Dog Food Poll

our older dog started out on blackwood 2000. then she had a bout of diahrhea (i'm still not convinced it was the food though), and we switched to nutro natural choice for dogs with sensitive stomachs. when we got our puppy a few months ago we started him out on nutro natural choice for large breed puppies. our older dog seemed to be getting tired of the nutro so we switched both dogs back to blackwood (2000 for the puppy and 3000 for the older dog). it is amazing how much better their coats are on blackwood than they were on the nutro.

Okay, no barking at me here...
I have fed Alpo, Purina One and Pedigree. Switched to Premium Edge Lamb and Rice which worked great for that dog (solved the coat issues and deadly gas). Tried to switch to a even better food, but found that Premium Edge worked the best for her. Heck, back on the farm we fed Dog Chow or the feed store brand -and those were working dogs who were very healthy (maybe it was the road apples?)
 
My current furry friend, Tyler, came to us on Pedigree. Wasn't the best food IMHO by a long shot, but I will say this for Pedigree - they donate a lot of food to all sorts of animal control agencies and to shelters. They get kudo's for that it my book. [sm=clapping%20hands%20smiley.gif]
 
I switched him to Natural Blend Sensible Choice (holistic formula by Royal Canin) and am very happy. He gobbles it up, gained weight and muscle mass. Has no more icky skin and coat issues, and the 'back yard' looks much better. Have no intention to switch around to something different right now, as this works really well for my boy.
 
I respect other folks opinions, but find that I tend to "tune out" those who attack or go onto some rant about food X or Y.  That goes for vet clinics and mini experts. Thanks for starting this thread - great idea.
 

Looks like Purina's made a lot of money off of us!!   lol!
It was neat to hear everyone's stories.. Seems like most of us started out the same way - oblivious.

And a response to the "dont fix what aint broken" idea..
I used to feed Sierra Purina, and I thought she was doing great. After a little ingredient searching, I switched her to Kirkland Chicken & Rice, and her coat improved a tremendous amount.  It got shiny and soft so quickly.. and in addition to being firm, her poops decreased from 3 times/day to 1-2 times/day.
I guess I didn't really realize that Sierra could be doing better. You never know until you try! 
I agree with what most of you have been saying though - feed what works for your dog.

I've had dogs since I was a teen.

My family fed Purina. None of the dogs I've ever had have ever enjoyed regular Purina, so I have never bought it but once or twice (when they turned their noses up at it). I never buy canned dog food, bad for their teeth long term. I always put some meat (or whatever) from dinner, or gravy, leftovers, brewer's yeast, yoghurt, garlic, cooked egg, raw egg, vegetable oil, other things to make it more exciting. But sometimes it was just plain kibble.

As I posted before, as an adult I've been through really poor periods being a single parent. So the dogs got what was affordable:

Old Roy
Pedigree (this seemed like the best at one time!)
Alpo
Fred Meyer has a store brand similar to Nutro
Safeway store brand that was also similar to Nutro
NutroMax--several Nutro brands
Eagle Pack
Solid Gold (Sofie hated it)
Fromm Salmon a la Veg

No matter what I fed, the only thing that seemed to make any difference was how much poop I had to pick up! Honest! I've just been very blessed with extremely healthy dogs.[] I never did go for those fancy differently-colored kibbles, those just seemed expensive for the benefit of the owner, not the dog.

Growing up, my family and I fed all of our dogs Purina and Pedigree. We would give canned Alpo sometimes too. Now that I know some more about what is actually in those brands, I will never feed it again. I feed Ash Innova and I've just started feeding Angel Innova Senior.
 
I'm still learning about what to feed and all that. As I keep learning, I'll stick with Innova. I honestly can't afford to feed Innova, but I manage to do it somehow. I actually have to save money every paycheck to buy Ash's food. I consider it as important as my rent check. [] She eats better than I do! I live on tuna and peanut butter and jelly! On a good night, I might be able to have some Hamburger Helper! []

Murphy used to be a Beneful addict. He also used to eat Pedigree and Kibbles 'n Bits canned food. [:'(]

Something else I have considered. With the exception of maybe one food, I would hesitate to call most kibble crappy. What one dog does well on, another can't handle. Some dogs get enough nutrition from raw, others don't. I have learned not to call other foods crap. I hesitate now to call Ol Roy crap. For one, some of their formulas do have meat as a first ingredient. Second, some people have had success with it. And some had terrible results.
 
