[crazy4cats]

Hi Zach-
I give my dogs canned every morning with their breakfast. In the evening they get either sardines, eggs, dehydrated, or frozen raw nuggets with their Kibbles. If we have healthy leftovers, I’ll throw those on too!
I think it’s really healthy to add to dry food. Good luck!

[arwyru24]

I only very recently started buying canned food online, because I was worried about getting damaged merchandise, but all of the local stores have started to really raise prices so high that I can get a very substantial discount purchasing online and I am on a pretty tight budget and I use a lot of canned cat food so it was worth it to try. So far I have ordered 4 months worth, so 4 orders, 1 from Pet360, and 3 from Chewy and I have been really very pleasantly surprised. Now I did get one case of Wellness canned cat food (the big cans) that had 3 cans that were severely dented, so I contacted Chewy and they sent me a new case for free (all of the cans were 100% perfect in the replacement case) right away, so it arrived 2 days later, and they didnt ask me to send anything back or go through any of that hassle. They just suggested that I consider donating any of the “salvageable” or bonus cans to a shelter. It worked out being like 9 free 12.5oz cans of which I put 6 in my donation box (just being honest), but I do buy a lot to donate, I currently have about 75 cans of various sizes to bring in as well as about 30lbs of dry food. So the long and short is that I have been pleasantly surprised so far.

[Case]

Have I read too much today and confused myself? It appears that it’s more cost effective to feed raw than high end kibble. Am I overlooking something here?

http://www.chewy.com/dog/grandma-lucys-pureformance-grain/dp/36506
-vs-
http://www.chewy.com/dog/orijen-puppy-grain-free-dry-dog-food/dp/29733

[DogFoodie]

Hi Paula,

Take a look at this thread: /forums/topic/dry-dog-food-with-low-salt-and-low-fat/

Scroll down to the second post. Gina S did a bunch of research and shared her findings regarding the sodium content of a number of different foods.

[Denise T]

I started feeding Blue Buffalo about 6 months ago and one of my shih tzu started having soft stools which this week developed into bloody diarrhea. I didn’t know about the carrageenan but it wasn’t in his previous food and he didn’t start having problems until I gave him the canned food. I had thought the Blue Buffalo was a good choice due to all the great reviews I’ve read and now I believe it has made my youngest really sick. I thought I was doing a good thing by limiting dry food and doing research, but it wasn’t enough!!

[D. M]

Hi TheBCnut,

Thanks for the feedback. I thought that too, which is why I tried Natural Balance LI, both dry and canned, and home made food, but she still had either very loose stools or diarrhea. At the point where we were trying different foods, we were 2 months with those digestive issues and I was concerned about her health during that crucial stage of development, so I was willing to put her on the DCO just to control her. I’m wondering what it is about the DCO which controls her diarrhea? If I could figure that out, I would look for a high quality food that has those properties. In searching the internet, it looks like it might be the high fiber in DCO that might be balancing out her stools. Has anyone had luck with adding psyllium to their dog’s food, or knows of another high fiber food for large breed dogs?

[Jackie B]

A 3 star food is average for that type of food. Your average DRY dog food may not be as good as your average RAW or WET dog food. So a 3 star wet or raw dog food may be superior to a 3 star dry food. I typically look for 4 or 5 star rated foods within the category that I feed to my two dogs.

[crazy4cats]

Hi Justine-
I have had similar issues with my dogs, however, they did have parasites. I’ve tried several supplements as well. Currently, I feed Victor grain free joint and health kibble. I use various toppers such as canned, raw, dehydrated and fresh mixed in. I almost always use a digestive enzyme and an occasional probiotic. They are doing much better now. I strongly suggest checking out dogaware.com website as they have so much information on digestive issues. If you are looking to change dry food, give Victor a try. Many on this site have done well with it. Also, plain pure pumpkin might be a great addition to your dog’s food. It is very healthy and adds fiber that is both helpful for constipation and loose stools. The supplements that I have used with success that I discovered from dogaware are: Gastriplex, Vetri Pro BD, Perfect Form and Phytomucil. I hope you find a winning combination because I know how frustrating your situation is. Cleaning up runny poop is not a good thing! Good luck.

