The BEST dry dog food? (please respond quickly)

Ok, first I need you to respond quickly is because we are leaving to go to Petco as soon as mom gets home, and that will be very soon!

And, what is the very best dry dog food? That they carry at petco? (I know there isn't really a BEST dog food, but you know, Nutro is better that Kibbles N' Bits, right?) Because aren't the bad ingredients corn, and wheat, and something else? And Sadie is on Nutro Natural Choice, and that has wheat, corn and lamb in it! And I thought that was the best dog food you could get a Petco!

And help is greatly appreciated!!!:) :)

The best dog food is whatever your dog likes and doesn't have any health problems with. If you plan to buy a new brand, introduce it slowly. (Corn and wheat and the like are not bad ingredients, though many people think so. It is like you go to a restaurant and get steak and corn and potatoes, which would you rather have more of. Dog are omnivores just like people so its really a personal preference if you would rather have more meat or more veggies.)

As you know I do not own a dog, so I can't give you a recommendation based on personal experience- only by knowledge.

I have researched just about every dog food on the market (for when I do get a dogl; soon) and so far I like Natural Balance the best. We feed our cats Natural Balance, we recently switched them over from Iams- there has been a huge improvement in their coats, digestion, and weight (Dudley is underweight)- they chow down the Natural Balance. My rats also eat Natural Balance mixed in their Suebee's Mix- they love it too! :p The ingredients in Natural Balance are fantastic. I think it beats everything else on the market. It is sold at Petco. Here is the website for more information on the company and products:

Natural Balance

Duncan eats Eukanuba which is made by the same people who make Iams I think. I switched him to that when they were the only dog food company that could guarantee there was no mad cow disease in their food (back when that scare was happening) His coat has always been shiny but his teeth improved with Eukanuba, less tartar.

I use Purina EN but you can only get that at the vet. Duke has been doing really well on it.

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Originally posted by IRescue452
The best dog food is whatever your dog likes and doesn't have any health problems with. If you plan to buy a new brand, introduce it slowly. (Corn and wheat and the like are not bad ingredients, though many people think so. It is like you go to a restaurant and get steak and corn and potatoes, which would you rather have more of. Dog are omnivores just like people so its really a personal preference if you would rather have more meat or more veggies.)

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There are a lot of bad foods on the market like Kibbles N' Bits, Ol'Roy, Sprout, etc. For the most part dogs are not omnivores, they are natural carnivores, people MAKE them omnivores. Just because the dog likes it doesn't mean it is healthy for them. You may like the taste of a Big Mac, but look what it does to your body. Low-quaility foods will not produce a healthy dog; it is highly unlikely. Corn and wheat do nothing for dogs (corn gives them SOME energy, that's about it), it is a filler ingredient.

Thanks sooo much you guys! This really helped! :)

I get my pups' food at PetCo. They get Royal Canin (owned by Sensible Choice) Natural Blend. It was the only food I could find at either PetCo or PetsMart that did not have corn in it at all, was a human grade quality food, and had meat ingredients as the first ingredients. Each PetCo might be different in what they carry though. Do try to find something that has meat as a first ingredient, and avoid foods with lots of corn or corn gluten meal, those are just starchy fillers with no nutritional value. :)

both mine are on Pedigree,and doing wonderfuly on it.I couldnt ask for healthier dogs.
i dont know what the BEST foods are,but i heard Nutro is good.I tried it with Kodie,but he hated it.You got some great advice already;) :)

Well I'm sure you're gone by now, but I'll post anyway.
I agree completely with YLL, on both her replies.
I feed all 5 of my dogs Natural Balance as well as all 6 of my cats. It's a great food.

We have tried Science Diet and Eukanuba...Bil Jack is the brand Gracie seems to do best with.

It's the way that corn is processed that rids it of its values. I mean, growing up, I was taught that if the vegetable could be fed- it was nutritious :p I still suspect that corn is nutritious in its raw, unprocessed form--- to dogs. I do, however, agree that dogs' diets should not be composed of starchy, carbohydrates. Even though they can thrive on vegetables, they are natural carnivores and meat should always be predominant in their diet. With that said and done, I feed my dogs EVO and a raw meat mix, a la Pitcairn's recipe, Billinghurst, or Schultze. Whatever mood I'm in determines the meat mix. Umm, does that make sense? LOL. Along with the meat mix, Giselle receives chicken or turkey wings/carcasses/neck and a rec bone *occassionally*. I stress occassionally because too many rec bones can and DO wear away and crack your dog's teeth. Just ask poor Gonzo:o ;) Ok, that doesn't help, though. You're shopping at PetCo, huh? I wouldn't know what kind of brands they carry as EVO is not sold there and I don't agree with PetCo's practice of selling live animals. Thanks for letting me rant!

