Food For Thought

MyDogsLoveMe

It doesn't ever pay to feed your dogs canned dog food even the better brands. Read the label for it's contents. You will see it is almost all WATER and probably from 1 to 2 % protein.

That is untrue!You can not compare the protein content of dry and wet food,you have to convert the wt food into it's dry matter content. Premium quality canned foods are much healthier than thier dry counterparts.Just take a look at EVO's 95% meat range www.naturapet.com.There are many other canned foods out there of the same quality.Although i do agree fresh foods are healthier than both dry or canned.

bluejean058

my bset friend was on pedigree his whole life and he lived to be 15.

he is a hundred pound pitbull

Bluejean if you do some research on pet food and then have a look at pedigree's ingredients you will find it is a very poor food indeed

A 100 pound pitbull?? Cant say i've ever seen one of those..I thought the proper weight of a PB was around 60 pounds?? 

The point of senior food is to be low in protein.  So your dog is probably better off with the Nutro Senior.  Older dogs can't process a lot of protein -- it's hard on their kidneys.  I recently lost two of my older dogs this summer.  One was a 16 year old lab mix, who was fed Nutro max products all her life and the other was a sheltie who was about 15 who I adopted when he was about 2 and half and ate Nutro products from the time I adopted him untile he passed.  Her arthritis finally got her she couldn't get up one day.  And he had some kind of seizure time of thing in addition to his arthritis and it affected his balance.  But the point I'm trying to make is that they make a good food.  The thing I learned from the food recall is is that you have to educate yourself and read the ingredients.  The thing I look for is the main ingredients, then I look to see whether there are preservatives in the food.  Preservatives cause a lot of the allergic reactions and two of my dogs have skin problems if I'm not careful.  Then I check for wheat gluten because that was one of the ingredients that was problematic in the recalled foods.  If it doesn't have that or corn or soy or a number of other things I can't think of at the moment, I feel like it might be a potentially good food.  I don't feel competent to make my own dog food and I don't like to cook for myself, much less for the dogs so I use the Nutro Ultra dry food and for a while their canned was off the shelves while they reformulated it and so I found Avoderm canned which met the aforementioned criteria and the dogs liked it.  I feed them a little canned mixed in with the dry in their evening meal.  The main things is you have to feel good about what you are feeding them.  My dogs look healthy, are active and their coats are shiny, their eyes look good.  I give the ones with the skin conditions 3V caps in addition to their food. 

If you do the best you can for them, they'll do their best. 

This is just a comment from personal use of the product. We have used Pedigree for about 16 years.  We have a small kennel that has 8 labs and 2 inside Corgis.  We have had great success with the products from Pedigree and had our labs living till they are 13+ years of age. Corgis are only 3 right now.  We use our labs to bird hunt and they are currently in the AKC hunt test competions with titles of Juniors and Seniors going for their Master title soon.  We have never had a problem with the products from Pedigree and the dogs have great coats, weight and attitudes.

We have tried other brands and have not been satisfied or the dogs wouldn't eat them.  It may be personal preference but I'm really satisfied with it.

Hi Edie,

Just looked at this site for first time today. Pretty interesting.  I have 3 AKC beagles.  One 10, 2 & 1 yr.  The 1 & 2 yr old are full blooded sisters.  What is your opinion on the best dry and/or canned food to be feeding dogs.  Currently I feed Science Diet dry, a tablespoon of canned, just for good measure, I add VitaCoat Plus liquid and give each Brewers Yeast Garlic Tablets each day. They get lots of exercise, and have  beautiful coats.  However, I'd just like to know someone else's opinion, and what your "dog" experience is.  Thanks so much Char 

Welcome to the forums   If you browse around at some of the older threads in the "nutrition" section you'll find a lot of recommendations for different kinds of dog foods. Off the top of my head, some of the most popular brands with people here are Timberwolf Organics, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic, Canidae, Orijen, Solid Gold, Innova, and Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul.

Most people here do not think that Science Diet is a high quality food, or at the very least isn't a good food for the price they charge. :) Here's one website where you can start learning about dog food ingredients and how to pick out a great dog food: http://www.dogfoodproject.com/   In my opinion, if you're feeding a very high quality dog food you won't need to add as many supplements.

Hi,  I was reading your posting about your dog that is "healthy' yet is not.  I have been using a supplement that has done wonders for my dogs, it even saved my one breeding female from major problems when alpo had the bad food.  I did only feed one container of the food - thus that was a blessing.  Go to this website link removed  and take a look and seriously think about giving it a try.  I am sure that you should see some differences.  Audra

We use Pedigree and Iams and we have boxers and bulldogs and have never had any problems.  Our boxers are 12 and 13, which is good for boxers.  Our bulldogs, our vet said, are in great health.  We usually only have to take them to the vet for shots.  I did not realize so many people did not like pedigree.  I usually mix the 2 together because they are not crazy to just eat the Iams alone.

