Oh my that is tiny, I hope she continues to do well!

After a few of you brought up iching and RC dog food I noticed Bolton doing this. Not chronically though. After talking to the vet this morning he said to only change his food if he is going to the bathroom more then normal and he thinks the scratching is possibly a seasonal allergy.

If your dog is allergic to an ingredient in your dog food there might be itching, but I think people often read about it and think "Oh no, my dog is itching, it must be the food!" It's much more likely it's an environmental or seasonal allergy. If the itching continues or becomes worse, I would try switching to a food without corn or chicken.

After reading your post on the 10lb bag, I inquired at a local store I sometimes buy ZoE's food from when I don't want to make a trip across town to Petsmart, if they could get the 10lb bag of RC YT28 for me. They are usually a few dollars more than petstores for the small bags but I pay it because it's so close & convenient. I had no idea what they'd charge for a 10lb bag.

They called today and left a message that it had come in with their new order of supplies and a bag would be reserved for me. They charged $29.99 plus tax for the 10lb bag. I was thrilled but tried not to let it show so they don't mark it up :D

I've already been thinking about getting another puppy, but with this I can now feed two for what it's been costing me to feed just one....it must be a sign I am supposed to get another pup!

Ha ha that's funny. It sure sounds like a sign!

Was just at my local pet store picking up some RC. Buyer was there at the time. She says RC is moving to take the numbers off of the bags. They have already done it in some of the puppy products. She says the #s are the protein content, and that when she talked to the RC representative about it, they claim consumers are complaining the #s are too confusing.

Only feed Royal Canin to Keno, started with Royal Canin years ago for my Bichon Frise who had stomach issues. Fed her the Special and all her problems went away. As little as these dogs eat, Royal Canin is not that over priced.

Do you know which foods don't have corn or chicken?

You have to look on the package, for example, Royal Canin, has both chicken and corn in some of their formulas. Other formulas, don’t though, so it depends which you buy. Wellness makes a food called Simple Solution that has only 5 ingredients: Duck, Canola Oil, Tomato Pomace, Vitamin/Minerals and Ground Rice) and this could be beneficial for testing for an allergy. Wellness Simple Food Solutions® Rice & Duck Formula. I believe paw itching is the itching associated with food allergy.

I had good luck with the RC Rabbit and Potato. However it is RX. This started me in the right direction. We did end up switching recently to a hydrolyzed diet but her stomach and allergies started acting up. I was very happy with it when she was on it.

Bella was started on RC - I am afraid to try anything else - I would not even know what to try!

Kaos was on RC28 for a few months and did VERY well on it. I changed him to Artemis for a month, and he didn't do that well at all. (even though its higher rated) His eyes watered, he had bad breathe and his tummy was upset. I changed him back to his RC last week, and he's doing wonderfully. I guess we will be sticking to RC from now on.

I don't really like Artemis either personally. I don't think it's very fair to completely judge "higher rated" foods by just trying one. With that said, I also don't think it's fair to judge "lower rated" foods by just trying one either. And those ratings sites are a great tool however there are some 5 and 6 star foods that I would NEVER feed due to where the food is produced, the company behind them, recalls, customer service, etc. The ratings don't take into mind manufacturing processes. To me, it seems crazy that Nutro for example is in the 3 star category along with Natural Balance, Royal Canin, and Wellness Simple Solutions, when those last three are a world of difference better than Nutro in regards to quality control and company ethics.

Great post and this is something far to people mention. Quality control is an extreemly important factor.

Oh I didn't mean to judge the quality of the brands based on trying one higher rated food. I just meant since I found one that works for him already, I rather not change it up again. It may not be the BEST rated but I think Kaos does wonderfully on it. :) You made great points though. :thumbup:

In regard to Nutro and Royal Canin, they are owned by the same company, Mars Petcare.

Has their quality control been any better since 2007 or has it gotten worse? So many companies are owned by huge corporations, and it may be more important who's running the individual companies because they may not all have the same quality control. That said, I know nothing of Nutro, but I really like what I know about RC's quality control.

I have zero ability to answer that question as I have absolutely no knowledge of how each division functions now as compared to 2007. If you like the QC for Royal Canin, that's fine. Who knows...maybe Nutro's QC has improved as well. That kind of question would be best answered by Nutro and then researched.

