Need food suggestions

[smileyzookie]

Hubby wont go for a completely raw diet, aaaand we dont have the money to buy an all raw diet at the moment. We live an hour outside Boise, and we cant go to Boise often enough to buy food. At the moment we feed Science Diet because living in this town, its the best we can find. Although now that I know Menu Foods deals with Science Diet and it was part of the recall we are wanting to change. I need a decent food that I could get delivered. Timberwolf was one I was wanting to try. I cant find their website, and I searched google, but only found sites that sell it. Does anyone know any good brand that does cat AND dog food and I can get delivered?

[RaisingRiver]

I liked Blue Buffalo and they make it for dogs and cats. I only stopped using it because I upgraded in quality to Canidae. Although I was feeding my outside only cats Nutro dry but will probably switch them to Blue Buffalo. I don't need to feed them the same quality as the dogs since the cats are on a self-feed partial raw diet

 

Not sure how it compares to your SD. Petsmart carries it which means you can of course order it from the Petsmart website (just search for Blue Buffalo).

 

http://www.bluebuff.com/

 

 

You can also do a google search for 'dog food delivery' and then search through the dealers for a brand you like.

[hsnrs]

We feed Kirkland's Lamb and Rice dry dog food from Costco. We have 4 Aussies and usually get 3 or 4 forty lb bags when we go. We live about a hour east of a large town so buying in bulk is a way of life for us too. No problems with feeding this food to adults or puppies. Narita

[Kat's Dogs]

Here is the Timberwolf Organics hompage:

http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl?c=632216

 

That is a really nice food, but it is expensive which is the only reason I didn't switch to it... I really like the Blue Buff and now I am feeding Canidae (which Dazzle's body doesn't seem to like in terms of keeping weight ON her, but the shih tzus are doing great on it). Canidae is good quality and not very expensive, so is the Blue Buff for the most part. Those are the only foods other than SD that I have feed and have had 1st hand expirience with. Maybe not helpful, but that is all I got!

[Genie]

This site lists brands that aren't on the recall list: Not On Recall

If you click on the name of the company, you can browse their websites too.

 

ETA: I use Nature's Variety. They make dry and premade raw. Zeb is doing well on their dry. Speedway was on their raw to control his diarrhea.

[Carson Crazies]

Smiley, for an economical, but all around good food (that's usually fairly easy to find... but now that I've said that you won't be able to ) I like Canidae. They have a store finder, too, but you can also get it from Pet Food Direct . I also like Eagle Pack, and Natura's products, as far as the dry ones go (Innova, California Natural, Healthwise). I use some TWO, and their products are nice. If you order directly from them shipping is free.

[Allie Oop]

We use Blue Buffalo. It's a good kibble and Allie likes it.

[KrisK]

I'm going to look into Orijen - no cereal products in it at all. Right now, I use Technical which is made in Canada and wasn't subject to any recalls.

[Lizmo]

We use Canidae ALS here, too. Dogs are doing fine on it. But I would love to try Orijen, but it's not anywhere near me.

[sharkie]

This site lists brands that aren't on the recall list: Not On Recall

If you click on the name of the company, you can browse their websites too.

 

ETA: I use Nature's Variety. They make dry and premade raw. Zeb is doing well on their dry. Speedway was on their raw to control his diarrhea.

 

 

Oo i don't see Nutro on the list. Does any1 know if its recently recalled? The lady at petco told me it wasn't last week

[Guest pax]

The tinned Nutro, yes. That was recalled.

 

Not the kibble. I think they are made in separate places. Nutro does it's own kibble and contracts out the wet? Don't quote me, follow the howl911 link above. My dogs are on Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice Small Bites, the kibble. There is no wheat gluten by any name I recognize on the ingredients list.

[ClickMeBC]

Does anyone here feed Wysong, or have any opinions regarding this brand? Or California Natural?

[Nik]

Does anyone know anything about Pedigree? So far I haven't seen it on the "Not on Recall" list but don't recall seeing it on the "Recall" list either.

