Hey guys, just wanted to share with you some food info, although most of you are probably aware of it already. Years ago we were feeding our dogs grocery store brands until the food problem a while back. We changed from Parina to Canidae, { parina was not on the list} and they have been on Canidae for well over a year, and no problems except my german shorthair being picky and not eating her food. It started about the time they changed some ingredients, at the end of 2008, I didn't think too much about it at the time, but now i discovered alot of people had trouble.
Anyway we started having trouble with we think now was dry skin, but that lead me to search out some sites on the internet on skin problems, which lead to food quality, which was a real eye opener on some foods I thought were good, are not so good.{ most grocery store brands} It took a little time to search, but it was well worth the info if you value your pooch. Here are a few links to some sites on ratings, also do a google search on pet foods ect. you'll get alot more info.
Even though my wife likes dogs, I had to do some tall convincing to get her to pay more for a better dog food. But I convinced her, better food, less {smaller} poopers on the yard, less vet bills.
For your dog, do a search, there's alot of info out there other than the few links here.
That being said about good dog food, we had a lab for 18 years that grew up on grocery store brands. lol http://dogfoodchat.com/dog-food-ratings /http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
http://www.thepetcenter.com/article.aspx?id=3395

Thanks!!! Your links are eye-openers!
Trouble is, none of the apparently high-quality foods (according to the list) seem available here in north Florida. I will check again.
Alex

Try a local feed store. We get the small name, high quality hunting dog food from a feed store. Their sign out front only mentions horse feed, etc, and not dog food, so I had to stop in and look.

3 good brands to use are Van Pattens Ultra, Sportmix, and Taste of the Wild.

Our Britt male gets dry skin and scratching from the grocery store brands (Purina, Pedigree, etc), but has no itching with the any of these: Van Pattens Ultra, Sportmix, and Taste of the Wild.

I switched my dog from Eukanuba to Wolf King after she seemed to develop corn allergies



Primarily Bison

Fromm brand is the only dog food fed to our American Water Spaniels.

Add an egg or a couple dashes of vegetable oil to the feed once or twice a week if your dogs coat/skin seems dry.

Ages ago we had a cat with "flea allergies." She'd lick, pull hair and was essentially "bald" around the haunches. We changed her food to Science Diet and all her problems went away.

Had another who developed bladder crystals from the magnesium in cheap, grocery bulk food.

If you love your animals, there's no food too expensive for them. And in the long run it saves on vet bills and misery.

quote:

Originally posted by CaneCorso:
I switched my dog from Eukanuba to Wolf King after she seemed to develop corn allergies



Primarily Bison

Update on the Wolf King switchover:

Great progress, no more allergy symptoms of dandruff and itchy feet/chewing.

Coat is a black iridescent in the sun, the bison meat works well.

Take a look at this dog food rating site. It not only says wish rate nbetter but also why they do.

465H&H

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

I recall an article that brought it home for me.

The gist of it was that all the protein, fat, and fiber percentages are derived in a laboratory. That is correct, no animal testing, just test tubes and meters. The author went on to state he could blend a dog food from used motor oil, ground boot leather, and coal ash that would be an excellent dog food ...on paper. Reality is the dog may not live long enough to exhibit skin problems.

Taking this one step further, brand A lists chicken meat by products first and then corn, wheat middlings (not digested), whole grain this and that etc. Brand B lists corn first then poultry by products, beef by products, and bone meal. There is no way you can tell from the package how much of the final product is meat based and how much plant based. The law states the Manufacturer must list in order highest to lowest percentage.

I find Purina works fine for my Labs. Once a week they do get a fish oil supplement, just some cheap human supplement stuff. I am beginning to believe that dogs with poor digestive systems that require high buck foods are in fact the offspring of the same type of dogs. Improper breeding principles perhaps?

I have not kept up with the dog food market, at one time Purina had the highest number of animals in their test pens.

I am wary of polls where a consumer rates the dog food performance of their sweater wearing yap dog.

Now that is off my chest. If it works for you , why change it?

One more thing, if you ever get near a dog food meat and bone meal plant you will have a strong stomach or an empty one.

