I just can;t stand peace and quiet so let

whoops, i wrote this before i realized there was an owners tell all question..oh well it gives my typing experience...sorry

Over the years I haven't had any problems with commercial grade dog food.  I had a little cockapoo/terrier mix that lived to be about 14-1/2 on Gainesburgers. Then I had a lab/cocker mix that lived to a ripe old age on Nutro.  He started out on Nutro then switched to Riplees Ranch (premium food from Canada & discontinued because of Mad Cow disease) then back to Nutro for the last year of his life.  Max eats EP Holistic.

Joyce

That's ok....I'll share.  On Purina, two of my cockers had allergy type hot spots that they would chew RAW.  Oddly, not one vet I saw wanted to bother with those beyond telling me to put some triple antibiotic ointment on them.  Rusty had gone to the Bridge before I got a bit more nutrition savy, but Natural Balance cleared Misty up in NOTHING flat....where there had been NO fur for years above her tail, her coat came back and she stopped biting herself.
 
For Thor and Sheba (gsds) my vet suggeted Purina Large Breed puppy formula.  Thor I think grew more quickly than he *should* have, and the piles were soooo enormous that it looked like I was running horses in my back yard.  Sheba, on the other hand, stayed quite small until she was about 2.5 or 3.
 
With Innova, the pups I've raised since have had nice growth, slow and steady....Tyler went to another home for TWO months where he was fed
P[:'(]digr[:'(][:'(] and he came back looking like a horse!!  Wayyyy too rapid growth, developed pano, etc and is just NOW starting to fill out right.  And, still has bouts with the pano now and then.
 
I did try Timberwolf.....big, dark, sloppy poops, which matters a lot when you have six gsds to clean up after.  Innova has done my dogs well and I'm cautiously optimistic about Canidae.....they've been "trying" that for a couple weeks and their stools are great, coats, skin, etc, great, and they LIKE it, so Canidae might get added and I might actually rotate more than just homecooked.

I've found my dogs do great on either medium or high grade dog foods. Our old Dal would literally leave a cloud of fur in his wake on any type of grocery store food. He is on Canidae now, because we finally got a retailer within 30 miles, but I've had him on Nutro and Eukanuba for the majority of his life. He was on Eukanuba Low Residue for a few years after a bout of colitis (due to scavenging several pounds of bacon). I kept him on it because he did really well and my sister could get it in the kennel packs at cost from the vet clinic she worked for.

I can understand the fuss over the grocery store brands, but the mid-level foods have been perfectly adequate for my hounds. I know they're overpriced for what you get compared to some of the higher end stuff, but they are all that is available is some areas. The closest Petco or Petsmart to me is 45 miles away! We finally got Canidae at a store about 30 miles away from where I live, otherwise I would still be feeding Nutro from the feed store a few blocks away. If the Canidae was much more expensive, I probably wouldn't have even switched.

I have never had any problems, not even upset tummies, on the Purina my dogs have always been one (excdept for short stints on Science Diet for weight loss for KayCee,  kidney infection for Buck.  It worked for both).  KayCee does have allergies, but no food allegers--fleas, bermuda grass and live oak pollen.  I did once try a "better" food for Buck, but he threw up every meal, morning and night, for 4 days and that was the end of that.   But becamse Purina works for my dogs by no stretch of the imagination means it will work for all dogs.

Joey's previous owner (bad owner) fed him Kibbles and Bits.  Joey was extremely hard to house train on this food, as it goes in one way and right out the other.  Infact his previous owner gave up on him because "he was impossible to house train."

