[theBCnut]

Maybe look at Nature’s Variety Instinct, especially their limited ingredient line. Or you could look into the Honest Kitchen’s supplement called Prefect Form. It has ingredients to help with digestive issues and help calm the gut.

[gmcbogger38]

Hey Guys!

So, I have decided to feed my dogs a meat and bone grind mixed with a pre-mix. I am looking at Sojos and The Honest Kitchen. I’m leaning mre towards Sojos for the price and the fact that it is actually freeze dried raw, whereas THK is dehydrated. Would that make much of a difference with one versus the other? Would it be best to rotate between the 2?

[Punky T]

theBCnut, thank you. What was your dog’s problem? Did he/she have skin issues, too?
Gigi’s bumps sprang up almost immediately after I started adding a little freeze-dried turkey food by The Honest Kitchen (got it at Whole Foods). A friend told me about it and that it had made her Frenchie’s coat shine, and shed less. So i tried it, and as I said, the bumps sprang up almost immediately. The first ingredient is freeze dried turkey, the second organize flaxseed… :-/

[cindy q]

It stays chunky, I was told by them that you don’t even have to add water if your dog is drinking enough water(I do add water, but not the amount they say to add) it looks like ground beef, thats the consistency it has. My dogs didn’t like Honest Kitchen, I think they didnt like how it was mushy. BDN is not like that at all. BDN is air dried, I’m not sure if that is the same as dehydrated?

[cindy q]

Dori, I have 2 very picky eaters so I have been feeding all different foods trying to find something they will eat. We have tried Blue Buffalo, Merrick, Orijen,Primal, Fresh pet, honest kitchen, Now Fresh, Go! The only ones they seemed to like somewhat were Primal, Now Fresh & Go! They love BDN, they eat it right away and lick their bowls clean they have never done this before. I was always wasting food before throwing away what they didn’t eat. For me don’t you think it would make sense to stick with what they will eat?

[Dori]

Hi Liz S. NV Instinct raw is one of the foods I use in rotation feeding with my three toy dogs. I also use Answers Detailed, Vital Essentials Raw, Stella & Chewys Raw,
Primal Raw Formulas, OC Raw. In rotation feeding I also use The Honest Kitchen which is a dehydrated food and BDN which is another dehydrated food. The only kibble I have fed recently is Natures Logic Sardine Formula. The food is teeny tiny and they love it and have had no issues. The reason for the kibble after almost three years on raw is that if I have to leave them with someone or travel with them it would be more convenient than traveling lots of raw food which means a number of coolers with ice packs and I’m not Sure I feel completely safe with the food that way. I’ve also tried some freeze dried from a couple of the raw food companies. It’s an expensive process to freeze dry apparently so that’s the reason for freeze dried being so costly.

[Dori]

I think you should put your dog on a dehydrated food like The Honest Kitchen. Their ingredients are all high quality and manufactured in the USA in a human food plant. The only other company that can say that is Weruva. I agree that canned would be the more expensive way to go, but as Marie alluded to, you are spending quite a bit of money at the vet I would imagine. Whichever way you go, I would definitely get your dog off dry kibble. Try dehydrated and give it a chance. Good luck and please post back and let us know how things are going.

[dawn m]

I would like to know why Honest Kitchen isn’t on EC? I have done various searches for a healthy grain free – as organic and range free dog food as possible and so far this one stands out as being among the top choices. I’m surprised it’s not on the EC and would like to know why so I can start to purchase the #1 best dog food for my soon to be adopted 1 year old boxer.

[Naturella]

Ivan,

I second C4C – rotation is great for them, plus it is easy on the budget too! Websites such as http://www.petflow.com , http://www.chewy.com , http://www.wag.com offer awesome sales sometimes and you can stock up on various good 4- and 5-star foods for down to about $1/lb!!! Which is an awesome deal. For Victor, try http://www.sportdogfood.com too.

As for toppers – yes as well! I also use canned (sometimes), The Honest Kitchen (dehydrated raw I think), plain yoghurt, eggs, coconut oil, and canned sardines. Once a week my Bruno gets a Raw Meaty Bone (RMB) too. The effects of all those additives on skin and coat are tremendous, plus, it helps add variety to their diet and is overall better to their general health. 🙂

Good luck!

[aquariangt]

Nancy-Are you a member of Editor’s Choice here? None of the brands there are Diamond made. I feed a pretty rotational diet myself, a few brands that I recommend that are NOT diamond associated: Fromm (I use 4star, and grain free mostly, just not for my pea intolerant girl), Earthborn (again, I like grain free of theirs), Acana/Orijen, Simply Nourish Source, and if you are interested in the dehydrated route, The Honest Kitchen. Victor is also a top food recommended on here, but I haven’t tried it myself-hard to find here

[Dori]

