dogfood opinions.....

[pmster73]

I am wondering about opinions on Purina...I am currently buying come and get it, but buy anything that is purina due to my dog doing well with it and changing makes him sick. I have researched online some ratings some say they swear by purina others say purina is rated kind of low. I dont want to change. Works for Riley, and price is right for us But I also want Riley to be healthy. searching online I get totally different opinions of just about everything Just curious about what others think here about purina and the dogfood you prefer...

 

[PoodleMommy]

Purina, and pretty much anything you buy at the grocery store is pretty low quality.

Higher quality brands include Innova, California Natural, FROMM, etc.

Also if money is an issue there is a brand at Costco called Kirklands that gets pretty good ratings.

PETCO also now sells a few decent quality foods including Wellness and Solid Gold.

These higher quality foods have more real meat, no by products, corn, and fillers which your dog cant really digest.

Im sure if you look through the food section you will find a lot of help on this topic.

As far as what I prefer... mine do really well on FROMM... one is on the Duck and Sweet Potato formula and the other is on the new Grain Free Surf and Turf.

 

[Saeleofu]

I hate purina foods, especially the lower grades (like Alpo, Dog Chow, etc)

If you MUST feed Purina, I think ProPlan is the highest quality Purina food.

I feed Taste of the Wild, which is grain free...and also is not purina.

 

[FoxyWench]

in general purina is considered a veyr poor food, its full of grains which dogs dong digest properly (ie corn) and the "meat" is the scrap items, often beaks, feet, heads and feathers when it comes to chicken.

HOWEVER...

if your dog does well on it, good weight, good poops, good coat, then i see no issue.
i will say if you like purina look into the chef micheals food by purina, of all the foods put out by purina that ones actually ok (uses less grains and REAL meat)

in my house, the cresties eat kirklands chicken and rice...
but my parents cocker charlie gets a VERY upset tummy on kirkland...
weve tried many different brands, and the ONLY brand he does ok on? Pedigree, which when it comes to dog food its one of the worst...however id rather feed him a sub par food he does well on than a great food that makes him sick...

 

[BlueChaos]

The general rule of thumb is that if you can find it at grocery store, its garbage. Even vet endorsed Science diet is glorified garbage.
I've heard multiple people say if it aint broke, dont fix it. The problem with that statement that it can take years for an illness to manifest and since low quality foods are chalk full of poor quality ingridients and not to mention carcinogenic preservatives, why risk it?
You can cross your fingers and hope your dog does well eating junk, or you can take a proactive steps towards giving him the best chance at healthy life by feeding him right from the start. After all, proper nutrition is the cornerstone to good health.

There are several affordable brands on the market that do not contain the icky ingridients, keep in mind that stomach issues are not uncommon when switching foods, especially going from low to high quality, so transition very slowly, on average 2-3 weeks is needed, though 2 weeks is sufficient for most dogs. I reccomend adding couple tablespoon of plain unsweetened yogurt to help aid digestion since it has natural probiotics.

As far as the brands go, I reccomend Healthwise, its around $35 for 35 lbs, made by a reputable company and has decent ingridients. You'll have to check their website for store locations:
Where to Buy Healthy Dog Food, Healthy Cat Food & Healthy Puppy Food Brands – HealthWise Pet Food

Other affordable brands are:
1)Taste of the wild
2)Chicken soup for dog lovers soul
3)Premium Edge
4) Diamond Naturals
5) Kirkland signature and Natures Domain( only available through costco)

(you wont find most of these at chain petstores, but they are widely available through feed stores, so check manufactures site)

 

[Brattina88]

The Dog Food Project - How does your Dog Food Brand compare? is a great site to read up about dog foods. There's articles on ingredients to avoid, grain free products, etc. It's a good place to start when looking at foods, wanting to learn about what you want to feed your dog

 

[MandyPug]

What i've found in alot of my clients who are reluctant to switch from the low quality brands when they've fed them for years is that they only know what their dog looks like on that one food. So their idea of the dog thriving on Purina is because that's all they've seen. You don't truly know that soft silky coat, the bright clear eyes, the decrease of poop, and the better smell in general of the dog from both ends.

You don't truly know what your dog does best on unless you've tired other things. What you perceive as a perfectly healthy dog may be lacking in some way and you won't really know until you try a higher quality brand.

He also may be doing good now, but with things like Menadione Sodium Bisulfate and BHA/BHT, artificial colours and flavours, by-products and unnamed meat meals, and other added chemicals he very likely could have issues cropping up later in life.

Here's a list of ingredients you DON'T want to find in pet foods, it also gives short definitions:
Tail Blazers - Nasty Substances
Two or more ingredients from the list in your food and you should probably look into something better.

Also another note, because this has come up tons of times in conversations. A true food switch may take up to a month or more to show the effects. If you switch from ol'roy to orijen the body is going to need to detox itself and change the digestive enzymes available. You can't determine how well they do after even a week in most cases.

