Dog food question
 

What dog food does eveyone use? And WHY?

I've decided to go with Pro Plan made by Purina for small dogs.
Here's why. 1. the first ingredient is MEAT (not rice, corn or wheat)
2. It has more Crude Protein than most with a min of 30%
3. It has DHA in it which is found n mother's milk,and helps brain and vision development
4. Because of my location there isn't a ton of specialty dog foods readally availabe to me such a Royal Canian.

Also Purina has a breeders club, which for free (not even a shipping charge) you get their Today's Breeder magazine, and when ever you have a litter you can go to their site and order (again free) puppy starter kits to go with each of your puppies to their new home. This includes a New Puppy book, a record folder to keep info in, and a coupon good for a small bag of Pro Plan dog food. To check this out go to www.purinaproclub.com

Here is the ingredients for ProPlan dry puppy:

Chicken, corn gluten meal, brewers rice, whole grain corn, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), poultry by-product meal, fish meal, corn bran, calcium phosphate, dried egg product, animal digest, fish oil, salt, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, choline chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, DL-Methionine, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

Two of the first four ingredients are corn (cheap source of hard to digest protein and responsible for allergic reactions in some) - and then another corn down further! Poultry by-products as ingredient (everything from a chicken carcass not fit for human consumption, beaks, feets, intestines, etc. Not a good food in my opinion. They eat so little you can afford to even pay for shipping for a good quality food for these little ones. The Proplan Select formula looks a little better.

Okay, I quess I wasn't clear on the question. I asked what kind of dog food every body uses and why? I'm trying to learn more here not get raked over the coals.

I know what the ingredients are in what I'm using I also know that animal by-products are in the ingredient list of a ton of dog foods and some times is the only meat in them.

With the little amount of food we use we didn't think having it shipped to us. It wasn't because we were to cheap to pay extra.

Sorry, I wasn't aware stating my opinion on a dog food was "raking you over the coals". I feed Nutro Natural Ultra because it contains no corn and no meat by-products and also has Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids for the coat and skin.

Whoa there.... I don't think Lacy's Mom was trying to "rake you over the coals." That's a bit of a harsh response IMO. She was just trying to educate you and be helpful so that you know it's harmful for your dog.

Many dog food companies have a type of "breeders club." I use Eukanuba Puppy food because that's what my breeder was feeding him. I just haven't switched to anything else as my vet tells me it's fine to leave him on for now.

Ferdinand came with a "puppy starter kit" also... of course the dog food companies would do that - it's great marketing to get consumers to purchase their product ;)

Sorry guys. Yeah I know that a lot of dog food have starter packets and it is a marketing thing. I was just trying to be inforative about that part. Like I said I started this thread to learn what foods are the best. There are so many out there that you could spend forever looking them up. The most popular food up here is Science diet which has chicken by product listed a second ingredient. So like is said I started this to learn what's out there

I get the Today's Breeder magazine every month. I love it! I have every issue from the last two years and I find myself going back and re-reading articles all the time. Love it! Just waiting for them to put a yorkie back on the cover...this month was a LC Chi,,, VERY cute dog. I also use pro plan puppy.
My pups have beautiful shiny coats and do well on it. I can only purchase pro plan at my vet or pet smart so when I buy I have to stock up. We have tried lots of different quality foods over the years and have always had a problem finding something that everyone will eat. I have some very picky eaters. Everyone seems to like pro plan and will eat it. I also buy the canned and give a few times a week. I feel they get totally bored with only dry food all the time so I like to give them something to spice up their lives. We boil chicken every week and mix in with the canned. They have dry out every day.

i feed nutro natural choice lamb & rice small bites.

i feed him this because i think the corn in royal canin was causing a skin reaction. plus he's very picky and he will eat it.:rolleyes:

i think the ingrediants are good. it has rice but they say it's a good carb for stamina and energy.




http://www.nutroproducts.com/ncdogsmbites.asp

My dogs go nuts over those nutro small biscuits! I can only find those at one place within 20 miles of me.

i never bought the biscuits. next time i go shopping i'll give them a try. :) :)

I also use Pro Plan for small breeds and have zero problems and everyone likes it. I don't consider it a cheap kibble at $34 (or $37) per bag. I have considered Flint River. Problem is, every brand I read about has pros and cons....good stories and bad ones. I'll probably switch in the future, but it will be a thread like this one that will help me decide...decisions from real people with the same breed.

I notice that the main ingredient in Nitro is Lamb Meal, what exactly is that? I've noticed that quite a few dog foods list the "meat" as a Meal.

i wander about the lamb "meal" in nutro. i hope someone can explain.:confused:

lamb meal is the lamb meat with the water and fat removed.

