Maxximum nutrition dog food

Yep, another dog food thread :) My sister-in-law feeds her dogs Maxximum Nutrition from Wal-Mart and says it's really good, but it doesn't sound that great to me. I'm still not very good at reading ingredients, so I thought I'd ask someone who might have a better idea. Here are the ingredients:

Lamb, brewer's rice, corn gluten meal, chicken meal, yellow corn, oat
groats, animal fat (preserved with mixed tocopheols, source of vitamin
E), beet pulp, dicalcium phosphate, animal digest, vegetable oil,
calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, salt, brewer's yeast, choline
chloride, ferrous sulfate, vitamin E supplement, zinc oxide, niacin,
copper sulfate, vitamin A supplement, manganous oxide, calcium
pantothenate, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine
hydrochloride, thiamin mononitrate, menadione soduim bisulfite complex
(source of vitamin K activity), vitamin D3 supplement, riboflavin
supplement, calcium iodate, folic acid, cobalt carbonate, sodium
selenite.

What do you think? Thanks!

It's not the best food thats for sure but it is better than some. It's probably about the best food that you can buy from a grocery or department store though.

Corn is not good at all, it's just a filler. If she can get a food that has no corn in it it would be a lot better.

Is she willing to travel to a feed or pet store to buy better food? Or can she only go to Walmarts & grocery stores?

That's about what I thought. She said she looked at all of the brands at WalMart and compared them, and Maxximum was the best there. Petsmart is close, I think it's more about cost than distance to the store. She's trying to get me to switch to Maxximum, but it doesn't sound that great. I feed Bil-Jac now, which may not be the greatest either, and it's pretty expensive, but Roscoe loves it and has been doing really well on it.

Maxximum nutrition is pretty expensive so you might see if you're friend will go and look at some of the foods at petsmart, compare the labels and prices...i know there are a couple good foods out there that cost about the same as the maxximum nutrtion but are better in quality

Well they are about the same quality, MN may even be a little better. I'm not too good at knowing how much of the other ingredients are good, like the Riboflavin, biotin, copper, zinc, etc.... Bil-jac has by products which are not good and MN has none. BJ has corn in it but MN has 2 forms of corn, etc...

If I were to choose I'd say that MN may even be a little better. But thats just me & again I'm not good at knowing a lot about the bottom lower ingredients. But if Roscoe is doing good on it then that is great. Each dog is different, what may be good for one may not be good for another. :D

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Originally Posted by AllAmericanPUP

Maxximum nutrition is pretty expensive so you might see if you're friend will go and look at some of the foods at petsmart, compare the labels and prices...i know there are a couple good foods out there that cost about the same as the maxximum nutrtion but are better in quality

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I agree, Nutro is only a little bit more money and a whole lot better ingredients!

I forgot to add that even though better foods may be a little bit more money the food is better, therefore they don't need to eat as much. You have less to clean up and less vet bills because your pet is healthier. In the long run feeding a better quality more expensive food is actually cheaper.

Roscoe is doing well on Bil-Jac, but I'd kind of like to switch him to a better brand. He's so picky though, I had a hard time finding a food he'd actually eat to begin with. My SIL's dogs eat anything though. I'll tell her to try Nutro.

Lamb(the first ingredient should always be a meat MEAL -- because it is lamb, and not lamb meal, this ingredient is 70-80% water, fat, and oils. It takes 5 of these to make one meal, therefore it drops down about 5-6 ingredients on the list, making brewers rice the first ingredient), brewer's rice(this rice is just a waste product of beer mills. They sweep it off the floors. It has practically no nutritional value, it's just a filler.), corn gluten meal (in any form, corn is a filler and is one of the number one allergens found in dog food. It can be hard to digest too. Gluten is also not good for dogs. However, if you have to have corn in the food, corn gluten is the easiest to digest.), chicken meal, yellow corn (once again, corn is not good for dogs, oat groats, animal fat (they don't state what type of animal. This is usually the type of company that takes tubs of rancid fat from fast food restaraunts) (preserved with mixed tocopheols, source of vitamin
E), beet pulp (a reeeally controversial ingredient. Some think it's good for fibre, others think it's bad because it is primarily sugar and dogs are borderline diabetics and should not have lots of sugar), dicalcium phosphate, animal digest (this is just animal poop and the waste they scrape out of the animals' bowels, colons, lower intestines, etc. They don't state what kind of animal either which is scary. They should know what kind of poop they put in their food), vegetable oil,
calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, salt, brewer's yeast (this one is getting more controversial too -- Seems that brewer's yeast is causing bloat more and more in dogs. It rises in the stomach), choline
chloride, ferrous sulfate, vitamin E supplement, zinc oxide, niacin,
copper sulfate, vitamin A supplement, manganous oxide, calcium
pantothenate, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, pyridoxine
hydrochloride, thiamin mononitrate, menadione soduim bisulfite complex
(source of vitamin K activity), vitamin D3 supplement, riboflavin
supplement, calcium iodate, folic acid, cobalt carbonate, sodium
selenite.

