129 replies to this topic

[tessa_s212]

I, too, am reading this. It is very educational. I have just recently started researching nutrition because of my dog's seizures. I am glad that there are so many educated intelligent people on this message board! I am just a bit displease that so many rude things were being shoved around on this particular thread. But, am still very happy that I got to hear everyone's opinion!

[Cody's pop]

Up until 3 years ago I played in a Bluegrass band that was sponsored by ProPlan.We got free food for our dogs and lots of food and treats to give away at our concerts,heck our banjo player would even munch on pro plan biscuits on stage while we were plugging them.(tells ya a lot about banjo players)Now I wish I hadn't been involved,I see that it was not really in the dogs best interest but just a marketing vehicle.I fed my dogs the food and they seemed ok with it,but since I started with raw I am seeing a much better response.I will say that Purina is Very supportive of the canine community here in St. Louis.Our herding club and agility club both work out at Purina Farms and they have regular competitions for both as well as flyball and will be hosting the Border Collie Specialty Oct 10-16.They are very big on Border Collies.Also the finals of the Incredible Dog Challenge every fall here in Forest Park.Also Long Meadow rescue ranch.They do a lot,but they sell the whole time,so take it for what it is.

[Pipedream Farm]

Originally posted by ErinKate:
When it turns into someone waiting to point out someone else's mistakes, line by line, I think it is childish. It also losses it's effect.

When erroneous information is posted in these forums and allowed to be perpetuated, soon people begin to believe they are fact. I'd rather see these errors corrected line-by-line with the supporting data before others take these errors as fact since it's much more difficult to correct the false perception later. I have at least one good example from this forum if you are interested.

Mark

[Annette Carter & the Borderbratz]

You're right Mark! And when I'm wrong I expect and hope that someone more knowledgeable will correct me. This is the type of dialogue that I learn from - you and Renee have actually taught me quite a bit and I thank you for it.

[Annette Carter & the Borderbratz]

I think we all fed substandard foods at some point in time. The argument made to me eons ago was by a vet that said that Ralston Purina put so much money into canine nutritional research that they could not possibly be wrong.

What he failed to realize is that they are a company working within broad guidelines of what is reasonably safe (ie. won't make the dog/cat drop dead over night) and will keep animals alive. So if they do the minimum they make money and if they do something a little better then it's "premium" and they charge more and they still make lots of money. The point is that as a company they need to make more money than they need to provide ideal nutrition because they couldn't make the same profit margin doing so. That's my take on the whole thing anyway.

[juliepoudrier]

FWIW, I used to feed my dogs ProPlan and they did just fine on it. I changed to something different when I wanted to get a better protein:fat ratio. Some folks may think Purina is crap; others like it. You do what works for you. Heck, when I was growing up all of our animals were fed Purina (horse chow and omolene, goat chow, layena for the chickens--you get the idea). (Okay my parents were part owners of a Purina feed store, so that may have had something to do with it, but back then your choices were pretty much Purina or Southern States anyway.) None of our animals were keeling over dead as a result of "substandard" feed. Every animal I have ever had to put on a veterinary diet has gone on the Purina diet--of course that has mainly been because the Purina diets seem much more palatable, which is important if you have a sick animal that isn't eating well. This is not meant to be a defense of all things Purina, but if Purina makes a feed that works for you and your animal (whatever that animal is), then use it and don't worry about what other people think.

Regarding the comments about line-by-line refutations of claims made by some posters, I am all for it. As Mark and others have said, it's the only way to clear up misconceptions and prevent perpetuation of incorrect information.

J.

[Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke]

Okay...what's the "worst" food you ever fed and were proud of it? I fed my dogs Gaines Burgers when I was 16 and they LOVED them!

[Annette Carter & the Borderbratz]

Never fed gaines burgers but I fed my Persian Cat Purina Tender Vittles, he was a very sick kitty most of his life and that was the only thing he would eat.

The Dog: I had to switch between dog chow and gravy train because he waan't an easy keeper either. He was an outside dog and ate poorly in the heat of the summer. I prefered feeding the dog chow because it didn't seem to have the dyes that the other did. I have a good friend that feeds her 5 dogs Dog Chow to this day - she used to feed Eukanuba. Ran into a rough time in life and had to feed something cheaper. When things got better, her dogs were doing so well that she didn't feel the need to switch back.

Sometimes, I wish I could get over my "dog food phobias". This is what happens when one reads too much

[Joan]

Originally posted by Debbie Crowder-BaaramuLuke:
Okay...what's the "worst" food you ever fed and were proud of it? I fed my dogs Gaines Burgers when I was 16 and they LOVED them!

Debbie! Many years ago, my ex and I fed Gaines Burgers to our Labs, as treats. Their food was something worse, I'm sure. I'll never forget the Gaines Burgers because Magic grabbed one out of my hand and immediately swallowed the entire thing, including the plastic wrapper. I found the wrapper in the yard the next day. :eek:

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I fed Science Diet to my very own first dog, who is still alive. She would surely literally thrive on garbage, I have no doubt. Sometime after her first "molt" however, I switched to Nutro when I noticed the ingredients on Science Diet didn't seem substantially different from the supposedly much worse grocery store brands. :confused: :confused: :confused: I noticed a big difference immediately in her shedding and her physique (slimmer but muscley-er).

Bubo, my second dog and one that came with extremely fragile health, got me looking for something even better and at that time the human-grade ingredient kibble wave had begun. I started with Innova and went from there.

Jen and Don have both been on the cheapest possible foods. Jen was kept at a friend's right after the accident and pretty much looked like she had one foot in the grave when she came back. Of course she'll do that on the best food, too, sometimes - she's just determined to make people think I don't feed her. Don was absolutely obese when I brought him home - it had been a few weeks since he had been worked and that economy sporting food will pack on the weight pretty quick.

Ben's eaten Gaines' Burgers too! I won't describe what he was like when he came back after that experience - they had the best intentions and the accident gave me no choice in the situation.

On the other hand, Greg during the same time also got the Gaines burgers and did so well that I kept him on them the very short time he had left after he came back. He did have a series of strokes but I don't think it was the change in food.

For a dog that's not grain intolerant and isn't experiencing stomach upset, I don't think there's anything wrong with using something like the burgers to tempt them to eat. Short term. Though I have yet to find a dog on this side of death that won't at least eat a bite of my salmon and spinach dip.