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Your opinion: Dog food

Lucille

Lucille

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If all goes well, I am getting another member of the family tomorrow, a second dog who I am picking up at a local shelter :)

My Shih Tzu, Muffin, must be lonely while I am away at work and school, and although I have a killer study schedule with more difficult classes next semester I have actually arranged to be home one additional evening per week; I thought a second dog would be a good addition for both Muffin and myself, they can help me study in the evenings.

Every once in a while I review internet literature on pet food, there was a site I found one time that compared ingredients and percentages of commercial dog food, and there are a lot of informational articles published in a variety of places concerning dog nutrition.

There are a number of superpremium dog food companies now, with food that is expensive but advertised as somehow being of better quality. They may have a point, but I find it difficult to really determine what is best.

I use Nutro Max Lamb meal and Rice dry dog food and supplement with small amounts of cooked chicken or beef whenever that is what I am cooking for myself. There are some who feed raw meat, some who feed just part of the family meal, and others who tout the super premium foods as being best.

I don't mind paying more for quality, but I don't want to be suckered into paying more for advertising and hype. What do y'all feed your dogs, and why did you choose that particular food?
 
I feed mine Nutro Max as well, and I love it. My only second choice at this point is Chicken Soup for the DOg Lover's Soul dog food, lmao....yes, it's really a food, made by Diamond. I will NOT feed any food that has soy in it....a dog really can't utilize the soy, and pretty much just poops it out. Even some of these super-expensive brands use soy protein, it makes no sense to me. My other biggest requirement of a food is that the main ingredient (the first one listed one the ingredient list) MUST be a form of meat protein.

I like the "Chicken soup" food as it uses whole duck, turkey, egg, and veggies, but it is VERY inconvenient to get around here, but my dogs do very well on the Nutro Max as well.

Congrats on your new addition as well!!! :)
 
I use Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice (dry) for my dogs. I have used other, more expensive, foods but this one has been the best in terms of skin integrity. My goldens used to get hot spots all the time on other formulations, and that stopped contemporaneously with starting this food. I supplement with canned food of the same brand, and occasional boiled or roast chicken leftovers.
 
Most people would be shocked and disgusted if they knew what goes into most dog and cat food. If anyone is interested, check out some od Ann N. Martin's writings on the subject, she is based out of canada but has done research on the US situation as well.

Basically, always check the list of ingredients. Rendered meat is really meat that is unfit for human consumption(rotten from grocery stores and slaughterhouses), scraps, bones, other inedible parts, dead, dying, disabled, and diseased (domesticated stock) animals, dead zoo animals, slaughterhouse wastes that may include: blood, manure, hair, fat, feathers, bones, high N runoff, salmonella, shigella, parasite eggs, amoebic cysts, pesticides, and high levels of Cl (Pollution Prevention and Abatement Handbook, World Bank Group, 07-1998), as well as dead and euthanized companion animals from veterinary offices. Sounds appetizing, doesn't it?

On that note, I feed my dog cooked poultry and occasional veggies, in addition to the dog food that does not contain rendered meat (or at least it says it doesn't).
 
The Nutro senior is great stuff.....it has glucosamine right in it, it worked WONDERS for a freind of mine's collie/lab mix who had very arthritic hips.
 
Cat_72 said:
I feed mine Nutro Max as well, and I love it.
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We had tried Nutro Max on the Shelties for a while, and they had problems adjusting to it, but I still think it's one of the better foods available.
Jim O said:
I use Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice (dry) for my dogs.
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Me too. My golden retriever has been on it for about 2 years now, and her skin and coat has significantly improved. (with the exception of a few allergy problems that happen when I leave the mouse/rat square meal within her reach :slamit: ) It also seems to moderate her weight better than some of the other foods I've tried. Our shelties (who all live at home on da farm) switched over to Nutro Nat. Choice L&R as well, and have, as a group, done far better on it than any other food we've tried. Our shelties range from a petite 10-pound spayed female to a 26-pound stud, and this food keeps them all at an ideal weight better than other foods. Additionally, their coats are much healthier and shinier.

Years ago we fed Iams Mini-Chunks. Then we started reading ingredients more closely and took advice from other breeders. For a long time we were feeding Sensible Choice Royal Canin Natural Blend, which I still think is a great food, but we had issues keeping the dogs at appropriate weights. The golden did well on it, but when the shelties switched it was convenient to switch her too.

I just hope my new dachsund does well on the puppy version. :raspberry :dgrin: :bolt01:
 
There's a relatively small company in (I believe) Wisconsin called Fromm's. They make excellent, all natural dog foods. We used it years ago but it was a long ride to get it and even then availablility was not always great so we switched to Nutro Natural Choice. I have never seen it here in this area, but if anyone has access to it and is having problems with their current brand it is worth considering.
 
