Changing food: thoughts on Canidae?

[ferky1]

Miles has lost his taste for Wellness and we are thinking about changing foods. We know that he isn't sick because his is incredibly active, loves all kinds of treats and gives us the sad eyes when we are eating because he wants our food very badly. We've tried both the chicken and lamb/rice foods (the fish and potato smell is too much for the wife). It's just that he doesn't seem to like any Wellness anymore. It's as though he eats just enough to survive, but he really doesn't enjoy it and he may have even lost a pound or two (not good for an 11 pound, 7 month old puppy).

We really want to stick to dry kibble and not get into the habit of putting canned or human food on top. I know him and us well enough to see that he will end up just eating the good stuff on top until the wife and I cave in and feed him only what he wants. Anyway. . . .

I think Innova would be my first choice, but the best locally available food that is supposedly of high quality is Canidae. I was wondering what you folks thought of it. I'm concerned about 3 things: 1) what do you think about the meat sources all being 'meals' instead of whole meats? the website says that the only difference is water, but I have heard differently; 2) I thought white rice was a no-no; and 3) I know that this is an "all life stage food," but the protein and fat content seems a little high for adult food. Thoughts?

Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Lamb Meal, Chicken Fat, (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Ascorbic Acid), Menhaden Fish Meal, Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Lecithin, Brewers Yeast, Natural Flavors, Monosodium Phosphate, Choline, Linoleic Acid, Rosemary Extract, Sage Extract, Ferrous Sulfate, Mixed Tocopherols (Source of Vitamin E) Zinc Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Manganous Oxide, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of B2), Yeast Culture, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Extract, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Streptococcus Faecium Fermentation product, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Cobalt Amino Acid Chelate, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Niacin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, D- Biotin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium, Iodate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Papain, Bacillus Subtilis, Aspergillus Niger, Yucca Schidigera Extract

Guaranteed Analysis
Crude Protein (min.) 24.00 % Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min.) .60 %
Crude Fat (min.) 14.50 % Linoleic Acid (min.) 3.70 %
Crude Fiber (max.) 4.00 % Vitamin E (min.) 200.00 IU/KG
Moisture (min.) 10.00 % Amylase (min.) 950.00 BAU/ lb
Omega-6 Fatty Acids (min.) 3.20 % Xylanase (min.) 136.00 XU/ lb

[Aonir]

Well, all I know is.. Canidae is the best food next to BARF and RAW.. Right guys?? Thats what these 'maniacs told me..

[TDG]

canidae is one of the really high quality dry foods. personally i prefer innova, but i would feed canidae as well.

as for the meals, it's one of the things a lot of people get confused about. you might want to check out this website for some additional info, it has some great information and also a page that tells you what to look for in a good food product and why.


[url]http://home.comcast.net/~Mordanna/dog/[/url]

[DogPaddle]

Meals are ok. Brown rice would be better than white rice but as long as the rice is not in the top three ingredients it should be ok. Canidae is a nice food, good ingredients, good price, you should check out the feeding portions, they are quite small. :kciuki:

[nadooshkinz]

A while ago when Rowie and I were trying to get Canidae Imported to bahrain, I did a whole lot of research, and canidae is EXCELLENT! :D
Because :-
A) No by products
B) All the good vitamins and proteins like omega 6 and Omega 3
C)Available in Chicken, Turkey, Lamb and Fish!
(I'm beginning to sound like a cheesey Info-mercial!) :oops:

Here's some more info, that I got off their Website, [url]www.canidae.com:[/url]

[b]CANIDAE Canned Ingredients[/b]
Chicken, Chicken Broth, Lamb, Chicken Liver, Ocean Fish, Brown Rice, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Egg, Sunflower Oil, Lecithin, Rosemary, Plus Vitamins and Minerals.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


[b]Guaranteed Analysis [/b]
Crude Protein (min.) 9.00 % Moisture (max.) 78.00 %
Crude Fat (min.) 6.50 % Omega-6 Fatty Acids (min.) 1.00 %
Crude Fiber (max.) 1.50 % Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min.) .20 %


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Hope I helped! :wink:

[MajiesMom]

Magic didn't do well on Canidae. She had bad gas and large soft stools. I won a bag of Wellness in a GSD Rescue raffle so she's on that bag right now. She loves it because it is pretty fishy (she loves fish) she doesn't have the gas and her stool is perfect and only once or twice a day.
Innova or Fromm is another brand I would try.
There are products other than canned you could add to Miles food so he thinks it's yummy. What I'm thinking of is stuff like Natures Link, here's the website [url]http://www.natureslink.ca/[/url] that's just one company, it might give you an idea about the different kinds of food available.

[TDG]

MajiesMom, have you fed wellness for any length of time?

i am interested in hearing feedback from other folks on how wellness affected their dog's teeth. while it is a great food otherwise, i wasn't happy with that aspect of it at all, since my dog had a lot of plaque build up from it.

i'm not looking for a discussion about what to do to avoid buildup or recommendations of feeding product X etc., just statments along the sort of "yes, i have noticed that with wellness too" or "no, i haven't seen any difference comparing to other foods".

thanks! :)

[Horsefeathers!]

