Should I change???

[Aroura]

Lily is doing so well on her diet at the mo, she's on a diet of supercoat with a meal of blended veges, chicken necks, roo meat and liver a day which I make up fortnightly. She's so healthy, probably one of the shineyest dogs in town but making up the food each fortnight is going to be really hard once I start uni etc and I wont have so much time on my hands.
I'm just curious for you guys oppinions on whether or not I should change her to eukanuba... the cost works out to be about the same only I wont have to slave away in the kitchen each fortnight grating vegetables etc but seeing how healthy she is I don't really want to change.
Argh, I hate making tough decisions!!! What does everybody think?

[Nancy B]

[quote name='Aroura']Lily is doing so well on her diet at the mo, she's on a diet of supercoat with a meal of blended veges, chicken necks, roo meat and liver a day which I make up fortnightly. She's so healthy, probably one of the shineyest dogs in town but making up the food each fortnight is going to be really hard once I start uni etc and I wont have so much time on my hands.
I'm just curious for you guys oppinions on whether or not I should change her to eukanuba... the cost works out to be about the same only I wont have to slave away in the kitchen each fortnight grating vegetables etc but seeing how healthy she is I don't really want to change.
Argh, I hate making tough decisions!!! What does everybody think?[/quote]

If you do decide to change her back to a kibble you need to do some research on kibbles. Eukanuba is not a kibble that I would ever feed my dogs.

[Aroura]

I've looked around at kibbles, of the brands I have to choose from I think Eukanuba would be the best, it has some quality ingredients and is expensive, but still (just) affordable. My only other choices are Science Diet, Nutrience (which I think is rubbish) or super market brands. Science Diet is in pretty close competition with Euk, but I think Euk comes out that little bit on top.

[Daisysmom]

Can't you make up a bigger batch and freeze some? Put it into single size servings and just thaw as you need? Or mix with the dry to make it go further. Then you would have to make less and it would go further.

[Nancy B]

[quote name='newfiemom']Make bigger batches and freeze them. The other foods you have listed are garbage. Since Lily is doing well on the raw diet, you would be wise not to change it.[/quote]

I agree with Newfiemom. My dogs are on the BARF diet and I buy chicken backs by the 40 pound case. Their evening meal is a "Barf meatball" that I make up ahead of time. It has ground beef, beef heart, chicken gizzards, chicken and beef liver, eggs, eggshells, veggies and other odds and ends. I spend about three hours making the meatballs every few weeks and I make enough to last about 27 days.

If you decide that you must switch back to a kibble, take a look at the quality human grade kibbles on the market. (I would never feed my dogs any of the kibbles you've mentioned.) Here are some links to some good kibbles....there are others, this is just what I have handy.

[url]http://www.canidae.com/[/url]
[url]http://www.bestinshowpowerfood.com/[/url]
[url]http://www.naturapet.com/[/url] (I've fed my dogs Innova and CA Nat in the past)
[url]http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/[/url]
[url]http://phdproducts.net/[/url]
[url]http://solidgoldhealth.com/[/url]
[url]http://www.wysong.net/[/url]

[Carolk9s]

I don't know about the others but I do NOT recommend Canidae anymore to anyone. I've heard from too many people on others lists that I use that it gave their dogs super soft stools. I know it gave Jesse and Brittany soft stools and Jesse pooped all the time!

[Nancy B]

[quote name='newfiemom']Nancy B, according to the Whole Dog Journal, Best in show is out of business. I just got their annual issue containing the Best and Worst in Commercial Dog Foods. They said they removed Best in Show because the company went out of business.[/quote]

Well gee.....see what you miss when you switch to BARF! :D I must admit that I don't read up on kibbles anymore since it doesn't have an impact on my dogs anymore. Thanks for letting me know, I'll blow the link out of my file.

[Nancy B]

[quote name='Carolk9s']I don't know about the others but I do NOT recommend Canidae anymore to anyone. I've heard from too many people on others lists that I use that it gave their dogs super soft stools. I know it gave Jesse and Brittany soft stools and Jesse pooped all the time![/quote]

I think dogs are individuals. I've known dogs that have done very well on Canidae and I've known dogs who display the problems you've listed. I can say the exact same thing for Innova, California Natural and Solid Gold. (Innova and CA Nat I have first hand experience with. Whit did fine on them but, Mason's stools were too soft.) Not all dogs are alike so I think that in addition to finding a quality kibble you need to see if that particular kibble agrees with your particular dog.

[Aroura]

Thanks for your suggestions, I've had a think about it. You're right, I shouldn't change but I'm not sure how convenient that will be, as it is I'm making batches for a fortnight at a time and it takes up the whole freezer, plus it takes forever to make. I don't know what I can do about getting other brands of food, I'm in a country town and its just impossible to get other foods without paying a massive shipping fee that I can't afford. :drinking:
I think I'll have to feed the euk at least for the first few weeks of uni until I've settled in and know whats going on, I'll just give her a bone to chew every second day and a stuffed chicken carcass once a week (just a chicken carcass stuffed with grated veggies, a little bit of liver, egg etc). If she doesn't thrive on that I'll just somehow have to make time to keep making up her big batches of food (i wish I had a personal cook, for me [i]and[/i] the dogs!!!) :lol: