[rockymtsweetie82]

Can anyone tell me about this brand? My veterinary hospital highly recommends it and I would like to know more about it. Thank you.

 

[zomo]

What are the ingredients in this food? I have never heard tell of it. Its called Dads Dog Chow ?

 

[zomo]

I think I found the food that you are talking about, and to be honest with you, it really isn't great:by products and cancer causing preservatives lots of corn and corn gluten I think you will get much better advice on what to feed your dog on this forum . Tell us what kind of dog you have how old is he/she is and what activity level does she/he have ? Do they have any special problems such as allergies or obesity? I think you will be surprised at the amount of info you will find here.

 

[rannmiller]

From what I found on the food: just say no! I think it may be time to either find new vets or decide to completely disregard anything they try to tell you about nutrition from now on because that food is awful, awful stuff! It's on the same [horrendously low] level as Purina Dog Chow, Pedigree, Alpo, and Ol' Roy. Ick! There is nothing good about this food IMHO.

 

[domari]

It's a popular food around here because it's cheap, all the grocery stores sell it.
But it's trash just like the other grocery store food, stay away from it.

 

[rockymtsweetie82]

Thank you for the information. I just wanted to know before I tried it on them.

As for types, ages of dogs. I have an 8 week old JRT mix, who is of course exciteable and hyper. I have an 11 month old female pitbull who is happy go lucky and loves to run, chase balls all the time. Neither dog has any problems or obesity issues.

 

[rannmiller]

Didn't China have a problem with her hair getting coarse and falling out a while back? What did you do to fix that?

 

[domari]

Thank you for the information. I just wanted to know before I tried it on them.

As for types, ages of dogs. I have an 8 week old JRT mix, who is of course exciteable and hyper. I have an 11 month old female pitbull who is happy go lucky and loves to run, chase balls all the time. Neither dog has any problems or obesity issues.

If you're on a tight budget there are other lower priced brands better than Dad's that you can try. But you can afford any of the premium brands, then stay away from whatever is sold in the grocery store.

 

[rockymtsweetie82]

We've been adding fish oil to her kibble. She loves it. Her hair has grown back full and lush. Not even dandruff anymore!

 

[rannmiller]

I bet she does! I'd still recommend switching from Purina Dog Chow (if that's what you're still feeding, I know a while back you said you tried a lamb and rice food but you never told us what it was or if you stuck with it) just because of all the horrendous health problems a corn based diet can have on a dog such as: itchy skin and coat associated with skin allergies, hot spots, excessive eating, excessive pooping, not getting enough nutrients (very important in dogs that will be bred), cancer, kidney failure, hyper activity, diabetes, uncontrollable weight gain or loss, etc. Just to name a few. You may not see any of these problems right now, and think "My dog's doing fine now, I'll change the food if that comes up." But then if it's something really great like hot spots you get to live with the knowledge that you knew you were feeding something that could cause this, but you did it anyway and now your dog is in itchy horrendous pain. Or diabetes, kidney failure, or cancer, only then it shortens their life and adds a gigantic vet bill to yours. It's kinda like that old adage: "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I'm not trying to be preachy or mean and I know you probably won't listen to me because you haven't before. I'm just hoping, for your pups' sakes, that you might at least consider these possibilities before you purchase another bag of food because it's cheap and hey it hasn't caused any problems for you yet! If not, that's okay too and I sincerely hope that your pups live long and healthy lives.

 

[zomo]

Innova, Holistic Select, are two good foods. As for the what they cost just, think how much you will be saving at the vets. Often the higher the quality of food the less you have to feed them. Orijen and Evo are great but a little more pricey. At this age you might go for an all life stages formula but as they get older you may want to switch to a adult formula as the calcium and phosphorus levels are often to high for adult dogs.

 

[zomo]

Forgot to tell you, adding a couple of raw eggs (with shell) to their diet is a great and inexpensive way to add something great to their diets. :biggrin:

 

[rannmiller]

Natural Balance and Canidae are both perfectly fine all life stages foods at an extremely reasonable price as well. I know fish oil isn't cheap, believe me, my brother had to use it on his lab and it was about $27 for a month's supply. Might as well just upgrade the dog food for that price. Think about it: $23 on dog food + $27 on fish oil = $50/month on dog food for one dog. For that much money you can get a really great dog food and the food will probably last you longer too. And again, save you on vet bills in the future.

