[Akari_32]

Anyone seen this yet? Just got an email for it this morning (I like to get Purina emails for the giggles– is that bad?? LOL).

https://www.proplan.com/dog-food-products/bright-mind

https://www.purina.com/meet-purina/nutrition/innovation

It’s supposed to have all sorts of good stuff for senior dogs to promote motility and brain function, and isn’t just the run-of-the-mill senior food with less protein and more carbs like most others are. I’m tempted to email them for the giggles and see if they’ll release the ingredient list to me.

I’m not a Purina fan, but honestly, I’m considering trying it for Ginger. By the time this comes out, it’ll be cold all the time, so it’d be a perfect time to try it out and see if it actually helps, along with her normal glucosamine and such. She’s doing pretty good on Wellness, but I think she’s still having trouble with something about it, and she goes though phases of diarrhea every couple weeks regardless of what I do. She was on Royal Canin before I got her, so going to Wellness was a pretty big jump for her system. Maybe going to a mid-grade food would benefit her. We all know not all do well on higher end foods.

Anyone have any thoughts on this new food?

[aquariangt]

based on everything else purina has done, even though they tote it differently, it will be either run of the mill, or inferior overall. Even their “Active Dog” blends are like 30% protein max, with by product and all the other junk that comes along with it.

[Akari_32]

The thing with Purina is that that they *like* carbs. They know that dogs (and cats) do not need them, and they know that dogs loose weight better on low carb, high protein diets. But because they are greedy and want all the money they can get, they tout carbs to be valuable energy sources and actually call them “essential carbs.” They know all this stuff, yet they don’t put it into practice. They do have some Pro Plan formulas that look pretty good, and that I’ve used here and there in the past, however. And I like the looks of Beyond for shot term use, and I’ve used those as well, before the recent packaging and marketing changes. I will say, they are getting better, as a brand. They are realizing that consumers are beginning to no longer rely on marketing, but are instead reading labels and researching for themselves what is good and what is not. My hope for this new line is that Purina has continued down that path. Don’t get me wrong, my hopes are aren’t high, but they are there lol

[Hater and Molly’s Mom]

Purina claims it will nourish the mind, lol! If it does what they say im going to get a bag of it and eat it myself. My mind isn’t what it used to be, lol! Looks like just another marketing gimmick to me.

[Dog_Obsessed]

I take joy in looking around the Purina website, and looking at reviews of really, really bad dog food on DFA. This food is probably just another of their marketing gimmicks, I would try another middle step food if you were going to do that, maybe Wellness simple? It’s a bit lower protein and higher carb than the CORE recipes, plus the limited ingredients could be good.

[Elizabeht B]

http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.michvma.org/resource/resmgr/mvc_proceedings_2014/deporter_03.pdf

My dog has CCD or canine cognitive dysfunction and the 3 foods that address this nutritionally are hills b/d, purina one vibrant maturity and the pro plan bright mind. If your dog doesn’t ever need this food, that’s great, but this food has actually helped my dog a lot. He’s gone from spinning in circles non-stop and sever anxiety to an occasional circle and more like his old self. He’s 13, Aussie mix and the diet change took about 3 weeks for me to notice a difference.

[Elizabeht B]

I also give him 225 mg of Sam-e / sogeval snap tabs in the morning – can’t give that with tramadol FYI.

[InkedMarie]

What about those foods leads you to believe that they help CCD?

[Elizabeht B]

Researching the nutritional needs, studies and the visible effect it has had for my dog. 3 months ago he would go after the cat to the point I thought I’d have to separate them – new behavior this year, to now, coexisting peacefully as it was a year ago. He’s more alert and responsive also. Lot of small behaviors improved and reverted to more like his old pre-dementia behavior.

[terry l]

If your dog has CCD, there is medication that you can get from your vet. Our girl, who was 14 was afflicted with it. We had her put on medication that is used for Parkison’s Disease in humans. She responded very well for almost a year. It is a disease that has no cure, but having her for 11 months more was everything to us. It is kinda of expensive, but it was worth it. The change was almost immediate. And it has about 85% success rate according to studies. The name is Anipryl. Good luck.

[Kevin B]

Wow. Some of you guys are brutal. I tell ya what. I have an 11 year old Lab. And I’ve had him on Bright Mind for a little over a month. And it’s doing well for him. He’s perked up, he’s not running around like a puppy any more. But he isn’t just laying down sleeping all day. He’s on a couple meds. An d prior to this we feed him Call of the Wild. I knew Purina wasn’t a great dog food before I bought Bright Mind, but I tell ya what. If you have an old dog, feeding them this, isn’t going to hurt, the comments I see an here seem to be rather arrogant. Relax folks. If you have enough time to look at the Purina site to get a laugh… you must live a sad strange life. I got my old mutt back after feeding him this. He’s still old and slow, but you can see the improvement.

[C4D]

Hi Kevin B,

The thing is, Purina is including some of the things that more natural feeders have been using for years and calling it proprietary. MCTs, fish oil and glucosamin can be found in a lot better products than generic poultry byproduct meal, generic fish oil and manufactured MCT oil. They are also charging a fairly high price for some mediocre ingredients.

