[lovemypets4life]

I am not a spam!!!!! I am promoting a dog food that im very trusted in. ive tried all of there products they r just amazing, and affordable

[Sussieque]

Dear ORENC26,

RE: Diarrhea in Puppies

I also recently got a Cavalier King Charles puppy. She had the same problem with diarrhea (really bad). When I first got her @ 9 weeks old, the previous owner was feeding her Purina Special Blend (i think).

Anyways, we had rain here for over a week straight. Poor baby had to do her business in the rain and walk on the wet grass. I took her to the vet for her second vaccination and was told that she had a Yeast infection (in her ears which also gets in their digestive system) The vet gave me an anti-fungal med., an ear med. (Zymox is better) and a stool hardener. You can use Imodium Advance. ONLY 1/4 tablet daily and for just a 2 days!!! (go by weight of dog) Brandi was 5 lbs. then.

She (Brandi) got a little better but still had some diarrhea problems. I researched the internet and spoke with the vet & a local breeder.

They all suggested to feed her Boiled Chicken (white meat to start) with cooked white rice, mixed with some 100% Pumpkin. I fed this to her for 2 weeks. (note: adding a good vitamin may help but check the ingredients carefully!). After feeding Brandi the Chicken-rice combo for 2-3 weeks I wanted to get her back on a dry (kibble) puppy food. I chose “Orijen” Brand 80/20 Puppy dry food. Available at most Pet Stores and online.

I mixed it 50/50 with the Orijen and Purina One Beyond (White Meat Chicken & Whole Barley flavor) and 1 heaping Tablespoon of 100% Pumpkin. (NOT the pumpkin pie filling!!!) I introduced this mixture over 10 days (see the internet on how to do this). On the 10th. day she was eating just the dry kibble food with the pumpkin. At this point I added a Probiotic (you can pick up at pet stores – capsule form and read how much to add per day – goes by weight). Come to find out that the Orijen 80/20 puppy dry food has natural Pre & Pro Biotics (for GOOD bacteria for their digestive system) in their puppy food.

DIARRHEA IS COMPLETELY GONE!!!!! Thank God!

I still give her the Orijen and the Purina One Beyond with pumpkin (she is 3.5 months old now) Still NO diarrhea. : ) HAPPY MOMMY HERE.

I think I will switch to Acana Brand – Wild Prairie dry kibble soon because it is a bit less expensive and made by the same company. Plus it has less of a high protein content. Below are their websites:

Orijen: http://www.orijen.ca/
Acana: http://www.acana.com/products/regionals/wild-prairie/

These pet foods are made in Canada with only natural products (Grain Free). They have their own Processing Plant and process ONLY their dog and cat foods. BTW – My cats love their 6 Fish Dry Cat Food.

These foods are a bit more than your cheaper store-bought brands but worth getting rid of the diarrhea for good. Plus knowing she is healthy, happy and growing as she should be.

Hope this helps and good luck with your new baby cavalier. Precious, aren’t they? ; )
Sussieque

[mssmiley]

my boston terrier has been diagnosed with alopecia…. she is balding on her chest and hind legs. The balding is all symmetrical. The vet has done a skin scrape and tested for other known causes of hairloss. All these tests come back negative. Now she says that the hair loss is going to be a result of a thyroid issue or hormore issue. We are going to start running more tests to look into which it might be. Have any other owners out there had to deal with alopecia in their dogs??? She’s perfectly healthy otherwise, but what concerns me is how these thyroid/hormone issues may affect her later on in life. For those of you who are dealing with alopecia or thyroid/hormone issues…. what food are you using to help your dog? Are there foods out there that can help bring the re-growth of the dogs hair back? She is currently of blue buffalo freedon small breed dry food. We switched her to the freedom line when the hair loss began bc we wanted to rule out allergies for the hair loss reason.

[Anonymous]

i would never feed my dog food from big lots or any of those “cheap stores” there most likely to sell non known name brand foods. would you feed yourself non known name brands foods? I only feed my animals holistic health extension dry/canned food. it is 95% real meat and has tons of vitamins and minerals in it

[Hershy]

HDM or anyone else,
This may be a really dumb question, but I’m not clear on how to rotate food for my almost 16 week old puppy and big dogs. Is it best to rotate to another brand after emptying a bag, or have 2 or 3 brands open at a time for rotating daily? I have finally chosen some brands for my pup’s food rotation (fairly reasonably priced 4 & 5 star foods) :

Innova Large Breed Puppy Dry Dog Food
Pro Pac Performance Puppy Premium Puppy Food
Nutri-Source Large Breed Puppy-Chicken and Rice

Does this look like a good list for my pup? It was difficult finding locally,so needed to order from a couple places, since no one had all of what I wanted.
I am topping with tripe.
What is the best way to rotate these? I plan to keep searching for foods I can afford, for changing to after these.
Thanks for your help!

