eagle Pack Holistic Select - Lucy, Desi, and Stella (no Hazel yet) all love EPHS and do well on it. Poops good. One of my favorite grain inclusive foods. 8/10

4. Fromm 4-Star - I have tried most of the flavors, including the Surf & Turf. Love this food and so do the dogs. They do well on it. Poops good. 8/10

5. Orijen - All 4 dogs like it and do well on it. Protein a little high for my couch potato dogs, IMHO. Poops good. 8.5/10

6. Acana - switched to this because of lower protein. Dogs liked it, too. They do well on it. One of my favorite foods. Poops good. 9/10

7. Nature's Variety Instinct/Raw medallions - This is what they are eating now. A variety of raw flavors and Duck & Turkey Instinct. Stella & Hazel are just getting the medallions. I sometimes use the kibble for treats. All dogs are doing great and eating great! Best poops yet. Love this food. 9.5/10

...Hazel came to me eating TOTW Wetlands, but she wouldn't eat it very well. She was acclimating to our household, tho'. I also tried the Pacific Stream with her...she threw up with this food. I decided to try raw with her to entice her to eat and that is when I switched to NV. Then I decided, after the Acana was gone to try the NV with the whole pack, including the Instinct. Everyone is doing great!

The highest rating I gave was 9.5 (pretty high). I won't give a 10 because I feel that no food is entirely perfect. I like rotation.

[michelleboston]

Bailey came from the shelter with Pedigree Puppy--even as a first time dog owner I knew that it was junk and changed it very (probably too) quickly 2/10

Unfortunately, I took the vet tech's advice and switched him to Royal Canin MiniBabydog 33. He did well on this but then I came on here and learned about dogfoodanalysis.com from all of you knowledgeable folks and found out that this food was crap too. I'll give it a 5/10.

I then made a gradual switch to Orijen puppy which he loved. He stayed on it until he was around 9 months old. He started losing interest in the food (right around the time of the slight ingredient change) and I knew he was ready for adult food...so time to change again. I give Orijen a 9/10, it wasn't the easiest to find around here.

I liked the idea of a grain free food so I transitioned him to EVO small bites. So far so good except for on/off diarrhea which I don't think is related to the kibble. 10/10. We'll probably stick with this for awhile. It's pricey but Bailey only eats about 3/4 cup per day.

[Hallie]

Natural Balance ultra premium-She did pretty good on this but it's flavorless (I wouldn't know or anything). I don't like the low meat content and protein.

Wellness super5mix ocean whitefish She did excellent on this. Best out of all of the foods IMO. She had a shiny coat and her anal glands calmed down. One of the only foods that took her awhile to adjust, she did have runny poo for a few days and we even did a slow transistion period.

TOTW Wetlands- Pretty good food. She liked the food and the taste. Stool was firm and we didn't have any problems with it.

TOTW Pacific Stream- She's on that now, I'm hoping to shine her coat up a bit. I hate that it leaves her smelling fishy.

Orijen- Didn't keep her on it long as it's pretty expensive. She did like the taste but wasn't crazy about it.

Innova Puppy-She did really well on this, it's a funny shape as far as dog food goes. Hallie did like the taste though.

Precise- Pretty good ingredients. Not one of my best purchases because I bought 2 20lb bags only to find out after 3 days Hallie wouldn't touch it. Lacking in Flavor.

Solid Gold Barking At The Moon Hallie really really loves the solid gold formulas! It was funky smelling though and I think Hallie would've maybe rather eaten another food.

[Michiyo-Fir]

Hmm I don't think Nia has done "poorly" on any food she's been on before but here's mine. In order of what we tried.