[Lunar]

I haven't heard one way or another about Pedigree being recalled or not... however I do know it's full of corn and other filler and is just a cr*p food. My dad fed it to Oreo for years and her coat was horrible.

 

I don't know what to think of Wellness. I've been feeding that for a while. The dogs are doing fabulous on it... the cats, well, they're fat to start with. They claim they have strict testing and production standards for all their produced food, BUT they do use Menu Foods. And that ticks me off. So now I'm thinking about switching to something else. *sigh*

 

One good thing coming out of this whole fiasco is that a lot more people are questioning what's in their dog and cat food instead of feeding them anything.

[KellieinTX]

After I did a lot of research on the dog foods, we just switched from Nutro to Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul. It's got a fantastic ingredients list. We haven't had Oreo for long, so I can't testify to its long term results, but I'd check it out if you want to find something really good.

[DakotaSpirit]

I have fed Spirit Canidae since the day I brought him home. He does awesome on it. Unfortunately I wasn't so dog food savvy with my retriever and she was on the cruddy Purina/Ol' Roy diet. Thankfully classes and research into nutrition have turned me away from the high-corn diets and I will never again go back. Thankfully Canidae is sold locally and I can buy it in any size. We have a natural pet food store here in town that offers many high quality hollistic foods.

[BayouBC]

Pedigree is listed on the "Not Recalled" list. It's just under a different, larger brand name (don't remember what that was though).

[Bill Fosher]

The ONLY foods from Menu Foods that were recalled were "wet" foods -- canned and foil pouches.

 

Before I switched to raw feeding, I was feeding Canidae, and I think it's the best kibble I ever tried -- ranging from Precise to Science Diet to Diamond to feed store brands. One thing to bear in mind is that all manufacturers of pet food buy their ingredients from somewhere, so they all run the risk of contaminated ingredients. Canidae and a few others make a point that their ingredients are "human grade" which, one would hope, means that they have been subjected to closer scrutiny than the ingredients in most dog food.

 

Smiley Zookie -- my dog food bill went down substantially when I switched to raw feeding my dogs, and I think you could probably spend a lot less on raw food than on some of the fancy kibble plus freight that you are considering. I'd encourage you to do a little math and see what you come up with. See what you can buy on special at your local supermarket. If you have a butcher shop ask them if they have scraps that you could buy. Scrounge around a litlte bit and you could come up with a raw diet that is great for your dogs and easy on your budget. If you have a discount grocery that salvages damaged goods, they often have incredible deals.

 

I have an upper cap of 70 cents a pound for any meat I feed the dogs, and I seldom get even close to it. Right now they're getting chicken wings (25 cents), freezer-burned hamburger (25 cents) and pig's feet (39 cents). I've seen 10-lb bags of chicken leg quarters for 59 cents a pound, and turkey wings for 39 cents. All you need is freezer space so you can stock up when the deals are good.

[kelpiegirl]

Bill

I feed canidae. I have considered raw for some of my dogs (one just can't for health reasons). What exactly do you feed, and how much (in general)? How much $$ have you saved? I would like to do this, but 5 dogs I have to really consider my options. They all do well on canidae...

Julie

 

 

The ONLY foods from Menu Foods that were recalled were "wet" foods -- canned and foil pouches.

 

Before I switched to raw feeding, I was feeding Canidae, and I think it's the best kibble I ever tried -- ranging from Precise to Science Diet to Diamond to feed store brands. One thing to bear in mind is that all manufacturers of pet food buy their ingredients from somewhere, so they all run the risk of contaminated ingredients. Canidae and a few others make a point that their ingredients are "human grade" which, one would hope, means that they have been subjected to closer scrutiny than the ingredients in most dog food.

 

Smiley Zookie -- my dog food bill went down substantially when I switched to raw feeding my dogs, and I think you could probably spend a lot less on raw food than on some of the fancy kibble plus freight that you are considering. I'd encourage you to do a little math and see what you come up with. See what you can buy on special at your local supermarket. If you have a butcher shop ask them if they have scraps that you could buy. Scrounge around a litlte bit and you could come up with a raw diet that is great for your dogs and easy on your budget. If you have a discount grocery that salvages damaged goods, they often have incredible deals.