[Justine L]

Hi I have an almost 11 month old Rottweiler and the first 6 months he was on puppy Pedigree dry/canned and his bowel movements were perfect. I switched to Eagle Pack Original dry and Wellness core grain free canned. Which he loves! Licks the bowl clean to a T! However, he has had very soft stool all the time and frequently has diarrhea. I have taken several stool samples to vet results were negative for any parasites. I have also tried fortiflora, a probiotic and added plain yogurt with live cultures…and Metronidazole 500mg (anti-diarrhea abx) BID for 5 days here and there which sometimes helps. But I believe it is his food just not agreeing with him. I know it’s high quality and expensive food. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Justine L]

Hi I have an almost 11 month old Rottweiler and the first 6 months he was on puppy Pedigree dry/canned and his bowel movements were perfect. I switched to Eagle Pack Original dry and Wellness core grain free canned. He has had very soft stool all the time and frequently has diarrhea. I have taken a several stool samples to vet results were negative for any parasites. I have also tried fortiflora, a probiotic and added plain yogurt with live cultures…and Metronidazole 500mg BID for 5 days here and there which sometimes helps. But I believe it is his food just not agreeing with him. I know it’s high quality and expensive food. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[zcRiley]

Hi Akari 32! I know it’s frustrating & expensive when your precious pooch has signs of a miserable existence. I’ll be very brief as I want to throw out FOUR key items to attack and most importantly resolve the origin of the problem. Spend the money, keep the routine simple (stop adding things), be patient for results. Malaseb Shampoo. The Miracle Pack (Probiotic Miracle & Enzyme Miracle for a healthy digestive system). Brothers Complete Advanced Allergy Care (Dry Dog Food). As a reminder, a lot of raw food or canned food is NOT a “complete” diet, which in turn you have to start adding things (more money). Maybe you can save some money for a full blood work panel testing in the near future if all else fails. I wish you & your pups the very best of luck.

[Jean Ann]

Cardiologist Dr. Charla Jones (Austin, TX) sees my Cavaliers, and she says the high protein, grain free dry foods are too rich for my dogs. Too much protein is hard on the kidneys, etc. Also, my dogs tend to gain weight on it (bad for their hearts); their normal weights range from 17 to 19 lbs. The other dry foods that are not rated well. My Cavaliers get very high grade fish oil twice daily and are doing beautifully heart-wise. Limited ingredients have about 21% – 24% protein and doesn’t taste very good, but they’ll eat it.
Also our 6 month old, 7 lb grand dog, Lily, gets dark gunk in her ears when eating the Victor dry and she started having congestion and a wet nose wheeze when on Merrick grain-free, but that could be seasonal allergies, I guess. At a loss as to what to feed her.
We fed Muenster organic for years. NEED HELP Any help out there?
Many thanks, Jean Ann Jones

[Jean Ann]

Three Cavalier, two with MVD but stage 0. Looking for well-balanced dry food

[Bobby dog]

Hey Akari:
I am very jealous of your Wal-Mart experience. I just spent the afternoon there today, lol. First I stopped at my local pet shops for sales and to use my Wellness & Holistic coupons. My fav pet store gave me 10 lbs of samples, yeahhhh! By the time I made it to Wal-Mart I was pretty well stocked up. I did find they had the Beef stew and the Turkey & Chic 95%, which mine normally does not stock; they always have all the chicken recipes. I went through self checkout and forgot to scan my coupons. I had to go to customer service. There was only one employee taking care of a line of five people. Finally she called for help. So I had my fill of Wal-Mart, but I am going to ask someone again next time I go! 🙂

Then I went to TSC to stock up on horse feed, dog and cat food. They sent through a 10% off everything coupon. They were completly wiped out of 4Health for cats, ugggggggh!

Tomorrow I am heading to Pets Supply Plus to use my $5 off $20 coupon. They sent through an e-mail coupon for 1/2 off Cali Nat’l, Evo, or Innova dry dog or cat food. After these shopping trips, if they don’t eat what I have, they will starve for the next month. lol

I am glad you saw the post! Every now and then I come across something that I find interesting and I think might help (I hope it’s not too annoying! lol). Anyway, I also stumbled across some flea prevention info that might interest you as well. I believe it would be a less costly way to administer the same products you have chosen for your dogs recently for flea meds, but it will also include HW preventative.

[crazy4cats]

Hi Jennifer P-
Welcome to DFA! First of all, there is no such thing as a perfect food. It is best, in many people’s opinions on this site, to feed a variety to your dogs. There is an article in the review site’s library about diet rotation. I have fed Blue in the past, but thought they were too expensive for what you get. Right now, I am feeding my dogs grain free Victor dry kibble. I also add a different topper almost every meal so they can get different benefits from the different foods. I’m not a Blue hater but probably would not feed it again. Find at least one more kibble that is a different brand with a different protein and starch binder to give them some variety. Print the best dry food list and bring it to the pet store with you, or even better yet, check them out on the internet on their own sites to compare. Also you can start adding canned, dehydrated, raw, eggs and/or sardines to their kibble to make it even healthier. Good luck!

