[Micd]

you should never, ever pay attention to that stuff. It is perfectly legal for dog food companies to make outrageous claims on the packaging aren't even true. For example - carefully sourced. What does that mean? Sounds good? Ask them exactly what they mean by that. "complete and balanced" means nothing other than they've met the pathetic requirements of AAFCO.

Dried sweet potato is the first ingredient, meaning there is more of that than anything else. Dogs don't need sweet potatoes. They need meat. It may not be grains, but is it really good to have a food that's got so much potato in it?

Etc. etc.

Many dog foods are poultry free. Lamb and rice, salmon, bison, the list is very long. It's not hard to get a dog food with no chicken in it.

Thank you for your quick reply :tea: If you can, please list some of the brands you know of without poultry in their ingredients because I have found less than a handful. Some say "lamb" or "beef" or "salmon" but when I read the list of ingredients (the itty-bitty print), there it is. Always some kind of poultry or chicken ingredient. I have had a ruff (no pun intended, haha) time finding a dog food brand (even treats) without chicken or poultry in it. Here are the only ones I can find. I usually shop at PetSmart or one of the major pet stores and also have a local feed store that sometimes can order or get in certain brands for the asking.

Nature's Recipe "Vegetarian" both in the dry & canned dog food. Most reasonably priced but least liked by my dog (& his breath stank)
Blue Buffalo but only the canned "Backyard Barbecue" recipe @ $2.59/can (kind of steep!) didn't contain chicken or poultry.
Simply Nourish but only the sweet potato/salmon recipe.
And treats include: Blue Health Bars Baked with Fish & Sweet Potato.
Pet Botanics Beef & Brown Rice or Bacon & Brown Rice Training Rewards
Canyon Creek Ranch Homestyle HAM slices (like a jerky)
Sergeant's PurLuvTreats but only the Fish Recipe Sticks
Precision Pet Products Spinz chew toy
Mrs. Beaster's Biskits, Canine Grain-Free Bison treats
Denta Clean Puppamints
and there were a couple other "treats" that didn't contain chicken or poultry products (not even egg or broth). So I guess my dog is all set when it comes to treats. The food, though, is hard to find.

If you can check the ingredients on the brands you see and let me know, I'd appreciate it. Thanks again! It's my first time here and this seems like a very helpful forum.

 

[Micd]

poultry-free products and Simply Nourish

Thank you for your quick reply. I thought the same thing about the "sweet potatoes" which seems to be the replacement for the grains & corn in many brands and recipes. I have found several brands that are poultry-free but the selection is few and far between. Most will say "beef," "lamb," "salmon," etc. but when you read the individual "List of Ingredients," there it is! There's always some form of poultry or chicken in the ingredients such as "poultry-by-products, chicken broth, eggs...and so on." If you can check the ingredient lists on the brands you see and let me know if you find any without poultry or chicken, I would appreciate it. I have access to the 2 major pet store chains as well as a couple local farm &/or feed stores which often carry different brands. The ones I have found include:

Blue Buffalo but only the canned "Backyard BBQ" recipe.
Nature's Recipe "Vegetarian" formula (both dry and canned)
and now, the Simply Nourish but only the Sweet Potato & Salmon Recipe.

Treats without chicken or poultry which I've found include:

Mrs. Beaster's Biskits: Canine/Grain-Free Bison Dog Treats
DentaClean Puppamints
Blue Health Bars - Fish & Sweet Potato recipe only
Pet Botanics - Bacon & and Beef & Brown Rice Mini Training Rewards
Canyon Creek Ranch - Homestyle Ham slices (like a jerky)
Sergeant's PurLuv Fish Recipe Sticks

It's my first time here and this looks like a very helpful forum. Thanks again.

 

[Scarlett_O']

Thank you for your quick reply. I thought the same thing about the "sweet potatoes" which seems to be the replacement for the grains & corn in many brands and recipes. I have found several brands that are poultry-free but the selection is few and far between. Most will say "beef," "lamb," "salmon," etc. but when you read the individual "List of Ingredients," there it is! There's always some form of poultry or chicken in the ingredients such as "poultry-by-products, chicken broth, eggs...and so on." If you can check the ingredient lists on the brands you see and let me know if you find any without poultry or chicken, I would appreciate it. I have access to the 2 major pet store chains as well as a couple local farm &/or feed stores which often carry different brands. The ones I have found include:

Blue Buffalo but only the canned "Backyard BBQ" recipe.
Nature's Recipe "Vegetarian" formula (both dry and canned)
and now, the Simply Nourish but only the Sweet Potato & Salmon Recipe.

