How do these ingredients sound?
 

I own a yorkie (mix) and a papillon. For the first year or so of their lives I have fed them purina puppy chow and have found that my papillon's coat lacks fullness & shine, and it sheds a lot (not normal for a papillon). It can take up to two years for a papillon's coat to fill out completely, but I can tell that hers is still not healthy, it is thin and rough. It is my understanding that the two most important factors in the appearance of a dog's coat are genetics and diet. Since there is nothing I can do on the genetics side, I decided it was time to switch them to a high quality diet. The only issue is that I am not great at knowing which ingredients are good and which are bad.

I went to my pet food store and explained that I wanted something that would help my dog's coats. They suggested "Profile" Salmon & Rice. It is a Canadian company, and from what I can tell is not all that well known.

I need some help from those who are good at analyzing ingredients, here is the list:

salmon meal, ground wheat, wheat middlings, oats, poultry fat, beet pulp, liver digest, salt, dried egg, rice bran, fish meal, yeast, flax seed, fish oil, rosemary oil, garlic aniseed, cinnamon, thyme, juniper, milk thistle, calcium carbonate, ferrous sulphate, vitamin e, zinc oxide, sodium selenite on wheat midds, copper sulphate, vitamin a, mineral oil, niacin, mangtanous oxide, calcium panothenate, riboflavin....and more

I'm not sure what wheat middlings and liver digest are? Beet pulp is considered a filler, and the fish meal is too generic - it should specify what type of fish they're using in the food.

I tried to google Profile dog foods and didn't come up with much. I've certainly seen much worse ingredients in other foods, but I'd like to know more about the company itself and it's history.

There are two excellent Canadian manufacturers of dog foods: Champion Pet Foods (maker of Orijen and Acana lines) and Petcurean. I recommend you look into these brands and see if anything might work for you. I'm currently feeding Acana and I can't say enough good things about it.

Good luck!

Personally, I wouldn't feed it! ;) Maybe that's just me. I highly prefer high-ish protein, grain-free diets. That food is VERY grain heavy with almost no meat content! I think you will see a world of a difference switching from Purina to high protein when it comes to coat, skin, energy, teeth, poop, everything. If you don't wanna go the grain free route, there's many good foods with grains as well.

Check out Dog Food Reviews | Dog Food Ratings for GREAT info about food. Also, http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com to see foods from 1-6 stars.

My current fave food company is Champion Pet Foods and they make Orijen and Acana, both great foods! Acana is a little less in protein (around 33%) but a really good food! Alot of dogs thrive on this. Believe me, I've dealt with trying to find the perfect food for Jackson and I think with Orijen and Acana, I've finally found it. A few other foods I really like: Go! and Now! Nautrals, Fromm, Nature's Variety. You'll notice in all those foods how the either first 2-6 ingredients are all meat.

EDIT: saw you just posted:
Totally agree!!! I'm sooo glad I found Champion Foods. I also just bought a sample of Orijen Regional Red at our local store and Jackson loved it just as much, if not more, than Acana Grasslands (his fave flavor). I really wanted to add Go! into our rotation but it was sooo much more expensive for some reason? I paid $8 for a little 1lb bag of the Go Endurance :( It was only $3.25 for a .88lb of Orijen Regional Red.

Thanks so much. I already bought the food so I will work my way through it. I assume it is much better than the purina anyways. Its not a large bag so I have a couple of weeks to read dog food reviews and find a specific brand.

Definitely! :)

I have 3 small dogs that are currently on Wellness small breed...and in just 1.5 weeks My yorkies coat is shinny and soft... i LOVE this food....very heathly..it has a 5 star rating. Great protien, veggies and fruit

What does the Wellness small breed cost? I'm DONE with supermarket brands and am willing to pay the extra but still want the best quality for price. Does anyone know if there is chart that compares the cost of premium dog foods (4 to 6 stars)?

I think it depends on the area and store too. One store around here sells them for more, while the other does not. Not sure why this happens. I pay $14 for a 5.5lb of Acana Grasslands. I think the Orijen Regional Red is $15 or maybe $15.99. I can't remember. Yet Wellness Core would've costed me almost $18 for a 4lb bag of food (that's their grainfree line). I think Wellness is a great food. Also remember, with feeding a higher quality food, you're feeding less. So essentially you may actually be paying equal or less amount of money. Jackson eats 1/2 cup total in a day of Acana Grasslands and he's 16lbs. If he was eating Purina, he would probably need over 1 cup a day.