[trooperski]

I am sorry, but I just had to vent. My dog was on Sensible Choice Senior when it got put on the recall list. So I switched to Sensible Choice Adult. Just realized this one is now on the list. I had to switch my dog cold-turkey this morning which will tear up her poor sensitive stomach. She already had runny stool yesterday, so this won't help. I switched to Nature's Variety chicken and rice, although didn't get to do much research on it. I think it's probably a pretty good food. Top 4 ingredients are Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Barley, and Oatmeal. And since I love my dog and want to make sure she is ok, I have to bring her to the vet for some bloodwork and urinalysis. I am sure I speak for everyone when I say how frustrating this is. My heart goes out to those who lost pets. They are the ones who should really be frustrated!!! I still have mine and she was tested just 2 months ago and everything was fine, but of course since I've been feeding another food on the list, I must get her checked again. This is getting expensive!!
Also, there is a question here. Any good websites describing food ingredients? I know I should stay away from by-products and corn, but that's about it.
I also feel bad for some of these companies. They are probably going to suffer as everyone goes to the super premium foods. I was a loyal sensible choice customer, but I don't believe I will ever go back to them. It just makes me too nervous.
And she has crystals in her urine. As soon as I pick a food, we have to get her tested again for urine crystals to make sure that food doesn't cause this.
I have a question regarding my Mom's dog, too. Is it normal for a 55 lb golden retriever to have poop the size of humans. I am wondering if she is getting a lot of waste out of her food? Like she isn't getting the necessary nutrition from her food. I am not sure which proplan product she is on, but it's either the beef or chicken. One has by-products and the other has corn. They feed 1.5 cups two times a day, but she gets a lot of treats, too.

[Lightwingcreations]

So sorry you're having problems with food, your poor baby. I hope she continues to be OK.

Here's a link to a list of different dog food ingredients. Good luck.

http://forums.dogfoodproject.com/pos...dogfood&page=1

p.s. don't feel too sorry for the affected companies, as they are the ones cutting corners to make more money. Sometimes poor decisions come back to bite you in the you-know-what.

[kendallj]

I used to feed sensible choice as well untill I heard it was on the list so I swiched to pro plan but have recently found out that Pro Plan does cause your dog to deficate frequently and in large amounts... because there is so many fillers there isn't much nutrients to be absobed so majority is lost in feces... I have recently also found thanks to the lovely people of this forum a great food that is practically 100% real meat, its called Innova Evo and the first 4 ingredients are: beef, lamb meal, potatoes, and buffalo. that's the redmeat large bite they also have a white meat option. they have a website as well if you want to do a little research.... they don't have any recalls and I believe that they also have their own plant so they can monitor the ingredients more closesly and they also test all ingredients before and than test the final product... so they are completely safe... its a bit hard to find but the site has a great store finder and it even found a tiny family owned store in my tiny town that carried it so I'm sure it can find one anywhere.... the site is EVOpet.com you should check it out... my dog LOVES the canned food venicin is her favorite! they also have many other flavors as well!!! hope all goes well!!!

the treats could alos be an effect how old is the retriever?? if she's considered a senior you should cut back on treats to almost none... i personally dont feed my dog treats... but when we train she gets animal crackers... i know bad me human sugar food, but they don't hurt her sensitive stomach....

if you do switch the dog will have diarrhea and it will probably a pretty dark color (if you get the red meat option not sure of the color of the white meat option) thats just the color of the food so don't worry too much unless she has it for longer than a few days... start by feeding it dry this will help lessen the effects of the diarrhea... wait a few days before introducing the wet food. jsut because it is a completely natural diet that is similar to what they would eat in the wild and its not like most commonly found dogs foods... but just be patient and remember she needs time to adjust to the abrupt change...
don't take eveything I say as the word... I'm just repeating things that have been told to me... and that have worked for me... every dog is different....

[briteday]

If you search the food forum there is a post, several posts, containing a calculator to figure out what is good and bad about foods. Several of the more popular brands have already been scored in the post so you don't have to do the analysis yourself.

Innova is very good. Canidae has excellent ingredients and good philosophy about how they obtain their ingredients.

Any form of Proplan, I'm assuming you are talking about Purina food, is loaded with corn and other fillers. Purina donates tons of money to shelters so I hate to say anything bad. So I will just say that dogs cannot digest corn, it comes out the same way it went in. And dog food companies use it mainly because it can be claimed as a protein source (no matter that it is not available thru digestion to a dog as a protein source!), it's relatively cheap and abundant, and kibble needs to be high in grain to be manufactured.

That being said, if a food has more than one or two grains in the first five ingredients, you could do better. And if corn is anywhere in the ingredient list, run the other way. And a meat protein should always be the first ingredient on the list.

[cbow]

When switching foods I was told that a spoonfull of canned pumpkin helps keep the "waste" more solid.