High Quality doesn't always mean High Price!
 

We have been feeding our cats Royal Canin and here in the great white north that translates to BIG dollars! I don't care! I want my animals to have the best and be healthy!

However,...the other night while at Ren's Pet Depot I did a comparison analysis of the Royal Canin (cat food) and Purina One...and I almost died on the spot!!

The Royal Canin is CRAP! (sorry..no offense to those who feed it!) It's full of corns and grains and just garbage! Chicken by-product instead of CHICKEN and corn is the second or third ingredient on the list! Filler! This food is INCREDIBLY expensive and my animals don't even like it that much!

We compared all the other ingredients, and the Purina One came out WAY ahead! I understand that SOME of the ingredients can be open to interpretation such as ASH content (I have been researching foods for 20 years so I get it believe me), but the Purina One still came out way ahead.

So...we switched....and so far they love the new food. Archer is our Border Collie and has been on Legacy PUPPY (not Royal Canin but supposed to be excellent) food his entire life. While they don't use a lot of grains and fillers, I could NEVER get him above 42 lbs....and the food is also very expensive. He's almost always under 40 lbs, especially in the summer when he's running more...which is okay for a Border Collie but 43 to 45 is a bit of a healthier weight. Within a week of feeding this food I can already see he's got a bit more weight on him and his ribs are less pronounced....and he isn't having any more BM's than before. We will see how things progress over the next few weeks as I am observing my critters closely.

Anyway....this has been my findings...what foods do you feed and why? I know this can be a VERY controversial subject so I'm not looking for an open debate on dog food...I just wondered if there is something in particular that Yorkies need in their diet beyond the regular good quality dog food (sorry I kind of took the long way around to asking this question huh? LOL!).

Royal Canin isn't the best out there and Purina definitely isn't either. I know many on here feed it, and that's fine... But I want better for my dogs. There is a lot of debate on here about food, and you will find people are very passionate about what they feed.

I didnt realize royal canin had chicken byproduct rather than chicken is that the same for the dog food? If your dog isnt allergic to corn than the corn doesnt matter its just that theres no value for it being in there its just a filler.

i recently switched my yorkie and shih tzu to
natures variety instinct frozen raw diet.
my airedale is on an rx purina en due to serious digestive issues.

Yes..I know...I have had many, many discussions about food and read a lot of very passionate posts on other forums about food. Some people are convinced that what they feed is THE BEST ever. I get that. I also get that Purina isn't the best either for sure.

I find the entire topic fascinating becuase, at least here in Canada, there is not a whole lot of regulation or control over pet food...certainly not like there is on human food (and even THAT is suspect at best! Oye! don't get me started on THAT!).

I am truly interested in what people feed their yorkies, what you feel works well for YOU, and why you would recommend it, without going into major detail or starting a large argument. If you all think I should just research past threads, I'm okay with that...just thought I'd start a conversation that might also benefit some other newbies on here is all.

Mods please feel free to remove this thread if they feel it will cause controversy or issue...I certainly won't be offended.

:2popkorn:

And 3,2,1, GO! lol.....

ROFLOL! :yelrotflm:rofl28ib:

Ok seriously...I don't want any trouble! Just askin! :eek:

Personally Fromm is what i feed Ralph. It is high quality, with no by products or anything like that. I love it. But before you go buy or switch to a new brand I always suggest everyone go here: Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble

It has all the info on every brand. Generally you would want a 4 star.

Brit, you need to share what you think. I know you've done a ton of research and would have a lot of good information to add to this thread :)

I don't understand WHY you would want to compare a cat food with a dog food? I know the Royal Canin for Yorkshire Terriers doesn't use chicken by products. Also, corn is not a filler.

If you are really open to debate it may be best not to call someone else's food choice "CRAP" and "garbage." If you really think RC is making too much profit in their food, you ought to buy stock in the company! I buy the product, because they do testing, they have a good record for quality control; their facilities are considered state of the art spotless and clean. Furthermore, I have studied nutrition in college and on my own and believe that the ingredients they have chosen make a quality nutritious meal for dogs, and Joey loves it and is thriving on it.

Sorry...it's chicken MEAL not by product. Still I would prefer to see JUST chicken.

Searching for 'perfect' clean, nutritious, non-toxic foods for my babies has been a ongoing search of many, many, many years for me now. :pSometimes, it is not all that obvious what is 'wrong' with ingredients, either. I research each ingredient before buying the product. Corn, and other grains are not necessarily 'bad' even if they might be 'inappropriate' foods for the species...mine love to eat organic popcorn with me...but a few minutes researching what happened with "Starlight Corn" is quite enlightening. :rolleyes: Anything commonly GMO (corn, soy, safflower, canola, etc...and the list continues growing by leaps and bounds now) or anything 'questionable' or 'artificial' is to be avoided from my research...especially since there is no way to tell (although some mfgs do specify their product to be non-GMO) what's actually what as there is no requirement to share certain information with consumers. I stick as closely as possible to 'organic' ("clean"...natural...non-chemcial) ingredients, have even ordered special foods through health food stores when they were available years ago, and have spent many hundreds of thousands of hours researching this sort of thing...and searching for clean, species specific, pet foods for their health and my convenience. :p I feel better, and they seem to, feeding mine from my own table the same as what we eat and supplementing with certain pet food items and only allow them a certain (tiny) amount of 'snack' and/or 'junk' foods...like you would do for any other child, if you're picky like me...if you know what I mean. :p

Thank you for that site...a lot of really good info on there and excellent descriptors. I used to make my own food but with working full time and having my son, I just did not have the time. It's fascinating to see how low Royal Canin is on the list...as I did the comparisons on both cat and dog food...it was re-affirming to read that corn is in fact used as filler.

There is nothing wrong with meal. It contains very little water, 10%, so when it's first on the list of ingrediants you know you are getting more protein than water. When chichen meat is used first, you are getting more water than protein.

I don't feed kibble but i don't think the lack of regulation in the pet food industry is isolated to Canada only or worse here than anywhere else, it's the industry as a whole. We have a decent selection of quality dog food available over here including Acana and Orijen which is made by a Canadian company.

I will add that corn is a filler and if i did feed kibble i would choose one without it.