dog food

I don't have the time, dedication, or freezer/fridge space to feed Link raw/cooked right now, so I go with the next best thing, and that's the highest quality dry kibble I can get. He seems to do very well on Solid Gold Wolfcub (large breeds). I've seen Solid Gold's other foods on lists such as Whole Dog Journal's top 10 dry foods. I believe their "Just a Wee Bit" formula is very close to the Wolf* lines, but the kibble is smaller. They're certainly worth a look.

When it comes to people who have pets but aren't necessarily animal lovers, it's all about picking your battles. My dad and his girlfriend, for example, have been feeding their terrier mix Purina Kibbles and Chunks (yeesh). He told me that the groomers are charging him $10 extra each time he goes in to put some sort of lotion on him to stop the constant shedding. I know I'm not going to convince my dad to drive 20 miles out of his way to buy pet food or pay $1.5 a pound, so I suggested they switch him over to Natural Balance since it's readily available at Petco and ~$1 a pound. If they make the switch, he'll be on some of the better food that's widely available, and I can't even begin to imagine how much better off he'll be on NB than he is on Purina.

Not every person is going to feed their dog the best they can, but for a couple dollars more a month, they can definitely do better than the supermarket brands. I think the main thing that's happening is a lack of knowledge on behalf of the consumer (Puppy/Dog Chow, Pedigree, Ol' Roy, etc) and deceptive marketing practices on behalf of the manufacturers (Beneful, Science Diet, Eukanuba, Iams, etc).

By the way, this is a reply to dog food in general and not a specific poster like it says.

propylene glycol which is a component of antifreeze,

No. Ethylene glycol is antifreeze. Propylene glycol is even used in people food. Not that it's great, but it won't hurt your dog in dog food. Some people drink it every day in some soda pops. Just because the names sound similar doesn't mean they are exactly the same.

are the brands like science diet, iams, eukanube at least better than the brands like dog chow, pedigree, ol' roy?  cause i know they cost a lot more and are advertised to be a lot healthier.   when i had cats (10 years ago)  i remember paying 4 times as much for eukanuba so my cats could have the healthy food.

propylene glycol and ethylene glycol are both in antifreeze.  propylene glycol is also used in foods like ice cream, and products such as shampoo, baby wipes, etc., pretty much any beauty product. 

Propylene glycol is a somewhat acceptable sugar/energy source. It is NOT poisonous. It ranks up there with high fructose corn syrup as Ingredients to Avoid in my book, but it has nothing to do with its chemical relationship to ethylene glycol. Like high fructose corn syrup, it's appearance in a products helps classify it in my mind as "junky" but it's not outright poison, just a junky, cheap way to texturize a product or add energy to food.

I do use straight propylene glycol to provide quick-acting energy to sheep that are sick. Its ability to cross the blood barrier quickly and its cheapness make it widely used for this purpose in the livestock industry. VERY widely used. It is, by the way, an acceptable product for use under the Organic Foods Act guidelines. So you can't get away from it anywhere unless you know personally the farmers who raise the meat you give your dog.

Jaye, to answer your question, no, SD, Euk, etc are NOT better than the others you listed.....while they are marginally maybe better in ingredients, they are NOT better enough to justify the cost difference.  And the meat sources are questionable.
 
I personally feed Innova for breakfast, homecooked or raw for dinner.  I'm feeding six german shepherds so feeding and prepping takes a good part of my time.  But, they are worth the effort.
 
One of my foster pups went to a home that really fooled me.  Between the rescue and me, these folks seemed perfect.  They weren't.  Aside from feeding him Pedigree there were a lot of other issues.  But this boy came home after 7 weeks with dull fur, shedding a lot, HUGE in size because they fed him crap and he grew too quickly, and hugely bloated from fluid retention, which I'm guessing was a combination of feeding Pedigree which is pretty salty and restricting water since 'he wouldn't housetrain'...he's had ONE mistake since he came home and that was my fault.....he also has a painful condition called PANO, where the body grows too fast for the long bones to keep up....kind of like growing pains in a teenager.
 
Just as in us humans, nutrition is essential to a healthy body.  There are a number of super premium foods out there, such as Innova, Solid Gold, some of the Eagle Pak formulas.....you just have to really READ the labels and really educate yourself.  50 years ago, we didn't know that butter and eggs were bad for our cholestrol.  Mom fixing me eggs in the morning wasn't her trying to kill me at a young age, it was lack of knowledge that they COULD cause problems.  And when the cholestrol thing first became more well known, gosh, it HAD to be all about what WE were putting in our bodies.....now they know that isn't the case...that PART of it is a genetic pre-disposition.
 
I personally avoid labels that show something like CORN listed several times...to me that's a red flag that the product is mostly corn, but by using different PARTS of the corn they are able to list it as a smaller fraction of the product....and any label that has a bunch of words that I can't pronounce or know what they are.  I don't carry a scientific dictionary with me when I shop for dog food....no one should have to.  It's like in human foods....I'd rather have the ice cream that's milk and sugar over one with a bunch of chemicals that I can't identify.
 
