So I stand corrected.

doggie mama is a hard job!  Afriad that they don't eat and what they will eat [8|]

 I hope both your dogs feel better very soon. Keeping a notebook about how a dog does on different foods is a good idea.

It sounds like you're doing what you should be doing. The notebook is an excellent idea that I never thought of.
 
I learnt my lesson, the first time. I was kicking myself in the butt for messing with the ancient engineering principle. If it works, don't fix it. Of course, if a dog has problems with any food after a while, then it could be tough to stick with just one.
 
Anyway, good luck.
 

If you want some help on the dog food ingredient lists and getting lower fat, you can pop over to [linkhttp://www.mordanna.com]www.mordanna.com[/link] and click on The Dog Food Project.  Mordy used to post here, and she's a wealth of info.

Thanks guys! It's so hard to not feel guilty!  Now that I think of it, Darby had yeast problems throughout her life- but seh was started on bj puppy and then rotated through the last several years, so wondering if that has been a major contributing factor.  Blind eyes have been reopened
 
I have kept a notebook for all the furkids with notes about foods, results, urine pH, coat, teeth, everything.  I also note grooming in there and things like heartworm and frontline.  I think everyone should- it really helps keep track.
 
The best performer for these guys has been PetGuard. I didn't have one complaint the last time I fed it, so I think I"ll try that again. It's lower fat than the bj is.
I guess time will tell. I fed it for 6 months before I decided I 'needed' to rotate again- and they were still doing very well.

Thanks for letting me vent.

I keep a food,supplement and excercise diary.I write in what supps they have had everyday,otherwise i forget what they have or havnt had the day before,and i write in where we go for walks so i dont double up on the same walk twice in one week.EVERYTHING concerning the dogs is written in their diary,i have 4 years worth on my bookshelf [8|]

As for the biljac,i have always said it takes time for bad ingredients to show themselves,not that i'm saying BJ is extremely bad,but there are better,as people have reminded you of in the past [] Some people say the preservatives,by-products etc in foods are there in minimal amounts,but when fed everyday they accumulate and when the body reaches saturation point,thats when the problems arise.For some dogs this takes years,other months,but you can bet a food with substandard ingredients will catch up with the pet sooner or later.

What preservatives does biljac use? BHA or BHT,ethoxiquin? Does it contain any by-products?
I cant seem to find the ingredient list[&:]

I found the ingredients,they arent as bad as i thought they were.I noticed they use BHA which put me off and is one of those things that no doubt builds up in the body over time and may cause problems.

Edie, I have notebooks for each of the dogs with info about foods and grooming and such. One of them is 10 years long
 
I do think your idea about buildup is probably true for Darby and Lexi at least. My minpin Gobie seems to be doing quite well on it still, but for sake of ease I'm going to go back to PetGuard which they all do well on - and then only one bag of dog food for me to deal with.
 
Thanks for the idea of buildup... hadn't thought of that.
 
Guilty mommy,
Tiffani

I posted the same thing on a different thread, but wasn't sure if you'd see it there so......
 
I'm pretty sure the problem with Bil Jac was the corn, molasses, and brewer's dried yeast. Corn feeds yeast, molasses (and any type of sugar) feeds yeast and dogs that are prone to yeast infections shouldn't be fed anything with yeast (brewer's dried yeast is in the food). Aside from knowing that about those ingredients, if everywhere in your notebook you notice that when you fed Bil Jac the symptoms flared up, I think it's safe to say the food caused it. []
 
.

I never change kibble.  One time I tried better for Buck and he threw up every time it ate it--so back to Purina dog chow for him.  KayCee did fine on the Scicne Diet RD when she had to lose weight, but I have no problme with her or Honey on the Purina Fit and Trim..  That is it as far as kibble goes. 
 
They do get daily meat--fresh fish if I have it, otherwise for fish, either mackeral, sometimes salmon or sardins, but mostly, by far, mackeral.  They also get veggies.  Get unsalted canned green beans and carrots almost every night, but occasionally I will boil some white or sweet potatoes or yellow squash with their boiled meats, which is chicken hearts, liver or gizzard, beef liver, sometimes ground beef, and sometimes chicken.  Last night I made myself some beef liver and onions and boiled the rest of the liver with yellow squash and white potato for the dogs.  Tonight it was mackeral with green beans and carrots.  Sometimes i scramble some eggs in the microwave for them, give them a spoon of unsweetened applesuace when I have it here for myself, etc. 
 
