What do you all think about these foods?

    • Gold Top Dog

    What do you all think about these foods?

     I've been looking up on the net on what to feed an Irish Setter. I cam across a site that had to say the following.

    " Give your Irish setter high-grade dog food. The first ingredient listed should be meat if you want a quality product. Crude protein should be no less than 30 percent and crude fat no less than 20 percent. Also, the fiber content needs to be 4 percent or less."

     

    I have found the following foods with the above conditions.

    Innova Evo Dry Dog food   protein-42.0%   fat-22.0%  didnt say anything about fiber

    Nature's Variety Instinct Dry dog food    protein-42%   fat-22%    fiber-3.2%

    Innova Evo Red meat dry dog food    protein-42%   fat-22%   fiber-2.5%

    Solid gold barking at the moon   protein-41%    fat-20%   fiber-4%

     

    And I also have a question.  What does it mean when it says chicken meal, lamb meal, turkey meal?  What is the meal mean?  Is it better to say meal or deboned or just chicken, turkey, lamb,etc?

    • Gold Top Dog

     Meal meat is dehydrated.  So chicken meal is more highly concentrated than just chicken, etc.  Its better.  Umm.... lets see, if you take the ingredient list of any food, the first ingredient listed must have the highest volume in the food.  So you could list chicken, but because it is mostly water, the next ingredient may very well outweigh chicken in the product after dehydration.  IF however, you have chicken meal, rather than just chicken, it will be the main ingredient since it has no water... or very little water.  Does that make sense?

    • Gold Top Dog

    One other thing.  Those percentages seem high to me.  Particularly the fat%.  My friends dogs get 22% but they are hard core sled dogs.  That much fat and my dogs would end up with bloody stools.  Most mushers keep there dogs at 22-26% during the mushing season and go down lots during off season, when they are still running miles a day.  Just something to think about. 

    • Gold Top Dog

     Ok thanks for the info on the meal question I had.  So I should look for a food that has alot of protein but not so much fat? God I dotn want her to have bloody stools just need her to put on weight. Right now I am trying wellness original core. If I write the dog food people do you think they will send me samples of their food?

    • Gold Top Dog

     Ok i found another dog food then that looks better. Should I give it a try?

    Pinnacle Holistic Dry Dog Food

     

    Chicken & Oats

    Ingredients: Chicken Meal, Chicken, Potato Protein, Potato Flour, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Ascorbic Acid), Ocean Fish, Natural Flavor, Tomato Pomace, Dried Egg Product, Dried Cranberries, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Taurine, Dried Yucca Schidigera, Bromelain, Papain, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Product, Ferrous Sulfate, DL-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (Source of Vitamin E), Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Cobalt Proteinate, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of Vitamin B Complex), Zinc Methionine, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Niacin, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Source of Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, Thiamine Mononitrate (Source of Vitamin B1), Folic Acid, Potassium Iodate, Vitamin D3 Supplement.

    Guaranteed Analysis:
    Crude Protein not less than 42.00%
    Crude Fat not less than 18.00%
    Crude Fiber not more than 2.50%
    Moisture not more than 10.0%
    Ash not more than 6.60%
    Magnesium not more than 0.095%
    Taurine not less than 0.23%

    Caloric Content:
    Metabolizable Energy 562 kcal/cup

    • Gold Top Dog

     It doesn't look bad to me.

    As for the comment I made on the fat... Please do some research on it.  It may be that Irish Setter's need more fat than huskies.  I do alot of research on nutrition, but I center it on my own dogs.  Huskies are alot different from Setters.  Different bone structure, stature, gait... the list goes on and on.  But huskies are also unique in their nutritional requirements.  Lillie may very well need more fat...  That last food you posted though, looks pretty good.

    • Gold Top Dog

     I just looked at the Pinnacle website and on the front of the bag of food I ordered is 2 Irish Setters. I thought that was pretty neat. They had a new dog food on their site that I ordered also. I'm gonna mix the two up and feed her that way. Wish me luck on yet another dog food change!
     

    • Gold Top Dog

    From the first post, those are all good kibbles.  I've tried EVO and Barking at the Moon, but they are too rich for Kenya.  Both my dogs eat Nature's Variety and do fine.