Name Brand dog foods

[MrsBachbach]

Switched my 4 from Beneful to grain-free Taste of the Wild High Prairie (your opinions?) and some stinky skin issues have cleared up and my little chubster has lost weight. It's more expensive, but they don't need to eat as much of the grain-free food. I find TOTW itself to be less odiferous than the Beneful kibble. Beneful attracted me with its pretty bag (derp), but it's loaded with corn and I'd been hearing some pretty shady things about Purina's quality, safety, and way of doing business.

TOTW is some good stuff. Diamond Naturals is pretty good too and less expensive.

 

[enola]

My dogs and all their itchies are doing great with 4-Health. Also found at TSC.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Stay away from namebrand dog foods. LOADED with GMO by-products and who knows what.

My dog, who has a HIGH level of engery, gets fed primarily raw meat, and some grain-free natural dog food.


I once switched his food because of cost, to Wellness. My neighbor feeds that to her dogs, so I thought why not?
I'll NEVER feed that to my boy again. Within a week of him eating it, he developed a fleshy growth on his paw between his toes. I didn't even think to take him off the food, and it just kept growing, until we ran out of Wellness and I put him back on Natures Variety Instinct. Growth shrunk and was gone. He doesn't even have a scar from where it was.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Science Diet. *spit* I lost a few of my kitties to this stuff too before I wised up. They still use chemical preservatives in the stuff and for the price they charge that's outrageous.

I'm having real problems with one of my cats. He's allergic to everything it seems. He has always had a good quality dry food, but it doesn't seem to matter. I've always tried to feed him canned too just for the same reasons you mentioned, but I can't find anything that doesn't make him scratch like crazy. The cheap stuff has meat by products so you don't know what is in it and the expensive stuff has so many ingredients in it, you can't narrow it down what is causing the problem. I'm convinced it's more than one ingredient with him and I think chicken is one of the culprits. Try finding something without fish, chicken, eggs, rice or potatoes or a whole host of other ingredients. I'm down to feeding him duck and green pea, but I'm not sure yet if this is doing any good. He is still scratching. I have other cats in the household and two small dogs, so this is a real feeding problem. Poor Tomtom spends alot of time in the basement when I'm trying to feed the others. Then uneaten food has to be put up out of his reach so he can come out of solitary. I'm going to try this a few more weeks and if it does no good, I'm just going for the shots I guess. This food is about $3 a pound and is really too expensive for me as it is. I've seen the prescribed diets run as high as $50 for 8 lbs, with chemical preservatives and chicken as the protein source! No way can I afford that and I would hate the thought of having to put another male cat on SD again.

 

[MrsBachbach]

I definitely agree that changing food options can do wonders for many hyper/allergic/itchy dogs. However, I've also seen dogs do just fine on the "evil" brands of food as well. It's a very individual thing.

In defense of the vet against holistic treatments, I can certainly understand his/her view. So many times we see animals in the vet field in absolutely terrible shape because people decided to try "holistic" methods first. I'm not totally against holistic medicine, but there also needs to be room for common sense. Too many people let their animals suffer through cancer or injuries trying a holistic method, when what they really need it medical attention and surgery. So often times we are left to deal with a case that could have been a simple case and now may not be able to be fixed. It's very frustrating, and very sad. That's why there are so many vets out there against many holistic treatments because when it comes down to it, many of them are Not a substitute for veterinary care and medicine.

There's also the issue that much of holistic medicine is not regulated at all, and we often see patients poisoned by their treatments. Not to say some things don't work, but it is sad enough to see a few cases that one easily becomes skeptical.

Many people go the raw option, but there are so many risks involved with that and I find many just don't educate themselves enough about it to feed a proper raw diet. Not to mention the salmonella risk to both the animal(s) and people in the household. The general rule of thumb at the hospital is if a dog is fed raw, it will be in at some point for malnutrition or salmonella. Too many people think you can just throw a bunch of cheap meats at a dog and that is ok. But in reality the diet needs to be so much more balanced than that. And you never really avoid the risk of salmonella, unless the meat is cooked.

I've seen dogs eat cow poop, chicken poop, cat poop and stuff that's been dead for days! I'm of the opinion they have an iron gut. Or most of them do! Salmonella would be of little concern after witnessing that!

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I've seen dogs eat cow poop, chicken poop, cat poop and stuff that's been dead for days! I'm of the opinion they have an iron gut. Or most of them do! Salmonella would be of little concern after witnessing that!

Dogs are pretty resilient, but they do still develop salmonella quite often. We see complications quite often at the university animal hospital.

 

[farmchick897]

My Newfoundland has allergies. It shows up on her belly where she tends to lick it and redness and rashes develop. I thought it might have something to do with her swimming, she is in and out of our pool and ponds all day but was able to rule that out when winter came. I have tried switching her dog food also, she was eating salmon 4health and now she is eating TOTW. Nothing seemed to work until I tried Kefir. I have been making it with my cow milk and not only do I give her some but spread it on her belly like a paste. It's been only a few days and I see a huge difference. I am also going to try adding cow colostrum to her food. I saved up 3 gallons of it for emergencies and I have just read some interesting articles on athletes using it. Suppose to help with gut issues and such.

 

[buckbye]

With all the horrible things I've heard anecdotally about Hill's Science Diet, along with DogFoodAdvisor.com's nutritional analysis, I find it unconscionable that every single veterinary practice I've been to sells very small, very expensive bags and cans of it--always displayed prominently in the waiting area. What a racket.

The only time I can recall using Hill's was well over a decade ago. We had taken in a stray cat with severe allergies (among a slew of other health issues, rest easy little guy) and a vet managed to talk my dad into trying one can. $11 later, kitty wouldn't eat a single bite of the stuff, and that was that. Maybe he was smarter than we gave him credit for!

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I'm not a huge fan of hill's. It's a shame they are one of the few (maybe only, I'm honestly not even sure) companies that sell prescription diets, so there's really not much choice when animals need specialized diets for whatever medical problem they may have. They are big at my vet school. While they give us great deals on the food, I'm still not crazy about it. But that's why vets recommended it all the time, because they are always giving us free food and samples.

I do however have to cringe sometimes when I read pet food reviews. A lot of these reviews aren't based on any scientific evidence. I also see a lot of contradictory information from one review to the other. So it's definitely important to know the source of the review and even to do research yourself about the scientific backing to some of the claims made. I'm certainly not saying they are all wrong, but it's important we ask our own questions to make the most informed decision for ourselves and our pets.

 

[buckbye]

Ah, well, for Hill's specialized prescription line, I can understand. But for animals who don't require such diets, I think it's just ridiculous to sell "average" quality food for what they charge.