Comparing dog food! - Page 4

Diamond Large Breed gets an A (99) on the list Abhay posted.  I have also heard others here tout it as a very good food.  I am considering going to that, but on the web site posted by RoZoAn above, it is listed as not recommended.

All very confusing.

Are there any "Nutra" products recommended by anyone here, from personal experience?

In my area, I can not find any of the highly touted dry foods, such as Timberwolf, Canadae (an hour away) or Kirkland, and many others.  Seems to me that the qualities of the dog foods available just might be geared to be sold in the various locations of the country, based partly on the average income levels of the residents.  Just a hypothesis from observation of what is sold where, according to zip codes.  I am in a relatively low income area.  Using the above listed wed site links, there are no dry dog foods available in my city, that would qualify as something ya'll would recommend, except for Iams, Eukanuba and Diamond Large Breed.

Your best bet would be the Diamond out of those 3 choices Do RIght. I feed that to my daughters rescue dog. Make sure it is the Diamond Naturals though the other blends are much much lower on the ratings list.

Love abhay's system. Even I can get a farily decent overall "snapshot" idea of a formula's quality with it, WITHOUT having to bug MVF for the hard science... although I do anyway. ;)

Thanks for the post,

SS

I have switched my dog from the AvoDerm lamb and rice to the Natural Choice large breed Lamb and Rice.....I just did this test on the Natural Choice and it got 101 points=A+....so i guess it isnt too bad.   I also like to Costco lamb. I think it got like a 112 or 116 points. Does anyone else feed Natural Choice?

 guys, also read INGREDIENTS. Just because something does well on a chart, if you know about reading dog food labels you'll do much better. Old roy? come on. 

One thing to watch is ingredient splitting. I can't remember brands, it's before 6am here and I'm up and trying to get ready to go track and am exhausted from being up half the night. But for an example (no recollection of a label reading this way) a product reads lamb meal, rice gluten, whole grain rice, brown rice. There's more rice in that then lamb, but they have labeled it in a way that makes it look like more lamb then rice. 

Also, be aware of the effects of flaxseed oil. Dogs don't necessarily produce the enzymes to break down flaxSEED. And flaxseed oil can go rancid VERY quickly. It would need to be refrigerated and kept very carefully in order to stay good. Since most people don't refrigerate 40 lbs of dog food, there could be a problem there. There are some listed benefits on some sites or whatnot, but the reason many companies use it is because it's a cheaper source of omega 3's. You'd be better to serve something with Omega 3's that DOESN"T have flaxseed oil (fish oil (coldwater? can't remember what to call it, I"m exhausted at the moment) much better) Rancid oil can cause all kinds of problems in a dog (and human). I had someone say "well, doesn't the cooking process rid the product of alot of stuff like that anyways?" well if it does, then where's the Omega 3's? I would never have known this without researching it. Have questions just do a little research on rancid flaxseed oil. Personally, I'm wanting to try to find something with no flaxseed (last year I would have said YES HAVE flaxseed oil, but you learn something new every day:-))

Of course no byproducts, I don't like anything with corn (cheap filler, don't digest well) and of course watch for chemicals etc. Just a small thing on labels. 

Also, note that guaranteed analysis is done on wet weight. I just had this explained to me last night, can't remember all details, but what's on the label, may not be exact because it could have been analyzed BEFORE cooking. 

In addition, I also look at where the food was manufactured. 

For me, I am currently feeding kirkland (yes it has flaxseed, lower down if I remember right. Though if I also remember right, there's egg product in there, and I'm switching ONE of my dogs who has an allergy issue again) with vetraceuticals added. When I started using the vetraceuticals ( http://www.vetrawithbtk9.com ) I started feeding the cheaper food. Way I figured, it didn't have too much BAD stuff in it, missing some good stuff. I can add the good stuff with the vetraceuticals. I may change foods in the future though, it's a trial run for me. 

Also, please remember that asking your vet about dog food CAN be good, IF the vet actually did any research on their own into dog food, cause they don't get much on nutrition in school, and what they DO get, is sponsored by WHO? (dog food companies?)  Also, I find it hilarious there are "prescription dog food diets". Where's the prescription? can you give the prescription paper? They're more like "specialty diets". So just asking a vet doesn't necessarily mean they know much about nutrition....unless they did more research on their own. 

I'm excited, I'm enrolling in the purdue animal nutrition course  soon. I'm kind of into it, and want to be able to explain what I know in details rather then kind of break it down in my head and mess it up. I can't find many books on canine nutrition, LOTS of articles of course. 

I also think a big factor in choosing a dog food is to make sure the ingredients are FDA Human Grade-If I can't eat it I don't want my dogs eating it!  No rendering plant garbage that way.....

Have any of you tried Orijen?  I just started feeding it to all of my dogs about a month ago and they love it.  No grain all high grade products in it.  I found it from doing dog food reviews on this website www.dogfoodanalysis.com .  It is one of the top rated dog foods.  Even my cats try to get in the dog food bowls and eat it.  It smells like people food.  Well just thought I would put in my 2 cents since I didnt see it mentioned yet.

I have been considering switching to Nature's Variety "Prairie". The ingredient list is amazing. It uses Ground flaxseed not whole. Their website is www.naturesvariety.com  Anybody had long term experience with Nature's Prairie. Price wise I would have to buy in bulk from a regional distributor as no stores locally carry it. At the wholesale cost it is around $1 pound which is doable. Chicken first ingredient is antibiotic-free with no growth hormones. Grains are WHOLE grain brown rice, barley, oats. Also include free ranging fish many fruits and vegetables (too many to list) organs meats Kelp, salmon oil, Olive oil, chelated minerals (more easily absorbed due to chelation process) persimmons, Quail and Pheasant eggs, Freeze dried turkey, chicken, liver, heart honey, parsley, sea salt, acidophilus,Kelp, Inulin(helps regulate blood sugar levels) and tons more ingredients too numerous to mention. I think I'll switch to eating this food it sounds like a lot healthier diet than what I am eating! Anyone have some feedback on this product ?  They also carry canned and frozen raw treats and many holistic produts in their line.

I believe  if you read the label on Natural Choice  is has the synthetic Vit K activity ingredient   Menadione......this is not a vitamin and it is not human safe....so why put it in the liver of your pet......??????huh   huh     read labels  people   Ole Roy has been known by every vet in America to be the    deadly dog food....of course vets are not knowledgeable about your breed unless they raise and breed them   They are medical doctors for dogs...and Science DIet has indoctrinated all vets,because they get kick backs and cheap prices to sell you that brand  with the so  called   prescription "   canned dog food..."    anothe laughing matter...

Do your research yourself ,,ask other breeders, large reputable ones,,, read articles and   READ LABELS   ,,,,Red dye and yellow dye and BHA  and menadione and  by products and corn for the first ingredient  is a no no no.....

corn is for hogs  not for dogs........the motto at my place

I checked the website for dog food analysis listed by the poster above me, it contains some good information including the complete ingredient list for each product . Nature's Variety has several "levels" read (price) and  the "prairie" variety is listed in the top two of their scale with  Nature's Variety "instinct " in the top one.  I read through all the ingredients and found no synthetic Vit K  used, unless ii is disguised by another name than menadione. Frankly with their quality ingredients I would doubt they would use menadione but I did not see it listed.