I think the reason some people say to stay away from high protein foods is because most foods that they sell at places like Petsmart and Walmart don't have fully "digestible" protein...The quality of protein is very important. If it's high quality protein, then it's more digestible and is very good for the dog :) You just have to make sure that the dog doesn't have underlying medical issues like liver or kidney problems...High protein is very bad for dogs with liver disease, even if it is high quality.

food
 

I feed Iams Eukanuba or Chicken Soup Puppy and Blue Buffalo.. I stick to the a chicken and rice base only. The Yorkies dont like Lamb and rice. I do supplement with sweet potatoes, cabbage, brussel sprouts, green beans. carrots, etc. They LOVE fresh cooked goat meat. I raise meat and dairy goats. I usually have the bucklings butchered. It is great for people too!!!! Better than beef by a long shot. And I know exactly what my goats eat and they arent pumped full of hormones. The Yorkies like fruit too!!! So my garden also comes in handy too. So, they are kind of on a holistic diet. Lynn

In my opionion the best 'dog food' available is orijen, high protein, no grains, just the way it should be. If I were to feed a kibble, this would be the one.

However I feed raw because after extensive research I believe that the best diet for a dog is one that is the closest to what they would eat in the wild. My dogs eat raw meaty bones (meat with edible bone..chicken wings, drumsticks, lamb chops, ribs, poultry necks etc), raw muscle meat (meat without bone..breast meat, heart, ground meat etc), organ meat (liver, kidney etc), live yogurt, raw eggs (including the shell) and a small amount of pureed fruit and veg (like it would be in their preys stomach).

My dogs are thriving on it, they are healthier than ever and i'm absolutly certain that they enjoy it far more than the same boring dog food day after day. The most important thing is to do lots and lots of research and make what you believe to be the right desision for your dog.

Here are a couple of great websites that I thought might interest some people,

www.rawdogranch.com

http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm

About the Orijen. Layla eats home cooked food but there are times we need kibble and it is always available to her during the day but her tummy is having a VERY hard time with the switch.. any ideas??? i keep trying to start... small amounts.. and the next day she is sick :(

dog food
 

When I asked my vet about the best food for my dogs, she said they don't teach much about nutrition in vet school. I hope they are teaching more about nutrition in vet schools now. She said what I was feeding them (Wysong) was good and she didn't recommend Science Diet, although they do have it in her office. I know a lot of the best selling foods aren't worth much nutritionally and have a lot of fillers. I've done a lot of reading and comparing since one of my Bichons tends to get itchy and have hot spots. I found Wysong, which is a great food and he didn't have any itchies or hot spots while eating it. I had to order it on the web, so switched to Innova, and he got along OK on it. One of the local stores started carrying Wysong after I kept asking for it and now I can get it locally. I use Wysong Synorgan (24% protein) and my two Bichons like it and don't have any allergy problems. Some of its ingredients are chicken, chicken giblets, ground brown rice, flax seed, eggs, and plums. No corn!

Do you mean she is having a tough time changing to eating orijen from the other kibble she used to eat? Its a very good kibble but is rich so if she is switching from a kibble high in grains, that could be why. Have you been mixing it with the old kibble? That could help. To be honest it has to be tough on her body to have to digest kibble and home cooked, once in the stomach kibble swells up and can take up to 12 hours to make it through the system. However natural food such as raw or home cooked digests relatively quickly, within 5 hours so if she is having both in her system at once it may get confused and that could be causing digestive problems. Is there any way you could stop the kibble altogether? When I find it difficult to feed raw, such as when we travel I take stuff like tinned sardines, cottage cheese etc and I often simply slip into a store wherever I am and buy some things for them in there.

i would love to stop the kibble all together and just home cook but we travel from Canada into the US a lot and i can't bring her food... so there are times when it is mandatory that i have kibble with her... i do my best to try and feed her on the road what i can find, but there are times when we just need the kibble. it's tough... she is mostly on protien with a bit of veggies and grains with her home cooked food... so i didn't think the switch would bother her much... the kibble we use right now is Fromms... not bad.. but not as good as Orijen

I use Nutro Natural Formula, and it says high in protein, but doesn't tell you how much.

I'm not sure what to suggest really, perhaps you could try going maybe a week without home cooking, just giving her the Fromms kibble mixed with the Orijen to try to get her used to it?

chester has been on solid gold for a while, I recently changed to athe millenium and he loves it a break from the wee bit

Are most of these foods available in stores or do you need to get them off the net? I have seen a lot that have been mentioned but don't believe I've seen the Orijen or Life's Abundance for example.

I was going to write the EXACT same thing. SD and EUK are, in my opinion, very poor quality. And Iams was BUSTED for cruelty to animals! I would never support a company such as that.

