Need help with food options
 

I've been feeding my dogs Wellness Simple Solutions Duck and Rice.. they both liked it but it was very hard to find in stock in my city.. one store sold it but never had any in stock but would order it for me when I was getting low. Now they have stopped selling it because it didn't sell enough and I'm stuck. I have maybe 2 weeks of it left so I need to find something else soon. I have one dog prone to UTI's, and one with just a general bad tummy. I don't want to do precription diet for Mya (one with UTI issues) unless necessary, and she's done well since switching her to Wellness.. I've taken all wheat, corn, and meat by-products out of her diet.

I'm considering doing raw, I know a store here that sells it. Is raw a good choice for dogs with bladder/urinary issues? Is it more expensive? Wellness was $20 a bag and they'd go through 2 bags in 5 weeks or so.

I've also looked at Blue Buffalo and Natural Choice but I really don't know what to do. They list ingredients like chicken-meal which I thought was a by-product but could be wrong...? It's so confusing knowing what to feed them.. I just am at a loss and the pet stores aren't exactly helpful. Any info would be so very appreciated...

It's really a matter of what you are comfortable with. Does the vet have any opinions on it because of the UTI history?

Raw is just one of those things. If that is your feeding philosophy and you understand all the pros AND cons, then go for it. I'd never feed it to my dogs.

I'd skip the Natural Choice for sure. Nutro is blamed for causing some very serious symptoms in a lot of dogs.

Chicken meal is just chicken without the water. Just "chicken" is about 70% water. Chicken meal has the water removed. So it is more nutrient dense.

It's hard to assess the quality of meat in a dog food. It's also difficult to make sure that a company isn't using by-products even if they say they don't (but then by-products definitely aren't all bad). I'd recommend reading the latest in the health and diet section about Champion, Blue Buffalo, Royal Canin, and Quality Control (they are titled similar to that anyway - there are four different ones). There is also a good one titled Ellie May (or Ellie Mae).

There just is no easy answer. I personally would feed none that you listed, but we each have our own views on dog food. Don't underestimate your vet's thoughts on the whole thing. My vet doesn't know a ton about nutrition, but for whatever reason she isn't so bad at picking foods (probably because she sees thousands of animals a year and she knows what has worked and hasn't worked for them).