Here, Iams Pedigree, Science Diet, Purina, Eukanuba and several othes areconsidered crap, garbage, etc and only stuff like Solid Gold,  TimberWolf, Eagle pack, etc are fit to be feed to dogs.  I have fed purian 51 years and never had a problem, have had long lived healthy dogs, so I don't agree with those that say only the 'top o the line" is worth feeding.  It all depends on the dog.  Just because "this" nutritionist or dog food critic or "that" nutritionist or critic says these food are no good doesn't amount to a hill of beans to me.  i go by what i have seen for 51 years. 

 I do believe in many caes the "top o the line" foods are the ones that work best, but i also know that sometimes they don't work at all.  I think of the "dog food peole" like I do movie critics.  They sayd the movie is great bcaue it has such & such and such & such starring, it wa dircted by the reat directo X, was based on the book wirrten by the famed writer P, and was filmed on location---and i thought the movie stank as did many of the folks i know.  Others loved it.  It all depends on the viewers and dog food all dedends on the dog. 

Hey, Sandra, how many dogs do you know who are fed super premium, or home prepared diets?

I see a *lot* of dogs. My occupation is handling dogs, and my life-sucking hobby is handling dogs (I'm about to start handling other peoples' dogs to suck away more of my life!). *Lots* of dogs go through my hands, and there is a noticeable  difference, 95% of the time, in a dog who is fed good food and a dog who is feed less good food. There is *always* a difference in a dog fed fresh food and a dog fed processed.

" I do believe in many caes the "top o the line" foods are the ones that work best, but i also know that sometimes they don't work at all. I think of the "dog food peole" like I do movie critics. They sayd the movie is great bcaue it has such & such and such & such starring, it wa dircted by the reat directo X, was based on the book wirrten by the famed writer P, and was filmed on location---and i thought the movie stank as did many of the folks i know. Others loved it. It all depends on the viewers and dog food all dedends on the dog. " Quote by Sandra Slayton

Well, I think one thing we can agree on is that you are no nutritionist Sandra!!!  lol

No I am not and never claimed to be.  When my husband was having "stomach"  problems the doctor had him keep a running list of what he ate for two weeks And then  when he took it in, the doctor asked if him if he was married to a nutrionist because his diet was perfect.  It was his gall bladder, by the way.  Of course it was human nutrition I studied, not animal, but i am not a total dunderhead when it comes to animla nutrition either.

 My own vet has a bench Champion English Setter that has spent 8 years on Science Diet.  I would have to assume that even tho he is a vet, he doesn't know a healthy good looking dog when he sees one and neither do the judges that awarded her the points to become champion.  They didn't see that she was oily, matted, stinky ears, thin coarse fur, gooey eyes, etc that so many seem to think goes hand and hand with less than top of the line food.  Those judges better get out of the business because that are lots of champions that are fed not top of the line.

 I don't know how many actual nutritionist there are on this forum because mostly it is "According to The Dog Food Project", "according to Abady" "According to Arnet",  "According to Wysong", and on and on.  And ones that don't like Abady say he don't know what he is doing, and those that don't like Arnet say she don't know, etc, etc.  So who is correct and who is wrong.  It is all WHO you believe.

 One thing about here--a "top of the line" fed dog lives to be 16 and "Oh, it is because he was fed a good food".  Let a "mid or low" line of food dog live to be 16 and it is "All luck and genetics.""   Let a "top o the line' fed dog die at age 6 and it is all "Oh, that was genetic", but let a "low or mid grade line of food fed dog die at 6 and it was "Oh, it was that awful food."  Why is that? 

I have not known many who fed top o the line--to answer another poster--and those that did--well, their dogs were  not any more healthy or long lived than mine have been.  In fact, some have not done as well as mine. They could have done worse on other food, I dont' know. On the other hand, the little mix next door is fed the local grocery store brand and is in awful condition--bald on tail and top o head and ears, matted fur, chews and licks all the time and stinks.  She is also allergic to fleas, which she has, and she is also dying of heartworms which the owner refused to treat.  She has to be sedated to be clipped or groomed and the owner is now willing to let her be put under due to the heartworms.  I have no idea if her terrible con dition is due to the food, or to the fleas and heatworms.  It possibily is a combination.

