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Many years ago I had an Irish setter that deverloped mange from the shoulders to the tip of his tail. Brandy lost most of his fur along his back and tail. He was over 14 and the vet said that if was hopeless. I started him on a regular diet of shredded carrots and cabbage with minced garlic added to his food with other vegis thrown in to alter the mix. sometimes cooked lean meat and within six months his skin condition cleared up and his coat grew back. Ever since I have added something to my dogs diets. My current dog, Chelsea, likes plain, unflavored steamed white rice , and food that she gets must be kept seperated from each other in the dish, she will not eat her food if it is mixed or water or gravy is added, she eats the rice before anything else, even meat.

OK that's hilarious, you have a dog that doesn't like her food to touch. My son does that. Last night he ordered some fried cod (you know, fish and chips), and seperated the coating from the fish, then ate them seperately. Oh dear.

My dogs' food has to meet their energy needs first, then my preferences as to types of meat sources and carb sources. At that point I have to sort of split the difference between the dogs that have actual needs and what I'd prefer to feed. I have one working dog that absolutely does his best on [shudder] corn. My compromise is that I only feed whole grain corn, never fragments or gluten. He also has to have a soft, not extruded food, because he has a wonky bite. He has extremely high energy needs, so high fat is vital (I supply the protein if it's insufficient).

I went to raw feeding long ago to meet the needs of my allergy dog. I'd love to do all home prepared but I just don't have the time and money. Meanwhile I've found a commercial food for him that I trust and has worked for him for eighteen months now. So he is also on half kibble and half raw, plus some home prepared goodies to top the kibble (and mix in his meds).

My older mix female and my young Chinese Crested are also on my allergy dog's diet - no grains, mostly meat based. Maggie is over thirteen years old and you'd really never know it. My Crested has zero skin problems, eye goop, and perfect teeth (though that could change, Crestie teeth problems are mostly genetic). I'd love to do all my dogs this way but the amount of meat they'd have to eat would be outrageous - on a total raw diet some of them need up to 10% of their body weight per day during intense work periods (like now).

About the time I first came to idog, I had a prof who spent much of our English class crabbing about dog food......pointing out all the tricky ways that corn is listed and always ended with "I'm trying to feed my DOG not fatten my HOG".  She got me thinking.  And then the gentle folks here at idog started leading me away from the Purina Large Breed Puppy that my vet had recommended.  Mind you, I had fed Purina or Pedigree for absolute years and felt that there had never been a problem.  But, hey, I had opened my mind to learning to earn a degree, so why not in other areas too?  Despite my advanced age! []
 
My first step up the ladder was Royal Canin.  But, I really REALLY wanted to feed Innova since thats what EVERYONE on the forum was talking about.  I couldn't find it in the little town I lived in and I waited, always searching for the Prize food.  Eventually the Petco did start carrying it and I insisted that THIS was the food I had to feed.
 
I would likely still be feeding nothing but Innova if we hadn't moved, if the distributor I order 11 bags at a time from, hadn't forgotten my delivery and I hadn't run out.  Coincidently, down the road is a feed store and they had put on their sign that they were now carrying Canidae.  By this time I had realized getting Innova was not always going to be easy and started trying some other foods to give myself an escape hatch.  I tried EP Holistique with Thor as my test subject and had big sloppy poop.  Tried TWO, same thing, but big, dark and sloppy from all six.....then Canidae, and it works very well for MY dogs.  Then DS started repping for Blue Buffalo so I tried that and am still in a trial period with Blue, but so far so good.
 
I look for specific things in foods before I am willing to consider them, and that primarily is how much meat and in what form.  BUT, my dogs also get homecooked every nite, or raw, so the kibble, while important, isn't as vitally important as it would be if thats all they were eating.

I fed my husky Purina One until the vet told me to switch her to Senior dog food because she was gaining too much weight. So, after doing research, and realizing that I could do better than Purina, I switched her to Canidae (well I tried other things in between but she's done the best on this).
 
The puppy gets Canidae as well.

After doing enough research to give myself multiple headaches I decided on a small quantity of kibble to use during training and as treats (and choose NB Fish/Sweet Potato) with the majority of her food from the better quality canned foods choices(NB, Canidea, Solid Gold and now adding Blue Buffalo) because:
1.  I'm afraid of raw foods (probably an irrational fear, but nonetheless, a fear)
2.  I haven't mastered the concepts behind homecooked and don't know if I ever will
3.  I want to avoid grains since I think they have little real use in a dogs diet
4.  Canned is theoretically less processed than kibble
5.  Canned allows for a great deal of variety in her diet which I think is important

Alternating between the best kibble, trying to eliminate the foods that have the grain fillers and adding meat and fruit veggies, and cheese to the kibble is what I have been doing.
 
The dogs, esp. my girl whom differs in her sensitivities, get tired of the same old food.  And I know some say that it is spoiling them and whatever, but frankly with what is being called high quality kibble and the current scandalous news with regards to pet food ingrediants I am  trusting my own judgement upon the basis that a well rounded diet is not found within one food day after day, month after month.
 

we started feeding amelia blackwood when we first got her. it was on the recommendation of a co-worker. otherwise i had never heard of the better foods out there and didnt really realize how bad some of the other foods are.

we fed amelia nutro natural choice for a while, but when we adopted sydney we put both the dogs onto blakcwood. we have tried canidae and it didnt work out for amelia. there are some other foods i would like to try but knowing that amelia has a sensitive stomach, we have been a little afraid of switching them around too much.

with the current food recalls, even though blackwood has not been included in any of the recalls, i would like to try out some home cooking or raw. but it seems cost prohibitive for us right now.