[Kona the blue pit]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but my 2 year old blue pit is getting crusty lumps on his body and he has diarrhea. All through the winter months he was doing ok maybe a lump here and there but otherwise ok. I was feeding him California Natural Kangaroo for about 5-6 months until the recall. Then I had to start feeding him Addiction Kangaroo for about 2 months and he was still doing ok. Now this past 2 weeks I started him back on the California Natural Kangaroo and his problems started. So I’m not sure if it is the food or if it is because it is Summer now.
Could he have become allergic to the kangaroo or maybe California Natural messed up on the formula?
I have also been giving him Benadryl so that could be causing the diarrhea also.
Not sure what to do should I switch his food already or give it a month or two?
Thanks
Brad

[SandyandMila]

Can I just use the one I got periodically, it’s a big bottle that I really don’t want it to go to waste. I can add the green superfood to her diet once I get it and give her less of the multi. If I feed Preference with her homemade raw which has vitamins and minerals including kelp and alfalfa do I still need a green or multi supplement? I know HDM said u can’t overdose on them, just want to make sure I know what I’m doing. She’s already been getting bee pollen and the commercial raw she’s had has coconut oil, salmon oil, and ACV so I’d just be giving those with the homemade raw, right? The dry and wet food is only one or two days a week and will be less once my Hare Today order comes in.

[Jessica1]

Hi H.D.M,
Thank you so much for all the information you have given me on grain vs. non grain, mixing etc. I felt lost before I came across your helpful advice. You have made this learning experience a lot less confusing.
I am now giving my boy the topper of Wellness just for puppy, which he loves, and I did start to slowly start the rotation process with Wellness Core grain free, unfortunately he will not eat it. He just does not like it. The Organix he will eat, of course he loves the topper and eats that first and only eats the dry when it’s all that’s left but he will eat it. But for some reason the Wellness Core he will actually spit out! Brat! He is as picky as my daughter! So I am going to try some other grain free brands. I would like to only give him the can but that going to get costly at $2.60 a can. (Still looking into the whole raw thing and building up my courage about that, ha ha) Takoda is now 10 to 11 weeks and at 18.4 lbs, the vet is happy with his weight and growth, I was wondering if you could tell me what you know about Kirkland Cuts. I see that it has 5 stars on this site but one I wasn’t sure it was suitable for large breed puppies and the protein level seemed a little low compared to Wellness puppy but I was hoping you could give me your advice on this. I have been looking for another can food to use as a topper (I don’t want to be locked into just one) do you have a suggestion for me, I’ve been looking at all the 5 stars on this site but I know that puppies requirements are different and they really are not laid out for these big guys. Thank you so much.

[weezerweeks]

I received my yorkies Ph level today and it is still8.5 but there was no sign of crystals this time. About a month ago it was 8.5 with crystals so i switched him from dry low protein to a higher protein wet food. My vet says he is not concerned because he has never had uti’s, and 50 % of dogs have agalinity levels. He is on merrick’s cowboy cookout wet food. He has only been on it a few weeks so he wants me to continue this diet and not add anything to it but his digestive enzymes and probiotics and in a month he’s going to check it again and do another culture.I’m glad the crystals are gone but I’m wondering if I should try some different food.

[Woodcutter]

Hi folks. This being my first topic I’m not sure if this is where to start it so here goes. This afternoon I was at Big Lots and found this food. It’s .90 cents a can and the ingredients look good but, I can’t find anything on it here. We are on a fixed income, more or less, and this looks attractive right now. We all know that Big Lots will have products on a temporary basis and may or may not see it again. Anyway I got 6 cans for our two dogs to try- 3 chicken entre’e and 3 beef. They eat “Victor” brand dry in the purple bag and for a weekly surprise I will mix some wet food in. Usually TOTW or maybe “Chicken Soup”. It doesn’t matter to them, they tear it up. It’s distributed by Performance Pet Products out of Mitchel, SD. Has anyone seen this food? Thanks.