A while back back someone  who hasn't posted here in sometime hinted i didn't care enough for my dogs to spend the money for top of the line dog food.  I suspect i spend as much or more for the Purina AND the meats and veggies as I would pay for top of the line food.  But since they get great health reports, are active, have beautiful coats, etc, I see no need to change the way i feed them.
 
 

Sandra, I remember when you got picked on about feeding dog chow.
I've always been a food-switcher- I dunno, partly because I feel like they need variety or might be missing out on something or another food might be the *IT* food, but they generally aren't.
 
Bil-Jac really screwed them up- even thought I was defending it and they did well for a month on it.. now they're just falling apart, except for my minpin.
 
PetGuard is the only thing that's really worked very well for all 3 of them for any length of time. I fed it for 6 months straight last year (a record for me probably) and I had no complaints. They looked and felt great, had no health problems.  Then I decided to change around and they start falling apart.
 
I do agree with you- and Ron also- you've both been the voices of common sense here- feed what works and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 
Like you, from time to time I supplement with fresh foods ( but have been so stinkin busy trying to prep our house to sell, toddler, pregnant, etc) so they haven't been getting as much fresh food either.
 
I like that PetGuard's website states that they encourage feeding fresh meat and veggies along with their kibble.  They seem to be a good company even tho some idoggers don't like that it has corn, meniadone (sp), and poultry fat in it.  Doesn't bother me because it seems that it's the only thing that works.

So now I'm waiting for my health food store to get my bag in so I can start feeding it asap and hope things get straightened back out. And if they do- I'm leaving it alone (and you guys will have to talk sense into me if I start talking about switching again! LOL)
 
Thanks for letting me ramble.
Wage,

I knew when I said I fed Purina I would catch it, but the truth is the truth and I was not going to say I fed something else....especially since it works so great for MY DOGs, but no everyone's dog.  You go with what your dogs do best on.
 
OT--with my first son, I was sick 24/7 the entire time.  My Mother-in-law kept telling my hubby it was all in my head.  But I can tell you, when I would wake up at 4:00 AM to go to the bathroom, i didn't wake up thinking "As soon as I sit up I will throw up."  With my 2ed one 3 years later, I EXPECTED to get sick and never had an hour's sickness.  I woke up every morning wondering when it would hit me, but it never did.  But I had heartburn so bad I would almost cry.  And it was my fault.  I was eating a can or two or stewed tomates every day plus half a jar of sweet snak pickles.  I just couldn't go without them. AND I DIDN'T EVEN LIKE  STEWED TOMATOES OR THE SWEET SNAK PICKLES  before I got pregnant, nor afterwards.

   I hope the PetGuard you ordered arrives soon and your dogs get better again. It sounds like you hardly have time to cook for your human family let alone your dogs ( of course dogs are family too). One thing that I frequently do is take a small amount of the meat I'm cooking for dinner ( tonight it was pork chops) and cook it without seasonings to add to Jessie's kibble; I took a few small pieces and cooked them for a few minutes on each side. When you're feeding a good food like PetGuard you don't need to add a lot of extra stuff and just a little meat can be enough and doesn't take much time. Good luck with selling your house and with your pregnancy; I hope you have a healthy baby.

Thanks Jessie- yes it's been pretty crazy around here- I am on "GO" from sun up to sun down lately lol.   I can definitely save some meat from our dinner- we don't do heavy seasoning on most things, since my son and I are both pretty picky about that.
 
Sandra- you poor thing with the heartburn!  With my first, I had heartburn really bad in the last weeks because he had his head jammed up in my stomach most of the time.  And it must be a boy thing, because I craved EVERYTHING tomatoes too!  I hate tomatoes ordinarily.
 
This one tho- is a girl- and I want sweet sweet sweet.  Melon, strawberries, ice cream and especially chocolate soy milk of all things. Sooo yummy. 
3 more months to go, I'll be sure to post an update about that. 
 
Well, now I'm waay off topic.
Talk soon!