[crazy4cats]

My dogs’ don’t seem to do very well with peas either. The two dry kibbles that I like so far are Victor grain free and Nature’s Logic. However, neither are considered limited ingredient. Also, have you tried adding any type of digestive enzyme to their food? The Honest Kitchen makes a supplement called Perfect Form that seems to help my dogs. I wish you luck!

[InkedMarie]

For crystals, it’s important they get plenty of moisture. Dry food is the worst you can feed but if you must, add canned & warm water. Better is canned, raw or dehydrated.

[Debbie S]

Where do I start? Some background – back in 2013 our home consisted of two parrots, a cat, Mandy a 13 yr. old female Sheltie, Shadow an 11 yr. old male Sheltie, Roxie a 4 yr. old Pomeranian and two parents. About Sept. 2013 I was stupidly giving the dogs Milo’s Chicken Jerky (small pieces), when Mandy became ill. She was vomiting, had diarrhea and was very lethargic. We admitted her to the Vet hospital and she was put on IV’s for a couple of days but there was no helping her at this point and it was recommended putting her to sleep. We did and I started researching and found about the chicken being from China! I felt horrible and wanted to die right along with Mandy. I had obviously been poisoning my babies and Mandy wasn’t strong enough to fight it.
Fast forward to May 2014. We had been feeding Blue Buffalo Senior Grain Free dry and Blue Buffalo Family Favorite Recipes (various chicken/turkey flavors) mixture twice a day. Every single treat that we gave was made in the U.S.A. Shadow stopped eating any treats that were hard, would eat around the kibble and started acting strange even for him. At that point we started cooking chicken breast and white rice. (Then we find out rice can be toxic also). None of the dogs ever turned down the sweet potato that I give daily to the parrots. We took him to the vet thinking he may be having teeth problems. Nothing. Maybe a slight gum infection so he was put on a mild antibiotic. He still had his slight heart murmur but nothing to worry about. Exactly a week later on May 7th he was really restless, couldn’t find a place to lay down and about 11:30 pm he came out of the bedroom panting extremely heavy and drooling, I knew immediately something was wrong, woke up my husband, and called the vets for the emergency location. We hopped in the car, with me carrying him and he was panting louder than I’ve ever heard anyone breathe. We were almost there when Shadow bucked up into my chest and flopped down. He was gone.. supposedly by heart attack and they pronounced him DOA.

Now we only have Roxie and she has been as depressed as we are. She’s normally a little pig with treats and always cleaning others bowls if they walked away. She basically stopped eating, laid around and was totally depressed. Knowing this, we gave her time because she wasn’t acting ill and since she was a little overweight it wouldn’t hurt her to not eat as much as normal. Then she started turning down hard treats, and not eating the kibble in her food just like Shadow did. We took her to the vets after a couple of weeks of this because I was so anxious after the last couple of years and losing two of our babies. The vet took X-rays and a full panel of blood work. When he laid her on her back, her tongue turned blue so he was concerned. But her blood work was perfect and the only thing showing on the X-rays was the extra fat she was carrying which is effecting her breathing and probably the cause of her blue tongue.

We changed her food because she has to lose 1.5 – 2 pounds so we tried Hill’s Ideal Balance Slim and Healthy Adult mixed with the comparable canned food which was weird for us because we had always steered away from anything of Hill’s. Now after reading about it I want to stop feeding her that even though she loves it and is eating well again.

I need advice on what to feed a large framed five year old Pomeranian currently weighing 11 1/2 lbs. who needs to weigh no more than 10 lbs. She has arthritis starting in her knees and has just recently started constantly licking her lips. In the past we have just let them run the fenced back yard using the doggy door but I’ve started taking Roxie on nightly walks to help the weight loss along.

I’m thinking of Wellness Core Reduced Fat & the canned Weight Maintenance mixed or one of the Merrick choices. Any suggestions are appreciated since this seems like a very intelligent group.

• This topic was modified 11 years, 9 months ago by Debbie S.

[Tyler B]

I think a great addition to each food listing would be the dry matter digestibility percentage for the company’s foods. Or if they aren’t willing to provide numbers for each food, at least a range. Merrick, for example, provided a range of 79-83% digestibility for their foods.

(As a note to anyone not familiar with this percentage, many pet food manufacturers know this number for their foods and it is a measure of how much food goes into the body, and is actually absorbed by the body. Unfortunately, very few companies ever report these numbers.)

