42 replies to this topic

[KillilovesBC]

Hello!

Our BC is 8 months now. We have had him on Purina One since we picked him up, that is what the breeder had him eating. Recently, we changed his food from the beef to the chicken and he has had major diarrhea for several days. We introduced it slowly but that doesn't seem to help.
This got me looking into more high quality foods...
Should we steer clear from Purina and cheap brands or is it okay? He does shed quite a bit but I am not sure what is normal. What foods do you guys recommend? And I realize that whatever food works just works but I'm feeling weird about Purina now...

Thanks for your help!
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[nancy]

We fed Fergie PetsMart's own brand, Authority, lamb & rice kibble for almost all of her 15-1/2 years. She did great on it. Bill G., from the Working Stockdog site told me what percentages of what to look for - and what to avoid. I went to every store in central North Carolina that carried any kind of kibble. This was the one food that fit his recommendations.

[Jim Kling]

FWIW, my vet's recent advice on the subject was pretty basic -- look for a statement that the dog food meets AAFCO recommendations, usually underneath the ingredient list. Beyond that, you generally get what you pay for, so more expensive = higher quality.

Other than that, my vet said if the dog seems to be doing well on a particular food, then the food is fine.

[Gloria Atwater]

If your dogs aren't doing well on a food, then that's not the food for them. I don't feed my dogs any grocery store brand. Years ago we fed Pedigree, but when our dogs started looking poor and not doing as well, we gave it up.

What I look for is a dog food that does not include corn, and that includes a couple major meat/protein sources high in the list of ingredients. I presently feed "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul" Adult and "Premium Edge Skin & Coat."

Brands can vary by region, though, so a good place to do some local brand comparison is this website: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

You can look at brands available at your local feed stores or whatever, and compare them on this site. Purina makes various kinds of dry foods, so you'd have to see what you've got. Their regular Purina Dog Chow gets only 1 star. Purina Pro Plan gets 3. My dog foods both get 4.

There are some top of the line dog foods out there, like "Taste of the Wild," but if you're on a budget, like I am, look around and do some comparisons on that site. That should help!

~ Gloria

[KillilovesBC]

Thank you so much!!

If your dogs aren't doing well on a food, then that's not the food for them. I don't feed my dogs any grocery store brand. Years ago we fed Pedigree, but when our dogs started looking poor and not doing as well, we gave it up.

What I look for is a dog food that does not include corn, and that includes a couple major meat/protein sources high in the list of ingredients. I presently feed "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul" Adult and "Premium Edge Skin & Coat."

Brands can vary by region, though, so a good place to do some local brand comparison is this website: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

You can look at brands available at your local feed stores or whatever, and compare them on this site. Purina makes various kinds of dry foods, so you'd have to see what you've got. Their regular Purina Dog Chow gets only 1 star. Purina Pro Plan gets 3. My dog foods both get 4.

There are some top of the line dog foods out there, like "Taste of the Wild," but if you're on a budget, like I am, look around and do some comparisons on that site. That should help!

~ Gloria

[Gloria Atwater]

You're welcome. I think I first learned of that site here, so I'm happy to share.

~ Gloria

[Maralynn]

What I look for is a dog food that does not include corn, and that includes a couple major meat/protein sources high in the list of ingredients. I presently feed "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul" Adult and "Premium Edge Skin & Coat."

-----

There are some top of the line dog foods out there, like "Taste of the Wild," but if you're on a budget, like I am, look around and do some comparisons on that site. That should help!

~ Gloria

That's interesting - around here TOTW, chicken soup and Premium edge are priced similarly. And all are significantly cheaper than food like Wellness, Core and Orijen.

to the OP- if you do a search on "food" here, you come up with many, many, many threads on the subject

[scullywags]

Hello!

