Which Adult Dog Food?

[Fredd's Girl]

My furbaby is almost all grown up! We are going to start switching him to an adult dog food, but I'm not sure which one we should try. He has been on Eukanuba Large Breed puppy food. He is Lab/Border Collie Mix and 19 months old. The vet of course suggested that I stick with Eukanuba adult food, but we were hoping once we were past the puppy stage, we might be able to go to a dog food that we could purchase at the grocery and was slightly less expensive.

So what adult dog food do you give your furbabies??

All suggestions are welcome!!

 

[Marseeya]

Our dog does really well on Nutro products, but you have to get them at a Petco or Petsmart. They aren't outrageously expensive -- probably around $15 for a 20 lb bag. When our dog is on Nutro, her coat is very soft and shiny, and she doesn't poop as much.

When we're in a pinch, we'll get her a small bag of Dog Chow, but we don't leave her on it too long. We'll also get Iams lamb and rice once in a while.

 

[iluvdisnee]

We have 2 Gorgeous Saint Bernards. Our breeder has been feeding her Dogs Purina Dog Chow for 40 some odd years and she raises champions! I honestly think all of these expensive brands are highly overrated.

My dogs are happy and healthy with a gorgeous coat and Purina Dog chow is a fraction of the price.

Again this is just my opinion. I was always a Dog Food Brand Snob and bought the expensive stuff, but my girls are doing just beautifully on Dog Chow and if its good enough for the Breeder of 40 some odd years its good enough for me!

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

My "girls" used to be on Eukanuba, but they didn't like it. It would sit in their bowl for days.

I fed my other collies Nutro, but it gave my Jasmine collie diarrhea.

I switched them to Pro plan about 2 years ago and they love it. I just got a 37.5 pound bag at Pet Smart for $30.00

 

[Nana Annie]

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[Disney Doll]

I used to use Purina One until we determined that Ted was allergic to wheat, so he needed a wheat-free dog food. We switched him to California Natural, which we buy in a local feed store.

He did fine on the Purina One for about 3 years until the wheat allergy thing developed though, and I have a friend who has had a lab, a lab/shepherd mix, and currently a chow/border collie mix. She has always used Purina One and her dogs have done fine on it.

 

[mrsv98]

Our girls are on Purina One and do great. Sam is on the Senior Formula, Lilly on reduced calorie as labs tend to get fat once their spade and Belle is on the Iams Puppy at the moment because that is what the breeder used but I will put her on Purina One once she is ready to switch this fall/winter.

We joke when we go to PetsMart that we buy old dog food, fat dog food and baby dog food!

 

[Nana Annie]

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[Fredd's Girl]

Thanks so much to all of you! I knew this was the place to ask!

 

[MickeyMouseGal]

Eukanuba and Iams are made by the same company. So, Iams is going to be a similar formulation to Eukanuba and is available at Wal-mart and grocery stores.
I've fed my dogs and cats Iams for years and have been very happy with it. It's a bit more expensive than other supermarket foods, but I've found that it has less fiber (read: less dog poop!) than those brands. Good luck!

 

[mickey4ver]

Our previous doggie had severe skin issues/allergies, so when I got the doggie we have now, I decided to go the holistic route, to try and avoid problems. I've used Nutro, Merrick, Ultra, Wee Bits. He likes them all. He is a smaller dog, so he doesn't eat tons of food, so I feel if it helps to avoid skin problems, its worth the extra 4 bucks a bag.

 

[Angel0]

My german shephard eats Dog Chow.

 

[mickeysgal]

We've been feeding our dogs (lab mix, collie/shepard mix, and poodle/cocker spaniel mix), IAMS. We have also fed them Science brand foods, but its a bit more difficult for us to find (closest store is an hour away). Since I have two big dogs what I want is a food that makes them poop less. What is the best food for this?

 

[Evil Queen]

I use Nutro. But as I see gas taking more of my money, I've started looking for ways to cut back in other areas. This was one of them. I just haven't started researching what to switch to. I've just now figured what to cut out of my phone bill.