[Amy B]

Hi everyone,
I’m finding this thread quite interesting. My 2.5 year old Maltese x Pomeranian has been diagnosed with atopic dermatitis. He is allergic to fleas, dust mites and has food allergies. We still haven’t gotten the food part down pat yet and are a bit unsure what to do.
When he was younger he used to be on kangaroo mince and veggies, or beef and veggies. He seemed to be allergic to these so the vet suggested we put him on a novel protein of goat and sweet potato. He was doing well on this diet until the goat was costing us $80 per 3 weeks!
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what we should put him on?
Lisa D I also heard from a pet store employee that fish is good for them. Could you explain to me more how long your dog has been on this diet for? And also why you spray him with white vinegar?
I was told to purchase fish mince from BARF dog Big Dog pet food range (all natural) but I saw it contained fine chicken bones (only after I purchased it) but I wanted to see how he would go on dry food as well. Has anyone had any positive experiences with sensitive skin dry food products?
PS. I’m from Australia

Thanks in advance! 🙂

[arwyru24]

I did have a good experience the first time I ordered from Chewy… I got a case of 12 large cans of the Wellness turkey formula and a few of them were pretty severely dented and so I just went to chewys website and went to the live chat feature (which I’ve never used before on a website) and asked them if there was anything I could do, thinking they might be willing to credit my account the value of the dented cans and instead they sent out a brand new case the next day and that one when it arrived was perfect. I think I had 3 dented cans so that was 9 free cans. I am donating most of them. But I am not prepared to order a whole case of something new cause like you said….who knows.

So I was down by Petsmart today, so I stopped in to get another $1 Authority deal, and I asked them if I could take 2 of the 5.5oz pate cans instead of the 3.5 oz tubs (the bigger cans are cheaper anyway at 80cents vs 90cents) and it turns out the regular 5.5oz cans of the Authority are part of that deal, the coupon on the shelf was just confusing. I am still so excited about this one. Two 5.5oz cans of Authority pate, and one 4lb bag of Authority dry food came to 99cents plus 5cents tax = $1.04 total. Can’t beat it.

[aquariangt]

Shinku was a rescue cat, and has definitely been on dry food her whole life. I’ve had her for 4.5 years, so part of the fault lies in me. I gave up pretty quickly, feeding the dogs well, I was aware of what proper nutrition was but since she was so finicky kind of “called it good” with a grain free high protein dry food, until recently when I decided to take up the challenge of getting her on wet food again.

[arwyru24]

I know from my experience at the cat shelter that there are some cats that I guess must have been raised on dry food and so just will not touch wet food. No way, no how, no kind. Now I do have to add in a caveat that because the cats were kept free roaming in cat rooms we had to free feed dry food, so that would definitely be my first step in transitioning a cat once getting them out of the shelter environment

[Zach M]

Can I give my dog active dry yeast, or yeast culture, for her dog food? The product Dinovite uses it to cure ear infections so I was wondering on it.

[Susan B]

I have 10 week old chi pups and have had them on Earth born holistic puppy dry kibble since I got them at 5 weeks. They’ve been wormed and had shots vet checked and spay/neutured. My ongoing challenge is loose stools. At the beginning they had diarrhea and we did chicken rice and sweet potato; fixed them up. After worming they had very close to diarrhea and I added rice/sweet Po to their food, which firmed them up. They’re good eaters but it seems as if there is too much water in their stools. I’m thinking a food change is in order. Ideas?

[Vilma M]

Nature’s Variety Instinct – Raw, Dry & Canned. I was surprised this food did not make the Editor’s Choice List!

[theBCnut]

Dehydrated is neither kibble or canned, usually it is somewhat powdered, though it may have chunks in it. They use a dehydrator(low heat) and forced air to dry the food. Think beef jerky, herbs, dried fruit, all of these are different forms of dehydrated, but they are not raw.

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Saig –

Sorry I missed your question from a few days ago. Whether the percent calcium is on a dry-matter or as-fed basis isn’t relevant because it’s being reported on a per unit of energy basis. The moisture doesn’t contribute to the caloric content of the food, therefore a food will have the same amount of calcium per unit of energy regardless of whether the calculation uses the as-fed or dry-matter calcium level. Remember – if using the dry-matter calcium percentage caloric content would need to be corrected (for example, if a food reports 3,500 kcal. per kg this is as fed, if the moisture were removed the food would be more energy dense). I hope that makes sense!

[aquariangt]

So, my cat has always been terrible about eating any wet food. I kinda just bought high protein dry food and called it good. After reading catinfo a while ago I started hunting some wet food she would eat, with no success. I think after three month or so, I may have found one, the wellness pouches. That said, they’re a bit messy… Does anyone know of a canned food with a similar consistency?

