Dog Food Recomendations

[cjb]

Can I get some good food recommendations for dogs? Something that isn't going to break the bank and maybe can be found in mass retail places? Is there such a thing?
Thanks.

We use and like Science Diet.

Had one bag that seemed to not agree with the dogs - but otherwise, these two are happy and healthy.
c

[OzGirl]

I use Science Diet also...

[Chutney Daftcraft]

nutro. Nutro. NUTRO!

It's the only thing I will allow Baroo to eat.

(BTW - it's MUCH cheaper at Gower's than it is at PetSmart/PetCo)

[Kensey]

We give our animules Chicken Soup for the [Dog|Cat] Lover's Soul. It's not widely available, but you don't have to go too far for it. (You can get it at Gower's but our cats won't eat theirs if we get it from there -- it's not the food because they eat it fine from any other place.) They're one of the very few brands that had no FDA recall notices on ANY of their food. (The maker voluntary withdrew a small amount of product after being notified of possible contamination, but there were no known cases of sick pets from it.)

I usually pick it up in Reston, Herndon or Leesburg on my way home from work.

[LazerFlash]

Can I get some good food recommendations for dogs? Something that isn't going to break the bank and maybe can be found in mass retail places? Is there such a thing?

Kirkland brand (sold at Costco). If you compare the labels, you'll find it's as good as or better than many of the so-called "premium" brands, at about half the price. However, not all dogs will eat it. Our Cocker turns her nose up at it, while our Coonhounds and my step-daughter's boxer hoover it! After some trial and error, we found that the Cocker likes both Beneful and Iams. And since Costco also sells Iams, that's what we buy for her. Of course, the 48 pound bag they sell lasts her for months...

[shadowplay]

We do a mix, Science Diet Adult large breed/Chicken Soup for Dog Lovers large breed/Kirkland Lamb and Rice, all mixed together.

[cjb]

We do a mix

May I ask - why??

[shadowplay]

We used to do pure Kirkland as it is inexpensive, but found that the kibble was small and seemed to get soggy so we eventually switched to Science Diet. I liked the idea of lamb and rice though, as we worried about them developing allergy to chicken, so we mixed Science Diet regular adult and lamb and rice. A while back after switching to SD, I checked out the Chicken Soup stuff when Kensey first mentioned it and the dogs seemed to like it, so I started mixing that in too. After that, Science Diet lamb and rice got real expensive so we started mixing in the Kirkland lamb and rice as it is like $20 a bag cheaper. You did ask.

I do think it is more interesting for the dogs when it's mixed. I have a big plastic trash can that I pour some of each type and then mix up good so he dogs literally have a mix of all three in each bowl. I also add nonfat dry milk, salmon oil and a dog supplement called Nupro, it's dried liver with joint supplements. I also use the Chicken Soup canned stuff as the dogs love it and it is much cheaper than SD.

[caroline]

SiSi now eating adult food gets a mix of Purina ProPlan Salmon (for sensitive stomach) and a wildcard ProPlan we rotate through of either Shredded Chicken and Rice ( which I think is her favorite), ProPlan Shredded Lamb and Rice or Beef and rice. We mix two foods at once and rotate a wildcard through with the base Salmon to help reduce the possibility of food allergies and keep it intresting for her. We also give her Yummy Chummies a Salmon Omega 3 treat with dietary suppliments and a Science Diet Large Chicken biscuit before bed every night. Also we tire to give her a hard boiled egg or real meat once a week. SiSi eats 3 times a day because she plays so hard at day care on the weekdays and we free feed her weekends and on the weekends she dosen't eat to much mostly sleeps!

[itsapyr]

I highly recommend Taste of the Wild and would not feed my animals Science Diet...you do know it is known as cancer in a bag?

[caroline]

I highly recommend Taste of the Wild and would not feed my animals Science Diet...you do know it is known as cancer in a bag?

Please Elaborate???

[itsapyr]

Please Elaborate???

It's well known by a lot of pet nutritionist, yep there really is such a thing, that the training the vets get on pet nutrition in vet school is provided by the pet food companies. Have you ever really read the bags?

I lost 2 cats to oral cancers who ate nothing but science diet their entire lives. I really started looking into pet nutrition after the pet food poisoning a few years back and the things I found out were very scarey.

There are a lot of sites you can check out on pet food nutrition but I would not recommend looking at the ones sponsored by the petfood companies.

I actually know this lady personally who got into her field after her pet also died of cancer.
http://www.dogfoodguru.com/

[shadowplay]

Wow, maybe I'll take Science Diet out of the mix. Too bad Petco gives you a free bag for every ten you buy.

[JiveTurkey]

We use Nutro, too. She's not a big girl, so it won't be that expensive, if you figure cost per day.

[Wormdoc]

I'm with Itsapyr, I love Taste of the Wild for my corgs....they like it. You can get it at gowers.

[shadowplay]

I'm going to Gowers tomorrow for deer corn. What does a 30lb. bag of Taste of the Wild run? Do they have a puppy formula?

[caroline]

Wow, maybe I'll take Science Diet out of the mix. Too bad Petco gives you a free bag for every ten you buy.

Petco does this with Purina also. (I think they do that for every kind of food you buy 10 of)

[longleaf]

If you want the cheapest dog food that's great for your dog, you can make your own. There are tons of recipes on the internet.

As to the dry bagged, I've been giving my dog Iams for years. He's healthy and people think he's much younger than his 10 years show. Though, he lives a good life playing in the river for so many years...