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lostvalleyfarm

Dog Food? So many choices!

alanis
9 years ago

What do you feed your dog?

I have an 9 year old Springer Spaniel and 8 year old ShihTzu.

I was feeding them Science Diet for Mature dogs. I am feeding them Taste of the Wild. They ate 3/4 of the huge bag and now are leaving the food untouched. So I'm dressing it up with grease or meat...so they eat.

I heard about Dogfoodadvisor.com and there is a ton of info on it. They rate the dog food on there.

The Shih Tzu has scratching, licking and hot spots issue. Not so much now since we are out of allergy season.
She also takes meds during that season.
So I heard Grain Free was good choice.

I really don't want to have to buy 2 different dog foods. But it may come down to that.

Thanks!

Comments (18)

  • annzgw
    9 years ago

    I fed Nutro Ultra for the past few years but my dog got very picky and just wouldn't eat it. We recently switched to Wellness Healthy Weight and he loves it.

  • emma
    9 years ago

    I saw a vet on TV who said that the only thing you have to worry about regarding dog food is: use a brand name and buy age appropriate food. I always used Purina and had healthy dogs. In my opinion I think the brand name is partly because of the manufacturer's ethics and quality control.

  • spedigrees z4VT
    9 years ago

    I've home cooked for my dogs since 2007. I don't trust commercial pet foods. Meat with powdered calcium added: the natural diet of a carnivore.

  • funkycamper
    9 years ago

    Oh, meat with powdered calcium sounds fascinating. Where do you get the calcium?

    My dog has a lot of skin issues and is very sensitive to grains. I can't even give her an occasional Milk Bone without her having a reaction. I tried a few different samples of the grain-free dry dog foods and she wouldn't eat it. After doing some research, I've come up with something relatively inexpensive that is working great. She vacuums it up.

    I brown 1# of hamburger, mix in 2 cups quinoa, and a can each of carrots, green beans, and peas, and let it all simmer together for a little bit. I then put it in a big plastic container and then mix in about 10 cups of grain-free dry dog food (Taste of the Wild or any other premium grain-free should work). Mix well. It goes together quickly so not a lot of work.

    This lasts about 5-6 days. It varies a bit on how long it lasts because on very active days, I will sometimes give her an extra cup. We also occasionally supplement her diet with pure meat, eggs, etc. When we do, we feed her less of her special food on those days. On a lazy day without other types of food given, she will have 1 cup at each meal: breakfast, lunch and dinner. For reference, she is 85#.

    If you decide to make bigger batches at once, freeze it without adding the dry dog food to it first, then add the dry later.

    Like I said, she practically inhales it. And no skin issues. It really extends the expensive dog food and quinoa is high-protein compared to something like rice.

    Seems to be a very healthy diet for her and her coat looks fantastic. Shiny as can be and soft and a tad bit thicker (she is a short hair). Before this she had bald patches, thinner coat, and the coat felt a bit coarse.

  • spedigrees z4VT
    9 years ago

    Funkycamper, I save my eggshells in a dish in the freezer and then bake them in the oven for an hour at 350 degrees, grind them in a little electric coffee grinder I have for this purpose, and store the powder in a dish in the fridge to mix with each batch of dog food I make. I also buy "NOW" brand powdered calcium from Amazon to use if I am out of ground eggshell. The eggshell is mostly calcium carbonate, I think it is about 96 %. It's important to add calcium to a dog (or cat)'s food to substitute for the bones they would be eating. The correct proportion is 1 1/2 teaspoons of calcium per 6 cups food.

    It sounds like your partially home cooked diet is working out well for you. When I had my collie, I mixed rice or other fillers to stretch the dogfood too, but now that I have smaller dogs I feed just meat (ground beef or pork or chicken or liver mostly) and also sometimes eggs or cottage cheese.

    My sister cooks food for her dogs and mixes it with commercial dry food as you do. Her dogs also do very well on that diet.

    And you're right, it's very handy to have extra home cooked food in the freezer for times you run out or are not feeling well or are busy. It thaws out in about 15 minutes in the microwave.

    This post was edited by spedigrees on Tue, Nov 25, 14 at 11:33

  • Pooh Bear
    9 years ago

    I've learned a lot about dog food from the dog food adviser site.

    Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/brand/

  • SaltiDawg
    9 years ago

    The OP mentioned dogfoodavisor.com in the first post????

  • Nancy in Mich
    9 years ago

    Whole Dog Journal does an issue each year on dry food. They have consistent criteria for what makes a good dry food that includes both ingredients and disclosure about what facility makes the food and whether a co-packer uses ingredients sourced by the dog food company or the co-packer.

    The facility and sourcing info helps when there are recalls due to bad ingredients, as when it was discovered that dogs were dying of kidney failure from certain brands. The protein powder some co-packers were using to improve protein content did not contain what the bags said they contained. Somebody in China who wanted to make easy money had substituted melamine (a plastic) powder instead. Melamine could fool the food tests into reading "protein." Dogs in the US and babies in China died from kidney damage. I believe the head of the company was executed.

