What kind of food do you feed your dog?

[Jockaroo]

I feed my Scottie Blue Buffalo Organics Chicken and Brown Rice. She eats one cup per day. A 20 pound bag lasts around 2 months. It is a little expensive at approx. $55 a bag, but the store I shop at runs the food at a $5 discount and I get additional $5 coupons via email. So typically $45 for 20 pounds (or to feed my dog for 60 days). I don't consider this bad. She does well on this food which is what is important. Check out this web site for information:

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

Here is the rating for Beneful dry:
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-ratings/beneful-dog-food-dry/

Here is a rating for my Blue Buffalo:
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-ratings/blue-buffalo-dog-food-organics/

Check into this web site and read the ingredients. It really doesn't matter what brand of food you pick as long as you understand the ingredient label and pick a good quality, balanced food that allows your dog(s) to thrive. Personally, I would not go below a 4 star from this list, but I've lost two dogs to cancer. I have a breed that is notorious for skin allergies and sensitivities to food ingredients. I will not feed a kibble that looks like froot loops. There is no reason to have multi-colored dog food--the dog can't tell it. Blue Buffalo is available at many PetSmart stores, although I think they aren't presently carrying the organics line. You can probably find a pet supply store or a feed store that carries quality kibble. You will feed less of a premium food than a grocery store kibble which offsets the price somewhat.

 

[Myothername]

We are feeding Natural Balance Fish formula currently. We do add a little oil, plain yoghurt, a scoop of plain canned pumpkin, and an odd raw egg or canned sardine, and some green beans for variety.

Yep, I pamper my dogs. We have had good experiences with some other premium brands, but like to give them a gradual change if they get bored.

Natural Balance is quite expensive, but they like it -- and it seems to produce lovely coats and easily disposable solid "output."

The minimal "output" question is a serious consideration for us. That is why we tend to go for the more expensive *premium* kibble

Every dog is different, just go with what works best for you.

That is a great food. Ranger, my male Chesapeake Bay Retriever, had some terrible stomach issues last year. After trying Science Prescription, and boiled chicken and rice we put him on this brand. I think it was the duck and potato. Anyway, only 5 ingredients in the food which is what I liked. It really straightened him out. It got to be too expensive so we switched him to Purina One. He has been fine on it since. My female chessie, Roux, and my mutt dog, Biscuit, eat Pedigree and my sheltie eats Beneful. They all do fine on their foods.

 

[My2Cinderellas]

my Golden Retriever has a twitchy tummy and skin issues - we are currently feeding her 1/2 Blue Buffalo Large Breed and 1/2 Costco Kirkland Chicken/Rice. We mix them together for her. She was doing well on the Blue Buffalo alone but the cost was a factor. Costco's food is very inexpensive but does not have corn/wheat which is important for my dog.

If you are at Costco, see if they have treats by Wet Noses. These are organic no wheat/no corn dog treats in 2 flavors. my dog loves them, and more importantly they don't seem to bother her tummy. My Costco store had 1 pallet of these, and they are a one-time thing. I went back for a 2nd box once I tested them out on our dog.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

How many calories are in each cup? I know my breeder told me when our pup is full grown she'll be about 120-ish, and should only need about 3 cups a day as long as it's a high quality food. ( no fillers ) Right now she's 90 lbs and 8 months old, so we need to keep her on low protein so she doesn't grow too quickly.

I had to go hunting for this, as we throw the bag out and put the food in a sealable container. Orijen adult formula has 470 calories per cup. I see from dogfoodananalysis.com that Kirkland adult formula has 356 calories. Not that big of a difference, when you look at it that way. Our highly active male German Shepherd eats 3 cups of Orijen a day, and my lower activity older female German Shepherd (who was about 20 lbs overweight when we adopted her and could still stand to lose a few more pounds) eats 2 cups a day. My male is 85 lbs and my female is 93 lbs.

