Fluff- What are your dogs eating currently?

    • Gold Top Dog

    Fluff- What are your dogs eating currently?

    Since this is one of my favorite dog topics, I'd love to hear what you're feeding and how your pooches are doing.

    Currently my 3 are on THK's Preference. I am pretty much happy with it but once this bag is gone I believe I'll go back to Thrive or Embark or Keen.

    Coats look good, poops good, pooches happy.  Adding cooked meat rather than raw and the dogs don't seem to mind.

     

    • Gold Top Dog

     As long as you're not going to obsess about changing foods again, I'll play. Wink (I know how tempting it is to try all that's out there, so I totally sympathize)

    Z is completely on THK Preference on vet recommendation (she has crystals in her urine and needs more moisture).  Kes and our foster get THK Preference for their evening meal and Kirkland Lamb and Rice dry in the morning.

    We've always added beef to the Preference (2:1) since Maggie was sensitive to poultry, but I'm now thinking about trying turkey when it's on sale, just for variety, and I think one of the local farms has ground lamb as well. Smile

    I do change out the dry food every few bags to something like TOTW, Fromm Surf n Turf, etc.

    All of the dogs are doing well on the current regime. Z and Kes have been on this off and on with the base kibble full-time during the move (about 3 weeks?) for about a year I think.  The major differences I've noticed between this diet and an exclusively kibble diet are 1) less breath odor for Kes, 2) Kes is keeping weight on more reliably (could just be that he's now almost 2yo too), 3) Poops are much smaller, and 4) both Z and Kes appear to have developed more muscle.  Chet switched from dry Alpo to this regime just 10 days ago, but his coat is already looking shinier *and* his poops are much smaller and firmer (they were cow pie consistency when I picked him up).

    • Gold Top Dog

     Just out of curiosity, why switch if they're doing well? If I'm remembering correctly there were coat and poo issues on other foods, so I'd tend to stick with something that's working.

     

    My adult kids eat TOTW Pacific Stream generally.  This time, the store was out so they're eating Avoderm. There are but a few foods Aesop will eat that also have small enough kibbles for the poodle girls to eat, and I don't mind them eating some rice for a bit. We always end up back with TOTW though

     The pup is eating Castor and Pollux Natural Ultramix, as it has a low calcium amount, which she apparently needs. She thinks it's fantastic

    • Gold Top Dog

    The only reason I'll be switching from Preference is because of the limited fridge space. It's a tiny fridge and having a container with just enough meat for the dogs is taking up a lot of space, unfortunately. 

    So we'll go back to thrive or embark or keen and add fresh foods from our meals.  That way they're still getting great food with some fresh stuff and we'll have enough fridge space for other things.

    Not obscessing about switching foods, Stardog- but you know me well ;)   LOL  Although Echo is looking awfully skinny suddenly....   

    • Gold Top Dog

    Currently Diamond Nats L/R...one of my bags had weevils tho. Hate that.

    Just previously...TOTW Pacific. Probably will be these two, or a mix of these two for the forseeable future. If it ain't broke, etc.

    • Gold Top Dog

     We almost picked up Diamond Naturals to try this past time when we had to do the "ack, they're out of our food" dance. But all they carry is the 40 lb bag. My food container doesn't hold that much and it would take a few months for my dogs to eat that much. As it is, 15 lbs lasts us about 3 weeksIndifferent


    • Gold Top Dog

    Tonight, they will be dining on exquisite pork hocks on-the-bone. Breakfast tomorrow consists of scrumptious beef side ribs, and supper will be followed up with a combination of ground chicken, beef, and pureed berries with a dash of fish oil on top. *G*

    In terms of kibble, I have a small bag of Orijen on hand right now for emergencies/treats.

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    • Gold Top Dog

     Bugsy's staple is Orjen Fresh fish - he does superbly on it.  His allergies eliminate most foods so we rarely swap anything.

    He gets 2-3 meals a week of raw and a couple of cans of tripe (rarely some other canned food) a week.

    Currently the tripe we are using is the Canine Caviar Venison tripe but we have also used Blue Ridge Beef fresh tripe Ick!, and Solid Gold Green Cow.  Looking at one of the Tripett formulas next.

    grab01
    As it is, 15 lbs lasts us about 3 weeksIndifferent

    Bugsy eats more than all your dogs combined that is ludicrous! Surprise

    • Gold Top Dog
    Bugsy's a growing boy! :-p

    I juuuust switched Rascal to THK Embark. He'd been on Wellness Core and Innova EVO before that, but I wasn't super happy with either of those. He tends to get dry skin, I'm hoping this might help him do better. And he was pooping like CRAZY on the Wellness, which I thought was odd. So far, after 2 days of THK, with getting just a tiny bit of the Core mixed in, he's *loving* his meals and pooping like normal (instead of I swear 1/4 his body weight per day!). So far, so good!

