http://www.roveroaks.com/ if you can't go raw, this place sells quality kibble. basically, if you get dog food from the grocery store, it's not very good.
I tried "Blue Buffalo" for a long time in my dogs' senior years. It made for quite a mess as the dry mix has little black balls mixed in with larger pieces. Dogs flopped that stuff everywhere and anywhere. My dogs ate it for a while but, overall, I don't think they really cared for it. Ever since my one dog died of cancer earlier this year, my remaining dog just pretty much eats canned moist food. She won't touch that "Blue" stuff. Funny thing is she will occassionally eat the Purina Beneful. They had that for spurts growing up. I guess that is why one my dog's got cancer...huh? The dry dog food business can go to hell. My dog eats whatever she will eat. Just because you buy a top-of-the-line dog food doesn't mean the dog is going to eat it. Dogs want to eat what tastes good...and some of these top dog foods are not it from my experience with my dog(s). What do you want me to do...sit there and stuff dry food down my dog's mouth just because it is premium quality? Sheesh! In the end, there are no quantifiable metrics I'm aware of that can prove your dog will end up healthier and live longer if they eat this over that. All you can go on is the nutritional content that says if your dog eats this...then it will be better off. That's not really good enough for me to drop $50 (or close to) on a bag of dog food any more. What...my dog going to have a heart attack or something from clogged arteries? As long as the weight level is kept in check for the size of the dog and the dog is not poo-ing all over the house due to upset stomach...I'm good. I'm not necessarily saying buy the generic, cheapest stuff...but these premium dry dog foods are big business. I'm sure they will sell you on any point they can. Yea...I'm a skeptic. My remaining Ridgeback is going on twelve years old and has severe arthritis which requires meds. She is on borrowed time. I'm sure it is because of the dry dog food choices I have made in the past.
Ol'Roy, before that Purina Dog Chow. The two lowest scores. I don't really care what the Vet tells me. I won't ever be buying those special brands. I would prefer to buy Iams, but can't afford it.
I started off with royal canon and then saw all the fillers they add in it. I switched to blue buffalo and have been happy ever since. It's grade A food and it's not even that expensive. Plus he loves it and his coat is soft and shiny.
Ol'Roy is Wal-Mart's brand($16.50/44lbs bag). Ol'Roy was Sam Walton's dog. Old Yeller is what they sell at Kroger that is dirt cheap(I've seen as low as $10 for the 50lbs bag). I tried feeding my cat the Kroger brand food, but he wouldn't eat it.
Kibbles and Bits. It's the only dry dog food my dogs like. They will eat the other stuff but they will let it sit for a long time until they get hungry enough to eat it. Life's too short to eat rice cakes and grass every day even if it lets you live a year longer which can be debated on a per case basis. I can see the raw diet being good for them and them liking it, but I have to be honest...anything more than scooping a cup of KnB and dropping it in their empty bowls is just not going to happen.
I can't remember what we're on now, I think Natural Balance, but it's pretty much common sense - as with human food, just look at the first few ingredients and if it is "filler", it's not good food.
if you don't think quality food is beneficial to your dog, then your dogs are the ones that suffer. while i agree that price does not equal quality, better food usually costs more. the fact that your dog won't eat a "good" kibble doesn't mean what he will eat is good for him. it's like humans. we love the burgers and fries but we can't live on it and hope to have a healthy body. i used to feed my dog O Roy because i never thought about dog nutritional and frankly, because it was cheap. my lab scratched and licked his paws all day and night and i was taking him to the vet every 3 weeks for cortisone shots. i switched him to Purina one. No improvement. Surprisingly, my vet kept saying Purina One is fine. I decided to start doing some research and read the certain dog foods will give them allergies. so i switched to California Natural. This helped his allergies tremendously. he didn't scratch himself as much. had him on that for two years. this year they raised their prices by 20% because they got bought out. i didn't want to pay $60 for 30 lb bag. i committed myself to feeding RAW. i have never seen my dog happier and healthier. the coat is shiny, the teeth are white, no dog smell, and poop turns to clay in a day. i've researched the benefits of raw and i bet it is more likely prevent cancer too.
