Food

[imported_Lina]

Is it rigth to feed the dog only the prepared dry food (SPECIFIC, EUCANUBA, BOSH, ... )?

[DogPaddle]

If they are healthy and happy it is [i]ok[/i], but if you want to improve their health, you may want to investigate different kibbles or go with raw/barf diets. In my opinion comercial kibble is usually better than comercial canned dog food.

[Rowie-the-Pooh]

[quote]In my opinion comercial kibble is usually better than comercial canned dog food.[/quote]

I agree! :wink:

[Aroura]

Yes, there has been a fair bit of scientific evidence to suggest that a quality kibble is ALOT better than canned food. Still, in my oppinion you can't get any better than what nature gives us, which is why I feed BARF :D

[Annushka]

I give dry food usually, but always buy new mark because the dog gets bored of eating the same.

[Aonir]

Is Purina a good choice? That's what I use...

[DogPaddle]

Purina does not list their full ingredients of their dog food online, they list some of their sources of protien as:
- Beef, Lamb, [color=blue]Real[/color] [color=red]fish or poultry[/color]
- [color=blue]Soybean meal[/color], [color=red]Corn Gluten meal[/color]
- Poultry [color=red]by-product [/color]meal
And that is [i]Purina One[/i] their premium brand. If your dog is healthy and happy you could probably keep it on Purina but if you want to look into a different dog food you should look into one with no Corn and certainly no Corn Gluten Meal, no by-product, no this [color=blue]or[/color] that ingredients, no unindentified [i]meat[/i] or [i]poultry[/i] and a food with a good source of protien as the first ingredient and peferably for the second ingredient too.

[Angelboddy]

I give Nostalgia just dry food.
But every once in awhile i'll give her some canned food with raw eggs, and youget in it. :D


I still give her raw eggs and youget every other night, but it's nice to give her something a little different sometimes.

[Aonir]

I'm using Purina puppy chow right now. Do you guys suggest that I move to a different brand now, or should/can I wait til she's off puppy food?

[DogPaddle]

How old is your pup?

[Aonir]

10 wks old

[ferky1]

Aonir - I was recently in the same boat as you, with a new 11 week old puppy and feeding an inferior food (Eukanuba).

There are a lot of threads about what are the best dry foods. I don't think that there is one Best, but generally everyone agrees about the worst foods. A quality food manufacturer should WANT you to know what is in their food. Purina isn't so good about that. These foods have less of the good stuff, and sometimes even the meats they use are unidentifiable. Would you rather eat Poultry meal or Chicken meal? It's never a good sign when they don't actually identify the food. Specifically, check out the first 3 or 4 ingredients, these make up the largest percentage of the food. You want them to be identifiable meats and oats/grains. Inferior foods have more fillers in the top ingredient spots. Generally, you don't want to see wheat flour or corn occupying the tops spots, they bulk up the food but do nothing for the dog.

Wellness and Innova are 2 of the most highly regarded dry kibbles on the market. Innova's first three ingredients are Turkey, Chicken and Chicken Meal. Wellness has Chicken, Salmon meal and Menhadden Fish meal. These are good foods. Purina and Eukanuba and the like are mainly corn meal and other filler crap. The first time I went to the pet store to buy Wellness, the clerk actually said "Oh, so you are getting the good stuff." It was actually less $$ than the Euk!

After all of my questions and research I have found the following highly recommended dry foods with top-notch ingredients (in no particular order): Wellness, Innova, Canidae, Natural Balance, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul and Blue. There are many more.

As for your initial question, there is nothing wrong with feeding a dog only one type of food. As a matter of fact, most vets recommend it. The same meal day in and day out offends our human sensibilities, but it works for dogs. After all, just look at what happens when you suddenly give your dog something different: usually loose stools or diarrhea. You can always supplement the dry food with some yogurt, cottage cheese, actual meat, etc., but be warned that if you get your puppy used to it now, he will expect it forever (some people love to supplement dry with Natural Balance's food rolls - soft food. I myself have never tried it). Personally, I allow my little guy 1 heaping tablespoon of plain yogurt with his breakfast about 3-4 times a week. It makes me feel better, is good for him and he loves it.