 And just because i am not a dog nutritionist and feed my dogs raw or top of the line does not mean i do not know that they have beautful smooth, silky coats, cear eyes and clean ears, lots of energy.. I have a nose to smell with, hands to feel with, and eyes to see how they look, whow they qact and read their physical reports from the vet.  And for the record, i would not allow two stinky, oily nasty golden retrievers to sleep in bed with me.

jennie_c_d

Hey, Sandra, how many dogs do you know who are fed super premium, or home prepared diets?

Good point! And i assume jennie,you're talking about in person,not on internet forums..

Babydolls i agree with Cita's recommendations.Science diet and foods of the same ilk,i just would even rate,SD especially is overpriced junk.You can buy better quality foods for the same price or cheaper.

And what's with the influx of new posters on this thread,or perhaps one new poster   who feed pedigree,science diet etc. Something seems amiss here???

dogfuzzer

The point of senior food is to be low in protein.  So your dog is probably better off with the Nutro Senior.  Older dogs can't process a lot of protein -- it's hard on their kidneys. 

That's completely outdated and it's known now that seniors need a protein level of about 26% to maintain muscle mass. A lot of dog foods are behind the times on this one. It takes awhile for people to change their thinking- kind of like with the new information about vaccine effectiveness and the new protocol. Check out these links if you're interested:

http://www.dogaware.com/seniordiets.html

http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/HS_SeniorCare.html

Oh boy. Where to start?

First off, anyone who is feeding home prepared foods in addition to kibble....you MUST balance the calcium-phosperous ratio.  I don't care how little or how much you are feeding, this is absolutely critical.

Canned foods are mostly water?  Perhaps the grocery store variety are.  The good foods are typically mostly MEAT.

Not all dogs will do equally well on all foods.  There is no BEST for every dog.  Some of the really top drawer foods gave my dogs HUGE, black and greasy looking poop.  Purina, well, lets just say with two gsd pups, it looked like I was running horses in my backyard!  There are a number of Purina formulas, to be sure, but this was the Purina large breed puppy recommended by my vet.

Here is my experience with Pedigree.  I placed a foster pup with a family.  One of the FEW feeds I strongly recommend against is Pedigree.  They fed it anyway.  Tyler lived with those people for two months before coming back because he was just such an awful pup (long story, but basically, they were full of spit).  Tyler left my home eating Innova and homecooked.  He nursed from a momma fed Innova and homecooked. After two months on Pedigree he was enormous.  MUCH taller than his littermates, enormously heavy, but that was mostly fluid retention from all the salt in the food.  Tyler suffered with Pano for more than a year, thanks to this food.  His coat was dry and dull.  He smelled like a dog.  He had an abcessed tooth....as a PUP.  At a bit over 2, he is still a bit leggier than my other shepherds.  I have SEEN his siblings, and in fact still have one of them.  Not one of the other pups from that litter has the same legginess that Tyler has, nor did his momma.  I've seen pictures of his daddy, and he is a fine, well muscled boy.  In his case, food made an enormous difference, and even 2 months worth of what I consider to be garbage food did a lot of damage.

I do agree that many folks cannot see the less than stellar appearance of their own dogs.  Not all,but, lets say at least those who aren't horribly experienced with dogs are much, much slower to see a problem.

I would never say that anyone who doesn't feed *insert food of choice* doesn't love their dog enough, isn't willing to sacrafice enough, is too old or too stupid to see that there are better things, doesn't know anything about feeding their dog.......but I would encourage anyone feeding a food that has corn listed in a variety of ways to conceal the fact that the food is in fact MOSTLY corn, to at the very least learn about proper balancing and add some FRESH foods to what you are feeding.

As a disclaimer, this is MY PERSONAL OPINION AND DOES NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE FORUM MANGEMENT.

Edie

Good point! And i assume jennie,you're talking about in person,not on internet forums..

 

Of course. I'm talking about putting your hands all over the dog, and burying your nose in it's coat.  I'm also talking about muscle mass. If Teenie ate kibble, she'd be a big ball of flab. She lives on the couch, in the chair, and under the blanket. She looks like a well-cared for kibble dog. Emma looks like a dog She is a very, very muscular ***.

I was talking to a friend of mine, yesterday, who is a dog trainer. It may be that we were sitting in the sun all day, but they were giving away big bags of Science Diet as prizes for the costume and best trick contest. My friend copies a bunch of ingredients lists and has her students read them out loud. Then, she tells them the price of each food, without revealing what the food is. And she tells people "Price isn't everything." She works for Petsmart (so do I) and isn't allowed to say that any food is "bad", but she can tell them that it's not the best for their money.  I thought that was a pretty good way to compare things.