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Just wanted to take a little survey of what you folks feed your dogs as their main food: kibble or moist (which brand?), homemade, BARF, or prescription?
Both of ours were on Purina ProPlan lamb and rice kibble for quite a while, but we've recently switched them to Innova kibble. It's got a nice short ingredient list of "human grade" foods--heck, I'd even be tempted to eat it... :p
Hi Kobieeli,
I also feed my dogs Innova. Dixie has been on Innova for almost 2 1/2 years and I swear by it. Goldens tend to have allergy related skin problems and with the Innova her coat is so beautiful, low shedding, and no hot spots. I also used the Innova puppy food for our recent litter and recommended it to all our puppies new families.
Basically I decided to go with the Innova for the ingredients list also. Dogs are conivours (meat eaters) and Innova has 3 meat products as the first three ingredients on the list. They do not use By-Products - only human grade (foods that you would eat yourself) in their food. Because the foods are so packed with healthy nutrition you don't have to feed as much. Dixie gets 2 1/2 cups a day and she weighs 65 pounds. Less food intake also means less food output. Now there's something I'm sure we can all agree is a benefit!!!! :D :D
I, like Dixieland Dancer, have Golden Retrievers. Mine are on a DIET :( so no treats for them! But I feed Flint River Ranch...and I'm converting to the Sr. Diet food this month, for the purpose of dropping the weight. We have been very happy with the food.
Sheba and Rocky get a Innova and Canidae mixed together. (I do put a squirt
of Mirra Coat in their kibble)
All dogs get a bit of human food
mixed in with their kibble.
Sheba used to do very well on Nutro Natural
lamb and rice, but Rocky did better on the Innova/Canidae. Pepper does well on the Purina One, so my husband will not switch. :)
Killian (who has liver disease and gingivitis) eats Nutro Dental Care mixed with Nutro canned Lamb and Rice. He has potatoes and cannola oil mixed in, too. Shiloh eats the same except for the potatoes and oil.
Shaianne has a tendency to have gastritis and cholitis, so I searched and searches for a food for her that would not make her vomit.
I didn't want to start her on the Hills perscription if I could at all help it.
I found excellent results with Royal Canin Holistic dog food. And she gets a SMALL can of dog food or 1 cup of frozen BIL JAC mixed in it every day, She only eats about 3 cups a day. She also does very well of Nutro Lamb or Chicken and Rice. And she did well on Innova when I bought that for her and she like the PROFESSIONAL dog food that I bought at PET SUPPLIES PLUS. It resulted in smaller output also. I just bought her the SR formula in the Holistic to see if that would bring her weight down a little. Of course I could also be a tough mom and stop the BIL JAC and the canned food but she loves the BIL JAC soooooo much!!! We shall see, I may switch her to innova or Professional. Innova is more expensive than the Professional but she would eat less.
Does innova make cat food???
Shais Mom,
Yes, there's Innova cat food! Follow this link: www.naturapet.com/display.asp?ch=2&pg=0
Before we switched to Innova I requested samples online of Dick Van Patten's dogfood and Flint River Ranch, but neither ever arrived. (Kobie can be a picky eater so I wanted to sample things first!) Both of those seem to be quality stuff too. I also tried Nutro, but their stools were ORANGE and soft. Yikes.
Innova seems to be rich and filling for Kobie, as I notice she chooses to eat less of it than she did the Purina. Eli, on the other hand, scarfs down everything and has even learned how to open the dogfood cabinet by himself... :eek:
Simba eats pedigree small crunchy bites, and for snacks he eats milkbones ;)
Dakota and Patience both get Nutro Natural Choice for large dogs. They both love it. I started it mainly because of the chondoitrin and glucosamine for their joints. Dakota just turned five and that's how old Kilo was when he first started having hip problems so I wanted to try to avoid that.
Both of our pups eat canned "natures receipe" lamb and rice with vegetables. 1/4 can every morning, in the afternoon they eat 1/2 cup of dry lamb and rice. Inbetween they have people crackers and some other treats.
We found they do wonderful with the lamb and rice, it makes their coat shine and they are not gaining weight.
Jackie
Daisy mainly eats Purina One Lamb and Rice. However, one of my father's favorite things to do when he gets to go out shopping is shop for treats for her! He brought home this slightly moist food in baggies called "Moist and Meaty" and she loves it! But we only give those to her every once and a while, since kibble is better for her teeth. He also recently bought a few "Little Champions Grilled Cuts in Sauce" and she absolutely inhales them! These, also, are only given to her every once in a while. All in all, she is not a very picky dog and will eat anything, but we just like to spoil her :)
My Sadie eats Iams, in the green bag! Is it true that Iams is bad for dogs and cats???
:confused:
I haven't heard that it's bad for them. What I have heard is that the Iams parent company (Proctor and Gamble) does horrifying animal testing for their pet foods! I don't even like to LOOK at a bag of Iams anymore, but it's probably good as far as food goes.Quote:
Is it true that Iams is bad for dogs and cats???