Edited to add food recommendations anyways:
Innova/ EVO
Karma
Natural Balance
Organix
Newmann's Organic
Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul
Canidae
Pinnacle
Fromm
Wysong
Solid Gold
...and these are the only ones off the top of my head. There are lot more out there.:)

Some middle of the line brands that I would feed if I had to:
Diamond and Nutro <--- and other brands along these lines

Maybe this site can help for future reference: http://www.ourpetfood.com/comparison.html

This one too: http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=comp-wiz

I throw in votes for Wellness, Blue Buffalo, and Innova. ;) Those are the only super premiums I have experience with. Just look at the ingredients list and slowly try out different types of high quality food.

I am way late on this but I will throw in my.02 anyway....
we were feeding chicken soup, and maybe it works for some, but all of our dogs gained weight on it, and we weren't overfeeding....ashlee quit eating it suddenly, so we picked up some Precise at the pet store across the street, and it has worked out great....all three dogs have gotten back down to their normal weight, and they always gobble it down......
we feed foundation formula, but there are several others to match your dogs requirements......the downside is petco and petsmart don't carry it, so I guess this isn't really much help to the original poster......tom

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Originally posted by IRescue452
Dog are omnivores just like people so its really a personal preference if you would rather have more meat or more veggies.)

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Dogs are not omnivores. They are conivores (meat eating). You do not see wolfs attacking corn fields... you see them attacking meat sources. Canines are all desendants of the wolf and are meat eating animals! Corn has no nutritional value for dogs and in some dogs it is the primary cause of allergies and coat problems.

I would suggest getting a food that has three meats in the first 5 ingredients listed on the label. Preferrably not all by-products as these can include all the scraps of meat not able to be used anywhere else.

Unfortuantely, Petco by our house doesn't sell the super premium foods such as Innova, Candiae, Wellness and some others. They do however carry Natural Balance, Eagle and a few others. The main thing in looking for a good dog food is to read the label! The more you read, the better you will be at finding a good food!

Whatever your dog thrives on.
I know dogs who lived HEALTHY to the age of 18 on Kibbles N Bits, I know dogs who had the worst gas and pains on Chicken Soup. I know dogs who lived years and years on table scraps.

Every dog is different, every dog eats differently.

If Sadie is doing good on her current food, keep it.

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Originally posted by Dixieland Dancer
[B]Dogs are not omnivores. They are conivores (meat eating). You do not see wolfs attacking corn fields... you see them attacking meat sources.

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:D Sorry that made me laugh, attacking corn fields.:D

As a rule.. if a grocery store carrys it, it's garbage. Now I dont exactly feed my dogs the highest grade food , they eat Nutro, but if I can ever find a place that sells Evo I'll switch immediately.

I've been following this thread with great interest. When we adopted our first animal from a shelter (our now 9-month-old torti kitty), they told us they'd been feeding her Nutro and so we did the same. It's a nice food, our kitty, Bonnie, really liked it, so we continued. When we adopted Bijou, I have no clue what the rescue folks were feeding her and we figured we'd put her on Nutro Max (the puppy formula). She liked it as well, and she's been on it for a couple of months now. However, we recently switched our feline to Royal Canin -- I guess I'm the one who wanted to try something new, lol. Our cat likes the new food just as well (we mixed several feedings to ease the transition) and now I'm curious if we should switch our collie. I'm thinking that Nutro and Royal Canin are likely similar in quality and that if my fur babies are growing well and are active, happy girls, I should leave well enough alone -- anyone with further thoughts on this? Clearly, pet food is always a bit of a hot topic but I really appreciate everyone's insights on the subject!

Thanks :)

Right now, due to financial reasons, Jasper is eating icky Pedigree, I've always hated the stuff.

It's the only thing he'll eat even without a bunch of wet-food mixed into it, which is what I have to do with everything else.

I'm hoping to switch him to Welness, or Canidae in a couple months.

Food is really challenging for us, due to his alergies :(

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Originally posted by Kfamr
Whatever your dog thrives on.
I know dogs who lived HEALTHY to the age of 18 on Kibbles N Bits, I know dogs who had the worst gas and pains on Chicken Soup. I know dogs who lived years and years on table scraps.

Every dog is different, every dog eats differently.

If Sadie is doing good on her current food, keep it.

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I agree 100% with this, it's the dog.

I too know dogs who are old and are eating "low-quality" food.

I also know people who don't eat well, and are old :p

i agree with Kay.
both mine are eating so called 'low quality' food,and 'garbage'.Yes,there eating Pedigree,but there the most healthy dogs,beautiful fur,and everything.Both mine happen to like Pedigree better than the most expensive foods,so i have no reason to switch them.Mabye some people cant afford to buy $40 bag of food every month.Its better than no food at all.

Some people. No dogs are not naturally going to attack a cornfield. They do however get nutrional value off of vegetables and they have systems that can digest vegetable matter. In other words their digestive system is set up similar to an omnivore, like that of a bear. They may prefer meat, but they can just as easily digest and get nutrition from non-meat products. I never said I'd prefer to have only starch in the food, as it is not good for anybody, but other vegetables are good for dogs. Cats on the other hand are carnivores who get little to no nutritional value off of eating vegetation. You don't see much cat food with beef, carrots and peas or chicken and rice do you. No you see seafood blend or chicken, turkey, and salmon. The only time you see rice is in a food that is made for cats is for those who have problems in the area of defication. Many dogs will actually steal veggies out of gardens if given the chance because they can eat them with no problems. Cats on the other hand will just eat the leaves off you houseplants and grass because it helps with upset stomachs or because some have strange taste, but they don't get any nutritional value from doing it.