One final note, and I apologize for the length, but I got on a roll. . . when changing foods, always do so gradually. I changed from Euk to Wellness over 2 weeks. You need to give your pup time to adjust. Also, expect your pup's appetite to vary. Just like a child, puppies sometimes suddenly decide that they don't like their food and they won't eat it. Whatever you do, don't panick, don't run out and get a different food and don't reach into the fridge or your own dinner to try to get something in his stomach. Unless the little dude is sick, he will not starve himself. Practically the day my guy started getting 100% Wellness, he decided he didn't like it anymore. After 2 full days of eating practically nothing (probably less than 1/2 cup of food in 48 hours), my wife and I were panicked and ready to go to the pet store and try different stuff. Luckily we held off and our guy decided that Wellness wasn't so bad. Just as suddenly as he stopped, he started eating well again. From all the advice I've heard, this is normal puppy behavior.

Sorry this got so long. Hope it helped.

[DogPaddle]

Aonir - I would change puppy food gradually as your pup will be eating whatever brand you'll be using for quite a long time. Just my opinion and personall preference you understand. Some of brands I think seem good:
Wellness
Canidae (don't know if they have puppy)
Solid Gold
GO! (don't knwo if they have puppy)
I have heard good things about:
Flint River
Innova
Wysong
hmmm I seem to have forgotton some

And of course there is always BARF/RAW! :D :D :D

[Rowie-the-Pooh]

[quote]Canidae (don't know if they have puppy)[/quote]

They don't. What they do have is "All Life Stages". For a puppy, you feed more cups, for an adult, less, and for a Senior, I'm not so sure. I think it's a better idea, personally.

Okay guys, now it's time for my question. :oops:

I live in the middle of nowhere. I tried getting Natural balance, and Canidae shipped here with no luck. I tried to get a Pet Shop to carry Canidae, no luck again. Just when I thought I would have to feed Pedigree (yuck!) forever, I found out there was a Pet Food Wholesaler nearby. I'm going to visit them soon, and talk to them about carrying Canidae. My question is, now that I have an opition to bring almost any dog food I like here, which should I chose? :oops: Canidae is excellent, the ingrdients are wonderful, so is Wellness and Innova. Eagle Pack too and Timber Wolf. Which should I chose? I'm already e-mailing the International Sales Person from Canidae, told him all about the Pet Food Wholesaler, so I think I'm going to go with that. Any suggestions?

[DogPaddle]

Canidae is pretty good and my dogs seem to think its more palatable then Wellness. Kavik is a little bit of a picky eater and he never turned his nose up at Canidae.

[DogPaddle]

Kibbles n Bits:
[color=darkblue]Corn, soybean meal, ground wheat[/color], beef & bone meal, animal fat (BHA and citric acid used as preservatives), [color=blue]corn syrup[/color], [color=darkblue]wheat middlings[/color], water sufficient for processing, [color=blue]animal digest (source of chicken flavor), [/color]propylene glycol, [color=darkblue]wheat[/color], [color=blue]salt[/color], hydrochloric acid, potassium chloride, caramel color, sorbic acid (used as a preservative), sodium carbonate, choline chloride, minerals (ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), vitamins (vitamin E supplement, niacin supplement, vitamin A supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), calcium sulfate, titanium dioxide, yellow 5, red 40, yellow 6, BHA (used as a preservative), dl-methionine.

Beneful:
[color=darkblue]Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour,[/color] beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, [color=blue]sugar[/color], sorbitol, tricalcium phosphate, water, [color=darkblue]animal digest, salt[/color], phosphoric acid, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium carbonate, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3), added color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, zinc sulfate, glyceryl monostearate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, garlic oil, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite.
F-4090

Just my personal choice of course, but, I would[color=darkblue]n't [/color]be choosing these brands myself: to much salt, suger, by product, unidentified stuff, way to much corn, wheat and soy. Two differnet kinds of kibble is a cool idea though.

[DogPaddle]

I couldn't find anything for dogs by Friskies on any english pages.

Is Bonzo by Friskies sold in North America?