[zcRiley]

Thanks, guys. Sorry I wasn’t more specific. I have two 1 yr 2 mo old AmStaff mixes. They’ve been great on Orijen Dry Puppy Food (adding NutraMax Lab’s Cosequin DS for glucosamine much later). I used to mix in Horizon, Merricks or Acana for some zing; that was until I started doing major research on ingredients/hi end fillers, recalls etc. The Giardia & Campi was diagnosed with only 1 of my pups (the one that always had a digestive issue). At that point, I started mixing in Orijen 6 Fish with a crumble of Dr Foster & Smith’s Omega 3 chews. After the Giardia was taken care of, his behavior went down the tubes, I cried during that time thinking was it me, was it his brother, is he dying of something? After $600 doing the full bloodwork panel, fecal float, fecal ELISA & the fecal culture, it was the culture that found the Campi bacteria. 2 shots later & a slew of antibiotics per dog, it was time to add some “help” to their tummies. I got the Purina Veterinary Diets FortiFlora (not knowing that animal digest & Enteroccoccus faecium was bad) & Nzymes (which has soy sprouts). I stopped immediately after four days of small doses/horrifying results, thus initiating the deeper ingredient research I should have done before. I’m now waiting for my new order of Nusentia’s Probiotic Miracle & Enzyme Miracle. During this wait, the pups are switched to Nature’s Balance Synergy Dry Dog Food (has prebiotic & more fiber). AND ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE ADDED & no treats. The rice & boiled chicken routine doesn’t sit well with them either. I DO add tons of kisses & hugs as to how sorry I am for making them worse.

[arwyru24]

So I decided to go ahead and try out feeding one of the Authority Chef’s Entrees stew style wet foods last night. As soon as I opened it up and saw what the chunks in a creamy looking sauce looked like I thought to myself “this is probably going to make Aaron barf I shouldn’t feed this” but then the urge to not waste the cat food overwhelmed me and I decided to give it a try. Bad idea. Barf-o-rama last night. It seems like, once he eats something that makes him barf, then he throws up everything he eats for up to 24 hours sometimes. So I pulled up all the rest of the wet food, and just put down dry food which he did puke up but is much easier to clean up then wet food. This morning I fed a couple of teaspoons of Natures Variety Chicken and that seemed to stay down.

[Patti W]

I have two dogs both of which are female mixed breed rescues. Molly, lab mix, had all sorts of digestive issues with Iams. Switched her to Costco’s dry lamb and rice mixed with their canned cuts in gravy. All of her issues disappeared so we have been really happy with their food and the costs of it. Just found out that they have discontinued the canned cuts in gravy. Wish they would have given notice they were discontinuing so I could have phased it out slowly while introducing a new brand. Upon contacting the company they told me they are bringing on a new can with turkey stew. It is Natures Domain. Not sure how it will compare. Anybody have any info on this new product?

[Tina]

Anyone own a Cocker Spaniel If so what do you feed yours?
My Cocker Spaniel American Cocker Spaniel is 9 years old and has these problems;
*Colitis
*dry skin
*itchy skin
*Very gassy
*cataracts
She is on Nutro Natural Choice Senior and Hill’s Ideal Balance Mature Adult mixed. She has only had chicken her entire life. These are the brands that she has tried as a puppy and a adult;
*Purina Pro Plan Puppy
*Purina One Adult
*Hill’s Science Diet Mature Adult Small Bites
*Hill’s Ideal Balance Mature Adult
*Nutro Natural Choice Senior
*Hill’s Prescription Diet I/D

None of these I was happy with and none of them did the trick except Hill’s Prescription Diet I/D. What can you suggest? I’m open to ANY suggestions, including all life stages dog food. She will eat anything and I mean anything at all. My only stipulation is that I can find the brand in multiple stores. She never gets bored of the same brand or flavor. My Cocker Spaniel has colitis so any food that she goes on must be easy on a dog’s stomach and good for digestion. She does well on chicken but definitely no beef. The kibble must be small because she had bad teeth. She’s no longer on Hill’s Prescription Diet I/D.

[arwyru24]

I have a friend with a golden that has a lot of the same food intolerance issues that you described. She has had a lot of luck with this food: http://www.nutro.com/natural-dog-food/natural-choice-dog-food/dry/adult-grain-free-venison-and-potato.aspx She says its the only thing she has found that controls the itching, scabbing, hairloss etc.