For example, I wouldn't say Nutro is better than any other food. I would say, though, that it appears to be better for my dog than other foods. Experientially, that would be most accurate. I clients of mine feed their big dogs Science Diet and seem to have no problems. Then, again, two of the dogs are mixes and that might have something to do with it, I don't know.
 
Though some people here may not care for the AAFCO, I still think it's a good guideline to go by if you have no other criteria. Especially if the food passed food trials.As some have said, that only means that 6 out of 8 dogs didn't die while eating it. I think it means more than that. The dogs have to maintain a certain blood profile while eating it. That is, it must provide the nutrients they need with no deleterious side-effects. They also have health exams, such as eye clarity, coat condition, gum condition, etc. That's why the test subjects will be different breeds, though of the same age such as adult or the same type such as large or giant breed. That is, they aren't going to feed large breed formula to a Shih Tzu puppy.
 
That being said, just because a food passed an AAFCO food trial doesn't mean it will sit well with your dog. But it's a good place to start from.
 
We once had a discussion about allergies and someone corrected me by saying that statistics show that only about 5% or so of allergies are food allergies. Yet, how many people have had their dogs' symptoms go away by changing food? I think it is because one food assists the immune system of a particular dog better than another food, regardless of how holistic or not it is, or how much you spent on it.
 

I got "my" first dog right after college. (I did have a dog or two as a child, but I was pretty young and have no idea what they were fed). I fed my first dog, Reese purina puppy, then Pro Plan, then Purina One. Reese was a dal and had some skin issues. When he was 2 years old I met my SO and he fed his lab (now "our" lab) Lille, Nutro. So then I switched Reese to Nutro. He had great skin and coat after that. He was 10.5 years old when he passed. Lille and our cats were still getting Nutro. about 3 years ago Lille started having allergy issues, itchy skin, yeast infections in her ears. About a year ago, we got Dasher and we started him on Nutro as well. After about a month of getting Dasher he started to get itchy too. Thats when a light bulb went off in my head and I thought...hmmm maybe Lille's allergies are preventable, maybe we should switch foods" (duh). So about a year ago I started my research (found i-dog[] ) and switched everyone (dogs and cats) to Natural Balance. Lille's allergies disapeared and Dasher is no longer itchy. []

Penny started out on IAMS, which her owners BEFORE we adopted her fed her. The rescue fed her Nutro Natural Choice, so we kept her on that for a year. Now she is on Innova EVO. I have no idea what her breeder fed her, probably what her previous owners fed her, IAMS. Luckily the rescue knew what to feed her, other wise I would have fed her either Purina or Ol' Roy. [:'(]

Well considering I work for them this won't be a surprise but my Jax has been on Pro Plan/Purina One his whole 8 years.  Great allergy free years!
I consider it good genes and luck.  Nothing more. 
 
And this thread agains makes me ask the question again.....why is it years ago as kids our dogs were not any healthier than they are now.  If anything more dogs are sicker now.  But yet better food choices are available.  Its makes no sense to me.  Back then our vet used to make his own kibble that mom bought for our german shepards.  Otherwise you did the gravy train game.  Is it me or do dogs seem sicker now days?  You just hear of more cancer etc than years ago.  Then again maybe its a reflection on us.  We have more cancer now also and they do share our enviroment. 
 
Previous dogs have used basically Purina products.
I have never used Iams/Eukanuba, Nutro or any other premium foods. 
 

My two were fed Ol' Roy by the woman we got them from, then we fed them Purina One Puppy.  Murphy was throwing up on average 2 to 3 times a week, so we just switched to Nature's Variety Prairie.

