Eagle Pack Holistics VS. Canidae...

*I* prefer Canidae. Some ingredients that may be considered questionable in the Eagle Pack are: Dried Beet Pulp, Tomato Pomace, Brewers Dried Yeast, Dried Egg Product, Salt. But a lot of people have great results with both.

Yes you'd still need to give supplements. I don't believe the amount of glucosamine added to any kibble is enough to be theraputic.

 I don't feed Jessie the Holistic large breed because she's allergic to chicken but I rotate the fish, lamb, and duck formulas and she does very well on them. I don't know if this is a good example but last Sunday we went on a hike and ended up walking ten miles because it was such a nice day. She is seven years old and because of her size is considered a senior dog but she led the whole time and was still pulling on the leash at the end. She is walked on a 26 foot flexi so she spends a lot of time running back and forth while we're walking. You may need to feed a little more of the Eagle because the kilocalories are less than the Canidae but it looks like it has more meat meal. Also, the grains in the Eagle formulas including the oats and rice are esticide free and I like that. I noticed that Canidae doesn't have digestive enzymes like the Eagle. I used to feed Jessie Nutro Natural Choice and she had soft ( hard to clean up) sometimes runny stools and every few weeks would have indigestion and eat a lot of grass. When she started on the Eagle Holistic that problem cleared up and I think it's because of the enzymes.
     There are no definitive rules on joint supplementation; that may be enough glucosamine. At 88 mg per cup your dog may get about 270 mg a day; I supplement Jessie with glucosamine and chondroitin at the rate of about 500 mg a day.
   Beet pulp and tomato pomace can actually be very beneficail ingredients in  your dog's food and their is almost no sugar in the beet pulp that Eagle uses; 
        [linkhttp://www.eaglepack.com/pages/Fiber.html]http://www.eaglepack.com/pages/Fiber.html[/link]

and the tomato pommace has benefical lutine that is good for eyesight and aiding in the prevention of caterac's (sp).

As far as those ingredients go, it depends on how they're used and how a person feels about them, that's why I said they were ingredients that may be considered questionable.

Fromhttp://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=ingr-wiz

Tomato pomace is the mixture of tomato skins, pulp, and crushed seeds.

This is an inexpensive byproduct with the potential for pesticide residues in discarded tomato skins, which are the largest component of tomato pomace.

Beet pulp is the residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned, freed from crowns, leaves, and sand, and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar.

Beet pulp is added to some pet foods to act as a fibrous stool hardener. The fiber in Natura's products is derived from our all-natural ingredients. We have found that beet pulp is an unnecessary ingredient.

From www.dogfoodproject.com

Names like "__ product", "__ pomace", "__ pulp" identify fractionated, highly processed byproducts and leftovers of human food processing. They are inexpensive replacements for whole, fresh, "real" ingredients and are much less nutritious.

FWIW I tried Eagle Pack Holistic Fish and, had my dogs found it palatable, I probably would have kept it in my rotation. But side-by-side with Canidae, comparing ingredients, I don't think it quite stacks up.

No doubt, Canidae is a great food! I really don't think you could go wrong with either, but then, some dogs do well on one and not the other, so it's trial and error with any food []

FWIW I tried Eagle Pack Holistic Fish and, had my dogs found it palatable, I probably would have kept it in my rotation. But side-by-side with Canidae, comparing ingredients, I don't think it quite stacks up

 
 I'm lucky that Jessie isn't a picky eater because she can't have kibble with chicken ; she'll eat any food set in front of her. No doubt Canidae is an excellent food as is Innova.

I have a friend that feeds her three gsd's Eagle Pack Lamb & Rice formula. And they are doing great on it. 

ORIGINAL: jessies_mom

I'm lucky that Jessie isn't a picky eater because she can't have kibble with chicken ; she'll eat any food set in front of her.

You are lucky. I created my first picky eater with Boomer when I was switching so much trying to find something that agreed with his tummy. The other two never were picky but they do like some things better than others. I made it majority rules here - if two or more like it it's a keeper, two or more don't then I'll feed the bag but won't buy it again.

We had Ollie on Canidea a few years ago, and he stopped eating it completely. We switched him to Eagle and he started eating again and never looked back.
Bubblegum gets Eagle also...its the only kibble that was trial tested for large and giant breeds in a home setting.
In the conversation about beet pulp,,,this is from Linda Arndt (Great Dane Lady) website.

The beet pulp has two purposes. First, the beet pulp provides nutrition for the probiotics, but beet pulp itself is considered a periodic. Having good food available (periodic) encourages the colonization of probiotics or reseeding of the gut with good intestinal flora.

Tomato Pomace, Brewers Dried Yeast, Dried Egg Product, Salt. With the exception of salt,,,not sure why these other ingredients are bad.  Tomatoe Pomace actually sounds kind of good. And what is wrong with dried Egg product?       Eagle says about Brewers yeast:

[size=2]Brewers Yeast is an important, natural source of B vitamins.  It contains 16 amino acids, 14

minerals, and 17 vitamins.  It has no relationship to yeast overgrowth.  Yeast/fungus infections are caused by Candida Albicaus, a parasitic, yeast-like fungus that inhabits the intestines, genital tract, mouth, esophagus and throat.  Normally it lives in balance with other bacteria in the body.  Certain conditions cause an imbalance, causing an overgrowth. (Source "Nutrition Almanac, 4th Edition").  It is not considered an allergen by leading canine nutritionists, nor is it on a researched list of ingredients "causing 89% of allergies" ("Small Animal Clinical Nutrition III").

[/size] 
And as was mentioned, all of Eagles grains are pesticide free!

what does FWIW mean?

Egg product is product obtained from egg graders, egg breakers, and/or hatchery operations that is dehydrated, handled as liquid, or frozen.

Egg product consists of the unused leftovers from eggs for human production. It can include undeveloped eggs, shells, and other tissues unfit for human consumption. Natura uses only human grade whole eggs.

Again, that is from Natura's site, and while it is not completely unbiased, it is informative and straightforward and does correlate with Mordanna's quote "__ product"...identify fractionated, highly processed byproducts and leftovers of human food processing".

Again from Natura's site since it's the only ingredient wizard I know of

Brewer's dried yeast is the dried, non-fermentive, non-extracted yeast that results as a by-product of the brewing of beer and ale.

Although brewer's yeast is a good source of Vitamin B, it is a potential allergen for some animals and is not included in Natura foods.

Like I said these products may be considered questionable. It all depends on who/what you choose to believe because there's never going to be anything that everyone agrees on. Obviously that goes for us here all the way up to the nutritionists that work for these two companies.

FWIW=for what it's worth

just a thought, some things that arent suitable for human consumption could possibly be healthy for dogs.  just as raw feeders feed raw meat, which of course they wouldnt eat as their own diet.
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