corn is hard for dogs to digest. I suggest staying away from dog food with corn in it. For example: Science Diet's first ingredient is corn. The first ingredient in a dog's food should be meat.
It is very difficult to find a food without corn in it. You won't find any at your supermarket or Wal-Mart. And even at pet stores you will look through several brands before finding one without corn.
Corn is a cheap filler. And yes, it is not easily digested and can lead to bad gas and bulky stools.
Like Talltail said, the first ingedient should be meat, but really the first three or four should be meat. Because ingredients are listed by highest quantity first, sometimes they can list chicken first, but it will be followed by three grain fragments (like brown rice, ground white rice and rice bran. Really, there is more rice than chicken, but because they break it up it doesn't have to be listed first.
There is a lot to learn about dog food. I have seen dogs live long lives on junky foods so I always say, "If your dog seems healthy on a certain food, why change it?"
Feeding a higher quality food over your dogs life will contribute to all of these:
*healthier coat *less shedding *less dander *healthy teeth & gums *less tarter build up *smaller poos *less stinky poos *longer eye health *less skin related issues such as ear infections, allergies *better energy level *long term joint health
I will disagree with the above poster on her comment about "why change dog foods if your dog [b]seems[/] healthy". Seeming healthy and actually being healthy are two different things. Dogs don't show hurt or emotion like humans due, and it's very hard to judge how they seem. Sure, dogs can survive on filler dog food, but imagine how much longer and more satisfying their lives could be if fed premium dog food rather then kibble that deprives them of essential nutrients.
I agree that getting a dog food without corn as the first ingredient is important but its VERY hard to find, and hard to find at a good price. I know that you all say if you cant pay for the best then you should not have a dog, well I cant pay for the best (and the 100 miles in gas it takes to get to the nearest pet store) to buy the good stuff. My dogs live on walmart stuff, but they get a lot of extra meat ect from me, cooking it to how this one book that I had (and lost dangit) said to cook it for dogs. They also get a lot of stuff from the vet that I add into their morning breakfest. So I hope that I am feeding them good.
But I was wondering, since you all seem to feed your dogs the better food, what do you recommend? What brand do you feed your dogs and do you do anything extra? (like vet givin stuff or extra meat ectect)
Originally posted by Kikkiy: I agree that getting a dog food without corn as the first ingredient is important but its VERY hard to find, and hard to find at a good price. I know that you all say if you cant pay for the best then you should not have a dog, well I cant pay for the best (and the 100 miles in gas it takes to get to the nearest pet store) to buy the good stuff. My dogs live on walmart stuff, but they get a lot of extra meat ect from me, cooking it to how this one book that I had (and lost dangit) said to cook it for dogs. They also get a lot of stuff from the vet that I add into their morning breakfest. So I hope that I am feeding them good.
But I was wondering, since you all seem to feed your dogs the better food, what do you recommend? What brand do you feed your dogs and do you do anything extra? (like vet givin stuff or extra meat ectect)
I don't personally think it's hard to find, and I live in a very rural area. However, I can't speak for where you live.
Another common myth about better dog food is that it is more expensive. However, that isn't true because if your dog food is full of nutrition and actually meets your dogs needs, you will have to feed much less then the corn filled dog food.
For instance, I have 4 dogs whose combined weight is 126 lbs. I feed them one 35 lb bag of dog food a month. I pay $35 a bag for the dog food, which I think is a great price.
I feed my dogs Chicken Soup, and ingredient wise and price wise, I think it's one of the better premium dog foods. It's lower priced then most of the other premium brands and sometimes has a better ingredient list when stacked against some of the other premium brands as well.
I feed my dogs Wellness. It is a more expensive food brand, but it's high quality and my dogs do great on it.
angeeleeta, I did some more research into the Chicken Soup dog food, and I still like Wellness better. I think Chicken Soup as unnecessary grains in it. One of my dogs has allergy problems and she can't have so many grains. On top of that, at one point Chicken Soup had Ethoxquin in it at one point. They say they've stopped using it but I would still be cautious. I think it's fine to use Chicken Soup if your dog has no health problems, but since one of my dogs has allergies, I use Wellness which works better for her.
Originally posted by talltail: I feed my dogs Wellness. It is a more expensive food brand, but it's high quality and my dogs do great on it.
angeeleeta, I did some more research into the Chicken Soup dog food, and I still like Wellness better. I think Chicken Soup as unnecessary grains in it. One of my dogs has allergy problems and she can't have so many grains. On top of that, at one point Chicken Soup had Ethoxquin in it at one point. They say they've stopped using it but I would still be cautious. I think it's fine to use Chicken Soup if your dog has no health problems, but since one of my dogs has allergies, I use Wellness which works better for her.
To each there own.
I would love to feed my dogs the EVO diet, but at $60 a bag, it's just too much. My local pet store doesn't carry a huge selection of dog food... Bill Jac, Nutro, Canadie, Innova, etc. I find CS to be the best out of the options I have at hand.
My dogs do wonderful on it!
I don't think everyone should feed it, but it's the food that I know the most about, and hence what my comparisons are based off of.
I still believe that the first five are the most important ingredients, as the rest of the ingredients in the food only make up about 15% of the kibbles composition.
I also feed Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul. I started with the puppy formula and have fed the adult formula for two years after that. I chose this brand after reading from the Whole Dog Journal's Best Dog Food issue. Out of the several brands listed, I searched for ones that were available in my area. My dog has never had any other food, so it's hard to really compare, but she likes it and she is healthy. I get a 37.5# bag for about $30.00. It lasts me about 2 months.