    If you know the factory where the food is made, you can rotate your pet food among several different brands made at different facilities. This way, if any issues arise with any of the foods, your pet is less likely to be injured. You also avoid the ridiculous problem of having a pet whose digestive system is acclimated to only one food and who becomes ill when it is changed.(I say ridiculous because dogs were scavengers for millennia before dog food was invented!)

    WDJ also reviews canned and frozen foods in other issues each year.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Whole Dog Journal Food Review

  • SaltiDawg
    9 years ago

    "Meat with powdered calcium added: the natural diet of a carnivore."

    The ratio of Calcium to Phosphorous in a canine's diet is absolutely critical, as are the actual amounts of each.

    Spedigrees, how do you calculate and maintain that ratio?

  • greenman62
    9 years ago

    "if you know the factory where the food is made, you can rotate your pet food among several different brands made at different facilities"

    ive been doing this for years.
    i figure if one brand is deficient in a particular vitamin or mineral, another brand will have it.

    I also add beet root, nettle, and dandelion powder
    to her meals twice a week.

  • spedigrees z4VT
    9 years ago

    Saltidawg, during my research on the subject, long ago when preparing to begin a home cooked diet, I learned that the correct proportion is 1 1/2 teaspoons of calcium per 6 cups meat. I found this information from several sources, but I couldn't name them now. It was awhile ago.

    For instance if you cooked 12 cups of meat, you would add 3 teaspoons of powdered calcium or baked ground eggshell.

    As far as the ratio of phosphorous to calcium: it is easy to make this more complicated than it needs to be. Phosphorus is found in the meat and tissues of an animal while calcium is found in the skeleton. If you follow the equation: 1 1/2 teaspoons of calcium to 6 cups of meat (aka the phosphorus found in 6 cups of meat) you will have the correct proportion.

    If meat is the primary main ingredient, as it should be when feeding a carnivore, the phosphorus content of your food is taken care of. The key is to add calcium in the right proportion to the phosphorus in the meat.

    Those feeding a raw prey diet just feed the entire animal, for instance a whole chicken, and the bones and meat, aka calcium and phosphorus, are in correct proportion naturally.

    Those of us cooking dog food have two choices - either add powdered calcium to the meat we cook to replace the bones, or use a pressure cooker to cook an entire chicken, bones and all, being sure that the bones are cooked to the point they crumble apart when touched with a fork.

    For me, both feeding raw chickens or using a pressure cooker seem fraught with complications and dangers (although many choose these options with success.)

    I hope this helps. Also the proportion of every single meal need not be exactly in proportion. It is a guideline. Because, after all, a carnivore doesn't always eat the entire carcass of every animal he kills or scavenges. If you consistently fed meals lacking in enough calcium, eventually you would probably have nutritional problems.

    I hope this helps.

  • SaltiDawg
    9 years ago

    " If you follow the equation: 1 1/2 teaspoons of calcium to 6 cups of meat (aka the phosphorus found in 6 cups of meat) you will have the correct proportion."

    Well, now that I understand the methodology, ....

  • noah01
    9 years ago

    I usually feed my dog with my homemade food. I give him Milk two times a day

  • SaltiDawg
    9 years ago

    "I give him Milk two times a day."

    And this cow's milk provides the correct amount of calcium and also the correct Ca-Ph ratio, just as "1 1/2 teaspoons of calcium" does?

  • krisz
    9 years ago

    I have a Welsh Springer Spaniel who has allergies. I have researched dog foods and tried quite a few. Dog food gets stale and that may have happened with the "huge bag." I read that you should buy the size bag that will be eaten in 6 weeks. It should be kept in the original bag well sealed.

    Our vet is in favor of a raw diet or home cooked, but I didn't want to do that. I am using a dehydrated food from The Honest Kitchen. Whole Dog Journal and dogfoodadvisor gives it high ratings, and my dog loves it and does well on it.

  • SaltiDawg
    9 years ago

    krisz,

    You can get a plastic, sealed container that will hold a full bag of dog food for under $20. When you dump the new bag of kibble in, tear off the portion of the bag that displays the Mfg Date and Lot number.... reference in case a recall were to occur.

    Assuming your kibble is AAFCO approved, that doesn't assure it is a good choice, however no worries about Calcium and Phosphorous... lol :-)

    This post was edited by saltidawg on Wed, Dec 24, 14 at 13:10

  • krisz
    9 years ago

    Just to clarify, what I have read in more than one place is to always store dog food in the original bag which can then be placed into air tight containers. dogfoodscoop is another source of information on dog food.

  • SaltiDawg
    9 years ago

    I've removed the kibble from the bag and stored in a plastic container for over twenty years... without problem. I started keeping the Lot and Processing Data portion of the bag in recent years. Never had food that was subject to recall, but makes sense to be able to tell if involved.

    PS: Because of the above post, I Googled: dog food kibble storage

    I find virtually no suggestions to keep in the original bag, unless the bag is resealable. Most suggestions are that Glass or metal are good... and some go so far as to link plastic containers to Alzheimer's and thus are potentially bad for dog.

    Not one of these sites has any links to substantiate any of this.

    I store in air sealed plastic containers - just like we store our human food in the ice box.

    Of course, YMMV.

    This post was edited by saltidawg on Thu, Dec 25, 14 at 13:29