Our BC is 8 months now. We have had him on Purina One since we picked him up, that is what the breeder had him eating. Recently, we changed his food from the beef to the chicken and he has had major diarrhea for several days. We introduced it slowly but that doesn't seem to help.
This got me looking into more high quality foods...
Should we steer clear from Purina and cheap brands or is it okay? He does shed quite a bit but I am not sure what is normal. What foods do you guys recommend? And I realize that whatever food works just works but I'm feeling weird about Purina now...

Thanks for your help!
 music stuff 004.JPG   1.31MB   22 downloads

I fed ONE for about 1 years my dogs had dry skin and stool issues
went to TOTW Ocean and they look fantastic no more itchy dry skin it took a few months but worth the money as I actually feed less of it.

[Pam Wolf]

Been feeding Red Paw Perform 32 and Power Edge 32 for a while now and am very happy with the results

[Gloria Atwater]

That's interesting - around here TOTW, chicken soup and Premium edge are priced similarly. And all are significantly cheaper than food like Wellness, Core and Orijen.

Maybe it depends on the area and the suppliers. Here, Chicken Soup and Premium edge are about $38 a bag, while ToTW is about $50 per bag. We just can't bring ourselves to pay that extra twelve bucks, when feeding 5 dogs.

Gloria

[alligande]

Sometimes you just have to try a bunch of different foods to see what works for your dogs digestion: we were feeding Taste of the Wild, but after Brody was very sick he had very runny stool, so we started working our way through the mid-priced premium dog foods ( Orijen etc is not in the budget) and the only one that agreed with him was Blue Buffalo, it took about three months of experimenting.

[ShesMaggie]

My Maggie eats Diamond Natural Large Breed Puppy and Spur eats their Senior formula. So far, so good!

[burdock]

Wilderness Chicken Blue Buffalo for Emma since she is a puppy, good stool and no problems with her eating it right up at meal time plus C.E.T.'s for teeth.

[dougf4]

Has anybody used the Costco Kirkland Signature Super Premium Puppy Chicken, Rice & Vegetable Formula?

If so, your thoughts please.

Item Description:

Kirkland Puppy Food

[Smalahundur]

Brands can vary by region, though, so a good place to do some local brand comparison is this website: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

I politely disagree, the man behind this website has no credentials apart from being able to read the label. He actually says so himself.

[Rua]

ours get TOTW high prairie...we used to feed diamond athlete but it made one of our girls go all "bulky" in the muscle department..since we switched over she has returned to a lean machine. If you do switch just remember to do it slowly..mix both for awhile to get their tummies used to new food..week or so of that will help. One of ours has tummy probs if I switch on the fly. :-)

[Chesney's Girl]

What Dry food is best in my opinion and the only one I would feed my dogs... Orijen or Acana. What does you're dog do best on, try a few of the listed above. There are so many dry kibbles out there that it really depends on what you can afford, how easy it is to find it, and ultimately how does your dog do on it.

But that's the opinion of a raw feeder

If you want to do some more reading and research I find this site interesting
Dog Food Project

[skiba]

I'm with Danielle on Acana or Orijen. My boys gets Acana, the cheaper version of Orijen from the same company, Champion Petfoods. When I got him at 6 weeks he was on Eukanuba and his coat was dull, so I did some research and switched to Innova. Since Innova's 'joining' with P&G I've switched to Acana and love it. Oliver's coat is so silky and shiny I could pet him all day - which he would have no qualms over ^.^
I'm a firm believer that any dog food that contains corn is crap. Also that at least the first ingredient should be meat. Its great if you have a picky eater, it has a high palatability. Also, the less grains in a dog food the less likely food allergies are to arise.
The only downside is that it isn't exactly cheap. A 30lb bag is $60 where I live, good thing I only have one dog
There are lots of other good dog foods out there, Acana/Orijen is just the one I chose.

[Mdaniels]

Ben gets TOTW Salmon. His coat has become so soft and silky.

[Lindsaloo]

I really like Canidae as well. I've had great success with it and it's relatively affordable. Their grain free varieties are some of the more pricey, but my dogs have all done extremely well on Canidae as a whole.