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Suggestions for dog food

J

Joyce

TUG Member
Joined
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Location
Farmington, CT
Our dog, Viki, a mini schnauzer is on I D for past dietary problems. At our recent dog training session, the trainer suggested that vet diets have too much filler in them and we should get a more nutritious diet for our 1 1/2 year old dog. He pointed out that many big stores sell foods with lots of corn fillers and meat by products that are not healthy. Should we visit his store and make a change or is he simply pushing his product? Any thoughts?
 
I would definitely go with the Vet - not the trainer.
 
Diving Into The Archives Of TUG-BBS.

Click here for some heart-felt TUG-BBS discussion related to this topic from a couple of years back.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
It's true about the fillers- many dogs can't handle them. Our dog was on a raw diet but we've not transitioned to Blue Buffalo- the one with the wolf on the label. We switched because of the concerns about bacteria in the raw food. The blue buffalo is basically the same thing but it has been cooked so there isn't the bacterial risk. Talk to your vet about it- you can buy it at any good pet food place (petsmart has it and some of our local small business ones too). We've started checking dog food labels because of all the filler- there is even High Fructose Corn syrup in some of the foods- that can't be good for a dog!

tlwmkw
 
Our dog couldn't handle the fillers either. He developed severe allergies and chewed on his skin until he pulled out almost all of the hair he could reach (and he's a long haired dog so it was pretty bad). His skin was red and raw.

We switched him to a wonderful dog food called Muenster that is made here in Texas so I'm not sure of availability elsewhere unless you can order it from the internet. There are probably similar foods in other parts of the country. A few grocery stores carry it but it is mostly sold in specialty stores (not the big chain stores however).

Our dog's allergies cleared up immediately after putting him on this food and he's been fine for years. Of course we took him to the vet to make sure this is the right thing for him. We were able to take him off the antihistamines which were making him very lethargic.
 
Joyce said:
Our dog, Viki, a mini schnauzer is on I D for past dietary problems. At our recent dog training session, the trainer suggested that vet diets have too much filler in them and we should get a more nutritious diet for our 1 1/2 year old dog. He pointed out that many big stores sell foods with lots of corn fillers and meat by products that are not healthy. Should we visit his store and make a change or is he simply pushing his product? Any thoughts?
Click to expand...


Vet diets do tend to have a lot of fillers, but the more important question is WHAT types of "dietary problmes" does Viki have? I know ID does work for specific things, and even the good "dog foods" can't help.

I mean, we can all suggest great foods out there (and there's many), but what issues did Viki have? And did ID clear them up? Or is it non-food related?

i.e. my dog can have loose stools for weeks and it's mostly food related. ID helps to firm him up. But then, we also found pumpkin can do that too. My co-worker has tried it all, but found out it's not the food that causes her dogs loose stools. It's her endocrine system. First one is food related, so changing food can help, or make it worse. Second one isn't food related, so she could feed her dog the best food, and it wouldn't matter.
 
Viki was eating Blue dog food from the time she was a puppy. After a few months she developed pudding like stools which we could not pick up. The vet blood tested her for a problem with digesting but that came back O K. I can't recall the test but it was very expensive. He suggested she be put on I D diet and she has been fine ever since. The first ingrediant is ground whole grain corn which the trainer said is mainly a filler to harden the stool.
 
We had Miss Heidi on Science Diet which we bought at the vet until she developed some pretty serious skin allergies which he said was due to the food.

We now have her on Wellness which is a natural food, high in nutrients and without all of the fillers and "junk" that goes into a lot of dog food.
 
We went through this as well with our dog and went to Pro Plan's all chicken and rice, lamb and rice, etc. and he did fine. They even have them in senior formula's if needed.

I worked in the industry 15 years ago and learned that the more digestible pet foods are definately better for the animal and for the owner (more digestible means less clean up in the yard). More digestible = higher cost though.
 
Vet's more often than not will recommend Science Diet which isn't a good food at all. Too much corn and wheat in their foods.

We feed our Mini Schnauzer Canidae All Life Stages and she does wonderful.
 
Canidae seems to be one of the most often choices. The trainer mentioned that too. I really don't care about the cost but am looking for the well being of our dog and being able to pick up after her without it being too soft. Maybe Blue was just too rich for her.
 