Treats without chicken or poultry which I've found include:

Mrs. Beaster's Biskits: Canine/Grain-Free Bison Dog Treats
DentaClean Puppamints
Blue Health Bars - Fish & Sweet Potato recipe only
Pet Botanics - Bacon & and Beef & Brown Rice Mini Training Rewards
Canyon Creek Ranch - Homestyle Ham slices (like a jerky)
Sergeant's PurLuv Fish Recipe Sticks

It's my first time here and this looks like a very helpful forum. Thanks again.

Taste of the Wild has 2 different formulas that dont have any form of chicken in them, both Pacific Stream(their fish based one) and Sierra Mountain(their lamb based one,) Acana's Ranchlands and Pacifica(2 from their grain free line) are also both chicken/egg/poultry free, as are Canidae's pureSea and pureLand(2 from their grain free line.) I have 2 dogs(one who I once fed processed food to)who are HORRIDLY allergic to chicken....and there are MANY foods that are chicken free...and MANY of them are FAR better then that current food.

 

[xellil]

Thank you for your quick reply. I thought the same thing about the "sweet potatoes" which seems to be the replacement for the grains & corn in many brands and recipes. I have found several brands that are poultry-free but the selection is few and far between. Most will say "beef," "lamb," "salmon," etc. but when you read the individual "List of Ingredients," there it is! There's always some form of poultry or chicken in the ingredients such as "poultry-by-products, chicken broth, eggs...and so on." If you can check the ingredient lists on the brands you see and let me know if you find any without poultry or chicken, I would appreciate it. I have access to the 2 major pet store chains as well as a couple local farm &/or feed stores which often carry different brands. The ones I have found include:

Blue Buffalo but only the canned "Backyard BBQ" recipe.
Nature's Recipe "Vegetarian" formula (both dry and canned)
and now, the Simply Nourish but only the Sweet Potato & Salmon Recipe.

Treats without chicken or poultry which I've found include:

Mrs. Beaster's Biskits: Canine/Grain-Free Bison Dog Treats
DentaClean Puppamints
Blue Health Bars - Fish & Sweet Potato recipe only
Pet Botanics - Bacon & and Beef & Brown Rice Mini Training Rewards
Canyon Creek Ranch - Homestyle Ham slices (like a jerky)
Sergeant's PurLuv Fish Recipe Sticks
s i
It's my first time here and this looks like a very helpful forum. Thanks again.

You are right and I am wrong - when you include eggs (which yes is a poultry product!) i bet it is hard to find.

And in fact, the last dry food I fed Rebel before we went on raw food was making his ears horribly infected, and it was some kind of non-chicken thing. But when you looked way down on the list, it was there. And i didn't notice it for a long time. he is allergic to processed chicken.

 

[D. Roddington]

I've been feeding Simply Nourish Puppy since it was recommended to me by a Petsmart employee shortly after the arrival of our precious who is now 5 months. Yes, what exactly does carefully sourced mean? I can find no explanation anywhere exactly what the source of this carefully sourced product is. Also, ingredient #2 is chicken meal. I have processed many chickens, and can only surmise that "meal" is ground up trimmings, skin, feathers, feet, lymph nodes, lungs, gall bladders and anything else people wont pay for. I don't judge this inherently as dogs would eat these things along with the rest of the bird if they were to kill and eat it on their own. However ingredient #2 is pretty high on the list for unmentionables. Not especially cheap at $25 for 15 lbs. I started feeding this because I thought it was a high quality food, and it seems to be doing ok, digestive, allergy, and coat all are fine. I was hoping for better than OK. Please community, do tell, if not Simply Nourish, then what? It seems to be at the top end of what's at the pet store. What is a truly good food to feed? And no, I will not become personal chef to my dog, so dry will have to do.

