which brand of dog food??

[misty'smum]

Hello

 

I am spoilt for choice, we are currently feeding Misty Iams puppy food but have read in a lot of books that you have to be very careful about the protein levels in foods for BCs as they can get hyper if fed too much. Please can you tell me which brands you use and which adult food you would suggest we use when the time comes. Or are we fine as we are?

 

I have also realised since starting on Iams that we have picked the most expensive brand

 

Really excited now as we are ok to take her out tomorrow for her first walk and then we have puppy classes on Monday to start.

 

Vikki

[smileyzookie]

I feed Riven Science Diet. Only because it is the best choice sold here, I live an hour from a bigger town. I'd buy Nutro probably if I had someone who sold it near. I know alot of people here feed raw diets, and we're looking into that as well. I know a ton of people will be able to help you out.

 

Good luck with your puppy classes!!

[Carson Crazies]

I have one dog exclusively fed raw. For my kibble fed dogs, I use (or have used recently) Canidae, Eagle Pack Holistic, Solid Gold, Chicken Soup, California Natural, Wellness, and Timberwolf Organics. I also like Innova. I'm sure I'm missing one of my fave's. If you google these (Innova and California Natural are Natura Products) you can check out their web-sites and find a store near you that sells them.

 

I basically stay away from grocery store brands (including Iams). I prefer foods without by-products, corn, wheat, and soy. I like to see a food that has a specific meat, or meat meal, in the first few ingredients.

 

A neat site to learn about dog food ingredients is:

 

http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/

 

Make your way through the subjects on the side bar to the left.

[donna frankland (uk)]

i feed raw

[Anda]

Vikki: Mine (11 months old) is on California Natural Lamb and Rice (adult version). I don't know if the same brands exist in UK, you might have totally diferent choices. I'll leave it to the Europeans to help you with your dog food.

 

Iams is not expensive in US, there are a bunch of other dog foods WAAAAY more expensive

 

Tip: If you run a search about dog food or puppy food, you will find a large number of past topics discussing the subject in great detail.

 

P.S. I saw not too long ago a post where someone mentioned Chappy. And it took me a long time to remember where I knew this dog food brand from. It was heavely advertised in Romania, but probably isn't a high quality dog food

[kelpiegirl]

hi all:

I have been thinking of switching off to Nature's Variety, from Canidae (not permanently, but just to change things up for a bit). Anyone have any opinions on this food, and it's cost?

 

Tia!

Julie

[Meg's mum]

I worried for a few months about the food issue. We started out using Pedigree for the first week because our breeder did, but I switched Meg out at 8 weeks to Precise because I knew the brand and trusted it. At the same time we switched her into dry food. Many months later and six brands of dry food later we found Dick Van Patten's canned, dry and semi-dry. We switched Meg to semi-dry and canned, and chose Nutro Small bits Lamb and Rice dry for her dry. I decided to wait till Meg was a year old to reconsider a raw diet. My Vet is not at all a fan, and I highly respect my vet.

[Carson Crazies]

Hey Julie, I like Nature's Variety. I use their raw medallions, and their dry foods look good too. JMO though.

 

Vikki - I didn't realize (initially) that you're in the UK. Your choices, obviously, may be different than what our choices are here in the US - and the formulas may be different. The best thing I can say is to start learning and decide what you think is best for your dog, and go from there.

[PSmitty]

Ditto the site Laura recommended. Great stuff there about learning to choose a quality food.

 

I don't know if any of the foods I've used are available in the UK, but I've fed the following with good results: Canidae, Natural Balance, Innova, Evo, California Natural (all made by Natura) and Nature's Variety Raw.

[silhouettestable]

I also use/used Iams Puppy, though I chose the large breed forumula (no purebred BC's here, all are or will be 50lbs +). My adult dogs get Nutro Natural Choice Large breed. My experience with these brands is that the dogs are nice and healthy, very shiney coats, not gassy etc.

[Kat's Dogs]

I feed Blue Buffalo and Science Diet (dogs with allergies ALL need different foods of course )

 

But I also would recommend things like Canidae, Nature's Variety, Innova, Back to Basics, and, of course - raw.