I wanted to feed my dog Chicken Soup after hearing all that Angeeleeta had to say (as I respect her opinion, and her knowledge) from a previous posting I had put on this site; but there isn't anyone who locally carries it, and it isn't worth it to me to order it off line because I can't really buy in bulk without it going bad.
So, I feed Canadae - a 40lb bag for like $37 plus some canned food at night w/ kibble.
At the boarding kennel where I work a lot of people bring in Beneful for their dogs. Or stuff just as worse. When it comes to dog food, people will just feed their dogs anything.
Speaking of other dog forums, do you know of any other good dog/animal forums?
Originally posted by talltail: At the boarding kennel where I work a lot of people bring in Beneful for their dogs. Or stuff just as worse. When it comes to dog food, people will just feed their dogs anything.
Speaking of other dog forums, do you know of any other good dog/animal forums?
I do frequent another forum, and it has an animal forum that is quite active, but also a lot of other traffic. Current events, cooking, celeb gossip, clothing, jobs, college, etc.
The age range is from about 18-30. I like it a lot. I've been trying to spread the word about it, as they are upgrading their system and are hoping to triple their registered members, which right now is in the low thousand.
Angeeleeta: Lol and No I haven't done too much researching into other forums: I have Dogster Accounts but didn't get really into it, and couldn't even navigate through the place - and I would like to think I am good on computers and such.. So i just kind-of abondonded it. What do you suggest? I'm always open to new options - I'm sure if you go there it can't be all that bad. ( I meant that to sound nice, if it didn't I appologize lol. )
There is a place that is on my way to my dogs Sport Training Center that carries these brands: Blue Seal, Purina, Nutro, Wellness, Fromm, Solid Gold, Canidae, Merrick, Blue Buffalo, By Nature, Eagle Pac, and Chicken Soup - So of course, Angeeleeta, you know by now that I have to ask: Which one would you reccomend out of those, would you stick with the Chicken Soup?
The best thing to do is to grab a few bags of food and read the first several ingredients. You want to find one that has whole meats or a single source meat meal (ex. chicken meal instead of poultry meal)in the first few ingredients. I would avoid anything that has corn in it. Also look for BHA,BHT, or Ethoxyquin. These are artificial preservatives that have been linked to problems in the past. Avoid food that contains "animal fat" (could be recycled grease from restaurants). Also, avoid "meat by-products". "Animal digest" is another word to look for and avoid.
Hopefully, you can find a couple brands that look good. Then, check the price and decide from there!
First 5 ingredients: Chicken Soup (adult): Chicken, turkey, chicken meal, ocean fish meal, whole brown rice...
Originally posted by badkittyamy: You know what? A great one is dogster. Seriously i went back to their forums today and remembered why i had stopped coming here for awhile.
quote:
Originally posted by acdxx009: Angeeleeta: Lol and No I haven't done too much researching into other forums: I have Dogster Accounts but didn't get really into it, and couldn't even navigate through the place - and I would like to think I am good on computers and such.. So i just kind-of abondonded it. What do you suggest? I'm always open to new options - I'm sure if you go there it can't be all that bad. ( I meant that to sound nice, if it didn't I appologize lol. )
I've never been on the dogster forums before. I actually didn't even know that they had them. I made my dogs all pages, played around with it for a few days, and then kind of abandoned the website.
Did you get the message I sent you badkittyamy?
acdxx009: What is the link to your dogster page? I'll send you a "friend request" from my dogs, and I'll will also give you the link to the other forum site.
quote:
Originally posted by acdxx009: I just found something very exciting out.
There is a place that is on my way to my dogs Sport Training Center that carries these brands: Blue Seal, Purina, Nutro, Wellness, Fromm, Solid Gold, Canidae, Merrick, Blue Buffalo, By Nature, Eagle Pac, and Chicken Soup - So of course, Angeeleeta, you know by now that I have to ask: Which one would you reccomend out of those, would you stick with the Chicken Soup?
Out of those, I'd probably still say go with the Chicken Soup. It's going to be the most affordable out of those, and has the same or better ingredients then the other foods. I can tell you for sure to stay away from Purina (bad food) and Merrick (super expensive).
Chicken Soup has more "pure" protein then Wellness, Blue Buffalo and Fromm, and is probably cheaper then those as well.
Innova stacks up to it eye to eye, but it's more expensive again...
http://www.dogster.com/dogs/620381 That is for my Dog Remington; Tempi (boyfriend's mother's dog - who got me hoooked on ACDs) and Rascal (my mother's dogs) are on the family thing too.
I think I will go with Chicken Soup, hopefully this place won't over price their products.
As for the whole dogster thing; I may be a teenager, but I don't get most of it at all. There is too much, it's too confusing - and I don't enjoy it much at all lol.
Lol I'm actually having a big argument on dogster now. I said it was stupid to own a pitbull an not expect dog aggresion apparently a bunch of people 'i've owned tons of pits and none were dog aggresive' disagreed.
Is it so amazing to state that a breed trate is to be expected once a dog matures? That's the only thing about dogster. like many people heavy animal forums people get very insulated.
I even linked to pitbullforums.com which is NOT a small group of people but a LARGE LARGE number of experienced breeders owners and the like and there is STICKY on pitbulls in dog parks. Apparently I'm just stupid and uneducated.... Whatever next people will say border collies herding is not a breed trait.