That's right! I guess I always forget that.

I wonder if it's something along the lines of Diamond. For example, the chicken going into Natural Balance is not the same chicken going into Diamond Naturals. It's made at a Diamond plant but is not an actual Diamond food.

It seems it's rare to find foods that actually use their own facilities to produce their foods - Fromm, Champion, and Lotus come to mind.

It seems almost like all canned foods are made at Menu Foods.

Winston also eats RC, he seems to do well on it and it's something he will consistently eat. Which is a big factor for him.

Have you seen this video Nancy?

It is very interesting and shows the lengths they go for Quality Control.

No I hadn't seen it but I learned that I'm pronouncing it Canan wrong! I have a friend (who has a friend :p) who toured the plants and just raved about it, I would love to see one for myself. Also, I've heard the French are very into their dogs and take them everywhere so a French dog food appealed to me!

Meesha LOVES this stuff, i have her on the yorkie puppy, it costs me 27$ with tax for a 2.5lb bag though :S, which i think is crazy. I use to work in a pet store in my teens( it was a small family owned, don't sell dogs/cats, against the huge corporation puppy mill pet stores kind of place, would sell locally made products, hand made outfits, hand made cat scratchers etc, i think it may be out of business now though, which is unfortunate, the world needs more pet stores like that and not the puppy mill huge corporation ones, anyways besides the point lol) but people who had yorkies always use to come in and rave about how good this pet food was, i thought they were nuts paying that much. Now i have meesha and couldnt find anything she really liked, even tryed her on vet food, she wouldn't touch it, so i tryed her on this and she went nuts about it, i'm noticing her itching less, poops don't smell as much, watery eyes are clering up, looks healthyer and she has alot more energy. It's also made by royal canin, the same company of stuff the vet sells calls medical.anyways thats my experience so far with it, so i guess i'll have to keep paying the 27$ for small 2.5lb bag:/ lol, she's worth it though.

Royal Canin isn't the worst food you could buy but it's not the best, and it's true it's HORRIBLY overpriced. Look at the first three ingredients on the back... shoot even the first 10. total crap. First ingredients should always be types of meat... chicken, beef, pork, fish.

I'd go for Orijen, Acana, Taste of the Wild or a raw diet. Try to go for low grain or grain free foods.

The bottom line for me is that Royal Canin is the only food that Keno likes. I tried switching him to Blue Buffalo and he refused to eat it. Then I found out that Blue is made by Diamond so back I went to Royal Canin.

Your information is incorrect although it's very commonly reported. RC does have a meat as the first ingredient. Chicken meal is meat with the water removed. So it's pure meat. Some companies who use chicken without the water removed could use much less chicken and still get away with it being the first ingredient. Read this for more information on what chicken meal is:

Dehydrated chicken is "meat with the water removed". Dehydrated chicken is "pure meat".

Chicken meal is not dehydrated chicken.

The source I quoted defines “chicken meal”, and I believe it’s a good source because she has studied nutrition. Do you have a source that defines chicken meal? I'm not interested in the definition of dehydrated chicken, that's not one of the contents of RC.

From: Pet Food Labels - General

'For example, "meat" is defined as the "clean flesh of slaughtered mammals and is limited to...the striate muscle...with or without the accompanying and overlying fat and the portions of the skin, sinew, nerve and blood vessels which normally accompany the flesh." On the other hand, "meat meal" is "the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of any added blood, hair, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents." Thus, in addition to the processing, it could also contain parts of animals one would not think of as "meat." Meat meal may not be very pleasing to think about eating yourself, even though it can contain more minerals than meat. However, animals do not share in people's aesthetic concerns about the source and composition of their food. Regardless, the distinction must be made in the ingredient list (and in the product name). For this reason, a product containing "lamb meal" cannot be named a "Lamb Dinner."'

Did you read my definition? It's basically the same, although she suggests we avoid products with the term meat and look for specific type of animal. Meals consist of meat and skin, with or without the bones, but exclusive of feathers/hair, heads, feet, horns, entrails etc. and have the proper calcium/phosphorus ratio required for a balanced diet. I seriously don't see anything wrong with that and you do get more actual animal protein than you would with a meat that didn't have the water removed.