[ebk]

Who’s the moderator of the forum? This example is pretty blatant.

[theBCnut]

I wish you could flag stuff here!

[ebk]

Yes, reading all of the replies from the two id’s, I can see it very clearly and now understand your response re spamming. Looks like a clear infringement of the forum’s Terms of Use.

[InkedMarie]

ya think? Pretty sure they are on another forum I’m on, touting the same foods

[theBCnut]

I think lovemypets4life has a new identity.

[Anonymous]

I use holistic health extension LITTLE BITES for my maltipoo but I just found out he has a grain allergy so im about to switch him to the grain free food. im sticking with the same brand because its the only brand I trust to feed my animals.

[Duke The Boxer]

Okay hound dog mom. Thank you for your response. I was talking to dr Tim and he said it was okay for puppies and it had a pretty low calcium %. I just got in the mail today wellness core puppy formula and I will follow up in a couple weeks to say how duke responds to the food. One question I have is that he has been kind of itchy lately even though he has no flees or ticks; I also saw some scratch marks under his arm from him scratching himself, can the dryness of his skin be because of the chicken based nutro that I have been feeding him?

[k9cancer]

I have a 14 week old Pyrenees pup. He weighs 45 lbs and 2 weeks ago we put him on Raw food Primal and Instinct.

His gas and diarrhea problems have disappeared but he is eating me out of house and home.

The package says to feed him 4% of his weight or 2.6 lbs daily of raw food.

I feed him 2 patties in the morning, 1 at lunch and 2 at night.

I use Primal and Bravo because it has a 75% protein 25% vegetable mix.

If I feed him 2 patties at night he acts like he is starving.
I was feeding him grain free dry mix with the recommended calcium levels mentioned on this forum however he would not sleep well at night and had the runs or soft poo almost everyday.

My other dog eats kibble and if my Pup, Harry gets to it he gobbles it up.

He is growing like a weed and has gained the proper weight.
Im just wondering if I should add a little kibble but then I will have the digestion problems.

Any advice would be great. I am wondering if he is just a dog that wil eat/over eat if given the chance. I was also wondering if adding sweet potato or something ese might be better. Maybe he likes the crunch….sigh I sure am driving myself crazy huh?

Any advice would be great.
D

[Ambystoma]

I am getting a GSP puppy and have narrowed down the foods, or so I thought.

I think we are going to start him on Fromm Gold Puppy, but I like the look of Taste of the Wild as well for variety once he is out of the puppy stage. However I saw Native being recommended for this specific breed. Of course, I will probably give variety in the form of cans, fresh, and perhaps raw later like I do with my beagle-terrier mutt (he’s on Fromm now but has eaten Wellness and Blue Buffalo as well).

For a puppy, would you stick with Fromm Gold or go ahead and do TOTW or Native Puppy or something else? I can’t quite afford to do all fresh with 2 dogs, so I’m looking for dry with cans/fresh/raw as a supplement.

Thanks!

[Lagotto]

Hi Shawna, my 10 weeks old Lagotto has just been diagnosed with serious kidneys problems her BUN is way off chart her urine is almost as clear as water . She drinks over a liter of water a day. I have her for 21/2 weeks she hardly gains any weight. She is taller but very thin. The breeder offered to take her back and put her down. Apart from excessive drinking and urinating and not put on weight she is full of energy and really playful.I decided to keep her,the vet didn’t recommend any diet plan for her just told her to let she eats normal food, she eats puppies musli mix with raw met and let nature take it course. Her musli comprise of roll oats, dehydrate pea, carrot, bone meal plus all essential vitamins and minerals. Since she has been diagnosed I stop feeding her those food and go on low protein, low phosphorus, low sodium,. She got her appetite back with the meal I made which is 1 cup cooked white rice with one whole egg, two eggs whites, a spoonful of low fat ground beef. Cook in 1 Tb coconut oil. I sprinkle one capsule of fish oil, and grind 900mg of calcium carbonate to it. She has been eating this food for 3 days. Her weight is up for almost 200 g. I am not sure this diet is good enough for her growth. I ask the vet or phosphorus binder and start to sprinkle on her food. The vet now recommend pediatric junior digest & dental 29. I mixed a little of the dry food into home cooked . Her water intake is almost double her usual high intake. Your Audrey story is really inspiring . What do you feed Audrey? Home cooked or dry food.what is your strategy with Toilet train?