 

[mshurm]

I too found bugs and trash throughout an entire bag of Simply Nourish when I transferred it to a food container the same day I purchased it. This was only the second bag of Simply Nourish I have ever bought. Now I need to find a new food to change to.

 

[Huginn]

Just out of curiosity have you guys reported it when you found bugs in the food? Since my job is always trying to get me to push this food, and I really don't want to, I am really curious how often this has happened and if it has been reported to the company. I'm also curious if this is something at the manufacturers level or the store level, I know occasionally our wild bird food will get bugs in it if there is a hole in the bag, but I check my department for holes in bags every night when I face and we have the Orkin guy in every week to replace our mite deterrents and check the mouse traps. In any case, I am wondering where the quality control is lacking.

 

[lovemydogsalways]

I've been feeding Simply Nourish Puppy since it was recommended to me by a Petsmart employee shortly after the arrival of our precious who is now 5 months. Yes, what exactly does carefully sourced mean? I can find no explanation anywhere exactly what the source of this carefully sourced product is. Also, ingredient #2 is chicken meal. I have processed many chickens, and can only surmise that "meal" is ground up trimmings, skin, feathers, feet, lymph nodes, lungs, gall bladders and anything else people wont pay for. I don't judge this inherently as dogs would eat these things along with the rest of the bird if they were to kill and eat it on their own. However ingredient #2 is pretty high on the list for unmentionables. Not especially cheap at $25 for 15 lbs. I started feeding this because I thought it was a high quality food, and it seems to be doing ok, digestive, allergy, and coat all are fine. I was hoping for better than OK. Please community, do tell, if not Simply Nourish, then what? It seems to be at the top end of what's at the pet store. What is a truly good food to feed? And no, I will not become personal chef to my dog, so dry will have to do.

From Petsmart I see Castor and Pollux and Innova, Wellness CORE. Those are choices I would feed if I could only buy at Petsmart.

 

[D. Roddington]

From Petsmart I see Castor and Pollux and Innova, Wellness CORE. Those are choices I would feed if I could only buy at Petsmart.

All of these have chicken meal listed prominently amongst the ingredients, which make them relatively equivalent to Simply Nourish in my book. According to Wikipedia, chicken meal does not contain organs or entrails, though it does contain sick, dead, and dying chickens which then have the bacteria and pathogens boiled away. It has an extremely high protein content which I'm sure is why it's in every kind of puppy food I can find. My deceased German Shepherd was practically immune to antibiotics by the end of his life, which I attribute to his lifelong consumption of industrially raised poultry products in his food. This became evident when he was 10, and had an infection on his lip which took 4 cephalexin per day for over 100 days to finally cure. Hoping not to repeat this. Maybe I WILL have to become my dog's personal chef...

 

[Unosmom]

Chicken meal is basically bone with meat attached, it doesent contain any entrails or organs, it shouldnt contain any diseased parts, but this may vary based on a company. Most reputable companies use some form of meat meal, as long as its named meal like chicken, lamb, salmon meal, etc and not generic like meat and bone meal, its perfectly fine to feed.

 

[SaharaNight Boxers]

All of these have chicken meal listed prominently amongst the ingredients, which make them relatively equivalent to Simply Nourish in my book. According to Wikipedia, chicken meal does not contain organs or entrails, though it does contain sick, dead, and dying chickens which then have the bacteria and pathogens boiled away. It has an extremely high protein content which I'm sure is why it's in every kind of puppy food I can find. My deceased German Shepherd was practically immune to antibiotics by the end of his life, which I attribute to his lifelong consumption of industrially raised poultry products in his food. This became evident when he was 10, and had an infection on his lip which took 4 cephalexin per day for over 100 days to finally cure. Hoping not to repeat this. Maybe I WILL have to become my dog's personal chef...

This is why you shouldn't always trust Wikipedia...and heck if you do become your dogs own personal chef he'd be eating A LOT better!

 

[doggiedad]

grains are natural unless they're GMO'ed.

I don't mean to be argumentative but what exactly is 'natural' about this kibble? When saying Petco is expanding their natural line.

