What Brand Of Dog Food Do You Feed?

[Roxy's CD]

LizzieCollie- You were thinking about feeding RAW weren't you? It's much healthier than ANY commercial brand and I'm sure there are plenty of people here that could help you out

I know my trainer makes her food, and she bakes up loaves of meatloafey stuff mixed with supplements. She makes it every 2 weeks, so it's not as much trouble as making every meal right before they eat it. Just an idea

 

[Kase]

I feed James Wellbeloved.

 

[iheartsammy]

I think a raw diet would be great for you Lizzie! but thats JMO...

 

[Herschel]

You know what I dont want to be rude but Im tired of having people throw ingredient lists at me like I am feeding crap because I want to. I LIVE IN PUERTO RICO for the billionth time and there is no Canidae, TO or any of that stuff! I am feeding the best I can, due to my circumstances.

P.S. A 20lbg bag of ONE is 16.49 here not 24.29

Sorry, I wasn't trying to offend anyone. I realize that better foods may not be easily available to you but I wasn't criticizing anything.

You said, "I fed Exclusive but due to certain problems im in the process of switching to Purina ONE. The ingredients are actually quite decent for a grocery food!"

I was just trying to make it clear that the ingredients in Purina ONE aren't as good as their marketing makes it seem.

 

[Toaster]

Because of this forum, and based on the recomendations and advice of Herschel, I have switched Stogie (my Doxun) to Innova EVO kibble. Which he is getting twice a day... kibble only in the morning- and kibble mixed with Innova canned (regular?) at night for the second (and last) feeding of the day.

Stogie has gone thru a couple of different dog foods over the last year... Science diet which made him throw up. NutroMax puppy from Petsmart, which he ate for a couple months, then woke up one day and decided he would rather starve than eat it anymore. Then we went to Purina Beneful, again mixed with canned something or another in the evening. And mainly because of reading through the forum - I decided I wanted to feed him a better food.

Innova was available locally at a feedstore about 10 miles from my house... $6.99 USD for a 3.3 lbs bag, which I'm guessing will last my 8-9 lbs doxun about a month? I guess we'll see. The 12 oz can food was $1.39 and yeilds 3-4 servings.... so overall I can't complain about cost.

I considered Royal Canin, which had a Dachshund specific formula which I thought was interesting, but it was $12.99 for the same 3 lbs bag at Petsmart. I couldn't find Canidae kibble - I found the canned at the same feedstore I bought the Innova from (they had most of the brands I've been reading about here btw, eagle, solid gold, wellness, california natural, etc)... Another "Holistic" food I saw at Petsmart was BLUE BUFFALO, which reads to be a good food (I think? Herschel??? ) and it was the cheapest of them all (in the small quantity I'm buying in) at $12.99 for 6.5 lbs.

My little guy eats such small portions, I didn't want to buy 20 lbs bag of food, it would take him literally MONTHS to eat it all... I really dont want to store that quantity of dog food for that long - fear of it attracting any unwanted visitors and since I'm going the extra mile to feed him good food in the first place - he deserves to eat it fresh

To address a couple of the things I read in some of the last few posts:
I agree... Any pet who is getting loving, caring attention from its owner/parent - is FAR better off than the ones being abused, mistreated, or abandoned. Don't feel guilty feeding your pet the best that is available to you within your budget, and within your area of availability. I KNOW I WOULDNT. That being said, I was feeding my dog Beneful at about $5 for 4 lbs I think... so $7 for 3 lbs is roughly double... but its still well within my budget for his food (I'll just skip the Latte at Starbucks the day I buy his food). And OK: Its not at the corner grocery store, I actually have to make a special trip to pick it up... But its not that big a deal to me.

And yes, until I found this forum, the advertising power of the mass marketed foods is OVERWHELMING to the average consumer. Thats why I bought the Beneful! I saw that happy dog with his owner running down the stairs on TV, while the meat and veggie's rained down on them both! Hell it Looked good to me!

 

[LizzieCollie]

Its gone through my mind a few times to feed raw, but there is a LOT of research that I need to do, because its not just throw a chicken at your dog and that’s it. I would have to find out what exactly to feed so she has a balanced diet, what amount of vitamins and minerals she is getting so I can accurately supplement her, and a big list of other things. For now, im not sure that I can adequately research at the moment, so I don’t think I'll be making the big switch.

Lizzie has been getting raw about 4-5 evenings a week and her little puppy chew vitamin, but I think that’s about as far as I dare to take her :-/

 

[weylyn]

Lizzie, I'm very glad you want to take your time to research raw feeding--as you (and anyone else) should!

IMHO...

I would have to find out what exactly to feed so she has a balanced die

http://rawfed.com/myths/balance.html

so I can accurately supplement her

Unless your dog has a prexisting medical condition where she needs to be supplemented with whatever she is lacking, this really isn't something you have to worry about. http://www.rawlearning.com/supplementmyths.html

Raw feeding takes a good foundation of knowledge and research, but it's not rocket science.

