Evangers V Canidae? Advice please.
 

Here is my situation. My 5 month old Mango (3 lb) is the pickiest eater you can imagine. I really, really tried to keep her on the Canidae ALS dry kibble because I see on these forums that so many of you recommend it. However, after weeks of trying all 3 flavors, she still had to be coaxed with a huge variety of add-ons - like wet food, liver crumbled, baby food coating.... you name it, I tried it. Even then, she just picked at it, never really finishing a meal.

A few days ago I got a sample of the Evanger's Pheasant & Brown Rice Dry (also All Life Stages, like Canidae). Mango nibbled at it, which means she liked it. At the same feed store, it was recommended to me to sprinkle a touch of grated Natural Balance Turkey roll onto the kibble. VOILA!!! for the first time in 3 months, Mango gobbles up her food. This is a huge relief for me, because every single meal has been a struggle of coaxing her to eat. (By the way, I did try the same sprinkle on the Canidae, but she would not touch it.) I also like the fact that the Evanger's kibble is smaller than the Canidae.
So, my question is this - Is the Evanger's as healthy and as good for the coat, stomach, pooping, etc as the Canidae. At the site dogfoodanalysis.com, it is given a 5 Star premium rating, same as the Canidae. Also, is the sprinkle of the Natural Balance Turkey roll detrimental in any way?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated....:)

I just wanted to add that her morning meal I am feeding her the Canidae Canned ALS, so at least she does benefit from its nutrients once a day.

I don't know anything about Evangers, but I do know about Canidae. It is a GREAT food -- I have seven yorkies and an elderly boxer who are all on the Canidae Alll Life Stages. The Yorkies range in age from 6 months to 4 years and Boo the Boxer is 11. All the dogs are extremely healthy, active, have great poops (if you could ever describe poops as great), and beautiful healthy shiny coats.

If it were me (of course I am prejudiced) I would coax her into eating the Canidae. I would boil a chicken breast, grind it up and add a teaspoon or so to the dry food.

Good luck!

I have tried everything to get her to eat the Canidae kibble, including adding the chicken, but that will only work for one or two meals at most, and even then, I have to coax her to eat it.I even tried making the kibble smaller, by putting them for a very short time in a processor, but still no go.:( I love the Canidae, that is why I am relenting and giving her the canned formula at least once a day; it's better than none at all.

Evangers is an excellent food. I feed the wet to Baby. Check out the ratings here: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

Evangers is a recommended food out of Whole Dog Journal and it appears the site you go to also highly recommends it. The most important thing with these little ones is that they eat. I have also struggled with trying to find a quality dog food that the gang (10 Yorkies) would eat and Evangers is the first one that everyone likes it. They love the wet and they will eat the dry on its own...This is the first time ever I have had this happen. I am a big believer of quality food and $$$ is not an issue if the food is good and I can tell you I have tried just about every top private brand there is including Canidea, Flint River, California Natural, Raw, Merricks, Solid Gold..the list could go on and on.

Evangers has a ground up chicken in a can that they go insane over and they also like the Pheasant dry food. My gang at night all gets a tablespoon of wet in their dry food.

Good luck!

IYep, I am happy to see that it gets as high a rating as the Canidae. Thanks!:)

That has been my situation exactly!!! I have tried every premium kibble out there, coated them with all sorts of things to tempt her; I was just sooooo stressed out every day trying to get her to eat. The Evangers Pheasant and Brown Rice is the very FIRST kibble she has deigned to eat. I tried it because there were sample bags available at my local feed store.

What other flavor do your kids like? I am just so relieved by her eating and by what you have said in your post...:D:D:D Thank you!

Baby is a finiky dry food eater too. But she will eat Artemis Small Breed. She actually didn't like the Evangers dry...go figure. :animal36

Through another thread on here, I learned you can request "a sample" from Evanger's. So I did - they sent a huge box with a case of canned food and a couple of bags of the pheasant kibbles. My dogs go crazy for it! I've been giving them a "treat" about once a week so that they don't snub their nose at what they already have in their bowls but if this silly recall crap doesn't stop soon, we may be mail ordering all our food from Evanger's!

That's a great idea!! I'll email them and request samples. It's so good to here that other Yorkies love their flavor. I was seriously starting to worry about Mango because I was running out of options and choices of the premium dog foods.

Mine get Evanger's wet mixed in with their Canidae. Evangers is also a very high quality food. If your furbaby will eat the Evangers dry, I would stick with that.