Costco has a pretty good dog food called Kirkland Signature, which would be considered a "premium" food by most standards, and the price is lower than other premium brands too. We've been feeding this for years now and are happy with it.

Read this recent thread, and my post #13:
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115025

I tend to agree with your trainer - most vet foods such as Hill's, Science Diet etc - do have too much undigestible filler, and I wonder why so many vets push them. Many professionals into show and training for competitive athletic performance agree with that, too.
 
Price Club Cat Chex & Dog Chex.

Laurie said:
Costco has a pretty good dog food called Kirkland Signature, which would be considered a "premium" food by most standards, and the price is lower than other premium brands too. We've been feeding this for years now and are happy with it.

Read this recent thread, and my post #13:
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=115025

I tend to agree with your trainer - most vet foods such as Hill's, Science Diet etc - do have too much undigestible filler, and I wonder why so many vets push them. Many professionals into show and training for competitive athletic performance agree with that, too.
Click to expand...
Any chance some of the vets are getting kickbacks & promotional fees, etc., for flogging certain brands of dog chex?

Na-a-a-a-ah !

Meanwhile, we have discovered (judging by the "output") that our aged generic "accidental" cat's digestion works better when he chows down on Costco cat chex out of those huge bags than when he eats generic cat chex from Wal-Mart & Kmart, etc. -- not that there's any necessary connection between what our cat digests & what other people's dogs digest.

Click here for the story of how we got our "accidental" cat.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
See, to me ID is a band-aid. It's just fixing a problem by using fillers and fiber. I use it, but only when I absolutly need to get my dogs digestion back on track and then I stop after a few days.

You said you were feeding Viki "Blue dog food". Is that Blue Buffalo?

That's a good food, I wonder if what caused it could be as simple as anxiety, as Viki was a pup and going through many changes. My dog had loose stools issues for a LONG time during his puppyhood due to anxiety. We tried so many different foods, thinking that's what it was.

I would maybe try a different brand and different formula (maybe the items in the formula didn't agree with Viki). I'd also try adding some canned pumpkin (not the pumpkin filling) to her meals. I do that and it's done miracles for my dog. Also, remember, if you switch, to do it slowly and you may experience some softer stools during the switchover. Using pumpkin will help. Long-term, I'm told it'll help with their tummy issues even if you stop. Not sure as I haven't stopped and probably won't.

Good luck. I hope I'm not coming off like I'm diagnosing her, I just know that almost anything can set off a dog's system to give them soft stools. I tested my dog for everything and in the end, everyone agreed that it must be my dogs anxiety that upsets his stomach. Which I can understand, if I get that anxious too, my stomach doesn't do good either. lol. Lemme put it this way, if he stays overnight ANYWHERE (even places he absolutely loves), he gets diarrhea the first night. That's why I give him the pumpkin, it has helped a ton, since it's not anything like a disease, or infection, etc.
 
Dog Food

A friend who owns two gtocery stores years ago told me about 10% of canned dog food is consumed by humans. With the faltering econoy maybe this is higher.
Haven't tried it yet but it would provide cheap protein and probably is not unhealthy.
 
Yes we were using Blue Buffalo, the lamb and rice mixture. Maybe the lamb was too rich for her. We did not try anything else after the Vet suggested I D. We also tried pumpkin and it did not help. Maybe it was puppyhood after all. We will speak to the trainer, get his suggestions and then talk to the vet. I would not change before talking to him. We have known him for 20 years.
 
Joyce,

I checked the can at home and the Blue Buffalo that we use is Blue Wilderness which doesn't have the fillers or grains. It is very close to the raw diet. We've also used the Wellness brands but some of those contain rice. When we used the raw diet the stools were almost too firm (constipating) but if that is what you prefer you might try that. I'll try to find the brand names we used- one comes as frozen patties and is much easier to handle and is available at some good pet food stores. Some of them can be pretty disgusting to deal with.

tlwmkw
 
Our older dachshund developed diabetes when she was around 8 due to long term prednisone use. She had eaten science diet kibble her entire life. We tried many different doses if insulin. Tried a variety of other drugs for a while as well.

