[DvlshAngel985]

This is an awesome thread! So much info flying around and so many opinions.

To answer the original question, the only person that can find the perfect food for *your* dog is you. Someone else probably said that, and said the following also. Each dog is different, and has different sensitivities and even different preferences.

Kaji will each pretty much anything. I do enjoy giving him fresh fruits and veggies as treats throughout the day. That is something I am comfortable with and I prefer them over processed dog treats, including most chews. (bullys) I do however feed him kibble. It's one thing we've had great results with, nice hard poops and not to smelly either. The kibble has very little fat in it, and if I control the portion, I control his weight. The guidelines on the label made it really easy for me to do this. Kaji has bad LP (3/4) and if he is even half a lb overweight, his knees pop. He got up to a full pound overweight and his knees popped non stop! It was freaking me out! I got the weight down and now, his knees rarely slip in and out. Plus, he's on a very predictable pee/poop schedule.

I did try Stella and Chewys and I didn't like what I saw. Kaji ate it fine, but his poops were soft. Not runny, but soft. To be honest, I hate the idea of having raw meat lying around. Kaji is a grazer, he eats in spurts all day. I serve him his daily portion and most days he'll grab mouth fulls here and there in between games of fetch. Other days he'll eat 90% of his ration in the morning, while other days he'll wait to eat till night. For the most part he's a grazer. I don't like the idea of having to leave anything non cooked out for him. He'll enjoy the new meal for a day or two, and after it's lost its novelty, he'll eat when he's ready. I can't do that with pre-made raw. I'm pretty sure if I leave it out, all the good processing to eliminate all the bad would have been for nothing.

I will say, that not all dogs seem to react to the exact same food the exact same way. Kaji's first dog buddy, Danger, was a pom with similar knee problems with the addition of a bad back due to bad breeding. He was on the same food, same routine, same everything. His poops were just awful! Squishy most of the time, stinky to the point that it made me gag, and a weird orangey color. I truly believe that each dog is an individual.

For now, I'm going to stick with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Kaji is doing well on his food. He'll do tricks for kibble. Even with tid bits of plain chicken breast, fresh fruit, and veggies, he'll always go back for his fill of kibble. His hair is as shiny as a cotton coat can get, and it's so luxuriously soft, he's never out of energy, and he's happy as a clam. It just works for us.