I think the higher protein is a personal preference as far as how I like to feed my dogs, though. Some dogs do better on lower protein foods - my male in particular NEEDS a very high protein food. He's a light eater to start with and he has a very high metabolism. My female could probably be on a lower protein food with no problems, but I like that she only needs 2 cups of Orijen, and she is doing very well on the food.

Edited to add: Oh man, I'm just realizing how much of a snowflake my male German Shepherd is. No fillers, no chemicals, high protein, and that's if he'll eat it on that particular day. And he still gets diarrhea whenever he gets stressed. *facepalm* My female Shepherd could subsist on garbage and twigs and she's still have solid poop.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

Where do you buy the more quality foods mentioned here like Orijen etc? Anyone know anything about Sam's club Excell brand?

Orijen has a store locator here. Many of the major brands of high quality foods do have locators on their websites. I have found Orijen in a pet grooming shop in my parents' tiny town, where they claimed that they didn't have access to any foods not sold at the grocery store. Found it within a minute using the store locator. When we were traveling up in cottage country in Northern Ontario and ran out of food, I couldn't find Orijen or EVO in any of the stores, but I did find Wellness Core and Sold Gold Barking at the Moon, which are also great grain-free foods. I think that if you look into it, you'll be surprised how easy it is to find high quality foods.

 

[dansamy]

Where do you buy the more quality foods mentioned here like Orijen etc? Anyone know anything about Sam's club Excell brand?

I buy Blue Buffalo Wilderness at PetsMart. The others I have to buy at a "specialty boutique" pet store.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

I buy Blue Buffalo Wilderness at PetsMart. The others I have to buy at a "specialty boutique" pet store.

Good point! I believe Eagle Pack and Solid Gold are both available at Petco, as well.

However, I find that at least where I live, the specialty pet stores are actually cheaper than the big pet box stores! I was shocked to see that some of the items that I buy frequently are so much cheaper at the smaller pet stores! For example, I buy CareFresh small animal litter; the smallest pack is $8 at both Petco and Petsmart. At my smaller independent pet stores (I frequent two in Seattle, depending on what I'm looking for), it's $5! It really surprised me, because I expected there to be a "boutique" mark-up!

 

[dansamy]

Good point! I believe Eagle Pack and Solid Gold are both available at Petco, as well.

However, I find that at least where I live, the specialty pet stores are actually cheaper than the big pet box stores! I was shocked to see that some of the items that I buy frequently are so much cheaper at the smaller pet stores! For example, I buy CareFresh small animal litter; the smallest pack is $8 at both Petco and Petsmart. At my smaller independent pet stores (I frequent two in Seattle, depending on what I'm looking for), it's $5! It really surprised me, because I expected there to be a "boutique" mark-up!

Blue Buffalo is cheaper at PetsMart here. Hay for the guinea pig is way, WAY cheaper at the local pet stores. Plus, I can get Oxbow which PetsMart only just started to carry. You really do have to look at the prices and be willing to include a trip to the store to stock up and make it worth the cost of gas.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

Blue Buffalo is cheaper at PetsMart here. Hay for the guinea pig is way, WAY cheaper at the local pet stores. Plus, I can get Oxbow which PetsMart only just started to carry. You really do have to look at the prices and be willing to include a trip to the store to stock up and make it worth the cost of gas.

Oh, definitely agreed. And PetSmart has the best prices around here for fish/aquarium things (we only have one specialty fish store in our area, so no competition), so between the dogs, the hamster, and the fish tanks, I'm around to all the major pet stores in Seattle at least once a month, each. I do prefer the boutique-y stores, though; I can always find such cool things there, compared to the normal selection of Kongs and stuffies at Petsmart.

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

Don't forget your AG stores. Here I can find the Diamond and BLUE [buffalo, fish ect], Dad's, Nature's Choice and Taste of the Wild along with the other main brands of dry dog food at my Tractor Supply.