All in all, I say it's a terrible food. Better than most grocery store foods though. I would feed this before feeding Pedigree or Kibbles N Bits, that's for sure.

I just wanted to post this. In the long run more expensive foods will acually be cheaper. This was a study done for a magazine:

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When we began to look at cost per feeding last year, we discovered an interesting fact: It costs less to feed a Super-Premium dog food than an Economy dog food. The secret is in the nutritional power of the food. A Super-Premium dog food contains much more energy and protein in every kibble than an economy brand. In one test we ran, we had to feed five times as much of the Economy brand dog food to get the same nutritional benefits of the Super-Premium. Despite the lower cost per bag of the Econo brand, it costs you more to feed than a Super-Premium, because you use more bags. How does cost fit in to the dog food picture? We measured the cost of 40 pound bags of various maintenance/adult dog foods and took the manufacturers' suggested feeding instructions. We then calculated the cost of feeding a 40 lb house dog for a day.

The Premium foods studied had an average of 22% crude protein and 10% crude fat. The Super-Premium dog foods examined had an average of 27% crude protein and 15% crude fat. The Economy brands averaged 20% crude protein and 8% crude fat.

The Super-Premium foods suggested feeding an average of 1-3/4 cups of food per day for our 40 lb dog. Premium brands recommended 3-1/4 cups, while the Econo brands instructed feeding 6 cups a day.

It costs an average of 24 cents a day to feed a dog a Super-Premium brand, compared to 26 cents a day for a Premium brand, and 31 cents a day for an Econo brand. That's right - the Econo-brand actually costs you 7 cents more a day to feed your dog than a Super-Premium does. In order to give your dog the nutrition he needs, he has to eat 3-1/2 times more of the Econo brand than the Super-Premium food.

Thus, the big difference is in the poop! The seven cents more that you spend on an Economy brand buys you piles more in the yard cleanup department.

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So, do your research, find a good dog food, and it will end up being cheaper. This is the main reason why people buy lower quality food. I have been pushing this study anywhere I can -- the humane society, vets offices, web sites. It needs to get out. People need to stop buying just any bag of dog food because it's cheaper, and get a premium dog food for their dog's sake. If the price is the problem, this article will help :)

Of course, if Roscoe does better on Bil Jac than a premium food, then continue feeding that. But I would at least try a better food.

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Originally Posted by .sarah

Of course, if Roscoe does better on Bil Jac than a premium food, then continue feeding that. But I would at least try a better food.

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Roscoe's problem is that he is very picky - he won't eat a lot of other kinds of food. LOL most dogs eat anything...not my Roscoe! :)

When I was super low on money and ran out of dog food and couldn't make the 2 hour round trip to Petsmart to get my pups their normal food, I forced myself to go to Walmart. I stood there for nearly an hour comparing labels and I settled on that brand.

It is NOT the best out there by any means at all. It has LOTS of fillers, but no by-products (at least the formula I bought did not have any). My dogs did not do as good on it; they had horrible diarrhea for a week and their poo smelled ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. I mean you would walk outside and be slammed with a wall of stench. Not to mention they went from pooping once a day to pooping four times a day. Sooo yeah. Not the best by a long shot, but ingredient-wise the best Walmart had to offer.

Will I feed it again? NO WAY!

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Originally Posted by JenBKR

Roscoe's problem is that he is very picky - he won't eat a lot of other kinds of food. LOL most dogs eat anything...not my Roscoe! :)

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Nova and Mandy are also very picky. I was constantly changing food because they would get tired of it. They are now on Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish, and they have been on it for months with no problems :D They don't fuss, they don't turn up their noses, they always dig in as soon as I set the bowl down! Maybe with all of the corn the food is a bit tasteless and that's why he likes the Bil Jac (less corn)?

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Originally Posted by .sarah

Nova and Mandy are also very picky. I was constantly changing food because they would get tired of it. They are now on Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish, and they have been on it for months with no problems :D They don't fuss, they don't turn up their noses, they always dig in as soon as I set the bowl down! Maybe with all of the corn the food is a bit tasteless and that's why he likes the Bil Jac (less corn)?