 

[Bobsk8]

Lizzie, I'm very glad you want to take your time to research raw feeding--as you (and anyone else) should!

IMHO...



http://rawfed.com/myths/balance.html



Unless your dog has a prexisting medical condition where she needs to be supplemented with whatever she is lacking, this really isn't something you have to worry about. http://www.rawlearning.com/supplementmyths.html

Raw feeding takes a good foundation of knowledge and research, but it's not rocket science.

And the qualifications of the people that wrote this stuff on these two web pages is???????

 

[Mordy]

I disagree with several parts of the "raw learning" site, mostly because not all dogs do well on the same type of diet. In my opinion, Jane is too much of an extremist and extremism is never a good thing.

Personally I feed raw, but I prefer to check the nutrient content of what I feed against the numbers published by the NRC and supplement whatever comes up short. "Balance over time" is nice, but I'd rather know than guess.

 

[weylyn]

I agree with you, Mordy, a lot of raw folks can be a bit extreme. I did supplement with kelp and such when I first started, until I learned about the very high iodine content.

Frankly, I think there's the same sort of crapshoot in some dry diets. http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1 (the The 100% Myth — Problems Caused by Inadequate Nutrition section) Yes, they're talking about lower end kibbles (hence, I said "some" diets).

Lonsdale also mentions: "Feeding supplementary, synthetic vitamins can do harm."

Personally, I don't believe vit/min supplements are like water or should be used "just in case"...IMHO, I think they should be on a "need to" basis. If you know you're severely lacking in one area that has no chance of being made up with in the future (for example: fish body oil, because commerically raised meat lacks in certain omegas) or your dog has a medical coniditon (or, say, joint problems), IMHO, that's great. Supplement away.

Mordy, if you have any links or resources which prove exactly what and how much min/vits dogs need, I'd love to read it (no sarcasm meant, I'm being honest).

 

[Mordy]

Iodine is critical in the diet, the recommended daily amount is 15 microgram per kilogram of body weight per NRC research. In humans iodine deficiency isn't an issue anymore since the invention of iodized table salt and commercial pet foods are fortified, but when feeding a home prepared diet it's important to supply enough.

"In the wild" predators consume most of their prey, including the thyroid gland, where as much as 75% of the body's iodine is stored. We can't duplicate that in a raw diet unless we feed whole prey that still contains the thyroid and other glands and organs and has not been raised on iodine deficient food itself.

Kelp is a nice way to prevent deficiency because it is a natural food supplement (which is always preferable). Good quality products will tell you how much iodine (and other nutrients) they contain per serving so you can dose properly. For example the kind I'm using right now contains1940 microgram (mcg) of iodine per teaspoon, which means that for 4 weeks worth of food I need to add 2 3/4 teaspoons of kelp.

I'm strictly discussing this in a frame of home prepared diets (cooked or raw), not commercial foods, since those have to meet some standards at the very least, which includes fortification with certain vitamins and minerals.

In regards to supplements, I believe in using natural food sources wherever possible and concentrated single-source supplements manufactured from natural ingredients are second best. Synthetic products are something I recommend staying away from. I do not believe in "general purpose" multivitamin/mineral supplements but rather, as you said, on an ass needed basis. Most products marketed especially for pets are worthless anyway, at least the mainstream ones.

If you want the short overview on the nutrient requirements of adult dogs, have a look here:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=requirements

You can learn much more from the new NRC publication on nutrient requirements for dogs and cats, but the book is rather costly:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0309086280/103-3150217-5297439

The 1985 version is available online for free if you just want to get an idea about the format.
http://darwin.nap.edu/books/0309034965/html

 

[weylyn]

Thanks for the links, Mordy. I'll have a good look at them when it's NOT 12:21AM

Also, here's a list of vitamins and minerals present in the components of a raw diet:
http://www.kaossiberians.com/health/Nutrients.pdf

 

[dojo]

Chappy seems to be the one he likes. I don't know exactly which flavour since I am not the one buying the food

 

[Mordy]

Thanks for the links, Mordy. I'll have a good look at them when it's NOT 12:21AM

Also, here's a list of vitamins and minerals present in the components of a raw diet:
http://www.kaossiberians.com/health/Nutrients.pdf

You are welcome!

That table in your link is not very useful though, since it doesn't give any amounts of nutrients present in a particular food item. All it does is tell you foods A, B and C contain nutrients X, Y and Z, but not how much per weight unit.

At the very least I'd want someone to be able to see at a glance which food items are low or high in certain nutrients so they can balance them against each other.

 

[Toaster]

Thought I'd share a video with you guys.... Showing you how and what stogie eats.

This video is in .mp4 format, its about 1.4mb in size, was taken and edited on my Nokia N90 cell phone. I added some simple text, transistion wipe, and a sound track

http://cigar.textamerica.com/?r=5178898

Other video's of Stogie and other stuff can be seen on my Moblog at cigar.textamerica.com

 

[CanadianK9]

Holistic Blend