[pearl i]

Hi,

Our 10 month old puppy has had continuous itchy skin since we brought him home: licks/ sometimes bites the inside of both groin areas, and his front paws, one more than the other. When we got him from the breeder he was IAMS (chicken protein), then has switched to Orijen LBP (chicken protein), and is currently on Acana Pacifica (fish protein.) He started Acana about a month or so ago, and is still itchy. This week was his second time visiting the vet for antibiotics, antihistamines, cream, etc (not prednisone this time, as he was prescribed that in April for the same issue.) Our vet believes it to be a food allergy as per his age, she wants him to continue on Acana Pacifica and give it some more time. However, she mentioned possibly trying venison or rabbit if Acana Pacifica doesn’t work out.

I researched a bit and found Natural Balance LID, it has high reviews in regards to relieving allergies, but the ingredients are listed to average- below average according to this website. I would like to switch him over to another dry food that is highly ranked with a different protein that he has not tried: venison, rabbit.

Anyone have any feedback related to this? Recommendations for a dry food?

Thank you in advance!

[theBCnut]

My suggestion is to get her off chicken and maybe switch up her carb source too. Dry, itchy, scabby, red skin and gas point to food intolerances to me.

[Tina]

Anyone own a Golden Retriever? If so what do you feed yours?
My Golden Retriever Angel is 8 years old and has these problems;
*dry skin
*itchy skin
*red skin
*scabs all over back, chest and tail
*weak hip and joints
*Gains weight really quick
*eats very fast
*Very gassy
She is on Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Senior along with Hill’s Science Diet Large Breed Adult and Wellness Simple Salmon and Potato mixed in. She has only had chicken her entire life. These are the brands that she has tried as a puppy and a adult;
*Eukanuba Puppy
*Purina Pro Plan Puppy
*Purina One Adult
*Hill’s Science Diet Large Breed Adult
*Royal Canine Golden Retriever
*Blue Buffalo Large Breed Senior
*Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Senior
*Wellness Simple Salmon and Potato
None of these I was happy with and none of them did the trick except for Royal Canine (kinda). What can you suggest? I’m open to ANY suggestions, including all life stages dog food. She will eat anything and I mean anything at all. My only stipulation is that I can find the brand in multiple stores. She never gets bored of the same brand or flavor.

Thank You All

[Akari_32]

Do you remember what the threads are called?

We have baby spoons that I use to give him coconut oil with. Not sure if that’s too much or what. He likes it though lol I don’t think likes honey. I have him some in his food last night, and he picked at it, then tried to bury it *rolls eyes* I haven’t checked to see if he ate it yet.

He’s licking more like his upper thigh/hip than his actual butt. Though it’s level with (at risk of sounding like a preteen boy) his butt hole (I’m gross, I know :p ). He never did that with his previous UIT. I’ve decided, after a few words with the vet, that he just doesn’t make very much pee (because he doesn’t drink). My guess is right now, the area hurts from the blockage, and he’s trying to relieve the pain. It just started yesterday, so I’ll watch it.

Have you tried brushing this cat?? He needs a double dose of benedryl before you can do anything with him LOL I do try though.

[ladyquixote]

Hi all, first want to thank ya’ll for all the great info you supply here. Have been gathering nutrition info for about a year now and have some major budgeting concerns regarding planning cooked meals for my two dogs. Background: Eldest dog, Gracie is 12 y.o./55# (she is much bigger than standard Aussie) and has major yeast and anxiety problems. Found an alt vet last March who prescribed a variety of chinese herb powders which have significantly helped both problems but still a work in progress. Second dog, Tonto is about 3-1/2 (turned up at my front door emaciated last year and ended up part of our family). He weighs about 60 and is experiencing airborne allergies, due for vet check tomorrow for further input. Both are Aussie mixes.

Foodwise, they were on a mix of the 5-star dry no-grain dog foods since beginning of last year, then began adding the usual recommended toppers plus supplements and then transitioned to all-cooked meals over the last three months. It’s quickly begun taking a lot of my time to prepare meals, so this evening I sat down to figure out my monthly cost. Until now I would go out and buy enough food for a week so the cost bite wasn’t so noticeable.

I knew it was getting too costly but the final tally ended up being $15/day for two dogs! Way, way too much. In addition to the food, there are the supplemental herbs and now monthly visits to the alt vet to check progress which should end once both dogs level off with their itchies.

I’ve removed cottage cheese, carrots and rice which make great fillers because both dogs’ itchies worsened. So more meat takes the place.

My question to you is this, if I switch back to at least level 4-star dry dog food and toppers what would you suggest would be the right ratio between the both?