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That could be. I looked around the internet and emailed a few companies (Nutro, Royal Canin, and a few others) and asked for free samples. I did that before, when we first got him (about 6 months ago) and that's how I found Bil-Jac. I knew at the time that it wasn't the best food, but he was really skinny and we were having trouble getting him to eat. I was so excited that he was actually eating I just bought it. Maybe now that he has settled into our home, he'll be more willing to try something else. I've been thinking about changing for a while (that's how the Maxximum Nutrition food came into play, but I'd rather not change to that). Thanks for the advice! Maybe I'll try the Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Fish on him :)

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Originally Posted by JenBKR

That could be. I looked around the internet and emailed a few companies (Nutro, Royal Canin, and a few others) and asked for free samples. I did that before, when we first got him (about 6 months ago) and that's how I found Bil-Jac. I knew at the time that it wasn't the best food, but he was really skinny and we were having trouble getting him to eat. I was so excited that he was actually eating I just bought it. Maybe now that he has settled into our home, he'll be more willing to try something else. I've been thinking about changing for a while (that's how the Maxximum Nutrition food came into play, but I'd rather not change to that). Thanks for the advice! Maybe I'll try the Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Fish on him :)

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I think it's the fishy smell that gets them. I can't smell it, really, but I have problems with my nose :p My mom says she can smell the fish and it smells bad, but it's not too strong. But my dogs looooove anything having to do with fish. They'd take fish over red meat any day!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by .sarah

Nova and Mandy are also very picky. I was constantly changing food because they would get tired of it. They are now on Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish, and they have been on it for months with no problems :D They don't fuss, they don't turn up their noses, they always dig in as soon as I set the bowl down! Maybe with all of the corn the food is a bit tasteless and that's why he likes the Bil Jac (less corn)?

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Be careful too though; most grocery store brands of foods will spray animal fat over their food to make it look and smell and taste appealing to the dogs lol

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Originally Posted by Jessika

Be careful too though; most grocery store brands of foods will spray animal fat over their food to make it look and smell and taste appealing to the dogs lol

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:confused: Natural Balance isn't a grocery store food.

I don't know if Roscoe likes fish, but I do know that he loves meat - anytime I make a roast or anything like that he goes nuts! I'll try to give him a little fish and see if he likes it :)

no no no I wasn't referring to that food, just how you said about "taste" in general lol Most people THINK "well my dog seems to love it!" that it means its a good food but in reality the dog only thinks it smells good because of the fat they spray over the kibble

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Originally Posted by Jessika

no no no I wasn't referring to that food, just how you said about "taste" in general lol Most people THINK "well my dog seems to love it!" that it means its a good food but in reality the dog only thinks it smells good because of the fat they spray over the kibble

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Aaahhh I see. Yeah, I know what you mean.

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Originally Posted by JenBKR

Roscoe's problem is that he is very picky - he won't eat a lot of other kinds of food. LOL most dogs eat anything...not my Roscoe! :)

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Most pet stores offer free samples of premium foods, maybe pick up a few different samples & see what he likes?

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Originally Posted by lv4dogs

Most pet stores offer free samples of premium foods, maybe pick up a few different samples & see what he likes?

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Really? I never noticed that before...sometimes I see someone with a booth with certain foods at Petsmart, but that's not very often. That would be a great idea, thanks!

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Originally Posted by JenBKR

Really? I never noticed that before...sometimes I see someone with a booth with certain foods at Petsmart, but that's not very often. That would be a great idea, thanks!

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There are found in all different spots, sometimes at the end caps, sometimes in a display box in front of the foods, sometimes right on the shelves. So sometimes you might have to look but most pet stores have them. I don't shop that much at petsmart but they should have some, petco & all the other pet stores in my area have free samples so they should too.

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Originally Posted by lv4dogs

There are found in all different spots, sometimes at the end caps, sometimes in a display box in front of the foods, sometimes right on the shelves. So sometimes you might have to look but most pet stores have them. I don't shop that much at petsmart but they should have some, petco & all the other pet stores in my area have free samples so they should too.

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Maybe I'll try Petco - it's brand new so I have only been there once or twice. Usually I go to Petsmart, since that is what we have always had. There's a Pet Supplies Plus around here too, but it's further from the other two. Thank you so much for your help! :)

Also don't forget to ask the employees if they have any! I know when I worked at PetCo we'd have a box of free samples under the register. ;)

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Originally Posted by Jessika

Also don't forget to ask the employees if they have any! I know when I worked at PetCo we'd have a box of free samples under the register. ;)

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Yup, or in the back room because some customers live by those free samples. Thanks for mentioning that!

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Originally Posted by Jessika

Also don't forget to ask the employees if they have any! I know when I worked at PetCo we'd have a box of free samples under the register. ;)

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I never knew that! Great, I'll stop tonight. Thank you so much guys!