[BonBon]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

I like these kinds of sites for ingredient comparison too. For me, the ratings just get thrown out the window. Very interesting to see all the makers of raw. I didn't know so many companies had these products.

They are telling me I'm going to an unreasonable extreme by feeding soy dog food. ?? If their dog pooped liquid on meat diets, I'm sure they would change their minds.

The foods with higher meat content get higher ratings. I don't want a dog food with so much meat in it because it's extra stress on the kidneys and liver (it has to be metabolized and nitrogen has to be eliminated by the kidneys). These brands also tend to have more phosphorous (because of the meat content). Some will be comfortable with that and some won't. I don't like the idea. The 4 and 5 star foods here, I'd only feed a handful of them and that is if some of ones with lower ratings didn't work. Some of these smaller companies also have questionable quality control and the foods can lack consistency. Most of these companies also don't do feeding trials, so the dogs that it's being tried on belong to pet owners.

Originally Posted by Britster

I still can't believe that most dogs won't do well eating meat. MOST. Obviously, if a dog doesn't do well on it... it doesn't do well on it.

The issue of meat has been bothering me too, Brit. The site that Nancy linked yesterday by the nutritionist had a really good explanation (I think) of meats/proteins/digestiblity that more closely matches how I'd always looked at the issue.

The nutritionist says "Protein is processed in the liver and any waste materials are filtered and excreted by the kidneys. High quality protein does not generate large amounts of waste that needs to be removed from the body, but poor quality protein which is difficult to digest does and thus puts stress on the kidneys. The liver needs water to process protein and as a medium to carry waste products to the kidneys, where they are filtered out and most of the water is reabsorbed." And "Many people cite old, outdated research that claims high protein percentages in the food are harmful to dogs and do all kinds of damage, especially to the liver. Fact is that these studies were conducted by feeding dogs foods that were made from poor quality, hard to digest protein sources, such as soy, corn, byproducts, blood meal and so on. From my explanation above, you now already know that it is a question of protein quality that affects the kidneys."

This helped me to understand that it's all proteins, not just meat that the liver and kidneys have to process. And that for healthy dogs, meats are much more digestible than other sources of protein which actually make things easier for the liver and kidneys.

I think it's like Crystal, Cathy and the others have said - you have to find what food(s) works for your dog because each dog and their needs can be so different. I just wish finding *THE* food didn't have to be so hard.