Bil-Jac

I beg your pardon, but I am not confusing simple and complex sugars.  I live with a diabetic and I've done extensive research on the glycemic index and because of that, have been able to keep him off insulin for 10 plus years.

The food that I feed is not grainfree in that it has a bit of OATMEAL.  Used no doubt to bind the kibble without using higher glycemic ingredients.

Corn as second on the ingredient list tells me that it's the bulk of the food is CORN.  If that's what you choose to feed, that's your choice.  Since I have learned more about canine nutrition, I prefer not to feed mine a steady diet of corn.  I wouldn't feed that to my children, why would I feed itto my dogs?

HoundMusic

The food I am currently using contains corn as the #2 ingredient and is only 38% carbs.

What exactly is this food, if you don't mind telling.

Isn't Bil Jac fun? I used it to fatten Ena B up, and it worked so well... I only fed her two bags of it (and I used the frozen, which has even WORSE ingredients.... ya'll would love it!), and she's kept a good weight, ever since. Her skin looked fabulous on it, too.

Now, she's eating what Emma eats, with a big blob of cooked grains on top. *shrugs* She did as well on scraps as she's doing on free range meat and organic grain, but I feel a little better, about this... Not much, though. Bil Jac obviously *worked* for her.

glenmar

The food that I feed is not grainfree in that it has a bit of OATMEAL.  Used no doubt to bind the kibble without using higher glycemic ingredients.

     Sorry about that, thought I saw somewhere you fed EVO ...

glenmar

Corn as second on the ingredient list tells me that it's the bulk of the food is CORN.  If that's what you choose to feed, that's your choice.  Since I have learned more about canine nutrition, I prefer not to feed mine a steady diet of corn.  I wouldn't feed that to my children, why would I feed itto my dogs?

     Well, I don't equate children or any humans with dogs, very different nutritional needs. However, I don't see a problem with eating corn myself, it's high in protein, B vitamins, lutein. As I mentioned, the feed is 38% carbs which would dictate that it's not grain based, otherwise we would see a much higher carbohydrate percentage. I also try not to judge a dog feed based solely on ingredients, and the feeds that give results for me are almost always the one with the "bland" plain ingredient lists. Corn is highly digestable, not inherently an allergen, I believe it's behind rice & dogs (the carnivores!) are more likely to be allergic to beef, chicken, egg. The fact is they can be allergic to ANY protein, but I am still of the belief that severe allergies are more based on genetics than diet. Now I'm not saying to throw ingredients out the window and feed Beneful or Mainstay, but there is a great deal of propoganda going around on the internet regarding the digestability and nutritional value of certain ingredients. And as I mentioned, I would rather feed corn than go with these grain free feeds that have a cal:phos ratio of 3.0:2.0 (EVO) when the recommended daily requirement should be not much more than 1.1:1.0 for most dogs. Yet, that is ignored, while other feeds with controlled phosphorous levels that have corn or by products are condemned. There has been a whole lot of hype surrounding ingredients over the years, and from my research, I have concluded most of it is bunk. Have fed everything from raw, to Dog Chow to numerous holistic foods and NEVER had good long term results with the holistic feeds ... or 100% raw. Guess that goes to show that not all diets are what they're cracked up to be on the internet, and one must go by results, not ingredients alone.

nataliem

What exactly is this food, if you don't mind telling.

     The dreaded, evil Science Diet   <>  lol

     I'm currently using it because of a problem we had with Wellness CORE. It looked wonderful on paper, controlled mineral levels & protein ... but really fell flat on it's face as far as results go. It was @ the Vet's recommendation for this dog as the levels of phos are controlled, so we can do another round of blood testing in a few weeks and determine if feed was his problem. The results were so good I have since switched all my adult dogs to this brand. They are eating less food than on Wellness, their drinking/urinating habits have returned to normal, coats are beautiful, energy levels are even, small, firm, infrequent poops ...

Nope, have never fed EVO.  I feed the Blue Wilderness to ONE of my six, and only to keep weight on him in the winter time.  However, I like what I'm seeing and may move them all to it in time.