[BustopherJones]

We feed our dogs based strictly on our vet's recommendations. The top of the line is Merrick, which we use in combination with others, but it is very expensive. Others that she recoomends (and which we mix with the Merrick) are Innova and Royal Canin. (Annie is on IVD dry, but this is a veterinarian-dispensed food for medical purposes only). For treats, we are only allowed to give her Royal Canin natural treats as "cookies"; they can also have certain fresh fruits and vegetables, and some home-made treats using specific recipes. But then again, that is what works for us, and is not a universal answer for everyone (as you can see by the variety of responses on this string).

[Keegan's Mom]

Innova was too rich for Keegan and Tess never tried it. However, I know Laura likes it.

 

We recently switched from Canidae to Nutro and the dogs LOVE it. Nothing wrong with Canidae just hard to find. The more organic foods tend to be a little more pricey though too.

 

I don't see a need to feed puppy food and didn't with Tess.

[nancy]

I feed PestsMart's Authority Lamb & Rice. I alwo feed something from PetCo that's also lamb & rice, Nature something.

 

They were the only ones I could find that had good protein and fat percentages and no corn meal.

 

I'm feeding the kitten Iams Kitten Chow because that is the only kibble I can find whose first ingredient is actual meat.

[bailey44]

I feed Polly canidae als. Her coat is spectacular and her eyes are bright. I'm pleased with it. Rachel is right, we were at the beach and ran out and could not find her food anywhere! At the time, we were switching her from puppy chow, and were using a 50/50 mix, so I just got some puppy chow to tide us over. If I ever have another pup, I'll just start it straight away on canidae als based on advice from this board. Don't they sell felidae for cats? Charlene

[Riley-dog]

Stay away from Nutro Puppy. I'm not saying ProPlan is a good food either, but I had Riley on Nutro Puppy when I first got him and he had to poop 4 times a day... and not diarrhea. BIG solid piles. Twice in the morning. I'd take him out as soon as he woke up and he'd poop then I'd get ready for class and 45mins later take him out and he'd poop a huge pile again. I switched to ProPlan and only pooped once in the morning and the other two piles were significantly smaller.

 

I switched him off of ProPlan to Innova about 6 weeks ago since his coat wasn't shedding out properly and was showing a lot of red. Now he gets some Innova and a lot of table leftovers. Good stuff, not scraps. His dead undercoat finally dropped and his hair is glossy black and teflon smooth. All I hear now is, "Oh my God, he's SO SOFT!!" And better yet, his doggy breath went away so morning kisses are now a pleasure again.

[Beth G]

I don't feed Purina or anything sold in a supermarket. They're all junk. Among their ingredients, are beaks, feathers, cats, dogs and roadkill.

 

I feed Nutro Natural Lamb and Rice Adult, right now, as it is the only thing that agrees with Pepper.

 

I would like to eventually switch her to Innova but am afraid to, in case all her hair falls out again and the vomiting starts up again.

 

She looks so gorgeous now that all her fur has re-grown in(and it's so gorgeous!) and I hate to put her through another diet change from hell for the third time... Besides their body odour is gone, their breath is better and they don't have gas anymore.

 

PS

 

I agree about the Nutro puppy. Man...lol... it makes them go!!

[Meg's mum]

Great to hear that Pepper has recovered Beth!!!

[Meg's mum]

edited - was accidental duplication

[Beth G]

Thanks! Yeah she is doing real good finally!

[silhouettestable]

Originally posted by BustopherJones:

Others that she recoomends (and which we mix with the Merrick) are Innova and Royal Canin. For treats, we are only allowed to give her Royal Canin natural treats as "cookies";

I used to feed Royal Canin giant breed when we had great danes, based on what 2 breeders recommended. They did did well on it for a number of years, (and the other dogs thought that the huge kibble made great treats) but when our female was already experiencing health problems, not eating well and getting thin, the Royal Canin company seemed to be having some kind of trouble with the giant breed formula. I kept getting bags of food with mold in them and having to return them to the store. Apparently there were no problems reported at that store with the other formulas, only the giant. Anyways, I switched the food over to Nutro Natural Choice large breed, which the other dogs were eating and kept her on that for the rest of her days.

[RaisingRiver]

I used to feed Nutro for nearly 5 years, but switched to Blue Buffalo (sold at Petsmart) earlier this year because it had a better listing of ingredients. Dogs seem the same on either.