Many thanks, Lagotto

[katj813]

I know I may not receive specifics but I find info on the web too general so here’s a few specifics on my dog:
He’s an 11 year old terrier mix @19lbs. He has two heart conditions treated with Enalapril and fish oil. He has occasional arthritis in his back legs which is treated by dog aspirin as needed. He has an activity level between low and medium. Some days he has bursts of energy and likes visits to the dog park but the high energy is limited and he mostly sleeps. I currently have him on taste of the wild because while I do my best to get the best food I can, I have a college student budget.

I want to make sure my dog is getting the nutrients he needs to stay healthy so what sort of things should I look for in his food to meet his requirements and do you think TotW is covering it? I don’t have the time for raw and home made diets so I want to stick to dry food, he gets wet mixed in but it’s only for supplemental feeding so I don’t rely on it for nutrients even though he gets at least some from it. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Flossie]

Speaking of which, Pizza Garlic, do you know if the percentages you mention are on an as-fed or dry matter basis? I’m going to look into some of those as well. Yeah, I don’t like Science Diet either, and it seems like most of the Rx foods made specifically for cardiac conditions are similarly low quality.

[Flossie]

Thanks, mah4angel. I did email Earthborn last week, and the Primitive Naturals is apparently .34% and the lowest sodium wet food is Toby’s Turkey at .16%. I asked for the dry matter percentage, but the person who answered didn’t clarify whether she was talking about dry matter or as-fed percentage. (The wet food is extremely low sodium if it’s dry matter, but kind of high if it’s as-fed.) It does sound like a good food, so I guess I’ll ask her to clarify.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 8 months ago by Flossie.

[Flossie]

Thanks, everybody! I don’t see a holistic vet, but I give my dog fish oil, coq10 supplements, as well as something called Vetri-Science Cardio Strength (it has l-carnitine, taurine, and various other supplements; it gets really good reviews on a few different sites). My vet says he’s nowhere near the end stages, but I’d love to minimize the coughing as much as possible. He was diagnosed in March, and since then the coughing has been kind of up and down. Luckily, his behavior/activity level/appetite haven’t changed in the least, and I want to keep it that way as long as possible. (He’s a beagle, by the way, but we’re not sure how old he is; we found him on the street seven years ago.)

I’m still deciding on a food; I’ve emailed a ton of companies and am trying to sort through it all. None of the varieties I’ve asked about seem to have high sodium, at least. It’s confusing because some have given me “as fed” content, others dry matter content, still others milligrams, and I’ve just got to go through all my emails and figure out which brands meet all or most of the criteria I’ve mentioned. Thanks again!

[theBCnut]

The stuff they use to make semi moist foods is not something I would feed my pets.

[somebodysme]

Why not try canned? I soak one of my dog’s meals(dry food) each day in water so she will get enough water. She loves it soaked. Maybe just do that?

[InkedMarie]

Ebk: if you read what I typed,it said to stop spamming lovemypets. No you!

[theBCnut]

Most companies don’t have larger sizes of kibble anymore. Most dogs don’t chew food anyway so it usually isn’t a problem, not like when a kibble is too large and small dogs can’t eat it.

Earthborn Holistic Great Plains Feast has a large diameter kibble, about the size of a dime. It is real thin and breaks easily, so it isn’t any kind of chewing challenge.

[ebk]

This is not spam. I had asked for help with brands and varieties, since I am actively trying to find a replacement for Evo dry dog food.

Thanks everyone for your comments, suggestions but more importantly for extending yourselves to help me. I really appreciate it.

I will look into some of the brands and varieties that you have suggested. I tried the Merrick, very small Kibble. Dogs liked it and ate it, or should I say, swallowed it. Because of the kibble size, most of it was consumed whole. I also reached out to a number of other companies asking about their kibble sizes. I guess most don’t feel the need for a large kibble. I am currently trying NOW Grain Free Large Breed Adult dry food. Very large kibble and the dogs seem to like it. I haven’t had a chance to see what out on the other end, which is really the acid test.

I will keep poking around on my replacement quest. Thanks for everyone’s help!

