I’m curious what you guys feed your dogs. Do you go in for the super premium foods or more off the shelf brands? The reason I ask is because I’ve been feeding Purina One for a very long time. It’s all I ever fed to my 17 year old pup. And when she died two years ago I started feeding it to my new pup. Same small breed….Papillons. I just figured 17 years without a problem was a pretty good track record. But wow have things changed. Now people treat you like you’re abusing your pet if you don’t feed them some ultra high end custom food at $75 a bag. You should see the stink eye I get when I leave Hollywood Feed with my Purina!
I’m not trying to start a war between pet owners. I just feel like pet food should be a pretty simple choice and now a days it’s anything but.
My Dog had a stomach problem while my Son was watching him this fall.
The Doc reccomended Rachael Ray Nutrish while he recovered.
That’s all we feed him except for table scraps.
Quite a few years ago I read an analysis on the nutritional quality of dog foods. The brand I was using was rated pretty bad. I think most of the Purina line was kinda “meh”. Oddly enough some of the “super premium” stuff wasn’t rated very good either.
One of my dogs was having trouble with her current diet which is what prompted our looking around. Turned out that the Costco Kirkland line was rated fairly well so we switched to that. The dog in question did better on it. So we have just stuck with that.
I wouldn’t know where to find the article now, or I would offer a link. It has been several years though and things have most likely changed since then.
Our switch was driven by a (relatively minor) health concern with an apparently food sensitive dog. As I recall you are a health care professional correct? So no doubt you recognize that nutrition, while important, can be a mixed bag of studies and you really gotta work hard separate the wheat from the chaff. I would say “if it ain’t broke…”. I mean my diet ain’t exactly the best but as long as I’m doing ok and my doc ain’t having one of “those” talks with me about my eating habits I ain’t gonna sweat it too much.
We switched to Canidae all stages years ago. It isn’t the cheapest but not the most expensive either. I think it’s around $60 for a 40lb bag, it lasts us a couple months, maybe longer now with the dietary changes. Our old pup is a 16yo IG and she’s now on a kidney support diet which is prescription, and she’s otherwise very healthy. Our young one is 6 now a cattle dog, and she had an issue with eating too much with our old brand which was discontinued. We tried grain free and it gave both of them diarrhea even with partial mixing. Now the youngest is still on a portioned diet of the Canidae chicken and rice all stages blend and it works well for her.
My SIL is a vet and told us a few years ago that many of the “Walmarts of dog food” have lots of fillers they can’t digest so they end up passing it, buying some of the better foods ends up costing the same because you can feed them less volume and still get the same nutrition.
You are so right about the mixed information and misinformation. And everyone has an opinion. Grain free diets are best, no you need healthy grains, etc. After doing a ton of reading I just decided on a common sense approach. I look at the crude protein, is it around 30 percent? I look at the first 5 ingredients on the label to see where that protein is coming from. And I look for healthy fats and make sure there aren’t a lot of empty fillers like cornmeal and soybean. Purina One did fairly well with that approach. And after feeding it for 19 years now with no issue I would have to be really impressed by another food to switch over I think.
That filler thing has merit. When we switched our dogs over we started at the same volume and they started getting fat quickly. I think we are at about 2/3 maybe even a little less now.
Ours get a mix of shredded/chopped chicken (rotisserie chicken from Costco) w/some rice, green beans & some Hills SD kibble added in. Carrots and sweet potato for snacks
The correct food can be dog dependent. My last dog had standard dry dog food and some table scraps. Always healthy.
Our current dog was about the same until a severe digestion problem arose at year 6. After about four months, three vets and a variety of different foods, including so-called prescription dog food and home made, I figured the dog was going to die. Then we took her to a vet that had a local radio show. After looking at the history he said our dog has a problem with protein. WTF? Recommended hydrolyzed canned dog food. Apparently it somehow makes protein that her system doesn’t recognize. Immediate fix. It’s only $5 per can (2x per day) grrrrrrrrr. Only in America….
We have been feeding our 2 ankle biters 4 Health small bites from Tractor Supply for many years. Both are healthy and very active when outside. They get on the scale with me weekly so I can monitor their weights.
Yep, years ago I tried to upgrade one of my dogs from Science Diet to one of the ultra premiums and he couldn’t handle it, sick for 3 days so I switched him back.
The different dog foods definitely can make a difference.
Years back we noticed that our hound mutt was scratching herself raw. After a few vet visits it was determined that she was having an allergic reaction to food. They recommended that we switch to one of the dry foods that had sweet potato amd fish. We switched to Natural Balance with salmon and sweet potato. The skin problems went away. For a time that food was scarce and we switched to the Costco brand with sweet potato and fish and everything was still fine. Truthfully I’m about 95 percent sure it’s the same food just rebranded by Costco.
All that being said, our vet only advised us to use the more expensive specialty food after the dog started having issues. The many years prior to that they had no issue with her eating Purina.
We’ve had good results with Blue Buffalo dry food. Our terrier who we rescued (at middle age) had health issues due to abuse and neglect but he did well on it until he (unfortunately) passed away. Our cat has been on Blue Buffalo dry food since we adopted him as a kitten, supplemented with canned cat food sea food). It is not cheap but I believe it is false economy to skimp on pet food.
Our dog gets home made dog food. Turkey or beef, brown rice and mixed vegetables. Brown the meat, then add rice and veggies. We make up a large batch, freeze it in bags and thaw as needed. We keep enough thawed, in the refrigerator, so that we don’t have to thaw in the microwave.
The food is warmed for dinner, then vitamins in the form of powder are added. The dog loves it, and we don’t have to worry about harmful additives in manufactured dog food. We always get compliments from the veterinarian during checkups.
We’ve been feeding our current dogs Purina One Large Breed since they were pups. Our vet said he thought it was good to go so we went with that. We give them 4,000 ng of fish oil daily, a large breed milkbone with every meal and the older one gets a vitamin B shot every Saturday night. Plus I buy pig ears at the Co-Op and give them one or two a week.
I had switched to more expensive GRAIN FREE food, but the Vet said they’d seen a lot of Dogs with Cancer who’d been on Grain free. So I went back to Iams.
I have tried a lot of brands. A couple of my dogs had food allergies and I’m pretty sure one of the problems is due to chicken. They would lick their paws and scratch and develop little bumps on their skin.
I have used Acana, Fromm, Merrick, Victor, and Orijen. All worked for a time except the Victor which did have chicken in it. It’s a good food, just not for dogs with allergies. It seems that manufacturers will change their recipe sometimes and not tell the public, because they would work for a year or more and then allergies.
I heard a lot of owners using Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach and although I was hesitant in using a Purina branded food, I gave it a shot. Working great so far, going on a couple years now. It isn’t exactly cheap, but compared to the more exotic ones like Acana and Orijen, you get more for your dollar and it works. So I can’t complain about that.
I was going to go that route with my dog and my vet said he had seen a lot of heart issues in dogs with a grain free diet. He was very careful to say he had no research in hand to prove a causal relationship between the two. But his point was why chance it when we know that a normal grain inclusive diet is FINE. So I stuck with Purina One.
Our guy has always had a sensitive tummy and after trying all sorts of brands/formulas over the years we settled on NutraSource. We alternate between the grain-free salmon and one of the rice formulas and supplement with chicken bone broth and veggie puree as toppers. He’s been doing well on that for many years now.