Dog Community

Blue Buffalo or Innova or?

Posted : 2/10/2009 9:37:12 PM

Well, I HATE this, but rising costs of my favorite dog food is forcing me to try to find something else that works while fitting into our budget.

Most of you know my fav food is PetGuard Lifespan, I feed dry and canned. One bag of food and one case of cans lasts me a month. So last year the 18lb bag cost me 26.99. This year it's going to cost me 38.99. Twelve cans of food used to cost 28.99 and now it's 37.00. Sure, I realize costs are going up for many people but... OUCH!

So also available in my area are Blue Buffalo and Taste of the Wild as well as the Natura products. They are about the same price as I was accustomed to paying.

Let me hear your thoughts once again on how your dogs did on these products? I did not like ToTW on my guys at all. They had good stool, actually but terrible tear staining appeared.

Should I just try one and see and then move on? I hesitate because the older my dogs get the harder time they have transitioning foods.

I probably worry about this WAY more than i need to!

Jewlieee

Posted : 2/10/2009 9:47:33 PM

I wasn't impressed with totw. I loved evo, but I'm sort of turned off by the huge price increases lately. I have only tried blue wilderness (I think that's the one) on my yoingest. She did good on it and I will probably get a large bag of it soon. Right now I just rotated in pure vita salmon and potato. The dogs switched to that cold turkey and had no issues what so ever which is really unusual so I am impressed! Basically, I am just trying different foods lately to keep things interesting. I don't know how your dogs would do on any of these and I do understand your hesitation to switch older dogs food. Good luck

erica1989

Posted : 2/10/2009 9:51:01 PM

I feed Blue to my dog, all fosters, and cats. I love it. I've never had any issues with it.

I've also used the EVO canned - which I really liked, but it's too expensive to feed often, so he gets it every now and then as a special topper.

Haven't tried the others.

TysonSS

Posted : 2/10/2009 10:44:47 PM

Eagle Pack is what I used to feed. It worked pretty well until something happened to Tyson (I will never know what exactly happened but he started having diarrhea but i'm willing to bet it was something other than the food). I switched anyway to Taste of the Wild: Pacific and I'm loving the results its having on Tyson's fur. I didnt give salmon oil with his eagle pack but the salmon in TOTW is making his fur alot softer and its grain free. Tyson is a husky though and I don't really have problems with tear stains.

glenmar

Posted : 2/11/2009 8:47:41 AM

I would say that Blue and Innova are about equal in quality. The edge for me for Blue is that it's about 15 bucks cheaper for a 30 lb bag AND it has the life source bits. I like that they use the cold form process to blend the vitamins, minerals and antioxidents, since we all know that heat can destroy nutrients.

I've had Thunder on the Wilderness this really cold weather since he tends not to hold his weight in the winter, and he looks AWSOME! But, everyone on the large breed looks really good as well.

mudpuppy

Posted : 2/11/2009 11:35:33 AM

your big cost is the canned foods. Is this just a kibble topper? it's much cheaper to cook up something as a topper than to buy canned foods. If it's a topper you don't have to worry about balancing nutrients etc.

shamrockmommy

Posted : 2/11/2009 8:25:51 PM

It is used as a topper. I could cook up something I suppose, but that takes time.

Generally I do a scoop of kibble plus a spoonful of canned for one meal. The other is a scoop of kibble and a spoonful of plain yogurt. I go through about a can per week this way. Canned does not make up much of their meals at all, really.

Although I probably could make a topper that would equal 6 or more cans for the price of one can.

Good thinkin mudpuppy!

I think I'm going to give BB a try and see how that works out for them. Both BB and Natura seem like trustworthy companies. Or maybe this would bring cost down enough to stick with PetGuard.. have to talk to dh on the budget.

Thanks guys!

brookcove

Posted : 2/11/2009 10:27:35 PM

You can replace up to a third of your kibble (by cals) with homemade food, without particular regard to balance. Throw a couple breasts of chicken and any starch your dogs tolerate, maybe an apple and a carrot, into a crock pot, set on low, and overnight it will be tender enough to tear apart with forks, mash up, and divide into small bags for freezing in daily (or a couple days';) portions.

I can't see while in this posting window, by how much your price has gone up, but I'd guess this would more than make up for that, even factoring in the cost of the fresh breasts of chicken. The rest costs pennies per recipe.

I know how long you looked for a food that you felt comfortable with, and that worked for your dogs. I really felt bad for you when I read you felt obliged to find something else. I know how that is!