Gracie’s daily calorie target: 1037, Tonto’s daily calorie target: 1280
Here is a sample 1-day meal divided into two meals for Gracie:
— Chicken Liver pate, (chicken liver smothered then pureed): 2 TBSP 47 Cal
— Chicken Hearts, (lightly smothered then chopped fine): 1-1/2C 402 Cal
— Turkey, Ground; 93% Lean: 1-1/4C 425 Cal
— Mixed Veggies, 1 Cup Cooked then pureed: 40 Cal
— Pumpkin, Canned; 2 TBSP: 13 Cal
— Berries, 1/2 C: 36 Cal
— Alternate Every Day: Either 1-Egg or 1/2 tin Sardines in Water: 65-72 Cal
— Supplements include, Probiotics, 1/2 tsp finely ground eggshells, 1-multi, fish oil or coconut oil.

I’d be interested in your input as well as hearing what your average cost per day is for two medium sized dogs! Thanks so much.

[crazy4cats]

Hi Bobby dog-
I think that I recall you saying that you use Merrick dry food. If yes, are you concerned at all over the latest issues with the dog kibble? I just started transitioning my cats from their Wellness Core duck to the weight mgmt Merrick. It smells and looks ok. The cats are eating with no issues so far. I guess I’ll just keep an eye out for any problems. Any thoughts?

[Mom2Cavs]

I love Victor food. I get mine when I use it from http://www.sportdogfood.com. Please go there and check it out. They do only dry, though. For cans I love Wellness Stews, but others that are good and reasonably priced are Pure Balance (Walmart’s brand), 4Health Stews (Tractor Supply’s brand). I am trying lately to use cans without carrageenan, which is a controversial ingredient these days. I also love Dr. Tim’s and Annamaet’s dry….neither make a canned food. I also love Wellness dry, of course. Other cans I like (price not taken into consideration) are Weruva, Simply Nourish, Mulligan Stew, Instinct and Prairie.

[Tina]

I want to find a food for at least three of my four dogs. If I can find a good food for all that would be great. I have two large breed and two medium breed. One large breed is a senior and one medium is also a senior. I want a brand that offers many different types of protein sources. My one large breed adult gets bored with the flavor of protein. I’m looking for both dry and wet.

[arwyru24]

The Authority dry food is going in my donations box, but I haven’t decided about the wet food yet.

[arwyru24]

So I went down to PetSmart today for the first time in a very long time, over a year I would say just to see what they have going on down there and to pick up a bag of that Authority cat food. I saw that the Simply Nourish Source is onsale for $8.99 for the 3lb bag and I can use a $5 off coupon so I will probably go back and pick up a bag of that for 3.99 because when I looked at the nutritional information they were all low in calories which is an important factor to me. I am thinking the Fish and Chicken (I know, I know fish) variety because the cats didn’t like the Wellness Core indoor which is all Turkey and Chicken, and also I got a sample packet of the Nature’s Variety Rabbit Formula and they don’t seem to care for that one much either. What do you guys think?

Anyway the 4lb Authority Cat food was indeed onsale for $5.99, and there was also a PetSmart coupon hanging on the shelf for 2 free 3.5oz tubs of Authority cat food with the purchase of any size authority dry food. So I got the 4lb bag of dry, I got the Turkey Sensitive Systems variety because it looked like the best ingredients to me, and I got 2 tubs of Authority wet food and my total including tax was $1.04. Can’t beat that.

[Candice S]

one more note, i suppose my vet’s information linking Wellness to Diamond was not out of the blue. i read on DFA that on May 4, 2012, “WellPet announced a voluntary recall of one recipe of Wellness dry dog food after being notified by Diamond Pet Foods regarding the presence of Salmonella in Diamond Pet Foods’ Gaston, South Carolina facility.” this would reasonably be taken to suggest that there was some kind of affiliation between Diamond and Wellness in 2012. after that, Wellness announced it no longer “purchases any products from Diamond Pet Foods.”
. . . phew . . it does take some legwork to follow the info trail, doesn’t it!

[Lynn J]

I’ve been using Wellness Core wet food to fill my dog’s Kongs. Both dogs love it. I haven’t used the Wellness dry yet, they are on Orijen/Acana/Fromm.