[imported_Lina]

I don't see "BONZO" long since (over 10 years), but my first cocker liked "BONZO", mybe it's not the same "BONZO". Is it the "soup"?

I give for my dogs raw beef with gristle, sour milk(butter-milk), boiled chicken, boiled fish and some dry food (now SPECIFIC).
I dont feed only dry food.

:smilecolros:

[Rowie-the-Pooh]

Thanks DP!

I find Canidea's ingredients wonderful, personally. Plus, they actually reply when sending e-mails! When I send "Natural Balance" an e-mail they never replied! :-?

Get this, I just found out that the Pet Food Wholesaler ALSO has more doggie stuff! Stuff I thought I only could get overthe internet! Oh happy day! :D

I will keep you guys updated! :wink:

[mommacat]

What do you guys think about Sensible Choice? It is what I started Maya on, the pet store owner (who is a good friend, by the way, so I trust her) suggested it. She suggest either Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice for Puppies or Innova. We are using Sensible Choice and it seems to work well so far, is Innova alot better??

[mydogroxy]

another food i'd heard great things about is nature's variety. they make a premade barf too, but their kibble is to die for (so i've heard).

[DogPaddle]

Mommacat - I cannot find an ingredients list for Sensible Choice online which worries me. This food is made by Royal Canin who produce Natural Blend Holistic Dog Food which does have ingredients listed and seems pretty good. Sorry I couldn't help more.

[mommacat]

Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice for Puppies-
Chicken Meal, brewers rice, brown rice, chicken fat, chicken, beet pulp, natural chicken flavor, rice hulls, brewers yeast, monosodium phosphate, potassium chloride, DL-methionine, chicory extract, choline chloride, L-lysine, zinc proteinate, Vitamin E supplement, zinc oxide, iron sulfate, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, rosemary extract, sodium selenite, ascorbic acid, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, biotin, niacin supplement, rivoflavin supplement, calcium iodate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamin mononitrate, vitamin B supplement, vitamin D supplement, folic acid

[DogPaddle]

Seems ok. If your pup is doing well on it I'd leave it on it, paticularly if he/she likes it. If you are thinking of switching anyway:

I would go for a food that has limited ingredient splitting just for simplicity -
[quote]Chicken Meal, brewers [color=darkblue]rice[/color], brown [color=darkblue]rice[/color] [/quote] You see here the first ingredient appears to be chicken but the next two are just two different sorts of rice, likely the first ingredient is actually rice in general and then chicken - but not necassarily, unfortunately its hard to tell, again the food seems ok, you'll notice they have essentially done ingredient splitting with their chicken too -[quote] [color=indigo]Chicken Meal[/color], brewers rice, brown rice, [color=indigo]chicken fat, chicken[/color][/quote]

I would avoid [quote]beet pulp, natural chicken flavor, rice hulls [/quote] but some people would certainly argue with me on those. In my own opinion beet pulp is too sugery although some manufactureres say they remove the suger and just use it for fibre which would be ok but how do you tell here, natural chicken [color=red]flavor[/color] is just plain scarey - what is it really that they are adding, rice hulls I'm split on fibre is good but often when manufactureres do they gaurenteed analysis the rice hulls contribute to the protien or calories or something (I'm not sure which) but the dogs can't really digest it so its hard to tell what your dog is actually getting out of the food.

I freely confess to not knowing what these are or what they do but they are mighty high on the ingredient list.
[quote]monosodium phosphate, potassium chloride, DL-methionine, . . . , choline chloride[/quote]
Maybe someone else can help with those.

Anyway, all in all, it is a pretty good kibble (assuming those ingredients I don't understand are ok.)

[mommacat]

Thanks, DogPaddle -
Sometimes she seems to really like it, other times she doesn't eat much, but if I remember right, that could be just a puppy thing. (my kids are like that, too!!)
I think I may look into it a little more, some of those ingredients scared me a little, too. Remember the Bryers Ice Cream commercial - we only have ingredients we can pronounce?? I was feeling a little like the kid who can't pronounce anything in his ice cream as I was typing the ingredient list! :oops: