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I'll agree with the Nutro suggestion, it's a much healthier food. Arguments can be made for cheaper foods with lots of fillers, but the truth is that they just do not give as much nutrition, and in the end a better food will give you a healthier dog...not to mention a cheap food may lead to many more health problems when your dog gets older. The others mentioned such as Solid Gold, Canidae, etc. are awesome foods too of course :)
I can't put this any blunter. Without sounding rude......If you buy it from the grocery store it isn't worth feeding. Alls it does is put substance in your dogs belly. Not the proper nutrients he needs. I feed Solid Gold. You will be surprised the little private kennels and breeders close to you that are retailing the holistic and quality foods.
Beneful is really pretty bad...Pedigree is better than that. See my post in one of the other dog food threads about what is in dog food that is not good.
Solid Gold: http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/
Canidae: http://www.canidae.com/
Merrick: http://www.merrickpetcare.com/
Wellness: http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/dogs..._overview.html
Nature's Variety/Prairie: http://www.naturesvariety.com/
Innova/California Natural/Mother Nature/Karma: http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=home-tab
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul: http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/
Eagle Pack: http://www.eaglepack.com/ (this one is made in northern IN)
Royal Canin: http://royalcanin.com/
I personally dont like Beneful because we got it for coco and she ate it for about a week and didnt like it, it startd making her very sick, she would throw up and the pieces of food would still be whole when they came out, and she was no longer excited to eat food anymore! She use to jump around and be excited then after she ate that for a while she turned her nose up to it and dreaded when she had to it that!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jessika
Boy did you hit the nail on the head!! That's what Mike uses as his selling point when people come looking for food for the animals!
Ok - here is the skinny.
You should avoid foods with lots of fillers, ie: corn, soy, brewer's rice, and other things along this line. You should also avoid foods with meat-by-products. If you must shop at your local grocery for foods then you are going to have to do your research and read labels.
If you live in the sticks, then chances are there is a feed store near you somewhere. Most feed stores carry some of the better foods. Also, if you live in the sticks, chances are you are going to "the city" every once in a while. While you are there - get dog food.
Honestly, Beneful is one of the absolute worst foods on the market. I am certainly not trying to tell you this to be rude, honestly, but it's horrid. I'd honestly feed dog chow first. I would check out all of those threads someone posted to the websites for the better food. Trust me, with a Boxer you don't need extra gas LOL, and that's what you get from those crappy dog foods, LOTS of it. You can often find good foods at local feed stores, small mom and pop operations, boarding and breeding kennels, etc. At least try looking at those sites to see if any of those are anywhere near you. You can also have food delivered by mail and, depending on the place, get free shipping or reduced shipping, etc.
I am going to respectfully disagree with this statement (although it IS significantly healthier than Beneful). Nutro has changed their formulation and has added soybean oil which is one of the top 3 allergens. Mike has converted 11 dogs from Nutro onto better (and in some cases, cheaper) food and the owners came in 2 weeks later falling all over themselves thanking him for saving the dog...they had runny, seepy ears and coat issues. Now, if your dog doesn't have allergies, then you probably won't see a difference. So....if you need Nutro come to Ft Wayne to the store and buy what we have left...the Nutro Max is marked down to $17.99 for a 35 pound bag so we can get it out of the store. Also, you will begin finding this at your local Wal-mart anytime, which is a sure sign they have lowered the quality of the food. Just an FYI (Mike gets this info from periodicals that he gets at the store).Quote:
Originally Posted by JenBKR
I hope I didn't offend you!!!
I beleived that, untill I was looking at the health food section in Hannaford and discovered they were selling Wysong dog and cat food, and a few other brands of natural dog food. Most of the brands did contain corn, but they are still much healthier than the foods found in the dog asile. Unfortunately the bags were quite small.Quote:
Originally Posted by MajesticCollies
That Thread Was Wrote Before This One, Thank You All For Your Advice It Has Been Really Helpful For Me. I Will Go Ahead And Get Some Nutro Just As Soon As Possible Which Will Be 2 To 3 Days. I Took Her To The Vet Today And Got Her Shots, She Done Great. Although She Had A Little Ear Infection Around The Outside Of Her Ear He Gave Me Some Kinda Medicine For It. I Take Her Next Week To Get Her Ears Clipped So I Definetly Need To Get Rid Of That.
I'm not here to start a discussion about Purina,
but I fed my two Purina for a long time, and Mickey longer than Molly. The only problem they had while on it was slight tartar on their teeth. They both did nicely on Purina. Their coats were nice, their health was "athletic condition". JMO. :)
I agree there are better foods, but I, from my experience with Purina, would not label it a bad food.
^ +1
i took angel to the vet yesterday for her second round of shots and had them do tests for intestinal parasites and heartworms and something else, lol.
she is now 15 weeks old and i have had her on beneful since i got her, she has gained almost ten pounds, her teeth are immaculate, and the vet could not get over how beautiful her coat/skin looks. ( she was interested what the hell i have been feeding her, lol)
but what works for some doesn;t work well for others, and i am still going to be switching her to eagle brand of foods, even though that means buying it from the evil pet store, lol.
Aww, I love her natural floppy ears.. they give her such a sweet soft look. The ear infection problems could very well be from the food. Many dogs have allergies to corn and other filler ingredients used in low end foods. I think boxers especially tend to be one of the more sensitive breeds when it comes to that. Good luck with her. She's adorable.Quote:
Originally Posted by timlewis
After a lot of research I chose to go with Flint River Dog Food due to the quality of their product. They have free shipping and I'm on the autoship option where they automatically ship to me according to a schedule we arrived at. I live 45 minutes from the closest pet store so this is my best and healthiest option for my Labs.
Labmomma
www.flintriver.com
FRR is my food of choice, too, but it got too expensive with 4 big dogs. Now I have 3, one puppy, and two big dogs and I might consider going that route again. It certainly was nice to have the UPS man (poor guy) bringing it to my door! :o
My big dogs are eating Purina One Barley and Lamb, right now. It is the one in the white bag, and they are doing just fine on it. Puppy Mack is still on Iams Puppy food, which is what the breeder was using, but in time, I may switch all 3 of them back to FRR.
Good luck!
Logan