Decent dog food?

[Brindlebtch]

I agree with blacksheepcardigans on the brands of dry dog food

 

[WoodlandWoman]

We feed Taste of the Wild at the moment.

Another web site with information is http://www.dogaware.com/

Here's the diet page. http://www.dogaware.com/diet/index.html

On the dry dog food page, you can click on the name of the dog food company in the left hand column and it will take you to that web site, where you can get more detailed information on ingredients, percentages and calories per cup.

http://www.dogaware.com/diet/dryfood.html

 

[Candiss]

If you plan on feeding raw, you need to get informed. Alot of people think you just give them meat but it is alittle more complex than that. I buy green tripe, I started because I was told it would help darken pigment my Champion female, you can order it from http://www.greentripe.com/. The dogs love it. Another good place is: http://www.wholesomehound.com/ they are located in Alabama. Best of luck.

edited to fix Champion b#tch (in reference to female dog) to female. Sorry.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

I'm another that switched to grain-free kibble after reading all the reviews and having two of my three dogs be itchy and all three dogs throwing up or having diarreah once a week on what I thought was premium Nutro or Max food from Petsmart.

Since switching the dogs and cats to Taste of the Wild, no more itchy dry skin, vomiting or diarreah.

I pay $40.00 for 35# for the Prairie dog food and $28 for the cat food - 20# maybe.

 

[IcarusSomnio]

I talked with my dad...and I MIGHT be able to do an all-natural, raw/homecooked diet. Last night (round 1AM or so) as I was posting this I was thinking "I can't possibly feed them a raw diet! All I have are rabbits! They can't eat just rabbits!" XD But, I'm hoping to go deer hunting this year, so if I can bag one or two I could put one carcass, or even half a carcass, aside for the dogs. Plus beef calves (300-500lbs) are lubriciously cheap right now, bulls around 25c a pound and steers around 30-50c a pound. Heifers are more, of course. But there a lotta meat for a dog on one fat little beef bull.

I've already put in word with every hunter I could possibly find that I'm looking for Heads, Livers, and Hides. I can add stomachs-the tripe- to the list too

Hazel weighs in at 90-95lbs and we do hard jumping/running/etc. work at least an hour per day. Plus all the playing/frolicking she does on her own. Duke I'd guess weighs around 70-80lbs but he's a couch potato. Light/little to no work for him.


I'll still check my feed shop today to see if they have something thats better for now. I kinda doubt it, they mainly carry Purina products but it's worth a look.
Ugh. Duke's licking at his paws too now. Poor pups

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I forgot to mention that DogAware also has a lot of information on raw diets, raw suppliers, home cooked diets and supplements to different diets. It also has some health and disease information, including some information on special needs diets.

 

[4 the Birds]

General Rule: Higher priced kibble more often than not equals higher meat content and better quality. You can get 10 lbs of chicken quarters at Walmart (the Super store version) for around $5. I often get 50 lbs of meat per week which keeps many dogs happy.

That's 50 cents/lb. We run a dog rescue and have 4 dogs of our own. All dogs get at least some RAW meat every other day. We also feed the Salmon Wilderness version of Blue Buffalo (no preservatives, no coloring, no grain) and often mix other donated kibble. Our dogs get the highest quality food and probiotics. Hope this helps! John

 

[Intheswamp]

Taste of the Wild - Bison

Here's a small thread regarding starting my dog Buddy on it and other users comments....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=335231

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[halo]

I feed Taste of the Wild, and 2 or 3 days a week they get raw chicken quarters. TOTW is really popular; I dont see why you couldnt find it near you. Here's a locater page:

http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/dealer_locator/

 

[cafarmgirl]

We've been feeding our Rottweiler's Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul brand for years and I'm very happy with it. It's a good, reasonably priced kibble that's not full or corn or other junk and that won't break your wallet when your feeding big dogs.

And you really do have to watch labels. A higher price tag does not mean higher quality. Some of the higher priced brands are not much better then the cheapest. If a meat is listed first but it's not a meat "meal" or dried product, then you have to consider that after extracting the water content to make the kibble that meat would really be much farther down the list of ingredients. So if corn meal is second after a whole meat thats what your feeding most of.

As somebody else mentioned, www.dogfoodanalysis.com is an excellent website to gain info. about what gets put into dog food and how to decipher lables.