I've already answered this question for a previous post from you before.  I used to work in a pet store.  A number of times customers would come in with an underweight barrel chested large dog (pit, rotty, mastif).  They would complain that they've been overfeeding their dogs for months without any weight gain.  All of these customers were feeding Dog Chow or Pedigree.  My first recommendation to the first few customers that came in with this underwieght complaint was Diamond Lamb and Rice Puppy.  I figured they were feeding Dog Chow and Pedigree because they didn't have much money, so I didn't recommend any super premium foods.  Well, both of the customers came back in saying it wasn't working after a couple of weeks.  So then I thought...well maybe these dogs need more than the bare minimum of nutrition in the low quality foods.  So I recommended Eagle Pack Holistic Chicken.  Within 2 weeks these same customers came back in with their dogs, who they were embarressed to take out before.  Sure enough the dogs had gained weight.  After that I started recommending Eagle Pack Holistic Chicken to every under weight dog. 

Point of story...some dogs need more than the bare minimum of nutrition found in low quality foods like Dog Chow, Pedigree, Ol' Roy.

I have also read here where dogs got to fat on those brands of food, been on diet food, lost the weight, and then gained it right back after going on the Eukanuba, Pedigree, purina, etc.  I guess it would all depend on the dog.  My one daughter-in-law puts on 5 pounds looking at donuts. and is always on diet despite going to gym every morning before work, walking 4 miles almost every night.  My other loses 5 pounds eating 3 donuts...she is 5'5" and thrilled that she now keeps her weight up over 100  (105)since having two babies.  Shouldn't we all be so lucky!

Our first dog was fed a supermarket brand for nearly her entire life.  She developed a tumour at 9 years of age and by 10 years she was obviously not going to last long. Nobody wanted to see her in pain so at the last minute we scrambled for anything and read a book about BARF (I know this is not a thread about the science!) The improvement from kibble to BARF was incredible. She lived for almost 3 more years, pain-free. There was no more soreness, refusal to walk or collapse after walking and the greasy coat, sheddie and doggy smell were gone.  She went from having almost no quality of life to an energetic senior.
 
Dodger has been on almost all the bad quality and premium quality brands.  He was MY first dog and since he was found, I wasn't prepared and allowed vets to scare me off of a non-kibble diet. He was on Pedigree, Pro Plan, Purina ONE, Royal Canin,  Eukanuba, Science Diet, Solid Gold, Diamond Costco brand, Go Natural, Wellness, Innova, Canidae, homecooked and BARF.
With all the kibbles, from the lowest quality to the premium, he had the most awful gas, teeth, poops and coat.  The only thing he didn't seem to have was allergies and a doggy smell.

nomatter what food you feed it is calories in vrs calories out...this is true for all the animal kingdom, including humans...people that go on these exotic diets are spending  money for stuff they could buy at the grocery store or any place...again if you burn more calories that you take in...you loose weight...there is not substitute for that

My, my dvet…stirring the pot lately aren#%92t we!   []
This is an interesting question you pose!
 
Ok, so here is info I will share on both sides of the food controversy (which btw- my take is “to each his own”)
 
Growing up my parents owned tons of different shelter dogs, all fed grocery store brands such as pedigree, kibble n bits, fit n trim, and that gross plasticky looking food that is moist and in packets (can#%92t remember the name but it is chalked full of sugar and salt!).   Their dogs have lived anywhere from 10-15 years.    Currently they have a terrier mix that has eaten kibbles n bits his whole life with table scraps. He has Congestive heart failure and is almost deaf but he is almost 16 years of age. He is still very spry and will probably outlive us all.   Who knows if the food would have made a difference???
 
My first set of greyhounds I fed Purina One.  My female had the worst problems with chronic diarrhea and she did better on this food than any other I tried.  I ONLY fed grocery store (target / Walmart) foods though.  Not sure if a more super premium brand would have helped or not.  I didn#%92t know anything about dog nutrition at the time but I wish I had tried more super premium brands just to “see” if her bowel problems would have resolved.  At least once a week she would wake me in the night to take her out because she had horrible diarrhea.   She ended up having to be put down at age 10 ½ for kidney problems and sepsis and they could never identify the cause.  Would she have lived longer and healthier with a different diet???…who knows!  
 