Link: https://www.proplan.com/dogs/products/bright-mind-adult-7plus-chicken-rice-formula/#ingredientsandguaranteedanalysis

I have an almost 11 year old Lab (aka old dog by your standards) with diagnosed arthritis in her 2 back knees (torn ccl’s) and she is on NO medications, walks/jogs almost 2 miles daily, runs and chases all the wildlife in the back yard, has stellar blood panels, a beautiful shiny coat, good teeth overall (she’s any aggressive chewer and had some dental work done as a result) and does act like a young dog. I feed her some good kibble and canned food mix along with a fresh meal daily. She does get supplements of Coconut oil, fish oil (human supplement sardine and anchovy) and Glucosamin/Chondroitin. You might want to try adding some really good fresh or canned food to his diet and look into supplements and you might be surprised how much more improvement you’ll see. 🙂

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by C4D. Reason: defining fish oil I use

[Karen W]

I changed my Bassador to Bright Mind about 2 months ago & within a week saw a remarkable improvement in my dog’s behavior. He went from sleeping all the time to back to his active self in a month. He was shot in the shoulder & left for dead as a puppy. His shoulder does not seem as painful as it was & he’s much happier.
My daughter tried it on her dog with the same results. I also recommended it to a co-worker who was also quite pleased with the results. Don’t knock it until you try it.

[C4D]

Karen W,

What were you and your daughter feeding before you switched to Bright Mind?

[Pitlove]

Karen- Glad your dog is doing so well on Bright Mind. I hope he has continued success with it.

[Fiona Z]

I had my black lab on this for a month. She is 7 and in great shape. I thought it was a good idea and she was already on pro plan. I thought I noticed a difference in her energy levels and thought she was more alert. Precious lazy lab! Then after two weeks unbearable scratching and horrendous gas!two weeks of it and took her to the vet he said she was allergic to something and have her different antihistamine (I’d tried Zyrtec and Benedryl and it usually works) anyway long story shorter… She was better within the day and no gas! I went on the forum and read all about the ingredients and changed her food to a Blue brand basics. I didn’t like how we eat whole foods and I had her eating this long list! So my question for you guys is what can I add to her food myself? That would mimic the bright minds idea?
Sorry if there are typos I’m on my phone and the screen isn’t letting me edit. Thanks Fiona!

[Fiona Z]

Making sure I get follow up emails for any of your comments. So had to type something here.
Thanks for all your help! Dog lovers are good people worldwide 🙂

[Elizabeht B]

I used these http://www.vitasprings.com/gray-muzzle-brain-best-friend-90-chews-ark-naturals.html?gclid=CPfOq4fJ8MgCFQ6QHwodYlIHhw#.Vja6UHo8KK0 same ingredients as senilife way cheaper and hills b/d may be an option, ask your vet to review the ingredients – http://www.hillspet.com/products/pd-canine-bd-canine-aging-and-alertness-dry.html

[Elizabeht B]

Sorry purina, about suggesting the hills… Dog had allergy. She tried. 🙂 dogs more important here.

[Fiona Z]

Thanks so much those chew things look good! For some reason I’ve always been wary of the Hills line.. Have no idea why.. Is it really expensive or had bad reviews in the 90s. Do you also do fish oil and coconut oil or just the chews and the dry food?

[Elizabeht B]

My dog passed about a month ago, but fish oil is very good for their joints and I had given him that as well. I wish I had started that earlier. Make sure you get a good quality – I was buying a Norwegian brand for him. Hills is expensive but a very good quality food. My guy had some digestive issues and the I/d controlled that really well. People say bad things about purina, too, but I found the Brite mind to be a good food. He liked it too. I think unfortunately people tend to misassociate actual true data with irrelevant and coincidental data which just muddies the water – everyone is an expert any more. Good luck with your dog !!

[emorytink]

I just started buying Bright Mind about 3 months ago for my 7 year old Morkie and had no idea it was rated so poorly. But I feel like my dog has improved drastically on it! I got it because she seemed to have lost her spunk. She didn’t want to play as much and I felt as if she was in a fog. Since giving her this, she always wants to play and is completely with it and full of herself. I want to give her something with a higher rating but she seems to be doing well on this.

[pitlove]

Hi emorytink-

The ratings on this website should not deter you from using a food your dog is doing well on. In fact in the article Dr.Mike wrote on here “The Problem with Dog Food Reviews” he even states that a 1 star rated food isn’t necessarily a bad food.

Let your dog tell you if the food is best for her, not a website.

[HoundMusic]

I’ve been seriously considering giving the Bright Mind a try for a dog who started having massive, uncontrollable grand mal seizures @ 9yrs old. He’s now 11 and has a notable degree of brain damage, but doing better on a home cooked diet (as opposed to raw), even without supplements, so it’s obvious diet does have an impact on cognitive health.

I don’t have a single issue with feeding any of Purina’s higher grade foods – in fact, when I was actively breeding, Purina ONE and Puppy/Dog Chow gave me outstanding results. These were hunting dogs that quickly fell apart on a feed that was even slightly lacking, and quite honestly, there’s a reason most show & field breeders don’t touch the holistic, “boutique” type foods, and it’s NOT the price. When your entire kennel is going to pot, you’re desperate enough to pay anything.

However, I haven’t fed anything Purina in close to 8yrs, since they changed their formulas back in ’08. I did just pick up a back of the Purina ONE Mature Adult tonight, since this weekend was too busy to do a raw food shopping, and the ingredients look very similar to Bright Mind. I’ll update if I stick with it and notice any differences…

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