 

[AnnaS]

Purina Pro Plan. We also have to (well he got spoiled) mix in some of our "meat" - not much - a bite or two and we chop it up. It may be a piece of burger meat, a piece of chicken breast, etc.

 

[Pluto 2]

kibbles and bits

 

[MichelleVW]

Don't forget your AG stores. Here I can find the Diamond and BLUE [buffalo, fish ect], Dad's, Nature's Choice and Taste of the Wild along with the other main brands of dry dog food at my Tractor Supply.

Yep, that's where I get mine. I finally found a feed store that carries Chicken Soup!

 

[Karalea]

Natural Balance Potato & Duck. They love it and have very, very shiny coats. It is not that much more expensive than grocery store food - $14.99 for an 8 lb bag which last a month.

It you have a Petco card, you buy 10 bags over a year (?) and get a coupon for a free bag.

 

[TimeforMe]

We use Wellness and I will sometimes switch up the flavors--but always Wellness. She's 12 years old and in excellent health and I contribute at least part of that to her diet. Especially now that she's gotten older, her stomach is very sensitive to table food so I pretty much just give her dog food only. The problem is that it has gotten so expensive over the years, but at this point I'll stick to what I know works.

 

[sunnyday123]

Iams mini chunks. I buy it at BJ's. I have a 3lb. chihuahua and she will go through 2 bags a year. Seriously, I think I feed my dog for $40 a year.

She is 12 and has eaten it her whole life. She likes and has always been healthy.

That is so sweet!


My 8 month old puppy eats 6 cups a day!

 

[sunnyday123]

Where do you buy the more quality foods mentioned here like Orijen etc? Anyone know anything about Sam's club Excell brand?

I know a lot of people who purchase Orijen online. If you go to the dog food analysis link someone posted in the beginning of this thread, you can see all the ratings of most, if not all, dog food available.

 

[crz4mm2]

IF your dog is fat, he/she needs to be on low calorie food. AND you need to follow the directions. If it says 1/2 cup twice a day, you measure out 1/2 cup and ONLY feed him or her that much.
If you do, he/she WILL lose weight.

 

[Jockaroo]

If anyone is interested in good quality dog treats, I highly recommend the Zuke's line.

http://www.zukes.com/

I use the Mini Naturals for training my dog. They have 2 calories per treat and I sometimes even cut them in half. This company donates heavily to dog and cat cancer research organizations as well.

For those who are concerned about overweight pets, my vet recommend avoiding the diet/weigh-loss branded foods. He said there are so many fillers in these foods designed to make the stomach feel full, but provide no nutritional value. He recommended feeding the normal, quality kibble in a reduced portion, but adding quality, low-calorie foods such as carrots and green beans. Of course you would want the low sodium if you use canned. Also, senior and geriatric dogs don't need to eat as much food to maintain their weight. It is typically about 30% less than when they were young. There are so many health issues that are related to obesity in our pets.

 

[Sarah_Rose]

For those who are concerned about overweight pets, my vet recommend avoiding the diet/weigh-loss branded foods. He said there are so many fillers in these foods designed to make the stomach feel full, but provide no nutritional value. He recommended feeding the normal, quality kibble in a reduced portion, but adding quality, low-calorie foods such as carrots and green beans. Of course you would want the low sodium if you use canned. Also, senior and geriatric dogs don't need to eat as much food to maintain their weight. It is typically about 30% less than when they were young. There are so many health issues that are related to obesity in our pets.

When we adopted our older (6 year old) German Shepherd in October, she was about 20 lbs overweight. We feed her the same high calorie/high protein kibble that we feed our younger perfect-weight Shepherd, but she gets 1/3 less than he gets, and I add in raw carrots, which she loves. Not only is the weight dropping off beautifully (she has a waist now!) but her coat is soft and shiny and she has so much energy compared to how she was when we adopted her. She's downright bouncy, now!

I think the low calorie foods are just a gimmick.... another way to sell foods that are primarily filler.