[arwyru24]

I am not sure how much the Divine Duos are going to be when they are full price, they only just came out, my local pet store just got them in for the first time and they are offering them at 99 cents this month per 2.75oz cup. Literally identical in size and form to the Meow Mix cups, made in Thailand and all. Even 99 cents isn’t worth it, but since I got to try them for less than 50cents each I decided to give them a go. I am not really impressed. I gave my cats the Chicken/Salmon one for their lunchtime snack today and they seemed to like it a lot more than the Chicken/Duck. I think it would be good for people that mostly feed their cats dry food …like free feed dry food and just like to give them a little bit of wet once a day or something but not if you feed mostly or all wet food. It isn’t a thick or firm pate like the regular grain free wellness it seems to be a lot more gelatinous and you will notice that the first two ingredients are liquid I think its Chicken broth and water if my memory serves me correctly so I dont think this will feed like a 3oz can of the regular wellness. I like to give my cats variety though so it was worth checking out.

[Tina]

My dog was recently on Wellness Simple Salmon and Potato both dry and wet but what I found shocked me. There were pieces of bone in both the dry and wet food, some of the pieces were really big. In the past my dog has tried Wellness Complete Health Adult Whitefish and Sweet Potato dry and wet. As I went through the bag, after my dogs major vet bill, I found pieces of bone in there as well. I called the company and they denied the whole thing and told me to just switch flavors if my dog didn’t like it. No I don’t have any photographic evidence as of now but here is a video that I found;

[Corey K]

Thank you for all of the feedback. Think I still need help so will give more specifics in hopes that there might be some easy answers but I fear not cause things at my house are far too crazy! I live with my husband and adult daughter and between us we have 4 dogs. 3 of them have food issues that cause me questions:

Missy – 12 year old bearded collie – Would eat nothing but frozen Bil Jac her entire life until she got acid reflux issues 6 wks ago and changing her food was extremely tough. She is now eating (begrudgingly) one cup of natures’ recipe easy to digest chicken dry food, one half cup of rice and one half cup of either boiled ground chicken or boiled ground beef per day.

Max – 11 year old bearded collie – no health issues – will eat ANYTHING including what he finds in the back yard when he beats me to it. He is currently, happily eating two cups per day of the natures’ recipe easy to digest chicken dry food.

Frankie – 3 year old dane mix – he is currently eating IAMS large breed proactive years 1-5. Many days he wants nothing to do with it. Also concerned about what I am reading about IAMS testing on animals, but the plus is they do sell it in 50 lb bags at my Costco. I tried mixing in canned with the dry and he wants nothing to do with the wet food. He is having some teeth issues, with mild gingivitis and we are working on that so not sure if that is factoring in.

Last but not least my daughter’s new puppy Rerun – he is 4 mos old. Rerun is half beagle and half siberian husky – now 30 lbs – vet estimates will be around 60. She is currently feeding him Kirkland signature puppy. He does not seem to like it. He eats very little of it and wants no more.

I feel like 60% of my life right now revolves around feeding dogs and it is becoming more difficult to manage than I can handle. Of course with the 4 of them in the house, feeding is an event, not just an all day graze – you eat what you are given or you dont get any – but now that everyone but Max has decided to become picky – it now involves each of us coralled to a designated space with our charge for the better part of an hour to hour and a half while we coax whichever dog we have to eat so that we can go on with life.

I know that most might want to provide the advice that we just have too many dogs, and I’ve talked way long enough without going into why we have this many dogs at this time in our lives lol! I think I’ve read enough to have learned that the better the quality of food the less tasty. Do I need to find a middle of the road senior food that is palliative enough for my older dogs to eat and wont bother their stomachs? (is there such a thing?) If I can coax my dane to eat the IAMS for awhile longer, what happens when he gets to 6 years old – the bag says 1-5 and he’s almost 4 and weighs 100 lbs. What about this puppy – do we start trying other puppy foods to find one he likes? We tried adding canned (have only found adult canned where I shop) and he then eats the canned and spits out the dry. Very sorry for such a long post – and look forward to any suggestions!!

[Fabienne L]

Freeze-dried and Dehydrated pet food are NOT the same as raw non-hpp pet food. You may consider raw hpp, freeze-dried and dehydrated pet food as processed pet food. Yes, it is better than dry pet food, but it is still processed. Supplements should be added to this food! Recommended supplements include: vitamins, minerals, probiotics, milk thistle to name a few. Non HPP raw pet food is truly species appropriate pet food. Small Batch and Halshan are true species appropriate pet food. When comparing pet food you can see the differences in the ingredients. HPP raw and freeze-dried, such as Stella and Chewys and other pet food contain many added supplements in them. The list of ingredients is long! When you look at Small Batch the ingredients are simply simple, no added supplements. Pets gets the nutrition they need from the meat, organ meat and fruit and vegetable. I always suggest that pet owners (guardians) add probiotics and milk thistle to their non hpp raw pet food.