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Originally posted by *LabLoverKEB*
Ok, first I need you to respond quickly is because we are leaving to go to Petco as soon as mom gets home, and that will be very soon!

And, what is the very best dry dog food? That they carry at petco? (I know there isn't really a BEST dog food, but you know, Nutro is better that Kibbles N' Bits, right?) Because aren't the bad ingredients corn, and wheat, and something else? And Sadie is on Nutro Natural Choice, and that has wheat, corn and lamb in it! And I thought that was the best dog food you could get a Petco!

And help is greatly appreciated!!!:) :)

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Had smokey on Pedigree for a little bit but he doesn't like it Bought a HUGE bag too, so when we tried some Nutro max we bought the smallest bag just in case...

When we gave him some Nutro MAX, he snarfed that stuff down like he hadn't eaten in years....

so we have him on Nutro Max (the green bag, had him on the purpleish bag too).

www.nutroproducts.com

I'd also hope that you all know how to read ingredients lists on packages. The first ingredient makes up more of a percentage in the food as a whole than any other single ingredient, but that can mean that it makes up less than 1% of the food. If there are 50 ingredients. The first one is chicken, which is 2% of the food as a whole. The second is turkey, which is also 2%. The third is beef, which is 2% also. Strange food but stay with me. The fourth is corn, 1.5%. The next is wheat, 1.5%. The next is barley, 1.5%. The next is rice flour, 1.3%. The next is oatmeal, 1.3%. Next is sunflour oil, 1.2%. (I've gone through nine ingredients, the first three are meat but meat is only 6% of the food as a whole and the next few ingredients are non meat 8.3% of the whole.) Of the next 41 ingredients listed only 5 more are meat products. I'm getting most of these ingredients off of a bag of Nutro natural choice. There is a lot more to buying food than looking at the first five ingredients.

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both mine are eating so called 'low quality' food,and 'garbage'.

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All of my dogs eat that so called bad food, and they are as happy as can be! They are healthy as can be so it all depends on what you and your dogs settle with, whether its their stomach or your money.
Our little Beethoven, he is about 10 years old and whenever he eats certain kinds of dog food, smoetimes he gets red rashes so we usually just give Beethoven table scraps, and we don't just give him whatever.

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Originally posted by IRescue452
Some people. No dogs are not naturally going to attack a cornfield. They do however get nutrional value off of vegetables and they have systems that can digest vegetable matter.

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I'm sorry, but while dogs can digest corn, wheat, etc --- a very small portion of the nutrients is used. Vegetable protien is difficult for a dog to digest. Hence the reason many dogs don't thrive well on vegetarian diets. Often times a food will add corn and whatnot as a filler to boost the protein percentage of the food -- but very little of that vegetable protien is digested. Yes, alot of dogs will raid the garden -- alot of dogs will raid the garbage too. I doubt that at the time they are thinking about how their digestive system will break the food and how many of the vitamins and nutrients are used. Dogs are not omnivores. They are primary carnivores (meaning yes, they can eat vegetable, but they primarily eat meat). In the wild, a canid will eat meat. It will get vegetable and grain from the stomach contents of these animals (As all carnivores do -- it doesn't make them an omnivore). This is easy for them to digest because it has already been pre-digested for them. When a wolf is very hungry, sometimes it will eat berries. But other than that, it is all meat, organs, etc.

Edit: This isn't to say that vegetables aren't good in a dog food. I was just talking about the grains like corn and wheat.

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I never said I'd prefer to have only starch in the food, as it is not good for anybody, but other vegetables are good for dogs. Cats on the other hand are carnivores who get little to no nutritional value off of eating vegetation. You don't see much cat food with beef, carrots and peas or chicken and rice do you. No you see seafood blend or chicken, turkey, and salmon. The only time you see rice is in a food that is made for cats is for those who have problems in the area of defication.

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Corn is actually very starchy -- that's why they have corn starch. It's also not a vegetable, it's a grain. It's odd that you say that cat foods don't have rice unless it's a formula for pooping problems. Because my cat is eating a food with rice in it, and it's a general all-stages food, not formulized. I also picked up over 20 brands of cat food samples from the Vancouver Pet Expo, and every one has rice in it, with the exception of one that has only rice flour.


Getting back to the original topic at hand.. I say to go with what she likes and what she does best on, but remember that even if she does really well on a feed-grade food, effects can show up later (IE -- BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, and other carcinogenic chemical preservatives may not cause cancer or epilepsy for a number of years). Maybe try Avoderm, or Nutro Ultra? Nutro Utlra is fairly new but it's already building itself quite a reputation. I'd say it's definatly one of Nutro's better products.

i think foundations and chickensoup for the dog lovers soul are the best foods... i feed chicken soup.... I think they have stopped shipping it to my area though, :(.... i only have a 40 lb bag left... i also mix in nutro senior...