Yes, human and canine nutritional needs are different.  And, yes, I do eat corn myself.  Not often though, and certainly not as each and every meal.

 Ahhhhh sorry for the arguments people. Just was shocked to see rabbit pellet looking food and was wondering why it was so different than purina proplan performance.

Lillie is not getting strickly Bil-Jac. I give her a cup of it and her regular 4 cups TOTW and her chicken quarter. I thought I would give it a try since I have read and talked to several people that say it's good way to get weight on a dog and keep it there. Before joining this forum a year ago I was feeding the dogs Purina ONE so I dont think Bil-Jac is gonna cause any more harm to Lillie than the other stuff I've had her on.

I always hear how dogs find BilJac so palatable.  My recent rescue came to us with a bag of BilJac---she was so skinny and needed to gain weight, but she wouldn't touch the stuff (I would never have kept her on it, as I'm just not fond of the ingredients). I put her on EVO kibble and canned (cold turkey) and she filled out great.  She's now eating a combination of canned and raw.

it's funny how some dogs do so well gaining on the higher protein foods, while some fill in with the higher carb foods.  Mudpuppy mentioned in another thread that it might have something to do with the difference in activity...bursts vs sustained.

There will ALWAYS be disagreements about ingredients.....don't worry about it!  But, FIVE cups of food per day?  Gracious, what are you feeding?  An elephant?

 She eats it all. I give her 2 cups in the morning and 2 at night. But yet her hip bones stick stick out.

How old is she?  Has she been checked for parasites?  I wonder if there is something more going on?

That's how Thunder gets in the winter though.  Looks anorexic with the hip bones sticking up, which is why I've gone with a very high protein food for him.  The first winter I spent a fortune on testing and he's fine.....just burns off way more than he eats keeping warm playing outside int he cold like a fool.

I saw changes in his body within two weeks with Wilderness.  I don't know how long BJ is supposed to take, but I don't think I'd leave her on it fr too terribly long.  The way the carbs convert to sugars, it is kind of like feeding candy bars to put on weight.

 She turned 2 in November. She has been checked for everything. Parasites,thyroid,heart,etc. Vet says she's in great health. She's even in the weight range for female IS. She weighs 56lbs.

I posted a picture thread of her called "Im not nuts!" just now if you wanna go look.

I dont know how long the BJ takes either but I thought I would give it a month. She isnt outside at all except to use the potty. She hates the cold so she dont even wanna play out there right now.

I will check into the wilderness food your feeding.

Sheba wasn't quite that bad, but she really was about 3 before she started to look less than skinny.

I figured she'd been tested for everything, but it was just a thought.

It's no secret that I don't like BJ, but I know that it has worked really well for some dogs.  I really like the Wilderness ingredients and the results I've seen in Thunder.  But, no one food works great for all dogs.

Don't apaologize for feeding SD.  My mother has had great results on the SD L&R.  I used to preach to her about all the corn, wheat and lower protein, no vegetables etc and guess what?  Her dogs do better and live longer than most (16 years/lab mix).  I've had to change my cat from Chicken Soup and Innova to SD due to higher kidney values.  I feed my dogs EP but will start a rotation with SD after this bag is gone.

If I had to choose I'd pick Bil-Jac over SD any day because it actually contains meat.  Even the name "Science Diet" makes it sounds like  some secret chemical formula that was concocted in a laboratory somewhere and is  supposed to look like real food on paper, but doesn't actually contain any.  Not to mention my cat that died suddenly at age 6 was fed SD, and that's not to say the food was the cause but it still makes me wonder...

My only issue with Bil-Jac is the molasses...is that something that anyone should be eating every meal on a daily basis long term?

 Anyway, I'm trying to move away from kibble altogether.  They all contain useless filler which they need to in order to be made into kibble. Sometimes I think feeding cheap cans of Alpo is better than a diet consistently of only kibble, even the high-end brands.  At least it's meat!