Food diet for dogs....

[mydogMilton]

I just read what a healthy BC looks like and thought the food mixes looked great! (for a dog anyway

 

My whole family's really into health food and I HATE giving my dog what one of you guys charaterized as crap food, LOL! I just can't get around the price of feeding a dog a good diet, although would love to do it....

 

Any suggestions? What do you feed your dogs to give them the balanced amount of nutrients that crap food companies claim to have?

[Wendy V]

Protein + fat + minerals = muscle meat + fat + bone

[Maralynn]

There are several foods out there that are higher quality than the name brands (ie Purina One, SD, Iams, etc) but cost the same or less.

 

For example, the ingredients in the Diamond Naturals line of dog food are much better than the above foods, yet it costs about 30% less - the local farm store sells a 20# bag of the L&R version for about $11. If I was in a money crunch, I wouldn't hesitate to feed Diamond.

 

Remember, you can add table scraps/people food to your dogs diet. It's been so drilled into people not to, but it's how dogs survived up until not too long ago. Have a few scrambled eggs left from breakfast? mix those in with his kibble. If he'll eat fresh veggies(no onion), give him a few of those. Leftover rice or meat scraps? he'd probably love those too! Lots of folks add a spoon full of yogurt a few times a week. Just start slow (you don't want his tummy upset), and make sure to reduce his kibble so he's not getting overfed. As a supplement to kibble, I'd probably feed 25% "real" food, 75% kibble.

 

My dog usually gets kibble one meal a day, and raw food for the other meal. She gets a variety of beef, turkey and pork necks, chicken leg quarters, lamb ribs, beef & chicken heart liver and kidney, and canned mackeral. It's all about variety. Because raw is digested much faster than kibble, you should allow several hours between raw and kibble meals.

 

Do a search here for "food" and "raw", and you'll come up with lots of reading on the subject.

[Alicia]

I've always really liked Eukanuba, lately however it seems the comp has changed and I'm thinking of changing. Has anyone tried Authority?

[MaggieDog]

I liked Authority - about mid range quality wise, on the same level as Nutro Natural Choice I would say. My parents' animals have done well on it.

[Alicia]

Has anyone tried any of these?

Timber Wolf

Aretmis

Innova

 

This site

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php

has them as the top ranked foods, grain free or low in grain, high quality ingredients, lots of meats. They break down the good and bad of a TON of different foods.

These are a bit expensive but.. honestly I pay around 35.00 for a 33lb bag of Eukanuba and these are 50.00 for a 33lb bag of something of MUCH higher quality.. I'm willing to consider it..

[Bill Fosher]

If you're going to pay $1.50/lb for kibble, you might actually save money by going to a raw or meat and bones diet.

 

Just a thought ...

[Journey]

Has anyone tried any of these?

Timber Wolf

Aretmis

Innova

I use both the Artemis (almost 3 years) and have tried the Timberwolf. Can't say enough good about either, however, Bill has a good point. If you're paying that much for kibble Raw might be a better option. Artemis is very reasonable in my area and I can't go to Raw entirely, we're on the road to much.

 

Karen

[Anda]

Alicia, I feed California Natural Lamb & Rice (on your link, listed as 5 stars for the Puppy formula and 4 stars for the Adult, which I feed my 1 year old), and it costs about $20 for 20 lb bag. It lasts me about 1.5-2 months (Ouzo's not a big eater...he gets 1-1.5-2 cups a day, depending on his appetite).

 

I tried Eukanuba (Lamb) (last try in a long long list) and even though he liked it, his tummy wasn't that ok with it. He does WAY better on California Natural.

 

Oh, and he gets a BUNCH of "toppings" on his dry food, mainly shredded cheese, scraps from our table, (should I mention the stuff he steals from the garbage? Hmmm, no, I won't ), bit of canned food for taste, etc.

[Alicia]

I had considered a raw diet but I just dont have the time to make up the food and the shopping. To me the price is worth the ease, if its a great food.

 

The Eukanuba Dog food is getting pretty poor. I have my cats on it and it has no fillers and is the only cat food with straight chicken rather then meals and by products. They do EXCELLENT on it. but.. the dog food.. I jsut am not impressed with. My pup doesnt lie the pup food, my dog love his but it has low quality ingredients and lots of filler which disappointed me

 

I think I'm going to keep looking I'm sure I can find one of those 5 star brands (the 6 stars are all unsuitable for pups ) for cheaper somewhere.

[Maralynn]

Hmm, not sure where you get your information, but several of ther eukanuba foods have meat meals and by products (as well as corn), and there are a number of other brands of cat foods that have fresh meat (and more meat) in their ingredients.

 

If works for your cats, that's great . I just wanted to point out that the ingredients are not really different than a number of other foods.

[Alicia]

The Eukanuba Adult and Kitten Food's first ingredient is Chicken, I'm sorry, it does contain By Products and Meal but the first ingredient is straight chicken, which I have not found on any other cat food that is availabl locally...It also contains Corn grits but not until later and it is grits not meal, which is suppossed to be better.

The Dog foods are plain bad, they have Lamb (or Chicken) as the first ingredient but they have a high quanitity of Corn, which is why I am changin the food.

 

This is just what I've read. My cats do VERY well on it and the other foods are all mainly composed of corn.

