dry dogfood

[Jessika]

I have to say one of the best cheapest foods I've fed is Diamond. I think it was around $25/40lbs. Not a bad price.

Diamond is OK but a lot of their formulas contain by-products, and all contain lots of fillers. That's what I had Charlie on before switching to ProPlan (and now to Nutro) and it gave him the WORST gas and he was SO itchy. Sure its cheap and you can get it even cheaper by going to the farmer's market (I know in St. Charles you buy one 50lb bag, get one free) but the quality in a lot of the forumulas lacks a lot.

Though their Lamb & Rice isn't too bad, ingredient-wise, the other formulas are.

[sammy101]

i found the ingrediants for Natural Life adult dry. Doesnt sound too bad,but theres a few fillers in it.

Chicken Meal, Ground Yellow Corn, Ground Whole Wheat, Poultry Fat (preserved with natural mixed tocopherols, citric acid, rosemary extract and ascorbyl palmitate - a Vitamin C ester), Natural Flavors, Dried Beet Pulp, Dried Eggs, Fish Meal, Ground Flax Seeds, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Dried Kelp, Choline Chloride,Yucca Schidigera Extract, Glucosamine, Natural Antioxidants,Vitamin Supplements (E,A,B2,B12,D3), Niacin, Calcium Ascorbate, Calcium Pantothenate,Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Inositol, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid, Biotin, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Proteinate, Manganous Oxide, Cobalt Proteinate, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite.
http://www.nlpp.com/products.html?topic=adult

sounds better than pedigree..
GROUND YELLOW CORN, MEAT AND BONE MEAL, CORN GLUTEN MEAL, CHICKEN BY-PRODUCT MEAL, ANIMAL FAT (PRESERVED WITH BHA/BHT), WHEAT MILL RUN, NATURAL POULTRY FLAVOR, RICE, SALT, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, CARAMEL COLOR, WHEAT FLOUR, WHEAT GLUTEN, VEGETABLE OIL, VITAMINS (CHOLINE CHLORIDE, dl-ALPHA TOCOPHEROL ACETATE [SOURCE OF VITAMIN E], L-ASCORBYL-2-POLYPHOSPHATE [SOURCE OF VITAMIN C*], VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENT, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], BIOTIN, d-CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, RIBOFLAVIN SUPPLEMENT [VITAMIN B2], VITAMIN D3 SUPPLEMENT, VITAMIN B12 SUPPLEMENT), TRACE MINERALS (ZINC SULFATE, COPPER SULFATE, POTASSIUM IODIDE).

[Jessika]

Since ground yellow corn is the second ingredient in the list, it makes up a big portion of the overall kibble. I wouldn't recommend feeding that

IT IS much, much better than Pedigree, however

[sammy101]

Since ground yellow corn is the second ingredient in the list, it makes up a big portion of the overall kibble. I wouldn't recommend feeding that

IT IS much, much better than Pedigree, however

ok .I think were going to give Nutro a try.My mom want to finish off the dry they have now,since they have quite a bit left still.

[Jessika]

On a side-note, I JUST bought some more dog food today from Petsmart. For a 44lb bag of Nutro ADULT Lamb Meal & Rice (I'm getting my pups off the puppy formula since there's no real difference) it only cost me $31!! A 20lb bag of Nutro PUPPY cost me $23. So for less than $10 more a bag (and going from puppy to adult) I got more than TWICE the amount of food!

I also forgot to add, its better to buy the new food NOW and then mix the new food with the old for a few weeks to get their body adjusted to the new formula.

[JenBKR]

Before you buy new food, go on the websites for different food companies - lots of times you can get free samples. If there's no link for free samples email the company and ask for one. When we first got Roscoe he was VERY picky, so that's what I did instead of buying many different kinds that he would not eat. We settled on Biljac (you can get it at petsmart, and they will send you a large free sample for going on their website). We went through many free samples before finding one he's eat.

I also want to mention that, although you want a good brand of food, it won't do any good if they won't eat it. Some people have told me that Biljac is not as good as some other brands, but Roscoe has been doing wonderfully on it. The vet said that he is MUCH healthier than when we first adopted him. It's really up to the individual dog, I know people that fed Purina to their dog and she was a very healthy dog until the age of 17. Each dog is different, that's why there are so many different kinds of food

[anna_66]

Diamond is OK but a lot of their formulas contain by-products, and all contain lots of fillers.

Though their Lamb & Rice isn't too bad, ingredient-wise, the other formulas are.

Very true they do contain a lot of fillers, but the lamb & rice (the one we used-guess I should have stated that in my post) wasn't too bad for a cheaper food. Much better than grocery store food IMHO.
It gave Bon runny poos but was fine for the girls.

I think it all really depends on what kind of food your dog can handle. Some can't handle the richer better foods, others can so I say just experiment. A lot of people have to do this to find out what's best for their dogs