Yes, you will pay more for Innova or for any of the super premiums.  But, because the kcals are higher (which means more USEABLE calories) you feed far less.  And, as a bonus, there is far LESS coming out the other end.  Huge piles mean that most of what you are feeding isn't being used by the dogs body and just passing through in poop.
 
I have also found that with an excellent quality food I'm paying less for OTHER stuff.  The summer I lived in Savannah, GA, I used frontline only a couple times.....and GA is one of the flea capitols of the world.  This past summer, I used NONE, and I now live in an area of Michigan that is RIPE with sand fleas.  They bite ME when I'm cutting the grass, but they don't seem to be attracted to my dogs in the least.  I believe that because they have such healthy immune systems the fleas just aren't interested.  Guess that doesn't say much about MY immune system.......
 
A former board member has spent years and a lot of her own time and money researching dog foods.  There is a vast amount of info on her site and your eyes will glaze over, your head will swim, but I really urge you to READ it all....read and learn.   [linkhttp://www.mordanna.com/dogfood]www.mordanna.com/dogfood[/link]
 
And then come back here and ask a ton of questions to help you understand what you just read....cuz there is a LOT to take in.
 
And, if you are looking for a snuggly dog, don't discount the larger breeds like german shepherds.....all six of mine are big snuggle bugs!!
 

And Sharon?  You have wonderful knowledge to share with us all.  But when you are rude and unkind to people who don't think the way that you do, eventually someone is going to notice and you're going to find yourself not sharing that info but doing a 3 days sitdown.
 
I don't agree with all the products you promote, but I do understand that there is research and science behind your suggestions.  You could be a valuable resource to this board, but you won't be if you get yourself suspended or banned for being rude and abrasive.
 
Please try to curb your passion when you post and refrain from the name calling so that you can continue to be a resource here on idog.

 to answer your question, no, SD, Euk, etc are NOT better than the others you listed.....while they are marginally maybe better in ingredients, they are NOT better enough to justify the cost difference.  And the meat sources are questionable.
 
Glenda, why do you say the meat sources are questionable on these foods? If they say chicken, or beef, or lamb, do you think they are substituting road kill for it?
 
I do believe that some of these brands are better than others, by far.  Look at the new formulas of Purina One,,,yes they put some ingredients that we don't like, so maybe we (you or I)  are still not going to buy it, but compared to the cheaper brands or store brands its a lot better.
 
I believe it was mentioned before, that some of these companies have more ridged standards than the smaller owned companies. Again, I'm not saying that the food is better or that all the ingredients are better, but I that they are governed better, therefore I do believe that the ingredients put in their foods are exactly what they say.

Dyan, that's just the conclusion I have drawn from all the reading I've done.  Yep, a lot of the foods ARE better than Ol Roy, but gosh if I'm gonna improve their food I'd just as soon go ALLLL the way and do the best I can find.  Just me tho.

but gosh if I'm gonna improve their food I'd just as soon go ALLLL the way and do the best I can find
 
Me too Glenda! I was just surprised to hear you say that the meat in those brands that Jaye mentioned was questionable.  While they may add ingredients we don't like, maybe preservatives or so, or they might throw in by-products that we don't want, but I have to think that everything listed in the ingredients are just what they say.

Perhaps its a matter of semantics...to me, byproducts are a questionable meat source.....

ORIGINAL: racuda

ORIGINAL: jaye

wow thank you all for this information.  the old boards dont seem to work for me though so im missing out on whatever is posted there.  what about regular brands like mealtime, science diet, dog chow, etc?

The main ingredient in these food is corn. When was the last time you drove past a corn field and saw a pack of dogs eating the corn? Look for MEAT as the #1 ingredient.

As far as seeing dogs in the field eating corn, My sister's dogs both go into the corn field and pick ears and eat them.

hahahha,,,I can JUST picture it danehaven. And you know what, Bubblegum and Ollie both would be right there with them if they could.  WE give them corn on the cob on summer picnics,,,they sit and drool for it, and it takes everything we have to hold on to it so that they can't get the cob and eat that too. 

Dyan,
 
I'm sure that Euk, SD, etc use chicken if they say chicken but not all chicken is equal.  Take people food - McDonald's uses beef for hamburgers but if you see which cows are urchased at auction for McDonald's vs. top retailers, you'd see a big difference in the quality.

McDonald's uses beef for hamburgers but if you see which cows are urchased at auction for McDonald's vs. top retailers, you'd see a big difference in the quality
 
As a person that had a father that used to work at a very upscale restaurant in downtown Clevaland, and used to always talk about what they used for their ingredients (blah) I believe it.   Not sure though that I think that some of the other dog food companies use much better,  because of that. But I have never been to auction where they sell or buy their meat.