Fromm, primal freeze dried...which food does your baby do well on?
 

Hi all, i've had my baby on taste of the wild puppy formula for a while now and I use primal duck freeze-dried raw as a topper but I'm going to switch because her one year birthday will be next month. At first I debated switching to just primal raw but I have concerns about that like would she be getting all of her nutrition from 2 nuggets a day and also i've read some dogs just don't do well on raw. I've done a lot of research and I'm leaning on switching her to one of the Fromm formulas but having a hard time deciding which one. I was leaning on a grain free, surf and turf or maybe the beef frittata. But I've read that some people have had issues with gas and I buggers with the surf and turf. Please let me know what your experiences have been with either or both. Thanks!

I can't remember which ones I tried I think it had beef in it but it made my older girl break out and I heard that from someone else too but that doesn't mean its will happen to yours. I personally am not a fan of raw I have learned about it from the vet side. The three things I look for when I am picking a food is if they have vet nutritionists on staff, good quality control and if they do feeding trials, those three things are even more important then the ingredients of the food.

I fed my yorkie Fromms Whitefish and Potato for many years and had no problem. Also sign up for their e-mail they send coupons every so often. I also gave her the cranberry treats. You can call them directly to get a coupon to try their food. I think it is a good food and they had I think one recall. Susan

I like Primal premade raw. I like the company. It's all about what you are comfortable with and what you feel your dog does best on. My vet approves of Stella & Chewy's and Primal as well but some vets do not like raw. There's definite pros and cons. You could always keep feeding some of the freeze dried stuff as toppers.

Kibbles I like after years of experimenting lol: Acana or Orijen, Farmina, Annamaet, Wellness, Fromm (although I do the company, I have heard complaints of big poops and itchiness yada yada from them). Also, Royal Canin has some formulas that IMO are just "meh" but they put a ton of research into their foods and there are a few formulas that I know dogs do super well on. And honestly, Purina Pro Plan and Beyond have produced some good results from reviews I've heard and experienced.

It's basically going to be what you are looking for, what you feel comfortable with and most importantly: listen to your dog and feed what THEY do best on. Don't get hung up on ingredients if your dog has horrible poop, or vomiting or stomach issues. Feed what works for your dog.

Thank you for all the responses! It really does feel like such a crapshoot, raw vs not raw kibble versus no kibble and then of course the various varieties within kibble. Such trial and error!!

You can also look into Home cooking which is the best way to feed in my opinion. You have to use a recipe from a vet nutritionist and supplement but you can find those at balanceit.com. You might want to check into it.

The best thing to do is to feed a nutritionally balanced food that your dog likes and does well on. According to their website, Fromm foods are designed to meet AAFCO guidelines, which means they meet the minimum requirements for nutritionally balanced foods for healthy dogs. I think that some of their recipes are given names that are meant to be appealing to the appetites of the dog's human owners, which is not a relevant consideration at all (and personally turns me off), so I would ignore that and try to keep it simple. Fromm seems to have a huge diversity of food, so there's a lot to choose from, but I'd stick to simple, traditional ingredients (protein and carbohydrate sources) that other dogs have done well on in the past.

A couple of things that make me a little uneasy about Fromm is that the ingredients for their dog foods listed on their website (www.frommfamily.com) are incomplete. They list "vitamins and minerals," but don't state specifically which ones they add to their food, and a lot is left off when you click on their "typical analysis" link. (See https://frommfamily.com/products/dog...eed-adult-gold for an example.) If you check the ingredient lists on many other brands of dog foods, they list each and every vitamin and mineral that is added. I trust Fromm to follow AAFCO guidelines because they state that they do on their website, but when you look at the fine print, it becomes a matter of faith.

The second thing that makes me uneasy is what they write on their FAQ page in response to the question: "I heard Fromm is good for pets with allergies– why?" Their answer is basically that their foods are made from so many different ingredients that if your dog is actually allergic to a specific ingredient and their dog food contains that ingredient, it is diluted out by the other ingredients and doesn't matter. Here's the quote (from the web page https://frommfamily.com/about/questi...for-allergies/ ):

So it's a kind of bait and switch. The question is about food allergies, but their reply is about dietary intolerance, and they say it doesn't matter. I'm not an expert in food allergies vs. dietary intolerances, but that answer makes me uneasy.

But if you have a healthy dog with no food allergies or intolerances, it's probably a good food :D.

Wow, yeah, don't like that answer, lol. Fromm is NOT a food I'd feed to an allergy prone or sensitive dog. Soooo many ingredients.

Follow-up on food allergy vs. intolerance.
 

Okay, I just looked up food allergy vs. food intolerance (in humans) and found the following article from the Mayo clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-...y/faq-20058538

So a food allergy is an extreme reaction that can result in anaphylactic shock. A food intolerance is much milder (examples include lactose intolerance and celiac disease) and results in milder responses, such as diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, etc (which are still bad, in my opinion). Mayo clinic states that if you have a food intolerance, you *may* be able to eat small amounts of the offending food without trouble.

Still, it's a little dodgy for Fromm to answer a question about food allergy with a response about food intolerance. Their response to the question does hedge a little bit when they say "We have many customers who believe that their pet has an allergy to a certain ingredient, but they are surprised to find that their pet does quite well after switching to Fromm, even if the recipe they feed their pet contains the suspected allergen."

So Fromm's response is that basically some people think their dogs are allergic to a specific ingredient, but they don't know what they're talking about--it's most likely a food intolerance. That may be true, but if a vet tells me that my dog has a food allergy, and it really is a food allergy, then Fromm's response is dangerous. They need to rework that web page, because it's bad advice. Also, Fromm's reply to that question is that even if your dog has a food intolerance and not a true food allergy, try our food anyway because it probably doesn't have enough of the offending ingredient to make your dog sick. Sorry, I'm not buying it. If my dog has food intolerance to chicken, and the food contains chicken, even if it's further down on the list of ingredients, I'm not going to get that food. There are plenty of other dog food brands out there that don't contain chicken.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: Yup, that's what I'm trying to say.

Primal is one of my absolute faves, paws down! Fed it for years and years. And still would...bc I'm still feeding raw now. I just happened to discover SoJos, so now I'm just adding my own meat, and doing it that way for now.

Were you using one of the Primal freeze dried products? I checked out their website (ingredients, nutrient profiles, calcium/phosphorus ratio, etc.) and was pleasantly surprised. It's pricey, but I think they put out a good product. I'm not a fan of raw food at all, but Primal does a good job of providing a reasonably balanced food using natural ingredients.

I've been feeding Primal (freeze dried and raw) for a year now. I've tried other raw brands but mine love Primal the most.

Yes - freeze dried was actually how the nutritionist had us first start out on "raw" - we just crumbled it up dry at first. And the freeze dried is also awesome for travel! Very responsive company to questions too, which I like :).

Okay. Their freeze dried formulas, their raw frozen formulas, and their raw pronto formulas are designed to provide complete nutrition according to AAFCO guidelines: https://primalpetfoods.com/pages/can...se-your-primal

I'm still trying to figure out how they expect people to know how to balance their other products like raw frozen mixes and raw frozen grinds to provide complete nutrition. Maybe I will send them an email to ask them, because it's not clear from their website.

Kudos to Primal for testing their raw foods for bacterial content and providing food that is safe from a bacterial standpoint.