The other mentioned foods (Orijen, Canidae, Wellness, Innova etc) are GREAT - as is the dog food analysis site.:)

This a great thread because we were just looking at switching Sukoshi's food since she is 1-year now and doesn't need the "puppy" food anymore. For those of you on the raw diet, I went to the Nature's Variety website, and it looks like most of the flavors (other than Beef) only have about 13 protein and 3 fiber. What is the incentive to feed them raw when several of the kibbles mentioned in this thread have 24 or 26 protein and 4 fiber? I want to give Sukoshi what's best for her, even if it costs a little more up front. I figure it'll be worth the savings in vet bills down the road because she's healthier, but I don't have time for homecooking at this point. The raw medallions sounded more convenient, but I'm wondering what other benefits it has since it doesn't seem obvious from the protein standpoint especially. Thanks for any help you can offer!

In order to get the accurate amount of protein in something, you have to convert it to a dry matter basis...Find out how much moisture is in those Nature's Variety things...Example: If you have a canned food or raw food that says 13% and the moisture is 75%, then in order to get the correct amount of protien. You take 13 (the amount of protein listed) divided by 25 (the reciprocal of the amount of moisture) = 52% protein on a dry matter basis... Hope this helps...
Same with the fiber...
Remember, this was just an example, I have no idea what the amount of moisture is in Nature's Variety medallions...But now, you can figure it out on your own :)

Dog Food - what's best..
 

I feed Squeaky Royal Canin and no wet food at all. I had tried him on several others and he wouldn't eat it. I got a small sample package from Royal Canin upon request and he ate it, hands down. He's had it for 6 years now and his vet seems to be pleased with his overall health.

Also, I've read that a couch potato doesn't need as much protein as a very active doggie.:rolleyes:

Thanks for the info! I just love you YTers!!! Always so helpful and full of info! I'll go back to their site and do the math!!!! Thanks again!

Right now I am feeding my babies Canidae and it is a GREAT food. However, my husband wants me to switch them back over to Chicken Soup as Stedman hasn't been eating very well, and it seems like I remember him eating the Chicken Soup better. He is not a big eater, period...but I do think he ate the Chicken Soup a little better than he has been eating the Canidae. As far as Tate goes, well, I never worry about her. That girl will eat anything you stick in her mouth!

Thats too funny. Aubrey is that way. He will eat anything, Dakota is more of the picky eater.

Glad I'm not the only one who has a super picky eater. It just drives me crazy sometimes. And ok, not that we feed them table food or anything...but every once in a while we will sneak them a little french fry or whatever, and Stedman is SO darn picky that if it is not the right FRENCH FRY - he will drop it. He will not TOUCH a Burger King fry...however he loves the ones from McDonalds. Now what kind of dog have you ever seen turn down a FRENCH FRY for petes sake??

And little Tatum....well I swear she'd eat a slice of lemon if you gave it to her. She is such an oinker!

Layla is SO picky too. but ONLY if i feed her something... she won't eat any fruit or veggies from me (if she only KNEW how good she has it!) but will eat ANYTHING that GRANDMA gives her!!!

mine do well on Innova.

Me too.
 

:)
Canidae & an occasional treat is all my guys get.

Oh Layla and Stedman sound like a match made in heaven Marcie, lol! Stedman will eat Bananas though, and Apples (when he's in the mood :rolleyes:) but that's about it! Again...Tatum will eat anything she lays her eyes on thats edible :rolleyes: :p

These babies of ours are such handfuls! And they DEFINITELY don't realize how good they've got it!

Dog Food
 

Gracie eats Artemis Small Bites for Small Adult Dogs. She just loves it and comes running when she hears me put it in her ceramic dish. The kibble is much smaller than Innova Small Bites---she's more picky about the size of the kibble, I think, than the taste. Artemis smells like salmon when you open the bag.

Personally, IMO, I do not like Science Diet, Iams, and some of the others that have alot of grains and by-products in them. I am feeding Innova right now. I had them on Welliness but they are not too crazy about it. I have to have a very low protein for one of my female schnauzers because she has kidney disease and they put her on k/d which is Science Diet. So, she eats the k/d and I suppliment it with the Innova. I mix the wet with the dry and they like it. The vets get like a 30% kick back on the S.D.

My lil one has been on Euk since I got her and it is now time to purchase a new bag of food...(I've had her 4 mths now) I am really confused as I have gotten samples of Natures Balance, Canidae, and Blue. Of course she enjoys them all....Can anyone recommend which one would be the best :confused: Plus she has changed her eating habits from eating 1/3 cup first thing in the morning, and then again 1/3 cup @ 6:00 pm. She now doesn't want to eat at all during the day/evening and instead waits till during the hrs of 12:00-3:00 am....I know she has been teething and may also be getting close to her first heat....She is 7mths old...Any shed of light would help alot.....

Had a couple of comments here...

First off, the whole conspiracy theory about vets and Hills and euthanized animals in food (?!) is just ridiculous. I do all the food orders for a veterinary hospital, and if I'm supposed to be getting kickbacks, they're waaaay behind in their payments. :rolleyes: I think the thing with vets recommending Hills or Iams or the other bleh foods out there is due solely to the fact that for 20 odd years, those brands have been on the market as quality foods-- and they ARE better than, say, Ol' Roy or a lot of the other crap that people feed their dogs. It isn't anything malicious or crazy; many vets have specialties other than nutrition, have been recommending those brands for a long time, and continue to do so. Our vet feeds Canidae to his dogs, and when people ask, we tell them that. But there are a lot of folks out there who have been using Hills or Iams for years and believe in those brands. It isn't some sort of evil conspiracy; it's just the line between older thinking in veterinary nutrition and newer ideas.

