what kind of food do you feed your dog?

[countrycowgirl]

i have to get this off my chest i started this thread just to see what other people feed there dogs not to start a cat fight i feed my dogs purina and pedigree go ahead and tell me how bad excuse me "unheathly" it is for my dogs i don't care my dogs are doing fine on the food it is the only food they will eat and they love it anyways let us get back to what this thread is or what i wanted it to be about.

[Logan]

I hate these dog food questions (no offense to the one who started it) for exactly the reason that you all have seen in this thread. Even the author didn't ask for your opinion, just what kind of food you feed.

We've read here that people are feeding Purina Brands, Alpo, Chicken Soup, Flint River Ranch, Eukanuba, Science Diet, etc. The big issue with many people is the allergies that the dogs get from the corn meal that is a filler in these foods. My puppies ate Purina Puppy Chow for the first year of their lives. I had a Cocker Spaniel that lived almost 13 years, and I bought Alpo for her. I didn't have the money or the information to do anything different. In fact, my vet (who is well educated and very experienced and trusted) told me that he fed his own dogs Purina brand because of their commitment to research and the pet industry. I know now that veterinarians do not study nutrition very much, but I do know that my dogs were perfectly healthy all the time that they were on these products.

My stance has always been to get the best food you can afford for your dog, and love them to pieces and make sure they get veterinary attention when they need it. A lot of dogs have done just fine on grocery store brand foods for a lot of years. That's for sure! In a pinch, I have bought Purina Beneful, by the way, and my dogs LOVED it!!!!!

To answer the question you asked, KayKay, all four of my dogs are currently eating Flint River Ranch Senior Plus food, and the main reason I changed to that food, versus the California Natural Lamb and Rice that they were eating was availability and the fact that it is delivered to my door once per month. With 4 big dogs, we go through about 20 pounds per week and I was always forgetting to put my order in for the Cal. Nat. in time to get it and had to make a 30 minute drive to pick it up (across town). Now the UPS man does all the work for me and I am on an automatic shipment.

My friend, Missy, has a website with lots of comparisons on dog food, if it would interest you or anyone, and you can get updates from her as she adds new brands as well as request a nutritional study on one if she hasn't done it. (She has also done cat food) The website is www.greatgoldens.com (not just for Golden Retrievers......it's just called that because that's the kind of dogs she has).

[tomkatzid]

Love the web site on the food. Great info.

[lovemyshiba]

I would love to try the Chicken soup brand, unfortunatley it isn't sold around here. And until it is, I probably won't try it. It's too hard for me to make the orders in time.

Abbey, Riley and Jada eat Purina One as well. They love it, have no allergies, and are in perfect health. They eat it readily every meal, don't throw up, and their teeth are very clean too.
Kito is fed Sensible Choice chicken and rice, because it is for more sensitive bellies--he has a tendency to throw up on other foods, and not with this one. Notice I said that is what he is fed, he's not a big eater, and doesn't always dive into the dish. He gets a bit of Nutro's Duck, lamb and pasta canned food when I feed him too.

My parent's dog, Max, is 16, and healthy. He has been eating the walmart food for years (I forget what it's called). He won't eat the senior formula, so he just gets the regular stuff.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!

[tomkatzid]

We found the chicken soup food at a feed store that mainly deals with horses, they are starting to carry some very good top grade dog and cat foods. So call around and you may find someone has it where you didn't expect to see it. Like someone else said you actually feed a little less so the price is pretty good compared to some other foods. Plus, the girls LOVE it......tom

[julietoad]

I was reading a similar post on another board and someone made a great analogy

Eating grocery store dog food is like a human eating McDonalds every day. It will taste good, you will live on it, but it is unhealthy.

That said, I believe that people should buy the best dog food they can afford. If it is Purina, so be it.

I used to feed solid gold, now feed Innova. My dogs also get Solid Gold Tripe 2 tablespoons once a day.

[tikeyas_mom]

i agree julietoad

My bag on Chicken soup for the dog lovers soul was only 25$ for a HUGE 40 pounder. and thats Canadian $$ lol.

[cloverfdx]

At the moment we are feeding the dogs

Clover, Pedigree advance and some supermarket stuff (Chum crunchy) that i won at a Obedience trial (NQ score all other dogs bombed out aswell so we still got the food) and she also has raw beef pet mince and raw beef bones.

Penny and Theodore (toy sized dogs) are havig cooked beef mince with garlic and vegies, and some dry food which they love (pedigree pal mini's) plus chicken necks for their teeth.

& Elvis is having Pedigree rehydratable puppy food/ super coat puppy about 50% mixed (he prefers the cheaper supercoat) and also very small amounts of tinned puppy food (pedigree) and calcium enriched pet milk.

may as well add that my cat can only eat Purina One cat food everything else she eats she throws up.

so i will stick to my Purina (used to feed Purina proplan) the animals love it and are all in great condition and have plenty of energy, and are not over weight or under weight (unlike some dogs who are on Purina)

oh and does anyone know anything about the benifits of kelp (powdered/ or liquid) ? thanks

[cali]

Eating grocery store dog food is like a human eating McDonalds every day. It will taste good, you will live on it, but it is unhealthy.

thats true, but you also have to think that just because a food meets AFFCO standerds does not make it a good food, litterly an old boot meets AFFCO standerd. another reason why I will stick with real food thank you very much, lol

[wolfsoul]

Originally posted by cloverfdx

oh and does anyone know anything about the benifits of kelp (powdered/ or liquid) ? thanks

They still don't know the benefits or side effects of kelp in dogs.

[cloverfdx]

thanks Jordan, i was told by a woman from Flyball that it helps with the pigmentation of the skin and it could be good for the dogs coat (the colour of the coat) the vet told me the other day that it should not do any harm and i could try it for Clovers coat and Elvis's nose (quite a large pink patch on his nose and muzzle)

oh well i will keep researching

[cali]

umm the pink patch a a BC pups nose is completly normal, dident you ever see mistys puppy pics? it fills in completly on its own. beside who cares about pigmintaions

this is what mistys puppy nose looked like:


it only took a few months to completly fill in.

[cloverfdx]

Cali just PM'd you go read

[cali]

and I just replied *

*edited, I will keep this a privat conversation.

[aly]

As far as canned food being bad for the teeth, it’s totally true. I adopted Reece at a year old and he was on canned food only with his previous owners. The vet said he had the teeth of an 8 yr old dog because of that crap. I got his teeth cleaned and fixed up though. Crunching on the kibble DOES keep the tartar down. I think almost any vet will tell you this.

And as for the other topics on this thread, I think there is a difference between educating people and condescending them. Especially if you have a rocky past with a person, you really should leave the educating to someone else. I think if someone doesn't ask for advice, you could give gentle suggestions and guide them in a certain direction. But it is inappropriate to say things in such a rude, derogatory manner.

Binka was right in the fact that they eat less of the premium brands so it ends up not being expensive. They have to eat much more of the cheap stuff to get the same amount of nutrition.

My dogs are eating the Chicken Soup food after Staci showed it to me several months ago