It looks grain heavy and to me,

>>>>> grains aren't natural! <<<<<

 

[Mkgarcia]

Simply Nourish

Thanks for all the good information regarding this food. I was researching it in hopes of finding a quality food that my 7 month old lab will actually eat. I started him on Taste of the Wild (both puppy formulas) and he did great for about 6 weeks then wouldn't touch it. I have tried Solid Gold Wolf Cub, Blue Longevity, Grandma Maes Country Naturals, Wellness (he wouldn't eat at all),Natural Balance fish & sweet potato & Nature's Recipe (he liked it but I took it back because it had menadione in it). I am now having to mix canned in his dry to get him to eat at all. I'm not opposed to canned but with 8 dogs & 7 cats it causes a feeding frenzy I can't afford. Please help! I'm open to just about anything other than canned or raw. Does anyone have info on Back to Basics? That's the next brand I'm going to research. Thanks

 

[kaliberknl]

You might want to try Acana...my setters love Champion products...no synthetic selenium or vitamin K. Just know dogs often have gas and soft stools when first transitioning. Mine are eating Orijen and Acana Pacifica but the duck and ranchlands also seem popular.

 

[Mkgarcia]

Thanks for your advice. I have looked at both of those, my problem is its not available anywhere near me. I'd prefer to not have to order food if at all possible. I'm heading to the pet store now to buy Canidae PureSea. It's a grain free formula and I found a lot of positive reviews on it. I've had problems finding the right dog food for dogs due to allergies but never because my dog won't eat anything!! He has never had table scraps so I don't know why he is so finicky!!

 

[kaliberknl]

Are you aware that Canidae is made by Diamond? Please google Canidae recall and class action suits...

 

[AveryandAudrey]

It looks like a decent food. Beter than a lot of other stuff sold at petsmart. I would see blue buffalo wilderness is better as its grain free. I have a service dog too by the way

 

[PDXdogmom]

Canidae is in the process of starting to manufacture their own food at a new plant for them in Texas. This was already in the works before the Diamond recall. They should be up to full production speed soon.

You could also take a look at NutriSource. It is a good value and made by a family-owned company in Minnesota.

 

[Roger Biduk]

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Oatmeal, Brown Rice Flour, Tomato Pomace, Canola Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Natural Flavor, Flaxseed, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Carrots, Dried Spinach, Dried Sweet Potato, Dried Pumpkin, Dried Blueberries, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, L-ascorbyl-polyphosphate, Niacin, Vitamin A Supplement, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin D Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement), Minerals (Zinc Sulfate, Ferric Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Choline Chloride.


Not bad, it just looks like a million of other grain inclusive brands out there, nothing particularly special about it, but I'm glad petsmart is expanding their natural line, so hopefully more people will be inclined to switch from pedigree or some other crud.

Hello Unosmom,

You're right, it's not bad but not close to being good whatsoever.. I wouldn't recommend it to clients or feed it to my dogs.

Chicken has to be ignored as the first ingredient. Chicken is 75.6% water and moves back to about the fifth ingredient once the water is evaporated during processing.
At least they have a "meal" as the second ingredient which moves up to the first spot followed by nothing but really bad ingredients, grains.

Grains now make up 75% of the first four ingredients...!
Grains are among the cheapest and worst ingredients in cat/dog foods and and responsible for most if not all of the degenerative illness and disease that pet owners pay thousands of dollars to cure. We're talking fungus and mold-quality, not fit for human consumption grains here.

A balanced, enzyme-rich raw meat diet is always best followed by freeze-dried raw, canned grain-free low starch with the same type of kibble last.

Plus, the fact that Simply Nourish is "exclusively sold at PetSmart" tells me it's their cheap private label.

One thing that you did mention that was extremely important is that "hopefully more people will be inclined to switch from pedigree or some other crud".
That other "crud" being Iams, Eukanuba, Pedigree. Royal Canin, Ol' Roy, Science Diet, Hill's Prescription Diet and any pet foods that contain grains and most of the veterinarian recommended brands. Grain-free is a must.

You said it "just looks like a million of other grain inclusive brands out there, nothing particularly special about it,", sums it up nicely.
Bon chance, Roger Biduk

 

[Roger Biduk]

grains are natural unless they're GMO'ed.

Natural or not, grains have never been, are not now and will never, ever be part of a natural diet for a carnivore (dog) or obligate carnivore (cat).
Grains are responsible for most if not all of the degenerative illnesses and diseases in cats/dogs and must be avoided.