 

[rockymtsweetie82]

No, I definitely do want to change. I wanted to make sure the fish oil would help first too, instead of making things worse and I'd heard great things about that on here. I have actually started her on an afternoon raw diet as well (from all the posts on here, they got me curious) and she loves it. Since I'm only feeding my pups kibble in the morning now, I'd like to find a great kibble, but have no idea where to begin. Looking at packages in stores are overwhelming because you see "GUARANTEED TO KEEP YOUR DOG HEALTHY" or crap like that. I just want honest answers to my questions. Seems like I get that here, whether I like the answers or not right? lol What is the best kibble to feed both an 8 week pup and an 11 month old pup? (Can be same brand/different age groups) Something that's not too hearty on my wallet but still, if it's going to be a great food, I don't care anymore> I'm going to try anything to keep my pets living long and healthy. I can't bear to go through another furbaby death....

 

[rannmiller]

It's good to hear you want to change foods (and again, I'm so sorry about Mako, may he rest in peace). I know how horribly overwhelming it can be in those stores, especially if you don't know exactly what to look for. I always tell people to never read the front of the package because all of them will say the same thing. It's the ingredients that give you the real answers. You want named meat sources as your first (and preferably second) ingredient. You want to see no corn, wheat, soy, beet pulp, artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives (BHA/BHT, ethoxyquin).

If you can find it, I'd say go with Canidae first because it has a higher linoleic acid content (3.7%) which will be better for China's coat so hopefully you won't have to add as much fish oil to her kibble. http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_stages/dry.html

If you can't find Canidae, go with the regular blue bag of Natural Balance small bites (so Ducky can eat it too). It's linoleic acid content is slightly lower (3%), and has a little more grain in it than I'd prefer, but still much better than a lot of foods. Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance® Ultra Premium Dog Food

These are both all life stages foods, so just follow the feeding guidelines on the bag and adjust the amount you feed to your dogs' body state (losing or gaining weight). Just make sure you do the slow transition, so there are minimal to no upset tummies.

 

[rannmiller]

And that's awesome about the raw diet! If you want to save more money than you would on a kibble diet, raw is the way to go and your dogs will do even better! Plus, less poop! You just have to make sure you have a little freezer space for it. Not a lot though, I feed all 3 of my dogs out of one shelf in my normal-sized freezer, I just make sure I got to the store once a week for their food and that one shelf holds all their food for the week.

Oh and in the mean time, make sure you're feeding the raw food far enough apart timewise from the kibble. About 8 hours or so. That way the kibble isn't slowing down the digestion of the raw food.

 

[mederic24]

Canidae Mess

Rannmiller....I think perhaps you should check out this information about Canidae before recommending it to anyone.
Consumer complaints about CANIDAE Pet Foods

 

[rockymtsweetie82]

It's good to hear you want to change foods (and again, I'm so sorry about Mako, may he rest in peace). I know how horribly overwhelming it can be in those stores, especially if you don't know exactly what to look for. I always tell people to never read the front of the package because all of them will say the same thing. It's the ingredients that give you the real answers. You want named meat sources as your first (and preferably second) ingredient. You want to see no corn, wheat, soy, beet pulp, artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives (BHA/BHT, ethoxyquin).

If you can find it, I'd say go with Canidae first because it has a higher linoleic acid content (3.7%) which will be better for China's coat so hopefully you won't have to add as much fish oil to her kibble. http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_stages/dry.html

If you can't find Canidae, go with the regular blue bag of Natural Balance small bites (so Ducky can eat it too). It's linoleic acid content is slightly lower (3%), and has a little more grain in it than I'd prefer, but still much better than a lot of foods. Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance® Ultra Premium Dog Food

These are both all life stages foods, so just follow the feeding guidelines on the bag and adjust the amount you feed to your dogs' body state (losing or gaining weight). Just make sure you do the slow transition, so there are minimal to no upset tummies.

Thank you so much for the information! I wrote it all down and will be going to the pet store Friday!

 

[rockymtsweetie82]

Oh and in the mean time, make sure you're feeding the raw food far enough apart timewise from the kibble. About 8 hours or so. That way the kibble isn't slowing down the digestion of the raw food.

Definitely, I'd read that in another raw conversation in here somewhere. I feed kibble first thing when we all get up after the dogs have their first time outside (anywhere between 8-9am) and they don't get their second feeding (raw) until around 5pm.

 

[rannmiller]

Rannmiller....I think perhaps you should check out this information about Canidae before recommending it to anyone.
Consumer complaints about CANIDAE Pet Foods

I've heard of people's dogs having issues with it, but I thought it was because of the new formula change that added some glutens to it and dogs with gluten allergies would have issues with it. I have a friend who's had his dog on Canidae for over two years and the dog didn't even have issues with the formula change in the slightest. Maybe rockymtsweetie could try a small bag of each and see which one sits better with China and Ducky. I know most of the small boutique stores have samples she can try.