I never feed just one type of dog food to our dogs! We mix the feed to enhance keeping things safe for our dogs. There have been several cases in the last 15 years, where dog food manufacturers have had some sort of problem......such as with Diamond Dog Food Company and many very good hunting dogs DIED from the incident. I feel this gives our dogs a bit of a buffer in case something were to happen again like the Diamond case. We always feed 26% protein or higher depending on the activity rate of the dogs. We also feed 18 to 20 percent fat in the hunting and winter months. Summertime it is down to 15%.

Our dalmatian breeder has been breeding for 40yrs and has taken her dogs all the way to Westminster (including this year). She only feeds Dads Meal--it's less then $10 for a large bag (17.6lbs) and is at the local supermarkets. Breeder also recommended to soak with a small amount of water, & add a small amount of plain yogurt on top one time a day. One egg a week.
I doubt Dad's Meal can compare with the high end stuff but it was what I was told and seems to work fine.

My wife gets a lot of free samples and large discounts from many dog food makers so our dog food costs are almost non existent. Needless to say our dogs never had a chance to get picky about what they eat. The one thing that we like to stay away from is food with a lot of corn. some of the premium foods do cause our dogs to get gassy especially the Nutro venison and rice.so we give all the samples of that to our friends so their dogs can get gas. we also feed a little brewers yeast on with their food it really gives the dogs nice coats and helps with the shedding.

quote:

Originally posted by 465H&H:
Take a look at this dog food rating site. It not only says wish rate nbetter but also why they do.

465H&H

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

They are now shut down; perhaps too much Eukanuba

The best after my research is Blue Buffalo. Go to their site and look at the comparisons.

Now how many of these Super Duper dog foods that are listed as being tops, are those of champions who win NSTRA, National Field Trials etc?

Making dog food is the biggest racket next to your kids breakfast cereal you feed them at the table in the morning.

quote:

Originally posted by Blue Dog:

Making dog food is the biggest racket next to your kids breakfast cereal you feed them at the table in the morning.

Amen, brother.
Dogs, like people, react to different percentages of protein, corn, etc. Manufacturers keep playing with these percentages. Science Diet was my go-to until they upped their corn percentage. So I changed. The thing was I didn't know until it was pointed out to me by my vet. Obviously SD didn't want to make a big deal of it b/c they knew it was 'watering' down their traditionally good formula. But, they have to stay in business and keep costs down to meet market conditions.

Also suggest reading up on the Bones and Raw Food (BARF) diet. It was started by a vet in Australia and attempts to duplicate a species appropriate diet as found in the wild. Example is chicken backs or bony meat 4 days a week and ground meats and vegetables 3 days.

I have fed two rare breed terriers using the BARF method since 2000 and it's wonderful in avoiding allergies, hot spots, and other ailments. It can be expensive however if you use grocery store meats but if you can supplement with game scraps etc it is OK.

Well folks I only feed around 8,000 pounds of dog food a year, so I guess I am no expert on dog foods. However, I certainly do know how my dogs end up doing after 45 days or less on a particular brand or brands of dog food.

I suppose there are those who would feed their dog or dogs steak & lobster 7 days a week twice a day if someone would package it and put the nice picture of the dog sitting at the table with his master.

I know that I certainly do not need to have my dogs on what costs $50 dollars a bag for a 40 pound bag of dog food at the store, just so they can hunt birds for me in the field the next day

However, we do feed a ratio of 26 percent protein and 18 percent fat. Also our dogs do get the required amount of hard exercise needed to be able to perform in the field. They spend some 2.5 hours every other day running after flying birds above them and chasing birds that have landed in the fields.

The debate goes on....did you ever wonder what dog men did before bagged dog food came out?

I have an old friend who was a fox hunter back in the day. He fed corn meal with bacon grease if B/G was available. Those hounds ran all day long on nothing but CORN!
Just a little food for thought, no pun intended.

Stepchild

I can tell you what not to feed them--a beer bottle cap, which my 9month old puppy too quickly grabbed off the kitchen counter Saturday resulting in his $2,000 operation today. Tonight I'm switching from bottles to cans as I sit there with him (and his lampshade collar) and now financially postpone any ideas of a hunting trip back a year.