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Dog Owners
What do you feed your pups?
I was just reading an article about how certain ingredients in dog foods can cause allergies and other problems in dogs because their bodies are not able to properly digest them. The article recommended finding a dog food without corn or meat by-products. I looked up our dog food - Purina - to find out it has pretty much all of the negative attributes.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
We have 2 70 pound dogs - they go through a lot of food - I dont really want to spend more than the $40 a month we already pay to feed them, but I also dont want to do harm to their little bodies by feeding them crap either.
I'm going to ask my vet for a recommendation when we go in a couple of weeks but I'm hesitant to believe that either because we've heard they get kickbacks from the brands they stock (Iams and Science Diet) and those dont rank very well either.
Re: Dog Owners
Purina Pro Plan. The vet we've been going to since I was 7 yrs old (and who is highly recommended in our city) recommends Purina Pro Plan and it's what he feeds his own dogs. Even pricier foods like Hill's Science Diet aren't necessarily better. I've heard a lot of negative things about HSD's ingredients.
Purina is what one of my mom's "cat lady" friends feeds all of her cats...she has around 8-12 cats at any one time. All of them live to be 19-20+ yrs old.
I was blessed with having a dog with a sensitive stomach. We played the food game for almost the first 10 months of his life. We finally found Nutro Adult Mix works for him the best. We use Nutro sensitive stomach treats for him too.
The downside, it's $58 for a 32 lb. bag. He goes through a bag once a month. Its definitely a lot of money, but it's worth it to not have him pissing out of his ass.
Chrissy--a
I was blessed with having a dog with a sensitive stomach. We played the food game for almost the first 10 months of his life. We finally found Nutro Adult Mix works for him the best. We use Nutro sensitive stomach treats for him too.
The downside, it's $58 for a 32 lb. bag. He goes through a bag once a month. Its definitely a lot of money, but it's worth it to not have him pissing out of his ass.
Chrissy--a guy
I was blessed with having a dog with a sensitive stomach. We played the food game for almost the first 10 months of his life. We finally found Nutro Adult Mix works for him the best. We use Nutro sensitive stomach treats for him too.
The downside, it's $58 for a 32 lb. bag. He goes through a bag once a month. Its definitely a lot of money, but it's worth it to not have him pissing out of his ass.
Chrissy--a guy that
I have no idea what just happened there. I am unable to delete them too. Sorry.
Anyway, what I was going to say:
Chrissy- if you're looking into the raw meat diet for monetary reasons, it's usually not worth it when they're puppies, but once they're big enough to start eating 2 cups per serving it's worth it--especially with big dogs.
One of Yaz's friends at the dog park is a great dane and his owner has him on an all meat diet. The dogs coat is absolutely gorgeous and the guy saves money because the dog eats like mad and would spend a lot more on dry dog food. He goes to the butcher at the grocery store and gets all the scraps that they wouldn't necessarily put on sale for people.
Canidae
My boxer mix has had a sensitive stomach since he was a pup. The vet said he was most likely eating too fast, so we tried fixing that, then we tried elevating his bowl because they told us it could be acid-reflux, then we switched foods, nothing has worked. Eventually he sort of grew out of it, but he still has his days and I feel so bad for him (and he pukes all over my rug which I'm not happy about - although he's good at letting us know he has to go outside now). Now he's developed some allergies and he's licking his fur off - he's done it to his front legs and now the creases where his back legs meet his belly. I think I need to find a new vet because he just says its the change in the weather and it will go away again. I found the food thing online and thought it might be worth a try.
My other dog (a lab/rotti mix) was diagnosed with epilepsy about a year ago and its well-controlled with medicine but I was reading that sometimes health problems like epilepsy, cancer, etc. can be a result of the poor nutritional value of dog food and its indigestible additives.
I'm not sure what to try... all my life, we've fed our dogs Purina and never had any problems that we knew of so its hard for me to believe that's the problem.
HomemadebyHolman
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Shag - thanks! We're interested in learning more about raw meat diets because of the potential nutritional benefits, not so much the cost savings. I've heard arguments on both sides of the fence. On the one hand, it's so much closer to what they'd eat in the wild and what their bodies are evolutionarily designed for. On the other hand, you face potential issues of improper food handling (i.e. E. Coli, Salmonella, etc). I've also heard that eating a diet so high in protein causes other nutritional deficiencies. I'm curious as to what data the nutritionally deficient argument is based on. To me, the evolutionarily natural argument of the raw meat diet seems to make more sense. I'm no expert though, and just want to do what's best for my Chazzykins, so I'm still trying to find out what I can.
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If you're worried about allergies, that is something that they will have been born with and either they have them or they don't. Dogs with food allergies tend to have really itchy skin and get a lot of ear infections. Dogs can also have allergies to fleas, pollen, mold, cats, pretty much everything we are allergic to. Actually, one of my coworkers has a dog that is allergic to her!
Food allergies can take years to develop, and most dogs are allergic to beef and dairy, which is what is in almost every brand of dog food. So, unless your dog is having a lot of skin issues, I wouldn't worry about allergies.
As far as dog food, Purina One is a little better than Purina, but if you aren't having any problems, why change what works for them? If you want them to have a shinier coat, look for a food with fish oils or omega 3 in it, many 'skin' diets will have these in them.
Hope that helps!