dog food advice

[vernacular_life]

tinksdust, amcoop and anyone else who's animal-centric, can you give me some input on dog food?

Sammy's been on Nutro since birth, and just read that the company is under investigation for dogs getting sick (Sammy' s usually okay, had a bad run of the barfs a few years ago, but has been mostly okay).

Anyone know more about this? Can you guys recommend some similarly-priced food that has checked out okay? He's 100% dry food, so no canned or raw diet food please :)

Comments

[janaya.livejournal.com]

when researching kibble, i ended up landing on wellness, at least for puppies. even though it's a little more, they eat less and the quality was significantly higher from what i could tell.

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

I've heard a lot of good things about wellness - need to look into that a bit more. thanks J!

[janaya.livejournal.com]

where did you read this about nutro? i want to pass the info on to my neighbor.

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

On the iPhone now so can't c/p but will link it tomorrow!

[vernacular-life.livejournal.com]

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/nutro_foia.html

Consumer affairs says they are being investigated according to the FDA, but Nutro says no they're not. So who really knows.

[tinksdust.livejournal.com]

Our dogs are eating Nature's Variety. It's similarly priced to Wellness. It used to be a little cheaper but they've had some price hikes lately. I like it because you can switch between the flavors without mixing. We usually switch between salmon and chicken (Beacon doesn't seem to do well on the venison, beef, and lamb). We also only feed about a cup each feeding (2 cups a day) per dog. A 30# bag lasts us about a month for both dogs. They don't look thin even though we're feeding less than the recommended amount. We do give more when they're out hiking with us and take into account how many treats they've had throughout the day.

Wellness is also good. Our dogs have tried that as well but I keep going back to NV. Both Wellness and NV are made in the US. When dealing with sales reps I liked the one I had from both companies. Although recently I believe Eagle Pack bought Wellness or somehow they're linked.

If you're looking to do some online research check out these two sites. If you want more or have specific questions let me know. I've done dog food research until I thought my head would explode!

For me as a general rule of thumb I like to have a "meal" ingredient first (chicken meal, beef meal, etc.). "Meal" is measured without the water content so it has more meat content then just "chicken". If you can find something with the first two or three ingredients being meat that's awesome. But that usually means you're paying a lot more for food.

http://www.thepetfoodlist.com/petfoods_pg1.htm
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

[steen70.livejournal.com]

Lita eats Natural Balance (by Dick Van Patten!) and we just added some special dental food recommended by the vet (TD by Science Diet? Something like that.).

[amcoop.livejournal.com]

My pups also eat Nature's Variety. I switch between the Salmon and the Beef due to my older dog having major skin issues with chicken. Of course, both dogs also have seasonal allergies...go figure.

I found an online company in VA Beach that sells it (with shipping) for the same price or less than I could find it anywhere locally. www.carealotpets.com Their shipping time when I order just food is around 24 hours and even with ground shipping it gets here in about a day (so 2 days total from time I order). I imagine it wouldn't be much longer to get it up to where you are - just be sure you have enough food left! Ha! I planned poorly last month and ran out!

I had them on Wellness for awhile, but they just seemed to do better with the NV (less flaky skin, shinier coats). We also tried the Natural Balance which they did OK on, but still not as well as the NV. However, both Wellness and the Natural Balance are easier to come by (Petco carried both brands and has a frequent buyer program). I do still feed them the Natural Balance treats because they have nice limited ingredients in them.

So, I hope that helps...NV seems to be the easiest for my older dog's sensitive digestive system. She is also an incredibly picky eater (she stopped eating the Natural Balance after a few meals unless I would top it was something tasty like canned food) but I have never had problems with her not eating the NV. Moo's system can handle about anything, but she had horrible ear infections that we were afraid were food related. We know now that though she is a little sensitive to grains and chicken, the majority of her issues are external, so she gets a whopping dose of salmon oil with her meals along with doggy antihistamines.

Oh, and one last comment...I have never, ever had good luck with Solid Gold's foods. They come highly recommended in the holistic and dog health-food circles, but Sadie just wouldn't ever eat it and it was the one food that gave Moo the runs that she never seemed to get over.

Good luck with your food hunt!