I have 2 cats that are over 10 years of age and they have had Purina One their whole life.  My one cat was horribly sick with bacterial and viral infections when we first adopted him and he had bowel problems for a year or more after that. He had better stool on Purina One than any other. Neither one of my cats has been sick a day since.   About 7-8 months ago they were both having more problems with hairballs and my black cat started developing horrible dandruff and a very dry and dull coat. Overall, he just didn#%92t look well.  I did some feline diet research and found that I wasn#%92t too pleased with many of the ingredients in the Purina One so I switched.  They are now on Felidae dry and Natural Balance canned and within two weeks had a totally great looking coat, no dandruff and almost non-existent hairballs, great energy and they even eat better.  For them, this change in diet made a huge difference in a short period of time.  
 
After switching the cats over, I did some dog food research before getting my two current greyhounds.  I don#%92t know whether feeding a higher quality food will help them in the long run…all I know is the huge change I saw in my cats in less than a month when I switched to higher quality kibble. 
 
The way I figure is that if I can afford what I consider a higher quality food and my animals are doing well on it (eating enough, their weight is good, their coat is healthy, they have good poop, their food allergies are in check…) then that is what I will feed. If they did better on a lower quality food and I was happy with the results, then I would probably feed that instead.
 
 Interestingly, every time we go out with the greyhound walking club in my city, people compliment my dogs (and many of them saw the dogs at the rescus, so they can really see the change in them over a few months)…”they have fabulous coats”, “how do you get them so shiny?”, how come your dogs don#%92t shed?”…..  actually, just to have dogs that don#%92t shed hair all over my house…is enough for me to warrant a higher food price!![]
 
Again..”to each his own!” [8D]

We had neighbors across the street that adopted a "used" race greyhound.  She was the sweetest thing and i always said rubbing her was like rubbing velvet--and I don't know what they fed, never asked, but she is one dog i will never forget.  Would come and lay her head in your lap and turned those big eyes up at you and slowly wag her tail.  it is thought our adopted golden mix has greyhound or whippet, or maybe, off hand, saluki.

Here's another example, not of how a bad food hurt my dog, but how a good food helped.

I recieved a free bag of Nature's Logic at a pet product show.  I switch between brands alot and didn't think anything of this new food other than it was free, but within 2 weeks the cateract in Joeys eyes were gone!

Not only that, but the muscle mass he lost over the summer came back and his poohs are looking better than they ever have.

Joey's been fed everything from crap (kibbles n bits fed by his previous owner) to moderatly good (Nutro, RC,and Sensible Choice) to super premium (Eagle Pack, Merrick, Nature's Variety, Solid Gold, Chicken Soup etc).  I didn't realize how good Joey could look and feel until I started Nature's Logic.  I'm thrilled and won't change.

Dvet, I don't think it's a waste of money to buy my dog a food that made his cataracts go away.

Actually, it DOES make a difference what kind of protein goes in, for one thing. Protein molecules have been proven to pass through multiple barriers and emerge in a recognizable form in the bloodstream of an animal (for instance, mother eats something, which is transferred to milk, which is taken in by child, which then tests positive for the marker substance).

This article describes how this recently acknowleged fact may provide hope for hemophiliacs.http://www.research.vt.edu/resmag/journal/2003.pdf

To me, it makes me think that if a dog's body can tell the difference between fresh meat and altered meat, or corn gluten, or soy protein, AFTER digestion, then it might be a difference that MAKES a difference. The NIH scholar who led the reseach referenced above is a friend of mine and guess what? She feeds her dogs raw, prey model no less.

I've never fed either of my dogs (OK, for the first week we had her Sally was on Purina One, but we switched to Canidae) grocery store grade food.  Jack's breeder gave him Nutro puppy food and he's now on Wolf Cub.  Sally is allergic to wheat and possibley chicken, so she won't be getting any food with those things in them....