I feed Purina Pro Plan Sport. The dogs are doing great on it. Lincoln has gained some much needed weight and since eating this brand has had perfect formed solid stool. My Shih Tzu who has always had soft poo is now perfect on the Purina. I've had few comments that Purina is bad but my dogs seem to do well on it. I don't live under a rock , I know there are "better" foods out there. I'm just maybe feeling a bit guilty that I'm not feeding the "best" food there is.
I feel as more you read about what food is the best, as more confused you get. Just so many different opinions, reviews, testing. Each page with different suggestions. Some will tell you to go completly grain free, others will tell you that a grain free diet can lead to heart problems.. just trying to figure out how much protein is good for a large breed puppy for good, slow, healthy growth just seemed impossible to me. Some saying to much protein is bad, others saying you need lots of protein..and so on. For a long, long time there has been millions of dogs that lived on Purina all of their life.. and they lived to get pretty old as well, don't believe that they had more health problems than dogs now. Hell, when I was a kid our family dog practicly ate whatever we had that day, and he lived to be 18 years old. So as long your puppys seem to be doing great on it, why change it. We finally settled on NUTRO Ultra, large breed puppy. Some would tell me that this wasn't the best food either. Our girl seems to be doing great on it so far.
Well, there is a lot more research which has come out recently on the subject. The history of things goes: Pet owners started some kind of campaign against grains and became increasingly aware that they don't suit many dogs. Top-end dog food manufacturers responded to this by removing grains - but because kibble requires carbs to stick together and form a little pellet, they had to replace grains with carbs from other sources. This led to a lot of potatoes and sweet potatoes being used. We have no evidence this is any better for dogs, than grains. And now we know that grain-free foods are associated with heart disease because there is an unknown mechanism which affects taurine production. In order to cheaply boost the % of protein they could claim was in a product, they started to use peas as a protein source - this is much cheaper than increasing meat content. And peas and legumes have been linked to fertility issues due to phytoestrogens. It is actually incredibly hard to find a top-end dog food which does not contain peas, these days... I personally believe that no animal on the planet has evolved to be at their biological best when eating small brown identical pellets every day of their lives. Can you imagine going to a store to purchase only small brown pellets for humans, and this would be what we ate for always? As a quick introduction to the subject: Dr Becker has a great 3-part introduction to thinking about feeding dogs appropriately: Whilst we are lacking some of the nitty-gritty research with dogs, a balanced whole-food diet with *real* (not processed) foods, with bioavailable nutrients (not vitamins added artificially after the processing) makes sense as a healthy and species-appropriate diet. I came to raw feeding late and was quite resistant to it for some time. But the research mounts up... Here's a 90% reduction in bladder cancer risk for Scottish terriers when fed green leafy veg...: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16013542 Here's the faecal microbiome being more diverse (healthier) in dogs fed raw, than in dogs fed kibble: https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-017-0981-z
Thank you so much for your input. That is great information. It really does seem like no matter what you try there's bad points about it. I'll have to do some more research.
The issue of grain free foods and DCM isn't as simple as more potatoes peas and legumes are the cause. Linda P Case's summary from her article in September says "Because any or all of these dietary factors could be risk factors for taurine- deficiency DCM in dogs, and because peas, legumes, and other ingredients identified by the FDA report have not yet been fully studied, the heart of the matter is that no conclusions can yet be made about the underlying dietary cause or causes of taurine-deficiency DCM in dogs. But given what we do know, we recommend feeding a diet that contains sufficient levels of high- quality, animal-source protein, does not include plant-source proteins as primary protein sources, and does not contain high levels of dietary fiber. If you are worried about your dog’s taurine status or heart health, whether due to his diet history or physical signs that are of concern, see your veterinarian for a complete physical examination and, if needed, to measure plasma levels of taurine."
Jo, as always, puts it quite simply with the ‘little brown pellet’ explanation. I know many many people feed their dogs kibble, and do great on it, and also there are potential drawbacks to raw. By no means am I preaching, but it just seemed the most logical and natural way of feeding for me. At least I know exactly what’s in it. There are so so many brands on the market it’s quite daunting trying to figure out what’s best to do. And I know kibble had to start somewhere, but with more awareness now of what we feed ourselves, and our pets, together with the awareness of what big brands and big businesses do, I wonder how skeptical we would be if we’d never seen kibble and they tried to market it now? Just a thought....
Thank you. Raw food is not an option for us. I have been doing some research and found what I think is a very trustworthy pet food . www.victorpetfood.com It's privately owned and operated. The kibble is primarily a meat source. So I'm going with that. It's the best I can do.
Jade, why is raw not an option? (Just because sometimes people think it isn't, when it can be.) If it's the idea of making up your own balanced diet that is daunting, there are now many great pre-made complete raw foods available. Many of them come in easy nuggets - you just count out the number of frozen nuggets into the dog's bowl at the previous meal time and let it defrost for the next meal. It's about as easy as feeding kibble, really. If you really can't feed raw and it's about freezer-space, the next best thing is Ziwipeak - which is air-dried and has zero carbs/grains: https://www.ziwipets.com The other great thing about Ziwi, is you can use it for training and handle it - which is hard when feeding a raw mince.
I don't have anything against raw diet It's just way too expensive. At least here in the US it is. The few brands I checked into , it would be $90.00 a week almost for three dogs. Not an option.
Ah, I see. BUT - the good news is that it's not what it seems. Again, don't forget that all food calculators are too high and all recommended amounts of food, are too much! Before we switched to raw, I thought we'd never be able to afford it either based on the food calculators - it seemed insane. But I decided to give it a go. And we are actually spending LESS on raw food, than we were on premium kibble before. So it has been a win-win situation for us. And we feed a pre-made raw (Nutriment). So I'd suggest giving it a go and feeding much less than you are told to - whilst monitoring body condition. And make a choice after that on whether you can afford it. Ziwi is even more expensive than raw, so if you can't afford a raw complete you won't want to feed that either.
Yeah it's ridiculous. I can't believe the price of dog food. If I could find raw at a reasonable price I'd be happy to try it but till then I'll feed the best kibble I can.
@Jade I'm the same I just can't afford a raw diet for him, nor could I fit in in my freezer & don't have the space for another freezer at the moment. He seems to be doing well on the kibble we give him at the moment, which is by no means cheap, and he loves it so far. Obviously if things change then I would then look into different food options for him
I guess we just do the best we can. I did find a much better match for kibble for them so that will have to do.
I’ve just changed to raw with Bruce it works out about £50 a month, but I’ve had to buy a freezer and fridge, just for the food. So as you say it’s not for everyone. Lee