 

[Maura]

I've also noticed the detox effect when switching foods. The dog will put out tons of poop and will smell bad. This may last one day or several. I put all of my fosters on raw and the difference shows up very quickly. the foster I have right now I've had to put on kibble and I feed her Taste of the Wild, which Tractor Supply sells. It was not cheap, but the dog is only about 12 pounds so the bag is going to last a long time.

As Mandypug wrote, if you've never experienced a dog on a high quality food you don't have a real comparison.

 

[Romy]

If you're worried about being on a budget, and still want a high quality food I suggest trying out the costco Kirkland brand.

It's actually much cheaper than the Purina foods. I priced Purina One at the grocery store last week, and it was over $30 for a 33 lb bag. That's over one dollar per pound.

In contrast, the Kirkland food is only $26 for a 40 lb bag. That's about half the price.

Now compare ingredients:

Kirkland Signature Range Chicken Full Ingredients List:
Chicken, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, cracked pearl barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and vitamin E), egg product, beet pulp, potatoes, fish meal, flaxseed, natural flavor, brewers dried yeast, millet, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, carrots, peas, kelp, apples, dried skim milk, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, dried chicory root, glucosamine hydrochloride, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, chondroitin sulfate, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

You'll notice that Kirkland has no byproducts, and the first two ingredients are meat. Now here are the ingredients for Purina One

Ingredients

Chicken (natural source of glucosamine), brewers rice, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine), whole grain wheat, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), animal digest, calcium phosphate, salt, potassium chloride, caramel color, calcium carbonate, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

I bolded the suspect ingredients. Here are some quotes from The Dog Food Project on a couple of them, that explain what they are. If you'd like to go back and read up on all of them the link is there:

Animal Digest


AAFCO: A material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind or flavor(s), it must correspond thereto.

A cooked-down broth made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The animals used can be obtained from any source, so there is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: "4-D animals" (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse and so on.

Chicken Byproduct Meal


AAFCO: Consists of the dry, ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines -- exclusive of feathers except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.

Chicken byproducts are much less expensive and less digestible than the chicken muscle meat.The ingredients of each batch can vary drastically in ingredients (heads, feet, bones etc.) as well as quality, thus the nutritional value is also not consistent. Don't forget that byproducts consist of any parts of the animal OTHER than meat. If there is any use for any part of the animal that brings more profit than selling it as "byproduct", rest assured it will appear in such a product rather than in the "byproduct" dumpster.

We have tried several different feeding regimens. Of the kibble, our dogs did best on Taste Of the Wild. If we could afford it right now that is what we would feed. For the time being, everybody is doing really well on Kirkland. That is what our dog's breeders used, it's economical and very high quality for the price.

Edit: I would also like to point out that Diamond makes the Kirkland food for costco, it is the same formula as their Diamond Naturals line. The Taste of the Wild is their grain free line.

And it is important to do a gradual switch to a new food, otherwise your dog will end up with an upset stomach.

 

[dobesgalore]

If finances are an issue, as with us right now maybe look into Diamond Naturals.(Naturals formulas ONLY). No corn, no wheat, no soy and no by products. On a tight budget its the healthiest I have found. We have eight medium/large dogs so we get a couple large bags at a time each week.

 

[puppydog]

You will only notice how much your dog is NOT thriving if you change foods.

 

[Amstaffer]

The Dog Food Project - How does your Dog Food Brand compare? is a great site to read up about dog foods. There's articles on ingredients to avoid, grain free products, etc. It's a good place to start when looking at foods, wanting to learn about what you want to feed your dog

Ditto... good post

if money is an issue the best bang for the buck IMHO is American Natural Premium
It is a dog food made by Fromms. Its not perfect but for the price you can't beat it.

if money isn't an issue, I believe that
Stella & Chewy's - Home
Is the best prepared dog food.

hope that helps.

 

[Saeleofu]

Again, if money is an issue, I think Taste of the Wild is probably the cheapest grain-free food, but I also hear that the price varies a lot depending on location. Here, anyway, it's about $40 for a big bag.

Another thing to consider is that you feed less food when you feed a higher quality food. For example, when I fed my dog Hills T/D (Hills is a shitty food, really. There are reasons to feed a prescription diet, but I'd avoid it if it's not absolutely necessary), I had to feed him 4 cups a day. That is A LOT of dog food. And of course...there's A LOT of poop. On Taste of the Wild, I feed just over 2 cups a day. That's half of what I fed before. So even though the bag costs more, it lasts twice as long, so it's actually cheaper in the long run.

 

[pmster73]

Thank you all soooo much for all your input!!! I have jotted down your ideas. I appreciate your different suggestions on what to look for when changing foods so I wont be alarmed to much if his poop changes for a bit and stuff I had never realized purina was so bad...I figured stay away from 'hannaford brand' and its fine. try to buy higher end stuff from grocery store and I'd do well. That is soooo not the case. I didnt know quite what by-products meant till now, and didnt know corn was bad. I thank you all for your thoughts!