I feed my dog Abady granular because it I feel it is the best product available for my dogs.  I don't have to home cook to escape the inherent nutritional 'gap' created by most kibbles.  I don't have to add supplements to bolster a weaker formula.  I don't have to add anything, just scoop and feed and I have the luxury of knowing everything my dogs could possibly need form a nutrition standpoint  is in that scoop.  After seeing the results firsthand, I can safely say, my dogs will remain on Abady granular for the rest of their days.  I will never change their food so long as this product is available.  Thanks for asking.  Charlie

ORIGINAL: cc431

I feed my dog Abady granular because it I feel it is the best product available for my dogs.  I don't have to home cook to escape the inherent nutritional 'gap' created by most kibbles.  I don't have to add supplements to bolster a weaker formula.  I don't have to add anything, just scoop and feed and I have the luxury of knowing everything my dogs could possibly need form a nutrition standpoint  is in that scoop.  After seeing the results firsthand, I can safely say, my dogs will remain on Abady granular for the rest of their days.  I will never change their food so long as this product is available.  Thanks for asking.  Charlie

 
What about this food is so much better than all the rest?  And where do you purchase it?

What about this food is so much better than all the rest? And where do you purchase it?

I was thinking the same thing   Their web page wasn't revealing, I did find it on waggintails.com though.  I was just looking at their "toy" forumula since I'm a chi mom, here is the ingredients I found on that page.

Poultry By-Product Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal, Pre-gelantinized Corn Meal, Beef Fat, Ground Kibbled Corn, Meat Meal, Cold Pressed Safflower Oil, Lamb and Mutton Fat, Flaxseed Oil, Undefatted Beef Liver, Salt, Egg Albumen, Dehydrated Carrots, Wheat Germ Oil, Torula Yeast, Menhaden Fish Fat, plus essential vitamins and mimerals.
 
This is the granulated formula I found
 
Nutritional Information
Chicken Meal, White Rice, Menhaden Fish Meal, Lard, Sunflower Oil, Beef Meat and Bone Meal, Chicken By-Products, Beef Fat, Dicalcium Phospate, Potassium Chloride, Human Grade Undefatted Beef Liver, Organic Flax Seed Oil, Salt, Natural Flavor, Menhaden Fish Fat, D-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Ferrous Sulfate, Amino Acid Supplement, Magnesium Oxide, Ascorbic Acid, Zinc Oxide, Vitamin A Acetate, Inositol, D-Calcium Panthothenate, Niacinamide, Manganese Sulfate, Cholecalciferol, Citrus Bioflavonoid Complex, Stomach Substance, Cupric Oxide, Riboflavin, Potassium Iodide, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite, Cobalt Chloride, Sodium Selenite, Folic Acid, Biotin, Cyanocobalamin Concentrate.

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein Not Less Than 32.4%
Crude Fat Not Less Than 28.9%
Crude Fiber Not more Than 1%
Moisture Not More Than 5.6%
Linoleic Acid Not 5%
Calcium Min 2.25%
Phosphorous Min 1.8%

I found it odd that they claim that they can decrease the possiblities of things like undescended testicles, LOL!!  I am quite sure I do not know how a food could do that but am willing to listen to the rationale~  : )

ORIGINAL: dogslife   What about this food is so much better than all the rest?

 

Everything

 And where do you purchase it?

There are several kennel/breeders that carry Abady in my local area.

If you see Chicken Meal listed before Chicken By-Product meal, you're then looking at the Formula for Maintenance and Stress.  That is a newer formula as compared to the M&S in the past.  I use the "Classic" granular a slightly different formula
than the M&S.

Wow, I've never seen such high fat as in the Abady granular formula that Ottoluv posted! Even the grain free high protein kibbles usually have about 22% fat and the Abady one has almost 29%!! [:-] Here's the thing, recently I've been keeping a more open mind and reading ingredient labels differently. For the first time EVER, Abady actually kind of makes sense to me! I guess they're feeding dogs the way that people used to- high meat, organs, high fat, and very little grain. It has the lowest fiber I've seen in any kibble. The only thing in the food that I don't think is good for any dog is menadione bisulfite, other than that, yeah I can see how it works for a lot of dogs- particularly active working or sporting breeds. I will say though that I don't think it's correct to say that Abady or any other food is "the best". That really depends on the individual dog and how they do on the food. []

So as far as MY food choice. I've finally settled on one that I feel is best for my dog and that's Eagle Pack Holistic. I've tried everything from Innova, Pinnacle, Nature's Variety, Timberwolf Organics, Natural Balance, California Natural, etc. and I'm happiest with the EP. My dog's coat color has darkened and intensified since eating it and I've realized that's probably the color he was supposed to be all along. [] I like all of the ingredients and it doesn't have any of the ingredients that I avoid for one reason or another like wheat, soy, brewer's yeast, barley, etc. I like a food with some fruits and veggies because I feel dogs get the same health benefits from them that people do. I like that it has probiotics and supplements added after the cooking process. I feel comfortable with the company's ethics and their quality control. I like that they make several different formulas that I can rotate through without having to switch to a whole other brand, etc. The other thing I do is always add about a tablespoon of canned food (can't used EP's canned because they have brewer's yeast). So I use canned Innova EVO and a few others, rotating for variety.