Wow, there's lots of really special, high-end foods being fed to all of our lovely doggie friends!
I'm curious about the Dental Care kibbles--do they work? Eli's only a year old and already has tartar buildup. We feed raw beef marrow bones twice a week but his teeth still don't sparkle like they should. :confused:
A trick I learned from a dog magazine is to give your dog raw carrots. I use the baby shortcut carrots. This does two things. 1. It helps them keep their teeth clean and
2. It freshens their breath naturally. They are good for their eyes too.
I actually brush Dixie's teeth. I use a finger tooth brush and a dog toothpaste that is beef flavored. I only do this about once a week. Her teeth are so white that people constantly remark how pretty they are. I believe it's the carrots!
Dusty is still too young to brush his teeth. He just started to lose his baby teeth.
Kobie and Eli both love carrots (we also feed the raw baby-size short ones) and eat a few every day--it's not helping! I may have to start actually brushing his teeth, I guess. Eli's not the most patient guy in the world, either, so this could be interesting! :eek:
At the Aniaml Hospital that I work at we ran out of our regular dry dog food so we opened a back of the dental care kibble to feed to the dog boarding. I 've noticed that most of the dog in the kennel didn't like it because the bits are SO big but some of the larger dogs loved it.Quote:
Originally posted by kobieeli:
<STRONG>
I'm curious about the Dental Care kibbles--do they work? Eli's only a year old and already has tartar buildup. We feed raw beef marrow bones twice a week but his teeth still don't sparkle like they should. :confused:</STRONG>
Killian's teeth are clean, but his bad breath is still there (gingivitis). Shiloh's teeth are beginning to get clean. The kibble is very large. It would be very difficult to eat for the smaller breeds.
I use EukaNuba dry dog food. (I don't know how to spell it!) It seems to be working very well. He's digesting it well, his stools are very hard, and he likes it a lot.
Dixie Land dancer, Ohh, I give my puppy big, whole carrots, and he luvs em!
He can naw on those things for hours, and he'll be perfectly contented
I brush my puppy's teeth every day.
The greys all eat Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice, and we are happy with their health, coat, 'output,' etc. Pup gets Nutro Max Weight Control and salt-free canned veggies.
Buddy recently started walking aaway from his meals when they were only about half done, so we started giving him half his food and half Pup's food. Now he eats every bite! I guess that, after a year of the same food, he lost interest and wanted some new taste!
Graham gets mostly Innova with a small bag of Wysong mixed in to his bag of Innova and I am very happy with the results. I also started him on Dr. Kruegers "show dog" formula formulated for skin & coat and he gets Glucosomine tabs every day to prevent age related joint problems. He enjoys the taste of his food & glucosomine tab and he's a healthy pup :)
Olli eats mostly Purina Puppy chow.I will pour some broth over his puppy chow sometimes just to give him something a little different and he loves it. He some times get can food and always has treats. Of course he gets a bite of what we are having too :D
[ September 04, 2001: Message edited by: AngieS ]
Well, it looks like good quality kibbles combined with various special treats and supplements are pretty much the rule around here!
I'm kind of surprised, though, that nobody has stepped up to talk about feeding a BARF diet. I know that's a little "radical" and can make a dog quite sick if you don't do it right. Still, it's got lots of fans. Has anyone tried it or known of dogs on a BARF diet?
My parents rescued a Great Dane 2.5 years ago, and the rescuer she came from was a BARF advocate. Lizzie then got really sick (a week's stay at the hospital, colon biopsies, etc.) and her vet flipped out when he learned what she'd been eating. Only prescription kibble for Lizzie from now on!
[ September 04, 2001: Message edited by: kobieeli ]
I would be interested in the B.A.R.F. diet if it were not so inconvinent. I sometimes go camping, backpacking with Graham and I know he would not appreciate the rotting meat and veggies in his doggie pack! Also, when I go on vacation and need someone to watch Graham for a few days, like my recent trip that sent me to Chicago, and then to Rachels house, it would have been so hard to ask Rachel to watch Graham, and then bring all this raw food and ask her to cut up the veggies, handle raw meats...ect. I know it's healthy (if done right) but it's not at all convienent. That's why I don't have Graham on it. Also, both me and my husband are vegetarians and we are a little more grossed out by raw, bloody meats then most people. I don't care to have raw meats around all the time in my fridge. Graham will get a raw beef bone every once in awhile to help clean his teeth up, but it's a rare treat.
I can't get past the raw bloody thing either. It's just to gross and disgusting to my mind. :confused:
Lots of 'greyhound people' have their dogs on BARF, and say it's great if done right.
Like everyone else has said, I don't really want to handle lots of raw bloody organ meats and other 'yummy' things. :p
I would love to go to homemade someday, so that I know every ingredient that goes into my dogs' food. Any big move like that would take LOTS of research, though :)
Leslie--
What is the "small bag of Wysong" mixed with his food. I haven't heard of that!