sheesh Posted October 31, 2003 Share Posted October 31, 2003 Hello all! I've been thinking of ordering dog food from Dr. Foster & Smith for convenience sakes. Their food seems pretty reasonably priced with good ingredients. What do you guys think of this one? I am TIRED of LUGGING around bags of food from the pet store as I have 2 muttlies so it seems I'm at the store all the time :o . So with their autoship delivery program, the bags will show up as often as I want them to (and they give you a price break). [b]Dr Foster & Smith Dry Adult Dog Food - Chicken & Brown Rice[/b]: 24% protein, 14% fat [color=darkblue]Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Whole Barley, Rice, Rice Bran, Chicken Fat (naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, citric acid, and rosemary), Natural Flavor, Whole Ground Flaxseed, Egg Product, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Apples, Herring Oil, Brewers Dried Yeast, Kelp, Potassium Chloride, Dicalcium Phosphate, Vitamin E Supplement, Garlic, Dehydrated Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dehydrated Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Product, Dehydrated Bifidobacterium thermophilum Fermentation Product, Dehydrated Bifidobacterium longum Fermentation Product, Dehydrated Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Sodium Ascorbate (source of Vitamin C), Choline Chloride, Zinc Proteinate (source of chelated Zinc), Iron Proteinate (source of chelated Iron), Zinc Sulfate, Iron Sulfate, Beta Carotene, Manganese Proteinate (source of chelated Manganese), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Manganese Sulfate, Niacin, Vitamin A Supplement, Cobalt Proteinate (source of chelated Cobalt), Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Copper Proteinate (source of chelated Copper), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Ethylene Diamine Dihydriodide (source of Iodine), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Folic Acid, Menadione Dimethylpyrimidinol Bisulfite (source of Vitamin K activity), Sodium Selenite.[/color] Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DogPaddle Posted October 31, 2003 Share Posted October 31, 2003 Seems pretty good, if they like it and do well on it I'd stick with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDG Posted October 31, 2003 Share Posted October 31, 2003 it's a decent food, even made the whole dog journal's list for 2003. have you considered tho that for $5 more per bag you can get the wellness, which is of much better quality? also, i don't know where you live, but dawgfood.com sells the 40 lb bag of canidae for $36 and shipping is free for some states (they operate out of idaho). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheesh Posted November 2, 2003 Author Share Posted November 2, 2003 Thanks for the website. My only question about Canidae is the protein. Why don't they use fresh meat as primary protein, versus only meat meals? Does it matter? Also - the price of Dr F&S is about $27/30# bag and Wellness is $40/30# bag at my local store, so there is a big price difference. That is a little too pricey, unfortunately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDG Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 i know it sounds very odd because freshness is always stressed so much with other ingredients, but you are actually getting the better product in a food that uses meat meals instead of "wet" meat. ingredients are listed by weight [b]before[/b] processing, so if you see for example "chicken" as a first ingredient and "rice" as a second, that chicken still includes about 75% water. by the time the finished product reaches its final moisture content (usually between 9 and 14%), all that water is removed and you have only about 1/4 of the meat content you started out with. meat meal has most of the water and some of the fat removed already before it is added to the food mix, so there is no "shrinkage" and what you see is what you get. also the manufacturer is able to include many times the amount of animal protein in the dry food, as opposed to using fresh meat, which "gunks up" the extruder if the food mix includes too much fresh meat, so the manufacturing process wouldn't work. the important thing to note is that you want a meat meal of a [b]defined[/b] source (chicken meal, turkey meal, beef meal, pork meal etc.) and [b]not[/b] anything generic, like "meat meal", "poultry meal", "meat and bone meal" and so on. if it's a generic name, the manufacturer has reasons for hiding something that they would rather not disclose to their customers. as for the price difference between the F&S formula and wellness, i was going by the price given on their website, since you were going to have it shipped. [quote] Dry Adult Dog Food - Chicken & Brown Rice (30 lb. bag) Additional shipping weight fee of $4.50 per item. $ 29.99 [url=http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=8959&N=2001+6000+113133&in_merch=1]link[/url] Wellness Super5Mix Dry Adult (30 lb. bag) Additional shipping weight fee of $4.50 per item. $ 34.99 [url=http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=8752&N=2001+6000+113133&in_merch=1]link[/url] [/quote] so if the difference is only $5, i'd definitely go for the wellness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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