As far as dog food we normally use Nutro something or other, based on recommendations of the vet (My wonderful wife), but she will try out some of the sample bags that the reps bring by the office. She likes Iams, Nutro, and Purina One.
 
There is a wonderful publication called The Whole Dog Journal. It has no advertising from any companies in it so it is an unbiased opinion as to how to feed and raise your dog in a holistic manner. Always choose a food that lists in its top ingredients real meats of an identified source. Beef, chicken, lamb, etc. Whole grains and vegetables are a bonus! The next important factor to consider is how available the food is for you to obtain. I used Nutro's for many many years, it is a good food and my 14 year old dobie was proof of that, but I have switched my babies to Natural Balance in search of an even more natural food. Also in my list of foods that I considered were Wellness (great for allergies), Solid Gold, and Merricks. But those are a little harder to obtain easily and more than I was able to spend at the time, but will be switching to in the future. As a groomer for 15 years I have seen alot of foods and talked with alot of clients and these brands are some of the top relatively easily obtainable foods. There are of course a ton of others, but alot of them you would have to order directly from the manufacturer. I would avoid the BARF (Bones And Raw Foods) diets personally because of the bacteria from the uncooked meats. You can't get more natural than that, but too much risk for me. Also there is a supplement called Missing Link which is a great additive for a commercial diet as it claims to include necessary vitamins and minerals that can be lacking in today's commercial diets. Helps keep the coat soft and shiny!
 
Jim O said:
I use Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice (dry) for my dogs. I have used other, more expensive, foods but this one has been the best in terms of skin integrity. My goldens used to get hot spots all the time on other formulations, and that stopped contemporaneously with starting this food. I supplement with canned food of the same brand, and occasional boiled or roast chicken leftovers.
Click to expand...

I picked up a bag of this instead of the Max yesterday at the pet store, I am going to continue using Nutro brand foods. I am convinced that it is a high quality basic food but of course they have to have their chicken and so on added in when I cook it for myself.. :)
 
Pretty interesting. I have used many kinds on the dogs I have had. I have liked the results I got from Iams, and Eukanuba (sp).
I have read the same things about the use of soy in dog foods, and have witnessed a noticeable increase in the amount of poo I had to clean up when I used soy based products. If they are crapping it out, they are not absorbing the nutrients. So I always just look for some type of meat as the first second ingredient.
Will have to try this "Nutro" on my next dog. Never tried it before. Is it good for large breeds?Does it have the condroitants (sp) and all that in it? Having large dogs, I have always supplimented their intake with condroitants for good bone and joint growth. It would be nice not to have to shove a pill down my next dogs mouth every morning. LOL

When I was a small child, (according to my Mom) I favored Chuck wagon. LOL She said she was always finding me in the kitchen sharing our dogs dry chuck Wagon with Him. I guess I preferred the lil red pieces of meat type stuff. Maybe that explains My protective nature. Residual affects from dog food consumption. LOL

Ciao,
Rick
 
My vet, once upon a time, recommended and used ProPlan. I went for it and used it happily for years with several different dogs. Until the Presa came along. It just didn't agree with him. Tried another premium brand, with the same results. Science Diet Sensitive Stomach formula...a little better, but not good by a long shot. We've been using Nutro Max for 4 1/2 yrs now, and I'm very happy with it.
 
Rick, they have a Nutro formula specifically for large breeds, and I believe it has glucosamine and chondroitin (I don't know how to spell it either, lol) right in it. I've never been one to "preach" on any one brand of dog food before (other than to tell people NOT to use the ones with soy protein), but ALL of my dogs do remarkably well on Nutro....this is the first brand of food that they have ALL done very well as well as liked. ANd the price is reasonable compared to many of the "premium" brands....off hand, I know that the 20# bag that I get for the house doggies is under $17.00. This is Iowa though, it may be a little more elsewhere.

I had to feed my crested the Science Diet for sensitive tummies when I first got him....he did OK on it, he got diarreah from most any other food, but he does EXCELLENT on the Nutro. He IS a wee bit chubby, but I'm guessing that has more to do with the amount of treats and human food he also consumes....and the fact that's he a couch potato. ;)
 
It only took....

Okay Paul and Cathy...this one's on Paul. It only took one picture of those little puppies and Paul turned to mush! Don't let him fool you! :raspberry

We typically feed our dogs Purina One or Nutros...whichever is on sale that week, and of course, depending on how many baby beardies we are feeding! All I can say is thank God I don't reproduce as much as my animals do!!!!!!! :nuts:
 
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