What kind of dog food is bests for my dog?

RoxyD · 03-29-2007, 11:14 AM

I have a bloodhound (Roxy) that will be a year old April 6th. We have been using Purina Dog Chow and I have heard alot of negative things about this brand.
What would you recommend? She is our baby and only want what is best for her.

Staci

MagicToller · 03-29-2007, 11:20 AM

What are her energy demands like? Is she active?

Here are a few dog foods that are good and free of the many cheap and harmful ingredients that typical commercial pet foods have:

Innova
Solid Gold
Blue Buffalo
California Natural
Eagle Pack
Timblewolf

You can search on:

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/

..and find out the ingredients as well as a Bio on the product so that you do your own comparisons. Take her requirements and breed type into careful consideration when chosing a food for her - or if you do decide to have her on a performance diet, increase her exercise schedule to meet the rigor.

RoxyD · 03-29-2007, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MagicToller

What are her energy demands like? Is she active?

Here are a few dog foods that are good and free of the many cheap and harmful ingredients that typical commercial pet foods have:

Innova
Solid Gold
Blue Buffalo
California Natural
Eagle Pack
Timblewolf

You can search on:

http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/

..and find out the ingredients as well as a Bio on the product so that you do your own comparisons. Take her requirements and breed type into careful consideration when chosing a food for her - or if you do decide to have her on a performance diet, increase her exercise schedule to meet the rigor.

She is has tons of energy. Thanks for your message. I will check these out. What do you think about Canidae? I just ordered online a small bag of this to try, because i have heard alot about this too.

MagicToller · 03-29-2007, 12:21 PM

Canidae is a fantastic food - I'm glad you're going to give it a try

I forgot to put it on the list, sorry

Ginny01OT · 03-29-2007, 12:25 PM

here is a great website: www.dogfoodanalysis.com

Captbob · 03-29-2007, 12:42 PM

Natural Balance is one of the highest rated foods...

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

Cheetah · 03-31-2007, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoxyD

She is has tons of energy. Thanks for your message. I will check these out. What do you think about Canidae? I just ordered online a small bag of this to try, because i have heard alot about this too.

Canidae is an awesome food. Mine are on that and both have soft, shiny coats, and even Shippo, my corgi, doesn't shed as much as I have read that corgis shed lol. So maybe I'm a bit biased, but it's worth a try. >^_^<

With any food, you'll probably have to feed it for a month to start seeing results.

dogtorj · 04-01-2007, 02:58 PM

"What to feed, what to feed???"

That's a great question...quite involved, but a good question. We should feed the pet as close to a natural diet as possible. "As possible" means 1) As close to what we understand "natural" to be; 2) As close to natural as we can afford; and 3) As close to natural as fits with our own pet philosophy and what we are willing to do.

Tha vast majority of pet owners are not going to do more than feed something out of a can or a bag. Sad but true. (Remember: The vast majority of pet owners are not on a forum like this seeking information about how to best feed their pet). It has been like pulling teeth just to get my hospital clients to go to the pet shop for food rather than the grocery store, the latter having no dry foods that meet my criteria of eliminating all gluten, dairy, soy and corn.

So, you have those owners who will seek out the best commercial food but stop there. Then you have those who will occasionally add some table food while others will do some home-cooking on a regular basis to supplement the base diet of commercial foods. At the other end of the spectrum, you have "the elite" who try to make the diet perfect and natural in every way. That is a very small group.

Where do each of us fit into this spectrum? It has been shown that those pets that get table food in addition to their commercial diet live longer (contrary to what most vets...including me...have said all of their lives). It should not surprise us to find this to be true when we think about the value of fresh meats/eggs, veggies and fruits.

The answer to "What to feed?" then becomes this- Feed a food that is not harmful and as nutritionally complete as possible. My goal for the past 7 years has been to eliminate the harmful ingredients alone and watch what happens. Miracles have happened by elimination all gluten (wheat, barley, rye), dairy, soy and corn. These are very harmful to large numbers of pets and people. Dogs and cats are clearly gluten intolerant just as large numbers of people are.

We are now focusing on making the diet as nutritionally complete as possible by adding fresh sources of protein (meats, eggs) and fresh sources of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients in the form of veggies and fruits. Lastly, we should be using select supplements that cannot be provided by the above, such as omega three fatty acids, or things that the individual seems to need specifically such as glucosamine for its joints or kelp for its thyroids.

Again, my site has a list of "clean" dog foods that contain none of the "big 4". The bottom line of this pet food recall at this point is that the new wheat gluten additive was the source of problems, so foods without wheat gluten...which should be avoided anyway...are safe to feed. BUT, stay tuned. This story is not over yet.

I hope this helps,

John

John B.Symes, DVM (aka "Dogtorj")

The Southern Version

"Tha vast majority of pet owners are not going to do more than feed something out of a can or a bag. Sad but true."

"Tha" is Southern for "the", in case you didn't already know.