[Alicia]

So I think I've decided on Artemis, I found it online, 33lbs for 34.51 which is about what I pay for the Eukanuba! I'm amazed!

 

I am still considering the Timber Wolf BF though, I found it for 46.99 which is about 10.00 more then the Eukanuba was.

 

So.. Timber Wolf..Artemis..mix.. or.. rotate?

 

Any suggestions?

[Allie+Tess&Kipp]

I have not done a lot of price comparison, but there are some brands my dogs need to eat twice as much of (Solid Gold) to stay at a healthy weight. Right now I feed Prairie and both of my dogs look good on 1 cup a day. Solid Gold had to be 2.5 cups a day and that got very expensive, which is why I switched to something else with a much higher fat content.

 

As long as you rotate the protein source, you should be fine. I just rotate flavors so that my dogs get different ingredients.

 

Allie + Tess & Kipp

http://weebordercollie.com

[Alicia]

So, rotating the Artemis with the Timber Wolf would be a good thing?

TW uses Venison and Lamb mainly

and

Artemis uses Chicken and Turkey

 

So if I feed Artemis Adult to my 2yo and Pup to my pup and then feed them both the Timber Wolf BF, they'll get a rotation on Protein sources and lots of good quality ingredients.

 

I think that's what I'm gonna do.. Thanks

[Pipedream Farm]

Besides water content and possible changes due to cooking, what is the difference between nutrient rich raw feeds (flesh, organs, tripe, tendons, bone, etc) and meat meal & meat by-product meal? I agree that one needs to know the source of these meals and know they are clean.

 

Meats (chicken, beef, lamb, etc) become meat meals in the process of making dry dog food; why is there the desire to have water influence where this ingredient is listed? Compared to the dryer ingredients, meat will loose most of its weight in processing the dry kibble.

 

Mark

[Bill Fosher]

Alicia,

 

I'd encourage you to stay away from puppy foods. Good adult kibble is all a puppy needs. You're growing a dog, not a feeder pig -- there's no race to adult weight.

[Pipedream Farm]

Bill,

 

I like it.......

 

"You're growing a dog, not a feeder pig -- there's no race to adult weight."

 

Mark

[Bill Fosher]

I just spent a little time looking at the link that Alicia posted and I see a few problems. First, it appears that they are making their judgments (and therefore assigning stars) based solely on ingredient listings. When I looked at some of the label information on the six-star kibbles, they had protein contents of 40 and 42 percent! That's way, way, way too much protein. Fat content was high, but not nearly high enough for that much protein.

 

In my opinion, the ratio of protein to fat should be about 3:2, and most of the six-star products are closer to 2:1.

 

As Mark points out, if whole meat is used in a formula, it will naturally rise to the top of the ingredient list because it is so heavy: full of wate that will be cooked out in the manufacturing process. So in reality, the first ingredient in many of five- and six-star kibbles really probably should be water removed in manufacturing.

 

Seems to me that with some of the higher-end kibbles you're paying a lot for things that are either of no use to the dog (water that's gone) or actually harmful (very high levels of protein).

 

This isn't to say you should run down the Sprawl*Mart and stock on up Ol' Roy -- you just need to know how the editors (apparently nameless and without credentials) of the site made their judgments before you put too much stock in their recommendations.

[PSmitty]

Here's the site I like for info on dog foods:

 

www.dogfoodproject.com

 

Alicia, I feed Innova (Evo and the regular) and my dogs have done great on it. I've also heard good things about Timberwolf.

[Dancing Cavy]

I feed raw and I haven't found it to be that much more work than what feeding kibble would be. I just lose a lot of freezer space (Risa has more food in the freezer than I do!).

 

And the main differences between bones that you feed in a raw diet and the meat meal in most commerical foods is that the meat meal is not usually the bones. It's usually the leftover parts like feathers and beaks.

[Pipedream Farm]

Chicken Meal

Lean carcass (muscle and bone). No feathers or internal organs.

 

Chicken By-Product Meal

Animal source protein, made up mostly of internal organs such as liver, digestive tract, and kidneys. The intestines are a good source of smooth muscle protein. Fifteen percent of the meal includes meat and bone. No feathers.

 

Lamb Meal

Lean carcass of lambs (muscle and bone), cooked and ground to a fine consistency.

You either believe the manufacturer's statements or think they are liars.

 

Mark

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

I use this site to choose right or wrong. My dogs look great and are super healthy

 

http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html

[Alicia]

Bill, Dally is having a hard enough keeping weight on with puppy food. She's practically skin a bones and she eats a good 2 cups a day. I am worried that is I feed her anything less I'll have an even harder time keeping weight on her let alone getting her to eat enough to keep a decent weight. She's really not growing hardly at all and is having a helluva time keeping weight on.

 

The reason I shied away from the 6 star was because of the protein content. The 5 stars are less protein. The foods I am looking at are about 22-27% and the feed I am feeding now, and having a hard time keeping weight on her on, is 29%.

 

I am planning on rotating the 27% protein Artemis with the 22% protein Timber Wolf.

[Alicia]

PSmitty, where do you get your Innova? If online do you get free shipping? I'm having a helluva a time finding Aretemis or Innova with free or cheap shipping (The shipping costs bout as much as the food! )

The timberwolf had free shipping from their site, but the others are all ridiculously expensive.