[GizmoMom]

/dog-food-reviews/ziwipeak-dog-food-dehydrated/

[InkedMarie]

Please stop your spamming, lovemypets

[pugmomsandy]

I don’t think there are any good soft dry foods. The only one I can think of is Moist & Meaty but that is poor quality. You can let the kibble soak in some water or try some of the dehydrated foods that you have to rehydrate like The Honest Kitchen, Grandma Lucy’s, Smack, Sojo’s, and Addiction. DNA (Dried-N-Alive) doesn’t really hydrate well. It doesn’t turn soft but is more like a hard fruit cake consistency when you soak it.

[lovemypets4life]

holistic health extension has grain free dry AND wet food; I personally use the dry grain free food for my dogs and they both love it

[lovemypets4life]

holistic health extensions has grain free WET dog food, the flavors that are grain free are turkey and duck. the turkey entrée has turkey, chicken, sweet potatoes, and carrots in it just to name a few ingredients. the duck entrée has duck, chicken liver, turkey, sweet potatoes, carrots, and dried egg products

[Sissy-Sassy]

Does anyone know of a Grain free soft dry dog food available? I have a 12 year old Westie that needs an soft dry food for allergy old teeth. Any help would be appreciated.

[Pizza Garlic]

My dog passed away last month because of CHF. The cardiologist suggested low sodium diet and the use of fatty acid, such as Salmon fish oil, as the supplement. Omega 3 & Omega 6 should be in the right proportion. I have also made nutritive consultation and the consultant suggested Salmon oil (in pill form) and L-Carnitine. My vet also recommended “Rx Vitamins – Formula CV”. Hawthorn is helpful too.

My dog was fed with “Karma” kibble which has a low sodium level of 0.06, you may also find the others as follows:
– Natura – Innova Low Fat Adult 0.12
– Natura – Senior Dry Dog Food 0.11
– Hills Prescription h/d (It was recommended by vet, but I really dislike it and stopped it, and used Karma instead) 0.07

I saw from books that the following dog foods also have low sodium level:
– Purina CNM Canine NF-Formula 0.22
– Select Care Canine Modified Formula 0.28
– MediCal Cardio 0.17
Hope you find the information helpful.

Best wishes for your dog!!

[MistiesMom]

http://www.nutro.com/natural-dog-food/natural-choice-dog-food/dry/lid-small-bites-lamb-and-rice.aspx

She is currently eating this food. She has had it now for just a couple of weeks.

[Duke The Boxer]

Hey there hdm. First off thank you for all the information about the dog foods I currently have an american bulldog boxer puppy who is 3.5 months and he is 20 pounds. I was thinking of switching to the earthborn holistic coastal catch but am concerned with how kittle proten it has. I was looking also at the Blackwood Sensitive Diet Salmon Meal & Rice Recipe 7030 Dry Puppy & Dog Food cuz my boy has been having somewhat loose stools. Can you recomend anither brand with low calvium percentage and around the price of earthborn. The natures variety is a little out of my price range. Thank you so much to snyone who helps me. Oh btw duke is currently eating nutro natural selection lamb for large breed puppies.

[CharlieBrown]

Hi All
Just wanted to update with my choices. I went with Earthborn Holistic for small bread dry food. I also got Simply Nourish canned food and some Nutro Ultra canned that are small tub like containers like Cesar comes in. Sooo I hope I did good on my new dog food venture!

[mah4angel]

Even better!! That should make the transition easier and much MUCH shorter, actually ^_^ Wet food is, in general, healthier than dry food! Now that I know that your baby is already eating wet food and doesn’t need to be transitioned from dry to wet, I can offer you a whole new (shorter) transition plan (if you don’t mind), I just copied and pasted my old plan and deleted and reworded some stuff haha. All I can say is remember to transition properly! It’s very important!!

-Change from Science Diet to a four-star wet food (something like the Nature’s Domain wet food-which is sold at Costco and is not yet listed on this site but that I’m positive would receive a four-star mark: http://www.naturesdomainpetfood.com/about-natures-domain/natures-domain-grain-free-turkey-and-pea-stew-for-dogs, or Artemis Fresh Mix canned food: /dog-food-reviews/artemis-fresh-mix-dog-food-canned/).
I’ve selected these because they have decent fat-to-protein ratios. The fat-to-protein ratio should be around 50% (Hill’s Science Diet Adult Canned Dog Food has an average fat-to-protein ratio of 68% so we’re trying to start to reduce the fat-to-protein ratio with these four-star foods).