John

Captbob · 04-02-2007, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovemypets

If you truly love and care for your dog, which obviously you do.. then you need to feed your dog ameri-pet food, and you can only get it here:
http://ilovemypets.ameri-petonline.com

I just recently discovered this great new food, and wish i'd known of it a long time before this... my dog just loves it

and he too was use to pedigree, for all of his life, he is now almost 6 years old..

I hope this helps you out, believe me you'll be doing your doggy a favor by switching to this food at this site...
http://ilovemypets.ameri-petonline.com

I don't think much of any food that does not give a list of the ingredients that are in each type, as well as percentage of protein, fat, carbs. etc....... I wouldn't buy this food from the web site, just because they say it is good....

CrzyBritNAmerica · 04-02-2007, 05:27 PM

I have recently switched to Natural Balance for my 2 cats and my dog and I am SO glad I did. Bridgette is looking prettier than ever and her coat is so much softer and so shiny! And the cats look amazing too. After only 2 weeks our all black cat, Bagheera has such shiny fur (he was a very dull black before and was having random dry skin episodes). Also, our younger cat Luna had AWFUL gas and that seems to have disappeared too.

So I second Natural Balance, although all the foods Magic Toller listed are great too...and Canidae is really good too.

bluesbarby · 04-12-2007, 01:14 PM

My puppy came with a large bag of Iams Smart Puppy. The bag was almost empty so I went and purchased a bag of Canidae 2 weeks ago. Then I mixed both 50/50. Riley actually picked out the new food leaving behind the Iams all over the floor (the Iams is a much smaller kibble). I was surprised that he had no loose stools and after 2 weeks I've noticed he has fewer stools. He also seems to eat less of it. The feed store where I get it had sample packs of each flavor so eventually I plan to get bags of each and trade them off. He likes this kibble so much that I can use it as a treat with training. I know taste isn't a good predictor of quality for humans anyway but this was a real eye opener for me.

Amitiel · 04-12-2007, 02:18 PM

(see 2 post) - so - welcome - & yes my babies will do the same if they prefer 1 over another, even if it came from the same bag - just like children *wink*

Ginny01OT · 04-12-2007, 03:49 PM

A high energy, athletic dog like that would thrive on raw food with some BARF mixer.

I have been using nature's variety raw patties and still will but I actually found a place that does 6lb beef, 6lb beef and tripe (2/3 beef, 1/3 tripe) and beef and organ mixes for half the price. He is also trying to get rabbit. I bought 12 pounds (6 lbs of beef and 6lbs of beef/tripe). I also use less cans of Tripett now, which is also more cost effective. I am integrating that several times a week now alaong with the nature's variety. It is very cost effective and the dog is still getting all the nutrition he has. I am not sacrificing nutrition for cost and Riley loves it!

You'd be surprised many more people do raw food with their dogs than you would imagine and if you start a discussion with someone about it chances are you will find a place that does raw mixes, like I did, nearby.

I use Timberwolf Organics lamb, barley and apples for a BARF mixer--you can add it because the higher calcium level compensates for the phospherous level in raw...heck you can read about it at their website if you are interested.

familypetfood · 04-14-2007, 08:23 PM

www.lookslikespamtome.com. ( Life's Abundance is the name of the food) Check it out. We CARE about pets !

familypetfood · 04-14-2007, 08:29 PM

Procter & Gamble make (Eukanuba and Iams)....Procter & Gamble ? Go with Lifes Abundance..Read about it at www.lookslikespamtome.com

SoCalBear · 04-15-2007, 01:57 AM

Any thoughts on Eukanuba? The breeder was using Pedigree but I switched to Eukanuba because the ingredient list seemed a lot better.

My dog has a high energy level and healthy firm stools. He also is not fat and seems very healthy. He is 9 months old.

ericsfox · 04-15-2007, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoCalBear

Any thoughts on Eukanuba? The breeder was using Pedigree but I switched to Eukanuba because the ingredient list seemed a lot better.

My dog has a high energy level and healthy firm stools. He also is not fat and seems very healthy. He is 9 months old.

Hello SoCalBear, I Don't think you will find many Eukanuba fans here. The recent pet food recall has prompted many people to finally start reading the labels on the pet food that they purchase. Some of the big name brands sold in the bigger pet stores are full of a lot of fillers such as ground yellow corn, wheat flour etc. which are more difficult for dogs to digest and do not provide much nutritional value. I see you live in California. A brand called Artemis is made in your home state. I am a site sponsor on this site who is a retailer for the Artemis brand and I recommend that you check them out and compare the ingredients to what you are feeding now, I think you will be pleased with what you see. You shouldn't have any trouble finding the food near you . They have a retailer locator on the home page of their web site. Good luck and take care, Eric

pierre · 04-18-2007, 08:21 PM

I agree with captbob. No (or very vague) list of ingredients is not a good sign. What are they trying to hide.

As a seller of a healthy pet food I check out as many brands as I can find time to. Want to see the competition but there is also the possibility that in the process I'll find a better food for my own dogs. Recently I was introduced to a brand I didn't know so I visited their web site. It was the most expensive food I'd ever seen (I sure can't afford it) with only a vague list of the ingredients. I didn't stay there long.