When I got my first pets as an adult...I fed my cats Eukanuba because as far as I knew then , some 12 yrs ago, I thought it was the best thing there was and had never heard of any other premium food but Science Diet . Then after my alimony stopped and money was tight I started feeding them whatever was on sale at the time, Friskies, Tender Vittles, Happy Cat, Purina, ( god it makes me want to puke just thinking about it now ).  When I got my first puppy a few years back my daughter showed up w/a bag of Puppy Chow and I threw it out immediately. I KNEW that was total garbage and went to look for something better. YES , I actually WAS an ingredient reader but when you don't know what ingredients are dangerous and which are not,  making sure that meat is the #1 ingredient really doesn't make much difference if you're slowly killing your pet w/BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin and all the other nasty chemicals and additives that are in this food.
I had switched over to Maxximum Nutrition ( WalMart brand similar to ONE ) because out of ALL the products on the shelf, it had the 'best' ingredients. One day the dog got sick of eating it and I looked for something else. I don't live in the city so WalMart, KMart and the local supermarkets were the only place to buy food.
Anyways I hate to admit I was fooled by the slick marketing of brands like Pedigree and Beneful and fed those when he would eat them even though I really didn't care for the ingredients.  The Maxximum Nutrition was still the better of the 3.  Then I rescued a dog and started doing alot of reading online. I read and read and read , about all kinds of things, but then saw articles on nutrition, holistic foods, raw feeding and that caught my interest.  So I changed foods w/the new dog. I think I "upped" quality and tried Authority Harvest Baked. The dogs LOVED it , but they had diarreah so bad and their coats got very dull and they were shedding  like mad after only 2 wks on the stuff. So I actually took it back, got a refund... thank god for those 100% guarantees...and bought Nutro holistic.  I opened the bag at home and almost gagged... it smelled so disgusting... like nothing but codfish oil. The dog's wouldn't even go near it. Ok... so that went back too. Then I tried Natural Balance, even though at the time I had done so much reading online I was contemplating Flint River Ranch.. but $56 a bag held me back. Besides... NB had much better ingredients and was almost $20 cheaper. Granted I had to drive 45 miles to go buy it, but it was worth it. My dogs LOVED it but I had problems w/the food being rancid one time and stale another time because of the crappy paper bags it comes in . They get air from any source and those natural preservatives are worthless, that food can go bad REAL quick, especially when you have no idea how long it's been sitting on the shelf on the store. I sent that back too and got a new bag right from the company.  But... I kept on reading and came across more foods and didn't want to deal w/the paper bags so I tried Merrick which I'm using now. The dogs "like" it but don't love it. They did at the beginning of the bag but now I can't get them to eat it unless I add something to it. So I feed them raw and homecooked alot. This bag is almost finished and I'll be switching them again, probably to either Wellness, Solid Gold or Timberwolf. One dog is doing great on it but the other one now has developed some sensitivity to something in it because he's been licking his paws and shedding like crazy. 
  Thing is.. I'll keep changing until I find  a food that works for both of them. There are plenty of excellent foods out there.  The main thing I've learned is...that you have to give a food at least 3-4 weeks before you can give up on it. It takes that long for a dog's system to either rid itself of allergens or to become acclimated to something new. The only thing that will show up quickly is an allergen. But if your dog isn't actually allergic or sensitive to any of the ingredients it will take much longer for you to see any noticeable difference in skin, coat, etc. that takes a few weeks.
   People that say they've tried this , that and the other with no luck... I'll bet money that they've only fed the food for as little as a week or two before deciding to switch over to something else, which I feel is a mistake because the dog could still be reacting to something in the previous food.
   Knowledge is a really powerful thing though. I suggest that everyone do as much research as they can on nutrition and ingredients. I believe that those people who are under the impression that their dogs are doing 'well' or 'ok' on cheaper foods, would't say that if they actually found the right super-premium food and got results that a cheap food just cannot give. How do you KNOW you're dog is at his optimum best if you've never really given him the chance to improve ?
   Just for the sake of throwing in an analogy that's like  the person who spent their entire lives eating vanilla icecream and thinking it was the best. but that's only because they never had the opportunity to taste chocolate. Once they taste the richness of the chocolate , they think back.. wow, what ever made me think that vanilla was the best ? This chocolate is SOOO much better.   Moral of the story... you don't /can't know, until you've actually tried something else.  Thing is though.. when you Do try something else... you have to give it time to make a difference. THEN you can actually make an informed decision based on experience.
 
ok... that's my [sm=2cents.gif]

