new dog food

[frawri]

I just read this from a post some one sent me. It is on dog food.

What about Raw instinct?, EVO?, Solid Gold?, Wellness?, etc etc:

EVO, Solid Gold's Barking at the Moon and Nature's Variety's Raw Instincts are grain free marketing gimmicks made with potato or tapioca. These foods are not raw substitutes at all- they are fully cooked and contain high glycemic starches. The high ash content in these foods is another major concern. Here is what Mary Strauss, renowned canine nutrition expert, has to say in response to my comments about EVO:

"I do agree with this, (my comments on ash) and your points about white potatoes may also be valid. I will admit to some concern over reports from people who have fed EVO for some time, whose dogs do not do that well with it (many drink a lot more water with this food than other kibbles, for unknown reasons, and reports of poor coats after a few months on this food also seem common)."

Wysong makes a great freeze-dried food (Archetype Burgers), but their kibble contains excessive grains, salt, dairy products, yeast, etc. Nature's Variety makes great frozen raw and freeze-dried diets, but their canned and dry formulations contain menadione derived vitamin K supplements- although they may be removing this ingredient in the future.

Wellness will not disclose the form of vitamin K supplement in their food and it is highly suspected to be menadione derived, so I won't use their food- not to mention that they refuse to disclose the percentage of their formulas that are made up of meat- most likely because they are ashamed of the high percentage of grain that makes up their food. Wellness also has a reputation for making dogs fat- again, probably because of the grain content. Solid Gold's formulas contain gluten and their scare-tactic advertising has lost my respect for the company. Abady is another company guilty of shady advertising (they have implied that feeding their food will reduce congenital abnormalities in puppies!) and they use questionable ingredients such as mystery meat and menhaden fish meal. Nutro uses a menadione derived synthetic vitamin K supplement. These brands are some of the ones that people think are high quality and great for their pets. These brands can also be expensive. Don't be fooled by marketing which has gained some of them a decent reputation. (You cannot learn about pet foods from what you see in advertisements!)

I won't even address all of the inferior ingredients that are found in grocery store brands like Pedigree, Iams, Purina, etc except to say "Stay out of the pet food aisle in your grocery store!" Stick to the above recommendations and you can't go wrong.

There are some foods that use barley and other gluten-containing grains (wheat and rye) which some dogs might seem to handle alright for awhile, but which I refuse to feed because of possible damage to the intestinal lining and ensuing allergies and health problems that gluten can cause. Some contain potatoes which may be hand picked to not be green (although they don't even do a good job of this for the potatoes they sell in the grocery store for people!) and cooked enough to eradicate all of the toxins- but I'm not taking any chances. As far as tapioca, I feel is just too high in glycemic index and devoid of nutrients and fiber to be of any value. My list goes on. Yes, I nit-pick. I look at every ingredient and its potential benefit or harm to my dog's health. Yes, I have left off a lot of very popular foods that many people recommend because my own research tells me that there is better. The above four kibble formulas are the ones that have passed all of my nit-picking.

[bckrazy]

About the comments on Evo, this is the first I've heard about dangers of it, and I definitely take it with a grain of salt. The bottom line is, it contains the most meat you can find in commercial dog food, and no grains or soy or corn or shady ingredients at all. Potatos, being a whole vegetable, is a much more substantial starchy food than wheat, gluten, etc, and much more natural IMO. Wild canines are known to occasionally forage on over-ripe veggies and fruits, and not known to munch on grains!

I've also heard very bad opinions about the food that they recommend - California Natural specifically - but, the bottom line is that the ingredients far surpass any grocery store brand, and Gonzo did better on Evo than he has on any any other kibble, and I've basically tried every medium to high quality kibble out there. I also know lots of raw feeders who only trust Innova/Evo as a kibble addition to their dogs raw diets.

Just to add - no kibble is completely healthy and whole in every way. To me, no kibble can replace real raw food. However, ideally the more meat the better in kibble to TRY to mock a real canine diet. I definitely won't keep Gonzo on Evo alone in the future, because other kibbles have other meat proteins (like duck, venison, lamb, etc) and that variety is very important. A wide variety of different meats and variety is very important whether you feed kibble, freeze dried, homecooked, or raw.