This website describes it well
http://www.possumhollowfarms.com/dogfood.htm

here's another site that defines ingredients in dog food:
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spri...ngredients.htm

I feed my gang Solid Gold http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/ I either buy it at Pet supplies plus or at my local feed store. It's a little bit more but they eat every bit and it's a good food, and they don't have any problems with digestion...

WOW! That is expensive. You should try petsmart online. Their prices only go up to $20.

When you see the term "meal" it means it has been dried and ground. So if you see chicken meal it is the chicken (no byproducts) and since it has been dried it is lighter than say if they had listed chicken which would be wet and therefore weigh more so they could put it higher in the list of ingredients. So in short what you are getting is "concentrated" meat without the moisture so you should give it more "points" when evaluating dog food.

I feed Innova Evo, Wellness Simple solutions, Venison, Innova Small bites and Wysong dermutec (RX food)
Most of my girls get the innova evo (this is the next best thing to raw and you should only feed it to dogs that have good functioning kidneys)
My shepherd gets the Wellness venison because of his sensitve belly
My Tiffany gets the Innova small bites and my Precious gets a combo of the wysong and Evo. My dogs also get organic veggies in their food, sometimes they get yogurt and cottage cheese.

Cali gets Chicken Soup and Wellness mixed. I mix in Merricks wet once a day :) I am very very pleased!

I am glad to see all the new food information.

I am still giving Buddy a combo of the Royal Canin Yorkie food (which I don't like - seems to give him bad breath) and Nature's Variety "raw instinct" dry food which is awesome for him, but he is tired of it and doesn't eat it anymore except if he's desperate - and I just find any good quality canned all-meat, no other ingredient wet food which he always loves, but I don't like to give him a lot of it.

So...I'm off to find something else that he will like - I am planning to try the California Natural/Innova first.

I feed all of mine Chicken Soup. I chose it because it has no by products,no corn, is all natural, and has fatty acids in it to help improve the skin and coat. Also, it is relatively cheap for such a great dog food, it is $20 per 18lb bag which will last them a long time. Other reasons I picked it was because I could buy it locally, alot of the other really dog good foods are not sold around here. But I would have to say the most deciding factor was that all of mine love this dog food. I have tried many many different brands of dog food and they woulden't even touch the others, but they love Chicken Soup. Also, since I have put all of them on it, their coats have improved sooo much.

So all together I would say the things I look for in a dog food is, no corn, no by products, natural ingredients, something for the skin and coat, and a taste the dogs will love.

Adults get Chicken Soup for the dog lovers soul and puppys get royal canin 33 for puppies and they're all fat and happy

I feed ProPlan, Chicken and Rice. Then our big dog gets Purina Gold....something.

I buy what I think is best for them, but I wonder sometimes about what negative effect the by-products and corn etc REALLY have on them. We had a peke that lived to be almost 16 years old and ate George Jones from Wal-Mart from day one. We had a mutt named Rocky that lived to almost 17 and ate the cheap-o stuff too. Hubby had a beagle that he left with his parents when we got married that lived to be 14 that ate nothing but table scraps...and I mean ANYTHING that was left. Ya know, it just makes me wonder sometimes.:confused:

i use Eukanuba Adult Maintenance Small Breed Formula. is that any good or should i use another brand. my vet said this is good for my little guys. i dont think anyone else has mention they use this.

It has by-products so there are better foods out there, but then again there are worse foods - so I guess I would say it is somewhere in the middle. I fed Eukanuba for years and mine had healthy shiny coats, but now I feed Nutro Ultra.

i feed mine nutro natural choice ,too

nutro natural choice has no by-products
:thumbup:

i used to feed my whiskey proplan puppy but switched to chicken soup puppy dry food. i mix it with missing link supplement powder-all my little dogs will sit by their bowls in the morning and will not eat their food until i put the missing link on it then they all snarf it up!!! my chi (she's almost four years old) was eating the proplan puppy and she was gaining weight big time-like over five pounds!!!then she was diagnosed with cataracts so i did some research and decided to try the chicken soup puppy hoping that with the missing link and better products in the dry dog food that it would help. all of their coats are very shiny and soft and at their recent vet's check-up he said they were very healthy little dogs and for me to keep up the good work and keep feeding them the chicken soup/missing link.... and my vet used to always try to get me to buy his in-office science diet for the longest time! so that has to say something there. my friend feeds her little yorkie proplan puppy and her bull mastiff proplan large breed puppy too.

I fee Diesel Innova dry food and Evolve soft dog food. He has always been a picky eater and now he is eating very well.