I had a bassett hound that never had hair on her back she was so messed up with allergies, I had no idea I was adding to it, by feeding her food that she was allergic to, she died at 10 and even though she was not that young she was miserable most of her life from itching.
I got Toby from a rescue and they were feeding Pedigree so we stayed on it.  Then I found out that there were better foods so we switched to NutroMaxx which he LOVED, but I noticed my three yr old boy going gray and looking "old"
I vowed that I would never let a dog suffer the way my first did now that I know better.  When I came here I switched to Natural Balance and for the first bit of the bag they liked it, but that was short lived.
Now they get Canidae, and home cooked.  One month into it and Toby has no more gray on his muzzle he looks and acts young again and his coat is beautiful, very soft like human hair almost.
The puppy will eat anything, and I do mean anything, lol but she looks fantastic on the combo we have now, the vet cannot believe how gorgeous they look, they are only mutts after all.  hheheheh!
This was my experience, so YMMV but for us it was the right choice, I am so thankful to everyone on the boards here that led me the right way.
Julie

ORIGINAL: losinsusan
And this thread agains makes me ask the question again.....why is it years ago as kids our dogs were not any healthier than they are now.  If anything more dogs are sicker now.  But yet better food choices are available.  Its makes no sense to me.  Back then our vet used to make his own kibble that mom bought for our german shepards.  Otherwise you did the gravy train game.  Is it me or do dogs seem sicker now days?  You just hear of more cancer etc than years ago.  Then again maybe its a reflection on us.  We have more cancer now also and they do share our enviroment. 

I think that you have to take into consideration the advancement in diagnostic tools available to our companion animals in the last few decades. While I won't disagree that the environment us humans are creating certainly seems less healthy than in the past- you have to remember that we now have the ability to distinguish between 'sick', 'cancer', 'genetics', etc. Also, the amount of income people in most countries are willing to spend on their pets has increased dramatically just in the past decade. Where my parents might have been lucky to have their family dog make it to 7 years, with today's medical advancements most live to 13 or so regardless of size or breed. With this age comes many geriatric problems not seen in the past, as the dogs would have already been deceased. Most of us on this board have no problem rushing our dogs to ER vets at any hour of the night, but that notion would have been laughable in the past. (If you could even find a vet available)

To respond to the poll:

Bernie was on Nutro Naturals Lamb and Rice, and I was very happy with it. Then he had bladder problems (not related to diet) requiring some pretty extreme surgery. The vet put him on a prescription diet (for life), but I did not like it's ingredients. I found Blue Buffalo at PetsMart, and liked it's simple ingredients that would not stress his bladder. Since switching I have noticed a vast improvement in his coat, his poops are smaller than my Mom's 28 pound dog that is still on Nutro (Bernie is 52lbs), and though expensive, I feed him so little of it that the price works for me. I couldn't be happier.

And this thread agains makes me ask the question again.....why is it years ago as kids our dogs were not any healthier than they are now. If anything more dogs are sicker now.

Maybe, maybe not. If Emma had been around when I was a kid, she would have been put to sleep as a puppy. My parents were struggling to run their own business and had two kids to feed. They didn't have thousands of dollars to spend to keep a dog alive. After all, the kids come before the dog.

 Mom's dog, Toby, will be 13 this May. He was always super healthy. He grew up on Pedigree, Kibbles N Bits, Gravy Train, etc etc, and table scraps. He itched and itched and itched. He pulled out his hair. He reeked from across the room. He was still considered a healthy dog. Recently, I convinced her (after she heard about all the food recalls) to use my homemade food as a base to his diet. Guess what? He looks better than he ever has. I don't use grains. He's not picky any more. He scarfs down everything that's put in front of him. He runs and plays more. His coat is shiny, and he's shedding less too (he's a small, double coated, mutt).

 I think the difference is the level of care that dogs get now. The last 20 years have had amazing advances in human and veterinary medicine. We have diagnostic and treatment abilities far beyond what we had then. Yeah, Grandma's dog lived to be 14 on Mighty Dog and chicken livers. He probably would have lived longer had he not run around the neighborhood, unaltered, and been hit by a car. We do things differently now. We treat our dogs like they're our kids. We contain them, neuter them, and carefully read labels. Most of us spend A LOT more money on them than our parents ever did, whether we HAVE that money, or don't.