Royal Canin Mini Puppy 33
What she came on. She didn't like the taste I guess and didn't eat much of it. Lots of poop. Not very good ingredients.
4/10

Innova Puppy
Ate it once a day, the full serving I gave it in the I still have about 1 lb left in my house but she refuses to eat it. Did pretty well on it, quite a lot of poop as well.
7/10

Orijen 6 Fish
Liked it more than the other 2 that she's tried. Pieces are really big for small dog. Sometimes she couldn't bite through one and would just spit it out. Other times after a few attempts to bite it, didn't break, she'd just swallow it whole. Very very hard! But her coat was very shiny, not as much poop, lots of energy!
9.5/10

EVO red meat small bites
Liked the taste about equally to Orijen. Good coat and energy but has basic urine which causes her butt to be itchy. Have to add lemon juice to her food at each meal or else there's itchiness. Otherwise the bite size and food all seem good to me. A little high in fat.
7.5/10

Jake and Daisy's Raw
Liked it first few days. Seemed to have lots of veggies and chicken formula had no organs. Stopped eating it after about 2 days.
7/10

NV raw medallion Chicken
Ate it first 2 days then absolutely refused to eat it even after 48 hrs of not eating. Seemed very processed for a raw food. Gave her very very tiny but very dry poops that were slightly hard to pass. Coat became a little duller.
7/10

[ptoot]

we've tried a couple of different thing for our husky and gsd

nutrience medium breed (green bag) everything was ok but the husky had skin/hair problems,Bm for the gsd were kind of soft tough to scoop

kirkland lamb and rice nice food but way too rich for both dogs.Bm impossible to scoop

kirkland chicken seems ok for gsd but makes the husky itch

blue buffalo fish and sweet potato seems good for the husky but she'd rather steal the gsd's food

Not sure where to go now with the husky

[HersheyPup]

I have tried too many different foods over the years to recall them all!! I will review the ones that I can accurately remember the results:

Royal Canin: Meduim Breed Special (active dogs) Excellent palatability, perfect poop, no gas, rather expensive some dry skin and skin bumps on my Standard Schnauzer. (6/10) RC German Shepherd formula, Excellent palatability, slightly soft poop, no gas, expensive, shiny coat, no itching but my GSD seemed to constantly lick her potty area. I never made the connection until I took her off of RC for a while and then put her back on it and the licking started up again. (6/10)

Kumpi: Dogs loved the taste, kibble a little small and hard, good poop, shiny coats, high calorie had adjust feeding amounts because they gained weight on this food easily. No itching but some eye discharge. Had to mail order, not available locally. (7/10)

Blue Buffalo: Lamb&Rice, Expensive, soft smelly poop, gas. (2/10)
Wilderness, expensive, palatability excellent, love the ingredient list, terrible gas and diarrhea which got progressivley worse the longer I fed it. (2/10)

Innova Red Meat: Good for my Schnauzer, bad for the GSD. They loved it, but never had solid poop. Down right dangerous to over feed! Just a little tiny bit too much and it was pudding poop. Nice coats, loved the taste, love the natura company...food just too rich. (7/10)

Artemis: Expensive, very bad gas, never solid stool...didn't try it long enough to see results on skin and coat. (2/10)

Pro Plan Select and Pro Plan Sensitive Skin & Stomach: Good price, dogs love it, very good poop (a little more on the regular PP than the Select) no dander, shiny coats, no eye discharge, no potty licking, no skin bumps, some itching...dogs seem to have more energy than ever! However this could also be due to the cooler weather. I am not sure, but they are feeling frisky! (9/10)

Science Diet Sensitive Skin: This is the only SD formula I have used. Excellent palatability (they love it!) expensive (ridiculously for the ingredients), good poop and very small considering how much corn is in this food. I was suprised, actually. Does produce shiny coats and smooth, bump free skin, no eye discharge, no itching or licking. Good color pigmentation, does put weight on quick as do most foods containing a lot of corn. Schnauzer did have over active anal glands when on this food a long time ago, but it may not have been an accurate correlation. (7/10)

Nature's Logic Venison: Still trying to transition the dogs to this food. Love the ingredients, palatability pretty good, really expensive (had to mail order, may not get again) Fiber content is 6%, seems really high compared to other foods, can't get solid stool, some gas. If I mix it with Pro Plan or SD the results are better...on it's own the results are questionable. Can't give a number, because I can't get them transitioned to it 100%! (?/10)