Hi Ashley:
My dog is six, can eat anything, and has no health issues other than a tendency to gain weight during hot weather months. For canned foods I only take brands, ingredients, calories, proteins, and GA’s into consideration. I feed whatever recipe fits the bill regardless of what is on the label, puppy, small/large breed, Sr., etc. I try to feed foods with a fat to protein ratio of 50% or less; equal calories coming from fat and protein or more from protein than fat. For example, a recipe that is 4% fat and 8% protein would be ideal for him, 7% fat – 8% protein not so much. Some of the f-p ratios I feed can be up to 70% which is okay at this time since I rotate foods.
My budget foods are Tractor Supply Company 4Health – Turkey & Sweet Potato, Beef & Veg stews, or Sr. Chicken & Rice recipes, Triumph Puppy or Turkey recipes, BJ’s Earth’s Pride Chicken & Rice, and Wal-Mart Pure Balance Stews.
Here are some brands to check out that I currently feed or have fed:
Blue Buffalo Home-style, by Nature (no 95% recipes), California Natural, Canidae Pure Sky or Foundations, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Eagle Pack, Halo Spot’s Stew or Spot’s Choice recipes, Holistic Select, Hill’s Ideal Balance stews, Lotus, Nature’s Recipe canned or tubs, Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed recipes, Precise, Purina Pro Plan Natural recipes, Purina Beyond, Red Barn stews, Tiki Dog, Wellness – Core, Simple, Complete Health, or Stew recipes, and Weruva Human Style or Dogs in the Kitchen recipes only (Kobe/Kurobuta recipes are canned by Evanger’s).
Low fat recipes; most are available at my local stores. I order Life’s Abundance from their website. Generally I find stews to be higher in protein and lower in fat, but not always. These are between 12-20% fat and below 25% carbs on a dry matter basis using their label info:
Fromm’s Shredded Beef
I and Love and You Stews
Life’s Abundance Turkey & Shrimp or Chic & Crab stews
Nature’s Recipe Pure Essentials LID GF Chic/Broth or GF Lamb/Broth
Nature’s Recipe Pure Essentials tubs LID Duck or LID Venison
Nature’s Recipe tubs GF Chic & Duck in broth or GF Chic & Venison in broth
Nature’s Recipe tubs Chicken in broth or Chic & Turkey in broth
Nature’s Recipe GF Chic & Turkey stew or Chic & Venison Stew
Purina Beyond GF stews
Red Barn Beef Stew
Tiki Dog – Kauai Luau, Lahaina Luau, Maui Luau, or Tonga Luau recipes
Weruva – Marbella Paella, Bed & Breakfast, or Paw Lickin’ Chicken recipes
Wellness Core Weight Management
These are 22-25% fat and below 25% carbs DMB:
Halo Sr. Beef
Merrick Golden Years Medley
Nutro Natural Choice LID Sr.
Precise Holistic Pork w/veg in gravy
Red Barn Chic, Turkey, or Steak & Egg stews
Wal-Mart Pure Balance stews
Wellness Stews
Here are some freeze dried/frozen commercial raw and dehydrated foods I feed. I use the same guidelines for these foods:
I and Love and You dehydrated Turkey (I also want to try the Beef and Chicken)
Nature’s Variety Raw Frozen Beef, Lamb, and Venison
Primal FD Turkey & Sardine, Frozen Venison, and frozen Turkey & Sardine
Stella & Chewy’s FD Chicken
Here is some info you might find helpful:
/choosing-dog-food/canned-or-dry-dog-food/
/dog-feeding-tips/how-much-dog-food/
/canine-nutrition/low-fat-dog-food/
/choosing-dog-food/dry-matter-basis/
/choosing-dog-food/raw-dog-food-fat/
http://www.dogaware.com/diet/freshfoods.html
Carb calculator:
http://www.scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html