-Then from a four-star wet food to a five-star wet food (like the Earthborn dinners: http://www.petflow.com/product/earthborn-holistic/earthborn-holistic-duke-s-din-din-gourmet-dinner-wet-dog-food).
These tubs have an average fat-to-protein ratio of about 47%, pretty much perfect. Like I said before, I HIGHLY recommend Earthborn products!! These come in great, easy to re-seal tubs in a variety of flavors. I used them for Louie to get him used to a higher moisture content.

-Then go to a 100% raw kibble (these raw kibbles come “dry” BUT they need to be re-hydrated with water so it really is more of a wet food than anything) like DNA (air-dried raw, stands for Dried N Alive): http://www.dnapetfood.com/node/20, or something similar.

-And then transition from that to a pre-made frozen raw OR you could totally cut costs and make your own (which is what I’m doing), and then you’ll have 100% control over what she’s eating 😀

• This reply was modified 12 years, 8 months ago by mah4angel.
• This reply was modified 12 years, 8 months ago by mah4angel.

[poodlemom]

I also forgot to mention Wellness Simple Line Dry Food (Turkey & Potato) is also one I am considering, along with Orijen, Merrick Duck & Sweet Potato.

[Flossie]

Thanks so much! I was just about to email Fromm’s to ask about sodium; it really does sound like a good option. And adding some meat as a topper is a good idea–my dog would definitely be all for it! The day I started mixing canned food into his dry food was the best day of his life, so organ meat on a regular basis would enrapture him. (He still eats like a pig and is very energetic; my vet says he’s certainly not in the end stages or anything like that. But his heart is enlarged and there’s fluid in his lungs that causes coughing, and two diuretics and two heart meds haven’t been able to eradicate it. I’m hoping lowering his sodium and adding some supplements will help bring it to a minimum for now.)

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Flossie –

I’m doing a bit of searching around and I think I found a good food for you! Fromm Classics adult recipe is 0.29% sodium on a dry matter basis. Fromm is a reputable company with no history of recalls. The food retails for $37.99 for 33 lbs. on Chewy(dot)com. If I find any more options I’ll let you know.

[Flossie]

Thanks, everyone. I’ll definitely check out your suggestions, BetsyGreer!

InkedMarie, I think I’m aiming for anything less than .3% dry matter sodium content (or around 50-80mg per 100 kcal); my vet hasn’t actually said he needs to go on a low-sodium diet, but so much of what I’ve read about CHF advocates controlling sodium intake and I thought it would be a good idea to at least be aware of it. Of course, it’s confusing; some of the companies I’ve contacted have given me a percentage “as fed” instead of the dry matter content (which I only just learned is the percentage I should be looking out for). I don’t want to severely restrict him yet, just make sure his food isn’t high in sodium.

I’ll admit that I’m not as concerned about Diamond as a lot of people here, since I feed all 3 of my dogs 4Health right now (I just discovered that the dry food is made by Diamond). And I think that eventually I could probably find anecdotal evidence against every brand, since I doubt one exists that hasn’t ever had a complaint. Ideally, though, I’d love to find a brand with no history of recalls that strikes the right balance of good nutritional profile, affordability, availability, and lower sodium content–but I realize that might be a pipe dream.

[theBCnut]

Mixing wet and dry food is great. I can’t suggest foods for you because I don’t know what has small kibble sizes, but someone else will see this soon and have ideas.

About the rawhides, does the package say where they were made or if they are natural hides? Throw out anything made in China because you never know what chemicals may be in it. If they are not natural rawhides, then they were treated with something to bleach them and it is unlikely to be something good. However as long as you only give them very occassionally they are unlikely to do damage, but it is something that I would only use rarely, just to be safe.

Congratulations on your new family member!!

[CharlieBrown]

Hi All,
I am a new Yorkshire Terrier owner. He just turned one on June 26th. We received him from my sis in law who for a variety of reasons couldn’t keep him any longer 🙁 With him I received a bag of Purina and a bag of Kibbles and Bits dry food. Also some cans of Mighty Dog canned food. Ive never been a dog owner but after finding this site I see that those foods are not good at all. Can you please recommend a good food for him? I am on a budget but want to feed him good food.

Also she told me she mixes half a can of the wet food with some kibble twice a day. Is this a good feeding schedule with good amounts of food? Should I always mix the wet and dry foods or keep them separate?