Anyhoo...

I feed my yorkie a cycle of foods. There's a lot of nutritionists who believe that keeping a dog continuously on one food will make them more susceptible to developing food allergies. I rotate what I feed; currently, we are on a cycle of Burn's Mini-Bites (a holistic chicken and rice food), Canidae PAWS (original formula, which has several protein sources), and California Natural's Lamb and Rice Puppy. I buy small four or five pounds bags, and switch her when the bag begins to run out, changing the food over gradually in the course of five days in order to avoid tummy upset. She always seems happy when we switch; it renews her interest in her food to keep new flavors rolling in.

I don't feed any of my animals Hills, Iams or Eukanuba. I believe that all of them are overpriced and generally are low-quality foods. I do have one pet that requires a veterinary diet due to serious food allergies; he is on IVD, which is the veterinary diet line of Royal Canin. Royal Canin has its drawbacks, but at least it doesn't use ethoxyquin (a potentially carcinogenic preservative that is in a shocking number of pet foods, including some Hills and Eukanuba formulas).

Read the label before you feed anything to your animals. If it contains a lot of corn, don't feed it. If it contains by-products, avoid it. If it contains ethoxyquin, stay well away from it. If it is full of chemicals whose names look unpronounceable and it seems suspicious, it probably IS suspicious. A good rule of thumb is to avoid foods that sound like something YOU would never want to eat, because odds are good that your dog shouldn't be eating it either!

Most vets say Science Diet as the company gives them the food to promote it... I'd never feed it.. Last bout of bad food with the melmine in all of their food and even before that I had dogs sold to other have bad reaction too it having all kinds of test run on them.. I told the owners to put on Royal canin Yorkshire and not treats unless all natural or just give treat from table like cheese or lean peices of chicken.The dogs straighten right out. I do feed natural balance meat rolls as treat as well but only the turkey. I wouldn't feed Science Diet to anything cat or dog.

You can always refer to this for more information:

The Right Stuff: Choosing a Good Pet Food
So how can pet owners choose the right food for their pets? CVM's pet food specialist William Burkholder, D.V.M., Ph.D., recommends examining three parts of the pet food label: the life stage claim, the contact information for the manufacturer, and the list of ingredients.

Pet owners should look for the word "feeding" in the life stage claim (found in the nutritional adequacy statement on the label). This means the food was proven nutritionally adequate in animal feed tests.

Another item to check on the label is the contact information. Pet owners should look for the manufacturer's telephone number. Only the manufacturer's name and address are required, but people should be able to call manufacturers to ask questions about their products, says Burkholder, and manufacturers should be responsive. "They will not tell you how much liver, for example, is in their product, because that's part of their proprietary formula. But they should tell you how much of any nutrient is in the product."

The ingredients list on the label is an area of consumer preference and subjectivity. Pet owners who do or do not want to feed a pet a certain ingredient can look at the list of ingredients to make sure that particular substance is included or excluded.

Some people prefer to pass up animal by-products, which are proteins that have not been heat processed (unrendered) and may contain heads, feet, viscera and other animal parts not particularly appetizing. But protein quality of by-products sometimes is better than that from muscle meat, says Burkholder.

"Meal" is another ingredient that some people like to avoid. In processing meat meal or poultry by-product meal, by-products are rendered (heat processed), which removes the fat and water from the product. Meat or poultry by-product meal contains parts of animals not normally eaten by people.

Some consumers try to avoid pet foods with synthetic preservatives, such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and ethoxyquin. Ethoxyquin, in particular, has been hotly debated. Current scientific data suggest that ethoxyquin is safe, but some pet owners avoid this additive because of a suspected link to liver damage and other health problems in dogs. CVM has asked pet food producers to voluntarily lower their maximum level of ethoxyquin in dog food while more studies are being conducted on this preservative, and the industry is cooperating.

Many products preserved with naturally occurring compounds, such as tocopherols (vitamin E) or vitamin C, are available. These products have a much shorter shelf life than those with synthetic preservatives, especially once a bag of food is opened.

Some animal nutritionists recommend switching among two or three different pet food products every few months. Burkholder says nutritional advice for people to eat a wide variety of foods also applies to pets. Doing so helps ensure that a deficiency doesn't develop for some as yet unknown nutrient required for good health. When changing pet foods, add the new food to the old gradually for a few days to avoid upsetting the pet's digestive system.

There is more at the link below:

http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2001/301_pet.html

Now, then, this is the label from just one of Hill' Pet Foods. I wouldn't feed it:

Ingredients:
Lamb Meal, Brewers Rice, Rice Flour, Ground Whole Grain Wheat, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Corn Gluten Meal, Cracked Pearled Barley, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Soybean Oil, Chicken Liver Flavor, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

Guaranteed Analysis %:
Protein (min) 19.5
Fat (min) 13
Fiber (max) 2.5
Calcium (min) 0.7
Phosphorus (min) 0.5

http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/p...ML9PXM2H67BWW7