Merrick Foods
 

I know you all are tired of the food questions..:p But again, I have another question..haha...I thought I was pretty satisified with Orijen Regional Red for Roxie, and I am , except I am concerned about the high protein, etc. My question is this, has anyone had any luck feeding Merrick foods? I am specifically looking at Grammys pot pie, I have not decided or canned or dry food either. So any help is greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.:animal-pa

Try Acana it's made by the same company as Orijen and it has less protein, so you're getting the same quality of food with a little less protein. That sounds like a win-win situation for you.

I like Merrick's Before Grain line. It's grain-free, around 32% protein, and comes in 3 different flavors (chicken, buffalo and... turkey (maybe?))

I think I answered your other thread too :tongue: but I still feed Jackson the BG canned food mixed in with his Acana dry food often.

Maybe I'm biased, because I prefer to feed the grain-free foods, but in general I do think Merrick is a good brand :thumbup: the good thing about their foods too is that you can put a little water in their kibbles, and they get sort of 'gravy'-like to make it seem more appealing to the doggies.

However, I hope to stick with Acana for a looongg time. This is the best food we've found by far!

We had luck with Merrick for awhile, but then they became picky! Very few foods we haven't tried, lol!
We have always mixed wet in with kibble, ours wouldn't eat any kibble without it!

I began feeding Merrick before grain about a year ago to a couple of mine, due to allergy issues. So far so good.

Ok, sounds good. Thanks for all replies.

I feed mine Merrick. I really like the company alot. We started off with Puppy Plate then Grammy's Pot Pie, Turducken, and now they eat Wilderness Blend. I like to get them a different flavor after they finish a bag. So far so good, no problems and they like it. I also sometimes make the gravy for them or add a little of Merrick's canned food.

P.S. My furbabies also love Merrick treats.

I feed my chloe Merricks Whole Earth Formula, its good and economical !

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I think I am over analyzing these foods..lol..I didnt realize picking one good food was so difficult..lol..

Anyone feeding Acana may want to check out this website, it has some really great information. I have been feeding Origen to my both of my 100 lb dogs and love it. so when I got my YT pups (1 is 11 mths and 1 is 5 mths) I just naturally put them on Origen puppy. Then I found some info on high protein diets for these little ones being potentially harmful. So I started to research cause that's what I do at 2 in the morning. Turns out that Acana is not a lower protein Origen. It uses Beet pulp which can be very allergic and is preserved with citric acid, which, if you add any water to soften the food or make a "gravy", this can cause a bloat risk factor. More serious for the big dogs, but why take chances. Heres the web site , it's awesome.
dogfoodanalylsis.com

Here are the ingredients for Acana Grasslands grain-free formula, directly from www.dogfoodanalysis.com. There is no beet pulp included and it's preserved with vitamin E, not citric acid. The same is also true for the other 2 Acana grain-free formulas. I also checked Champion Pet Foods website and neither ingredient is listed there, either.

Ingredients:
Lamb meal, sweet potato, raw de-boned lamb, peas, fresh whole eggs, sun-cured
alfalfa, sunflower oil, fresh de-boned walleye, pumpkin, fresh de-boned northern pike,
apples, carrots, turnip greens, organic sea vegetables (kelp, bladderwrack, dulse),
juniper berries, cranberries, Saskatoon berries, black currants, angelica root, chicory
root, red clover, red raspberry leaf, dandelion root, peppermint leaf, marigold flowers,
chamomile flowers, rosemary extract, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Enterococcus
faecium.
Vitamins (vit. A, vit. D3, vit. E, niacin, riboflavin, lysine, thiamine mononitrate, vit. B12,
pyridoxine, folic acid, biotin). Minerals (iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, manganese
proteinate, cobalt proteinate, copper proteinate).

ETA: The ingredients listed on www.dogfoodanalysis.com are out of date. I was unable to copy the actual ingredient listing from Champion Pet Foods, but the first four ingredients are Boneless Lamb, Lamb Meal, Salmon Meal and Herring Meal.

Hey :) I think you are looking at the other versions of Acana, that are *not* grainfree. I don't know if they even sell those versions in the US?

But here are the 3 grain-free, and bonbon is right, the ingredients are a bit off on dogfoodanalysis.com
Dog Food Reviews - Acana Prairie Harvest - Powered by ReviewPost
Dog Food Reviews - Acana Grasslands - Powered by ReviewPost
Dog Food Reviews - Acana Pacifica - Powered by ReviewPost

I hadn't heard that before, I will look into this though. Thanks for the info!

Hadn't heard about the animal testing, but agree about the company in general. It just isn't as nice as the picture they are painting (which most companies do). They have also had more recalls than I'd like to see. Personally just don't like these foods at all...