 

I have an upper cap of 70 cents a pound for any meat I feed the dogs, and I seldom get even close to it. Right now they're getting chicken wings (25 cents), freezer-burned hamburger (25 cents) and pig's feet (39 cents). I've seen 10-lb bags of chicken leg quarters for 59 cents a pound, and turkey wings for 39 cents. All you need is freezer space so you can stock up when the deals are good.

[Journey]

We've been feeding Artemis for a few years now with great results. They will deliver via UPS and it ends up being less than if I went to the store to get it. The only grain it has is "pearled barley". After last week I spoke to them about "where" their ingredients came from. Everything is from the US except the lamb, which is from New Zealand.

 

Karen

[Carson Crazies]

Oops, I meant to mention that I have recently tried Orijen. I had it delivered to NC from a company in Fla. It's a really nice food, and hopefully will remain part of my rotation. It was a tad pricey though with shipping, but quality-wise well worth it, IMO.

[BCBERRI]

Here's another Blue Buff user! We fed Pedigree for a long time and it did fine. However when Timber came along with his allergies and skin problems, we started to look around. We have tried so many other brands. The Blue Buffalo really agrees with his system. No more upset tummy, no more itchy eyes and ears, no more flakey dry coat. It has no corn in it and they use "human grade" ingredients. I am pleased with the results.

[Kyrasmom]

Bill

I feed canidae. I have considered raw for some of my dogs (one just can't for health reasons). What exactly do you feed, and how much (in general)? How much $$ have you saved? I would like to do this, but 5 dogs I have to really consider my options. They all do well on canidae...

Julie

 

 

I would be curious about the economics of raw also. I've thought about it, like the concept, but have never really been able to break it down to how much it might cost.

 

My dogs also do well on Canidae and I finally don't have to drive over 30 minutes to get it. But I am curious about raw and it's been in the back of my mind for a while.

 

Maria

[Bill Fosher]

When I last bought it, Canidae was about $33 for a 44 lb bag, or about 5.2 cents an ounce. I fed my dogs between 5 and 8 ounces a day. Total for five dogs was about 30 ounces a day, or about $1.56 per day. When I feed whole chickens that cost 10 cents a pound, each dog gets about 1.25 pounds, so feeding the five of them costs 62.5 cents. There are sometimes a couple of weeks when my food costs are slightly higher, but if I budget 1.25 lbs of meat and bones per dog per day at 30 cents (much higher than I have ever averaged) I could go as high as $1.88 per day.

 

Without looking back at all my reciepts, my seat of the pants estimate is that my raw food has cost me about 18 cents a pound overall, so on average I'm spending $1.13 per day on feeding five dogs. So for raw food, my monthly dog food bill is about $33.90 for five dogs, and for Canidae is was about $46.80 -- a difference of $12.90.

 

There's a fuss-and-bother factor with feeding raw food. You can't just scoop it out of the bag or bin when it's time to feed and it's hard to feed when you're traveling. But you also don't have to worry about dental care, and my dogs' coats have never been nicer. Their energy levels are excellent, stool volume is very low -- all the indicators of a good diet are there.

[Maralynn]

I switched Missy to all raw last fall. I buy most of her food at a grocery store or wal-mart, and it still averages to less than $1/#. I'm just always watching flyers and looking for clearance deals. I could to it a bit cheaper, but I've been staying away from chicken because of a suspected allergy. I also have to store the meat in my folks freezer, so I don't buy too much in bulk.

 

If I had 3-4 dogs and my own freezer, I'm positive I'd be saving money feeding raw vs. kibble. And Missy (who just turned 8) looks and acts great. She has as much energy a 2 y/o Kipp, her coat feels wonderful, and and her seasonal allergy symptoms have almost completely disapeared. I'm switching Kipp over as soon as he finishes up his bag of Canidae!

 

Smiley, why don't you ask your husband to let you just try raw for a month or so? If Riven doesn't do well on it or it costs too much, you can always switch her back...