 

[goofyforlife]

I use Nutro. But as I see gas taking more of my money, I've started looking for ways to cut back in other areas. This was one of them.

If this food agrees with your dog, it's worth more money in the long run to stick with it. We tried two-three brands when Abby was a pup before we settled on one that agrees with her. One of them caused her internal ditress and we ended up taking her to the vet because she had the runs so bad. Not to mention what it did to our yard.

If you register with Nutro, they frequently send you coupons. For the past 9 months I've been working my way through $3 off per bag coupons and still have $2 off ones.

I got some of them off of e-bay; until the Nutro company started sending me some.

 

[ktulu]

My german shepherd eats nutro, my mom watched her at christmas (long story on that one) and she ended up feeding her something that gave her the green apple quickstep, in mom's house. I told mom it would happen, but she didn't believe me So, back to the nutro when we got Reagan home. She's been fine since then.

And just for the fun of it, I included a picture

darren

 

[DMickey28]

My baby is almost 2 years old now. I can't believe it!! He was on the same puppy food but for small breeds. He couldn't tolerate the adult food. I have him on Nature's Balance from Petco. He loves it and he hasn't had a "problems" on it for a while.

 

[Fredd's Girl]

And just for the fun of it, I included a picture

darren

What a big sweetie!!

I had never heard of Nutro before today! I learned something new. I never really thought about food that didn't make them poop as much either. I'm learning alot today! Glad I asked the question.

 

[mickey4ver]

The holistic foods DO make a difference in the amount of poop you scoop so as I stated earlier, if something works well, it is worth the extra few bucks a bag. I found a very nice pet store in our area, Pet Valu. I saw online where they carry a lot of the foods I was looking for. I was skeptical of visiting it. OMGosh, it is small, but it was so neat and clean and a pleasure to go into. Our Superpetz store gives me the creeps, it stinks and is untidy. PetSmart is a bit more of a drive for me, so I'm happy I found the Pet Valu Store.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We now feed Kirkland Chicken and Rice adult - found at Costco. It's fairly high quality for a fraction of the cost of low quality foods. It's far superior to foods such as Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, and Purina at half the cost. It still has a few ingredients I would rather not have, but they are all after the 1st fat and therefore very minimal so for the money we are saving it's worth it for now. I pay $15.50 for 40 pounds of it.

In the past, I have fed Nutro Ultra (the only Nutro food worth feeding but grossly overpriced), Natural Balance (found at PetCo and more affordable then the foods listed above), and California Natural (same price as Natural balance).

The dog food diet website previously posted is GREAT as is www.dogaware.com.

There is a lot to know regarding WHY traditionally schooled vets recommend low quality foods. I see only holistic vets now and they don't buy into the marketing junk put out at vet schools and my vet only recommends highly quality kibble - nothing you can find at PetsMart (there is nothing worth feeding there but Blue Buffalo and Nutro Ultra).

Innova, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul, Eagle Pack Holistic, CA Natural, Merrick are other good ones to consider.

Good rules of thumb in choosing quality dog food:
- avoid any by products
- avoid any mystery meat, such as "poultry meal" "bone meal" "meat"
- avoid any corn or variations of corn, such as corn meal, corn gluten, ground corn. Watch for low quality foods that break up corn into seperate ingredients so it doesn't appear like it's the main ingredient
- protein is best as a "meal" such as "chicken meal" because meal is dried meat with less water, meaning more actual meat
- look for quality fillers such as brown rice, oatmeal, etc.
- avoid wheat
- if feeding a multi-protein food such as Natural balance Ultra, it should have 3 sources of protein in the top 5 ingredients.
- anything after the 1st fat is so minimal it's not worth basing a decision off it. Purina Beneful lists "quality" ingredients on their marketing campaigns but when you look at the ingredient list, they are all listed after the 1st fat and don't matter at all anyways. It's a way that some companies try to convince you their food is quality.

Remember that high quality means better coat and skin, less irritants, less poop, less vet bills, and longer life. High quality does NOT equal higher prices. The higher quality foods cost the same or less than the typical "high quality" foods sold at pet stores and vet clinics and are full of questionable products.

PM me if you want more info! Good luck!