Within a day or two of my switching her to Merrick dog food the insulin worked like a charm. It is all 'real' food. We used the low-glycemic varieties due to her diabetes - but they have 'normal' food as well.

http://www.merrickpetcare.com/store/canned_dog_food.php

Our local healthy pet food store have it in stock but can also be ordered online from a variety of places.
 
But Watch Out For The Side Effects.

cgeidl said:
A friend who owns two gtocery stores years ago told me about 10% of canned dog food is consumed by humans. With the faltering econoy maybe this is higher.
Haven't tried it yet but it would provide cheap protein and probably is not unhealthy.
Click to expand...
Not at all harmful, although there are some important things to guard against if you're living on dog food.

-- Baying at the moon.

-- Chasing cats.

-- Lifting your leg in the bathroom.

-- Turning round 3 times before lying down in bed.

-- Running after cars.

-- Scratching yourself using your feet.

-- Licking yourself.

( Just a word of caution. )

BTW, the 8-year-old son of a friend of mine asked his father, "Dad, what happens if a dog eats cat food?"

"Son," my friend replied, "that is a very serious thing. If a dog should accidentally eat any cat food, the dog will jump up in the air, turn round 3 times while airborne, bark out MEOW, & drop dead."

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 
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Our little dog love Wild Salmon, chicken-prefers the dark meat, steaks, pork etc.
Does not like dog food much at all.
He is extremely healthy, the vet keeps asking us what he is eating, has never seen a little dog with so much energy!

I haven't either!
 
Dogtor J

Check out www.dogtorj.com and www.dogtorj.net He's updating his site. Very interesting info from a vet for pets and people.

I hate fish breath on my dog......

So far, we have fed her Wellness and now Blue Buffalo. As I said in the other thread, The Whole Dog Journal says to change up the food instead of feeding the same thing all the time.

I don't know how our previous Borzoi lived for over 13 years on the same food.
 
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After years of issues with various dogs with health problems that kept relating back to food, I joined the "cook your own" club.

Once a month, I boil some chicken thighs, or cook some really fatty hamburger, and add in organ meat (we have friends who buy a couple of cows a year and they are glad to donate it to the cause) such as tongue (ICK!), liver, etc., and add in brown rice or lentils or oatmeal, and then lots and lots of veggies. I cook a gynormous pot, let it cool and freeze it in Cool Whip containers. I probably spend $10-$12 on the whole stinky vat. Every morning they get a couple of scoops on top of their high quality kibble (Solid Gold, Kirkland's, iVet - I rotate). I also throw in Brewer's Yeast to ward off fleas.

We have a Boxer & a Border Collie, so they eat lots more than one little dog. Your glop would probably last much longer than a month.

Several things I noticed:

They eat MUCH less kibble than they used to. The meat is what they crave & they are more satisfied.

The "gifts" they leave us in the yard dissentigrate faster than they used to, if you get my drift. Not as much preservative in their waste, so it goes away quicker.

Less arthritis, no allergies.

Their coats are gorgeous, seriously. Absolutely beautiful.

So, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Here's a link on Google to lots of resources:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ACGW_enUS307US308&q=dog+food+recipes

Good luck!
 
The Merrick food sounds a lot like the Blue Wilderness and Wellness foods- I'm going to watch out for it at our local pet stores. The ingredients are similar so I may try that with our dog to keep things interesting for her.

Melbay, what you are doing sounds a bit like the raw food we used to use (except you are cooking it) that also lead to the low residue waste that you describe.

It's interesting that more people are being careful about the nutrition for their pets and not just feeding whatever is cheapest at the grocery store. I know our dog is thriving on the current diet.

tlwmkw
 
My wife has been cooking for our dog for 5 years. Cooks up once a week ground chicken or turkey, brown rice, mixed vegetable mostly carrots/green,beans a clove of garlic to keep fleas away and two table spoons of plain yougrt. Cost about the same as premium dog food. The vet always asks what we are feeding her because her coat is so nice and she is in such good shape.
 
Most days, our dogs eat higher quality, healthier food than we do. DH may have some Kraft Mac & cheese left on his plate (which I won't eat) and he'll want to give it to the dogs and I scream "NO". "Oh, so I can eat it but your dogs can't?" You got it buddy... :)
 
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