Evaluating Dog Food

[texasgirl]

It's easy to look at the ingredients and see what foods are no good. When there isn't a single REAL meat in the entire ingredient list, that's gross. "Meat meal" is literally whats left after you strip the carcass of everything, it's just the ground up remains of gristle/bone/tendons. Yikes.
If you look at the chart at the bottom of the food list it breaks down quality/cost.
My 42lb dog eats 1c. of Merrick/day...my boyfriend feeds his 40lb dog nearly 3c. of feed store Sportmix/day. I pay more initially but he has to buy more food than me for the same size dog.

 

[Cara]

joann's cottage :

oh my .....this is what I have been feeding my babies for years....It cost so much in the stores too!!!! $21.00 a 40lb bag at walmart. Are we sure about this system??????

It actually works out more expensive to feed Pedigree than a better brand. If we fed it we'd go through 32 cups of food a day, that's 16lbs! Feeding a large breed dog 9 cups of anything is risky due to the risk of bloat, but especially something mostly made up of fillers that swell as soon as the dog has a drink.​

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

A great dog food is Taste of the Wild. All of the ingredients are great, and there is no filler.

Stay away from Beneful, and Purina Healthy Naturals, and the Goodlife Recipe. All of those dog food brands are junk, and loaded with fillers.

 

[Cara]

Quote:
Specific meat meal is actually perfectly fine for dogs:

Meat sources in "meal" form (as long as they are from a specified type of animal, such as chicken meal, lamb meal, salmon meal etc.) are not inferior to whole, fresh meats. 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. They have had most of the moisture removed, but meats in their original, "wet" form still contain up to 75% water. Once the food reaches its final moisture content of about 9-12%, the meat will have shrunk to sometimes as little as 1/4 of the original amount, while the already dehydrated meal form remains the same and you get more concentrated protein per pound of finished product. This means that in the worst case you are left with only 4 ounces of actual meat content per pound of fresh meat included in a dry kibble, many of which contain less than one pound of meat per 2-3 pounds of grain to begin with. Preferably a food contains quality meat meal as well as some fresh meat.

From The Dog Food Project

They are a natural source of glucosamine and chondroitin, chicken meal especially.

 

[texasreb]

If Ol' Roy, Pedigree or the like is all you can afford to feed your pet, then so be it. If the pet appears healthy, it probably is.

I obsess over pet food and probably feed stuff I can't really afford because of past issues I've had.

If you can squeeze a few more bucks out of your pet budget, then do your research and get a better food. If you can't, be happy with what you have and know that you are doing the best you can.

 

[Smoky73]

go to

www.dogfoodproject.com

Its a good website.

 

[southernhen]

So what kind do we buy....I have bought 120 pounds of dogfood this month alone..... I have golden retriever, lab, Alaskan malamute, and a teacup schnauzer and I am on social security disability ?????? I don't mind spending more upfront if it balances out for the month and the health of the dogs!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pupsnpullets]

Thanks for all the info, guys. I feed my dogs raw food, however, I have a friend who feeds kibble and she was sadly uninformed - up until a couple of minutes ago - just how bad her chosen brand of kibble actually was! I've just bought her a 40lb bag of Costco's Kirkland brand of lamb and rice kibble for $22.95. Not much more expensive than Pedigree, but a whole lot better quality.

 

[Linda in San Diego]

Thank you for the question and the answer, I had not seen this before. Now that I have, I forwarded the information to my DH and he in turn has posted it on an English Cocker Club board. It was so interesting. We are going to switch our grump to the Costco brand that was rated A+, currently they are on Iams which was rated C. They are showing less and less interest in the kibble so I think they are telling us something.

What we won't do for our feather or fur covered family!

 

[Linda in San Diego]

joann's cottage :

oh my .....this is what I have been feeding my babies for years....It cost so much in the stores too!!!! $21.00 a 40lb bag at walmart. Are we sure about this system??????

We found Kirkland brand today - 40lb for $22 and change. We will be switching over next month as our Iams runs out. I agree with the scoring system and am shamed that I had not investigated. Our first English Cocker came from a breeder and she was able to get some really nice freebies and perks from Iams to send home with each puppy. We assumed that it was the best thing out there, now I am not convinced. I will wait and see what the switch will do.

I do know that we noticed big differences in output (poop) when we changed food. The low cost foods produced LOTS of poorly formed output. The "better" foods left smaller and well formed output. I will watch output carefully with the switch.​