On this topic, historically vets have suffered from: - lack of knowledge - willful ignorance - greed (they push what they can/do sell) It is starting to improve, but by and large, I still wouldn't trust a vet as to what food products to fee your animal.
Both of my Ridgebacks lived past their expected end dates. As far as your cancer remark, we won't get into that...because that is just pure speculation what caused my dog's cancer. If Purina Beneful is so bad, then I guess my dogs paid for it being healthy the years I had them eating it. I switched to "Blue Buffalo" out of concern and, while that may have helped, there isn't really any proof one way or another. I don't even want to get into comparing what humans eat versus what dogs eat...considering the latter are known to eat s__t and lick butts. My point is I refuse to sit here and fret over a topic like this considering all the work required to raise two dogs. I did my share of work raising them and paid the price for it. I did my best and, if my best isn't good enough, then let them live a shorter life then. If someone had actual proof that feeding a dog a certain dry food is the cure all for a long and healthy dog life, then I would be all over it. Instead, we are left to wrestle with many, many choices of dry food and most of us will never get around to trying them all. Granted, we can all say what we prefer...but, in the end, we just don't know how much difference it makes. There are no guarantees obviously. Granted, eating higher quality food assumes the dog would live a healthier life. Most of the areas where people say they have seen improvements in their dogs when switching to higher quality foods are like you say...shinier coats, allergies, less stomach upset, etc. . My dogs really never had those types of problems and were healthy all their lives up until past their expected date....which old age can bring on any number of things which I'm sure choice of dry dog food is not a cure-all for. But, I paid my dues for raising dogs and my Ridgebacks lived longer than expected...so I'm not going to look back and say "oh...I should have fed them this instead". To hell with that. Based on how long my dogs lived, I believe I did the job right. Oh...but they could have lived to 15 on a better dry dog food. Not likely. Oh hell...my remaining dog Chloe just turned 12 today. I didn't even realize. Cupcakes and chocolate ice cream for her when I get home.
I've heard in Europe they have higher standards for dog food and their pets generally live longer than our equivalent pet does I started my dog on eukanuba. After about 6 yes switched her to a "good" food for a year or two. Then those ****ers changed ingredients and sold out to mass production and didn't tell anyone. So for months my dog was ****ting everywhere which is no fun witha 100lb dog. Finally after multiple vet visits I google the food and discover what has happened. bastards now she is back on eukanuba. At 12yrs old it is the only thing that keeps her normal just remembered the name : Canidae. Stay away from that stuff
We have a two and a half YO rescue from the pound: Lab and Greyhound we think. Name is Rocket. He likes very little of the food we've ever bought him. Our best results have been with Rachel Ray's Nutrish and more recently Blue Buffalo. Even so he's never been an eager eater and it is slightly heart-breaking. I've thought about going the raw food route. This is going to be worth investigating.
I think I will buy Blue Buffalo today and start trying it out with my dog tonight mixing in what is left with her old. Can I only get that at a Petco or Petsmart? or could I find that at WalMart?
My thoughts: -If it has corn in it, then it's a horrible dog food. -Vets don't know **** about nutrition 75% of the time (or maybe they enjoy kick-backs from dog food supplies...I don't know but I do know they are wrong more than they are right). -Feeding raw is best and you don't have to be a genius or rich to do it. My dogs eat chicken leg quarters for about 70% of their food. They might eat nothing but chicken leg quarters for a week and then I'll give them chicken hearts/livers or beef or fish or any type of mixture. They are wolves, basically, so a balanced diet at every meal is worthless to them. I don't even go to the butcher for bargain scraps, I just go to Wal-mart and I'm still spending about the same as I was when I was feeding quality Kibble (Orijen, Evo or Taste of The Wild). I could save more money if I bothered to do the leg work and get better deals on meat. People try to make feeding raw into rocket science but it's not and no matter how you do it, you're probably doing better by your dog than any kibble out there could. I've got an 11 year old husky mix with chronic demodex that I was told would have to be euthanized. I put her on the raw diet and a year later she looks like she did when she was 5. Here is a nice site about dog food for those that want to continue feeding kibble: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
I think my dog would only eat it raw especially chicken legs if I season it or marinated it, pretty sure that's a bad thing. I'm thinking about just giving them raw patty meats...
