I would never pick based just on these items but hypothetically I would pick between horizon legacy, honest kitchen (sorry I know it's not kibble but does start dry) and timberwolf an Orijen.

 

I have my dogs on EVO and they do great. I also like Merrick,Canidae and TOTW.

 

EVO, Nature's Variety, Orijen, Acana, Taste of the Wild, Fromm, Wellness, Merrick, Blue Buffalo, Native, Dr. Tims, etc...
Basically almost any "5 star" food on dogfoodadvisor.com

 

Orijen, Acana or Fromm

 

In terms of "sexy" ingredients... Orijen kind of jumps off the page.

I do wonder if it is a lot of window dressing but Fresh caught Walleye is kind of alluring. As is free range chicken and everything else they put in.

Admittedly, I'd like to know EXACTLY what goes into alot of foods.

You kind of have 2 buckets of research I'd like to do...

1. When we hear "Fresh Lake caught Walleye," we all picture 2 Canadian Fisherman in their 25 foot Walleye boat arriving at the Orijen Production dock by noon daily, delivering their fresh Walleye. Is this really what happens?... I fear it probably isn't. But I WOULD like to know EXACTLY what it means.

2. How much do these "sexy" ingredients really matter to our Dogs. I mean, when I see "sun cured alfalfa," my eyes get huge. What does it do for my Dog?... hell, I don't know but any company that puts that in there must love my Dog.

Note--I'm not jabbing at Orijen. I honestly would like to get answers to the above subjects. I probably won't unless I can go undercover and actually follow the sourcing trail for all of their ingredients.

All that being said, Champion does seem to do it right.

 

1. When we hear "Fresh Lake caught Walleye," we all picture 2 Canadian Fisherman in their 25 foot Walleye boat arriving at the Orijen Production dock by noon daily, delivering their fresh Walleye. Is this really what happens?... I fear it probably isn't. But I WOULD like to know EXACTLY what it means.

Close, there are 3 of them. Here they are :smile: In all honesty, in a way you are actually not that far off. No own dock though, there's a third party preparing the catch before it ends up at Champion, Horizon or Nutram/Elmira. Question is, does it make a better performing dog food?

Video; Commercial Winter Fishing - Dauphin River, MB - Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters

2. How much do these "sexy" ingredients really matter to our Dogs. I mean, when I see "sun cured alfalfa," my eyes get huge. What does it do for my Dog?... hell, I don't know but any company that puts that in there must love my Dog.

Here's a few links to some nutrition pdf's and an ingredient library explaining various stuff. From the nutritionists at Nutram but it applies for all brands.

Nutram Super Premium Pet Food: The Science Behind Nutram
Nutram Super Premium Pet Food: Ingredient Library
Nutram Super Premium Pet Food: Innovative Ingredients

 

They use a LOT of fancy adjectives. Sun cured alfalfa is no different than alfalfa. But see how you think it sounds so much better?

I'd say Orijen or EVO or Horizon Legacy.

 

The company and its reputation, as well as the opinion of professional users, come first. There is enough wiggle room in labelling to screw the average consumer if you go by what the ingredients list says.

Your dog is an animal not a person. So while pig's blood may make the average consumer faint, trust me your dog is happy and fortunate to have it.

 

I'm not talking about "sexy" ingredients. I'm talking about what food you think has the best ingredients for dogs. For example, many people would consider EVO to have very good ingredients/analysis, lots of meat. But people don't recommend it because they don't trust the company that makes it.

So I'd like to hear about more foods like that, foods with good ingredients with or without "good" (because that may be subjective) companies behind them. Many people seem to only be recommending Fromm, Earthborn, Acana, and Orijen nowadays, and I'm wondering if it's because people consider the actual products the best of the best, or if it's because they are the only companies they trust.


I'm also not trying to say a good company is not important, I'm just curious how many foods we write off because we don't trust the company.

 

I'm not talking about "sexy" ingredients. I'm talking about what food you think has the best ingredients for dogs. For example, many people would consider EVO to have very good ingredients/analysis, lots of meat. But people don't recommend it because they don't trust the company that makes it.

So I'd like to hear about more foods like that, foods with good ingredients with or without "good" (because that may be subjective) companies behind them. Many people seem to only be recommending Fromm, Earthborn, Acana, and Orijen nowadays, and I'm wondering if it's because people consider the actual products the best of the best, or if it's because they are the only companies they trust.

I'm also not trying to say a good company is not important, I'm just curious how many foods we write off because we don't trust the company.

I feed both EVO and Taste of the Wild. Love them. Fed Taste of the Wild all through that Diamond recall without a problem. I am not a fan of Diamond, but the food works good for my dogs so there. EVO (also not a fan of P&G) I am still testing out, but I am liking it a lot so far. I don't write a food off because of a "bad" company unless they do something I really find to be quite unethical (which has got to be pretty dang bad in my books) or if my dogs don't do well on their food.
Funnily enough, I do not recommend Orijen often. Why? My dog didn't do well on it, simple as that. Same with Wellness, but plenty of other people have dogs that do great on those foods. I mention that when I recommend foods, and if the person is concerned about a company, I'll tell them what I know about it.

But for me, the bottom line is: Does the dog do well on the food, and can I afford it? I do prefer to support a good company, but if my dog does better on X product over Y, and X is easily more affordable then Y, I'm gonna go with X even if I don't like that company so well.

 

I think TOTW has a pretty good ingredient list, but I wouldn't feed due to the Diamond relation.

 

I pick Champion foods and as someone else said, The Honest Kitchen (mostly Zeal and love) and while I'm new to it, so far I'm happy with how my dogs are doing on Brothers.

 

People not trusting Nestle (Pro Plan), Proctor & Gamble (Eukanuba & Natura) and Mars (Royal Canin) is without merit so yes good foods are written off.

Hills, Nestle Purina, and Royal Canin all got in trouble and fined for price fixing in France. Nestle makes the Waggin Train chicken jerky treats that have injured and killed more pets than any of the other supposedly tainted jerky treats according to the Marketplace investigative news report "Fighting for Fido" and are still being currently made and sold. Purina has 487 consumer complaints on the consumer affairs website for making pets ill and mold/bugs found in their products and P&G has 323 complaints on the same website for their Iams products. I did not see similar consumer complaints for foods like Champion, Dr. Tims, Earthborn, etc.

Dog biscuit firms fined for price fixing - The Connexion
Fighting For Fido - Marketplace
487 Complaints and Reviews about Purina Pet Foods
323 Complaints and Reviews about Iams Pet Foods
139 Complaints and Reviews about Waggin Train Treats

Beyond ingredients and recalls, I could kind of see why some people might not feel like trusting these companies.

 

To be fair, of course these foods are going to have a lot more complaints... a lot more people feed them. I would guess that 80% of the population feeds their dogs stuff like Eukanuba, Purina, etc. So naturally there will be more complaints than a smaller company.

 

Monster, you seriously think Eukanuba and ProPlan are good foods?

Seriously, I want a direct answer. Yes or No.