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    • Gold Top Dog

    Cita
    Bugsy's a growing boy! :-p

    He is 5, hypothyroid and I keep him dead on 105lbs. He eats a lot less than he used to, which is why I was commenting. LOL

    (sorry for that interruption)

    • Gold Top Dog

     All of mine get TOTW Pacific with a mix of Earthborn Holistics.I get a free bag of it for a year so Im using it up! The pups get mackerel with breakfast and  all the dogs get fish oil with supper. The mackerel and fish oil help alot with Cheyanne's, Kujo's, and Rueben's shedding. It did so too when I had Joker. And makes them really shiny.

    I feed the Pacific because it's the only one Anubis will constantly eat. He doesnt care too much for chicken formulas. He wants the real chicken! Which the boys get about 2-3 times a week. Cheyanne and Kujo get whatever leftovers we have. The boys get fish and the girls get leftovers!

    • Gold Top Dog

     I'm actually struggling with food right now.  Ever since I started rotating in some raw meals, the AKK have decided they don't like kibble anymore (argh).  Because I haven't found a good price on a stand-alone freezer, I have not transitioned completely to raw.  They were on Orijen, then Wilderness, then Orijen again (the kibble strike occurred during the Wilderness).  They're not even really crazy about the Orijen anymore (they ALWAYS used to tuck into the 6 Fresh Fish!), so now I've purchased Acana to see if there's a change.  It's supposed to arrive today so we'll see how it goes. 

    They eat the kibble when they get their fish oil mixed in.

    Shiva the puppy is on Wellness Super 5 mix.  She seems to like it, and she was on Blue Buffalo Longevity before that.

    To be honest, I've been really inspired by some of the comments about The Honest Kitchen.  I don't want to hijack this thread, but I'm very interested in the feedback about it, so keep the comments coming! :)  It's very helpful.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Lisa, I can't say enough good about THK.  I love all the formulas I have tried so far. 

    Keen (when I had Gobie, they were all adults and this is an adult formula), they really loved that one. Then Thrive, Embark, both great and well loved (and smell so good when soaking). Now trying a turn with Preference as I said earlier.  Dogs love it. I love that I'm feeding "real" food and I also love that it can be stored out of the teenyweenie fridge. 

    I love their coats and energy levels and overall health.  I will say it seemed the first week or two their stools were large and 3x a day. Now that they're accustomed to digesting THK, they are small and twice a day little to no odor. They have sparkling white teeth and no dog breath at all.

    It's a great company!  I am eager to try the fish formula that is supposed to be out soon.  I plan to rotate around with  THK foods as the majority of the diet with treats for training here and there and whatnots to stuff their kongs with.

    Great stuff!

    Edited:  I will add also it is awesome for travelling, camping, hiking, boarding, pet sitters, etc.  For all but the preference (to which you must add meat), all you do is scoop, add water, stir, let sit, serve.  Super easy.

    • Gold Top Dog
    Another HK groupie here! Both dogs are on the Preference although I'm thinking of switching Wendy to one of the other grain-frees with the meat...simply because I am HOLY CRUD BUSY and keep running out of meat. Wendy could use a wee bit more weight so I add 1/2 c. Natural Balance, either the LID duck, fish, or venison. She gets another 1/2 c in her kong, Pirate gets about 1/8 c because he's a little fatty bear :) I keep a can of NB duck and potato on hand for when I run out of cooked meat. We also do raw turkey parts every 10 days or so.
    • Gold Top Dog

    Nutro Natural Choice -Lager Breed for Gizmo.  She’s really not a large breed but the food has a little bit of glucosamine in it and although not a significant amount, it works out well with her arthritus.  She’s been on it for 3 years and I will not change after all the trouble it took for me to find a food that didn’t make her skin turn bright red or cause other problems.  I did a home-cooked elimination diet to pin point what was causing the problem.

    I had started her on Iams when she was a puppy when I was clueless about dog food.  After she had an anal gland rupture the vet decided that it was caused by the food she was eating and that’s when I got serious about learning dog nutrition. I learned to read labels and found that Nuto was the closest to the home-cooked meal that worked the best for Gizmo.  Since she doesn’t currently live with me I can’t home-cook for her so I order her dry dog food online and have it delivered to my parents that way I know she’s eating right.