Ok, I'll toss my coupla pennies in there! :)

My dogs, eight of whom have been here the entire time, have been on Wellness dry food for a bit over a year. They have all done wonderfully on it except for the couple who initially had really bad gas, but that passed (no pun intended). However, I have noticed that they do have a bit of plaque buildup, but it's not bad. I just had a 6 year old Chi's teeth cleaned last week for the first time and they were actually in pretty good shape... just needed a bit of scraping and polishing, but nothing dramatic. I thought it was really good for a small dog (notorious for dental problems) of that age who'd never had them scraped before.

I guess my overall opinion in regard to Wellness and dental health is that their teeth are probably about the same as with anything else they've eaten. Certainly no worse.

[MajiesMom]

She

[Black GSD]

Picky dogs that "decide" they don't like their food anymore are MADE by people. A healthy dog will NOT starve itself to death. If you start changing his food everytime he "decides" he doesn't like it anymore, he will do it his WHOLE life. He KNOWS that if he doesn't eat his food he gets to have something else. Feed him, give him 15 minutes to eat then (If he hasn't eaten it.) pick up the food and give him NOTHING (not even treats) until the next meal. Eventually, he WILL get hungry and he WILL eat what YOU decide.

You are the person. YOU get to decide what he eats, NOT him.

[MajiesMom]

[quote name='Black GSD']Picky dogs that "decide" they don't like their food anymore are MADE by people. A healthy dog will NOT starve itself to death. If you start changing his food everytime he "decides" he doesn't like it anymore, he will do it his WHOLE life. He KNOWS that if he doesn't eat his food he gets to have something else. Feed him, give him 15 minutes to eat then (If he hasn't eaten it.) pick up the food and give him NOTHING (not even treats) until the next meal. Eventually, he WILL get hungry and he WILL eat what YOU decide.

You are the person. YOU get to decide what he eats, NOT him.[/quote]

I agree. Though I said that once to a 5lb Yorkie owner, who's dog wouldn't eat. The breeder of the dog, who I work for said no, he could stare to death. I guess because the dog is already so tiny if he lost a couple pounds nothing would be left of him????

[3ofakind]

Black GSD, in a way you are correct but it is possible that a dog simply doesn't like a certain food. My oldest started on Wellness. I believed it to be an excellent food but her stools were always kinda soft and it was a nightmare to try to get her to eat it. She hated it! And actually she in general just doesn't like fish.

At that time I switch to Solid Gold MMellinnia, great food too that I really liked but I was getting bags that were fairly old. So now I feed Canidae. It is the best food I have used. I was on the rotating ever 6 months kinda thing but it is gonna be really hard to change to something else in another few months. As far as my oldests eating, she ate the SG better than the Wellness but with the Canidae she actually looks for more and gets excited at meal time. This is a first for her. Also, I am raising two puppies on the Canidae (another reason for choosing it). They are the most beautiful puppies, nice and lean with good muscle development, not fat bellies here.

I highly recommend Canidae!!

[Black GSD]

Changing food because it doesn't "agree" with the dog is one thing.

But I know of a LOT of people that have dogs that eat great for a while, (LOVE the "new" food, have normal stools ect...) then "decide" they don't like the food. So the owner changes food, only to have the dog do the EXACT same thing again. And they do it over and over.

[TDG]

it is not that i have problems with my dog's teeth in general, they are fine again after he has been off wellness for a few months now.

thus my saying above i'm not looking for any advice on what to do or try to keep them clean(er), i just wanted to hear what other people's experiences with wellness are and what kind of dogs they own, since i have heard that some folks have noticed the same.

personally i rotate foods every few months too, not because my dog stops eating a particular one, just to offer some variety and balance out nutrient levels that differ from brand to brand.

[mydogroxy]

i will agree with blackgsd and say that the vast majority of picky dogs are created by human habits. my own dog is definitely included in this group. i however, simply don't see the harm in switching up what they eat, as long as they can handle the change well. roxy rarely has any adverse effects when we start something new. it just doesn't make sense to me, to force a dog to eat something they're not crazy about.

[Sanvean]

I was doing some research on this when I switched Macy's food. My big concern was that I'd heard several dog owners say that Canidae seemed to cause dogs to eat their own stool more often. Ick!

Macy is on Natural Balance and likes it very much. The kitties are eating the Chicken Soup food and like that, as well. I'm very happy with both foods.

[DogPaddle]

Really? That's interesting. We have at one point had three dogs on Canidae and they did not show any tendency to eat poop. Maybe its dog specific?

[ferky1]

Well it has been a full month since changing Miles to Canidae and we all seem to be very happy. The beginning is always easy as Miles will never turn down something new, but it seems like we have jumped a hurdle as now, even though it's not new anymore, he still seems to enjoy it. No more eating 2 bites and walking away, no more bribing him with yogurt. He seems to be pooping less with the Canidae and the stools seems a bit firmer too. All in all, very happy with the changed, WITH ONE MAJOR EXCEPTION:

It seems that it is true: since changing to Canidae, Miles has suddenly become very interested in eating his poop! He never tried it while on Euk or Wellness, but he seems to think that it is some treat now that he is eating Canidae. Two times there was a little evidence of poop-eating, but it was confirmed the other day when he pooped it out and IMMEDIATELY turned around to gobble it down. Freaked me out!

We skipped the Accent, meat tenderizer and other, cheaper remedies. Instead we went right to the pet store and bought Deter. He has been on the pills for 3 days now but he hasn't had the opportunity to try some of his home-made delicacy. I know that I should let him try because the Deter is supposed to make it really bad. So far I've been too squeemish to even let him try. I'll keep you informed.