And finally, she also sent a small beefhide bone that he seems to love and spends alot of time gnawing on. It actually came in a pack of four and he he has 3 left. Are these any good?

Thank you in advance!! I will love your suggestions on good budget friendly foods and treats. Also any suggestions from veteran Yorkie owners on any topic about them not just food!!

[Flossie]

InkedMarie, do you use Canidae? I’d always heard good things about it, but now there are several comments on this site about it causing (or seeming to cause–it’s conjecture after all) digestive problems in dogs who’ve been on it for years. It worries me that maybe there’s a contaminated batch or something; wish I knew if there are actually a lot more people who *aren’t* having problems with it. The Platinum varieties are pretty low in sodium.

Hound Dog Mom, can I ask why you wouldn’t choose any of them? They get pretty good reviews here, so that’s why I picked them to ask about their sodium content. I actually was planning to order from Chewy, but there are so *many* options and variables that I don’t know how to narrow it down except the way I’ve been doing–making sure they have a good nutritional profile, checking the prices, then emailing the company to ask about sodium content (I *really* wish they’d start listing sodium on the package!). What brands are better but in the same price range? I’d prefer something that isn’t more than about $2 a can or $50 per 30lb bag. (I feed him both canned and dry food.)

[Hound Dog Mom]

I’ve never heard of this food but I can say that nothing can be “better than raw” and if a food isn’t cooked it’s raw. Upon visiting the webpage – there’s some stuff seriously off. As Sandy noted, the numbers simply do not add up. The % protein, % fat and % carbohydrates on a dry matter basis cannot total over 100%. They also state “all naturally occurring vitamins and minerals” – yet the food contains a long listed of added synthetic vitamins and minerals. I also can’t locate any information on their site explaining how the food is processed. Is it raw? Is it high pressure processed? Is it cooked? There’s just so much stuff on their site, I’m might try to sift through some of it but something just seems off to me.

[DogFoodie]

Hi Goldenlover,

Patty & HDM offered some great suggestions to make your current food more palatable, but it sounds like you’re also interested in finding a quality food that is still affordable and appeals to your dog.

Have you taken a look at this list of 5 Star Dry Foods: /dog-food-reviews/dry/5-star/?

Or this list of Best Foods (which includes 4 and 5 Star Foods): /best-dog-foods/best-dry-dog-foods/

Yes, Nature’s Domain from Kirkland is inexpensive and many of those on these lists aren’t, but there are still some that are affordable ~ probably many are still more than Kirkland’s ND. Also, ND is grain free and Rachael Ray Nutrish is grain inclusive and both of these lists include both grain free and inclusive formulations. One thing I’m not thrilled with the ND about is that it’s made by Diamond, which if you’re not already aware, has a horrible history of recalls and their handling of same. I don’t do any Diamond products and know there are others who feel the same.

If you like the Rachael Ray Nutrish product, you might also try the RR Zero Grain Nutrish, that’s a four star product, but it’s a bit more expensive than the RR Nutrish. Other more affordable foods you might want to check into are 4Health Grain Free (available at TSC), Victor, NutriSource, Earthborn Holistics, Dr. Tim’s, Fromm, Hi-Tek, Nutrisca, Pro Pac and Whole Earth Farms. Nature’s Logic is a bit more expensive, but a really great product.

Lots of foods have “loyalty” programs, like NutriSource for example, buy 12 and get one free. You can go to the NutriSource website and enter a contest to win a free bag of food and if you don’t win (I’m still trying) you’ll at least get a two dollar coupon emailed to you. Rachael Ray always has coupons available for the Zero Grain Nutrish on the website. Also, some online retails outlets will offer a discount for auto-ship orders, but you still have the ability to change shipping frequency and add or change items.

Five stars are great, so are four stars when your dog loves the food and does great on it!

[Hound Dog Mom]

Hi Flossie –

4Health is a Tractor Supply owned brand but they outsource the manufacturing. The grain-inclusive dry food is manufactured by Diamond, the grain-free dry food is manufactured by Ainsworth and the canned food is manufactured by Simmons. Don’t even bother trying to contact Tractor Supply’s customer service with questions about 4Health – they’re useless. For the salmon and potato dry food I’d contact Diamond directly. I’ve contacted Diamond in the past with questions about specific nutrient values in various 4Health formulas and they’ve always been very helpful and quick to respond.