I stay away from foods that have long lists of ingredients. I want their food to be foods and with Katie and all her issues I need foods to be simple with short list of ingredients that I no she can eat. I’m sick to death at this point of doing any more elimination with her. I’ve got a pretty long list of foods now that she can easily deal with and as for my picky husband who is grossed out with dealing with raw foods The Honest Kitchen finally came out with the Zeal without alfalfa. It’s fish, so not for Sam. She tolerates Nature’s Logic Sardine (also not for Sam) very well for some reason. Didn’t think she would. Oh, I should mention that Katie’s good with Vital Essentials freeze dried (I’m not thrilled with the price of freeze dried but jeesh, I’ve got to be out of the house sometimes). Jim’s ok with feeding that as he thinks it’s a sort of kibble and I haven’t told him otherwise. So anyway, it’s at least three foods that he’s ok feeding the dogs and I no longer have to go crazy speed racing trying to be home for their dinner time if I’m running late. Husbands grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!! Gotta love em but sometimes………….

• This reply was modified 11 years, 6 months ago by Dori.

[RescueDaneMom]

I completely understand! I was super nervous to try it too. From what I’ve read, it is more likely for dog’s to get salmonella from tainted kibble than raw. But I started with raw slowly myself. I fed Max kibble with toppers like canned and dehydrated/freeze-dried foods for the first 4 years I had him. Then as I learned more about canine nutrition, I started experimenting with adding raw. I started with Stella & Chewy’s as a topper as well. The Duck, Duck, Goose is a favorite of Max’s. From there I started trying other brands and gradually increased his amount of raw and decreased the amount of kibble. A year ago I decided to stop feeding kibble altogether. I was feeding Max a dehydrated food (Honest Kitchen) and raw. I kept that up for about 7-8 months until he got tired of the Honest Kitchen. He was refusing to eat his food even with the raw mixed in. I tried other dehydrated and freeze-dried foods with little success. His system was just not liking them. I made the switch back to half kibble 2.5 weeks ago. He is doing really well on the BC kibble. I would love to do full raw but I just don’t have good enough local sources and I don’t have enough time to do all the prep. I’m a firm believer that some raw is better than no raw so I’m happy with the compromise I made.

Best of luck to you and Zane. Baby steps is the way to go. You can easily figure out what he does well on if you introduce things one at a time.

[crazy4cats]

Oh good, it sounds like you are using Perfect Form from The Honest Kitchen. I use that off and on too. I used to recommend that often as well. But it seems like a lot of dogs won’t eat it. Glad to hear yours will. Yes, definitely time to try a different kibble. I feed mine grain free Victor with various toppers with much success. Good luck!

[Naturella]

Sheltielove, a few of us here are college students, myself and my husband included. We also shop on a super tight budget for our dog, but so far we have managed to keep our food costs at $6.07/month for 4-5-star food. That is pretty low, although I am not counting Bruno’s (the dog’s) additives in the price. He gets an egg, a raw meaty bone (usually a chicken back or pork/beef neck bone piece), 1/2 can of sardines, and a tablespoon of coconut oil every other day and 1 tablespoon of yoghurt every other day. And The Honest Kitchen raw dehydrated food as a topper (1 tsp/meal, aside from when he gets coconut oil or yoghurt). The price of THK is calculated in his food cost though. Right now we are stocked on kibble and THK till the end of August, 2015.

Now, how did we do that?
Part 1 – lucked out! Our local Petland had a special during the months of November and December 2013 and was giving away FREE small bags of Holistic Health Extension. I stocked up on those with 4 bags.
Part 2 – Petland also sends me a coupon for $10 off of $25+ purchase – a great way to get bigger bags for less. I got 3 14-lb bags for about $20 each (with tax and all).
Part 3 – Luck again – there is an awesome little pet specialty store with amazing sales on top notch brands when they’re a month away from expiring, plus they give away free samples. Got me some of those too.
Part 4 – I facebooked a bunch of companies to ask for samples of their foods – some sent just coupons, some samples and treats, and some – whole small bags of food. Two bags of food came this way.
Part 5 – Planned couponing – for more info and to speak to this site’s real coupon guru Akari_32, see this thread – /forums/topic/coupons/
Part 6 – Scouting for deals and sales online. Websites, such as petflow.com and chewy.com will have flash sales at which you can get food for $1/lb – I got 19lbs of food this way, all in 4- or 5-lb bags of great, various flavors and brands.

Part 7 – MOST IMPORTANTLY – all of the above methods will be kind of on the hard side if you do not rotate protein sources (flavors) AND brands of food. More on diet rotation and why it’s important – /frequently-asked-questions/diet-rotation-for-dogs/ But this way you get to take advantage of all or most deals and sales versus being stuck to a specific brand/flavor.

Also, some of the more affordable overall brands are: Earthborn Holistic, Victor Select and Victor Grain Free, in some places NutriSource (not around Kennesaw, GA though – here it is soooo expensive!), Taste of the Wild (a Diamond product), Canidae (in my area it’s not too pricy), and possibly Dr. Tim’s.

As for Diamond – they manufacture several brands. They had a huge recall in 2012 and handled it poorly. Hence the issue of many with them.

As for Nutro, I cannot speak, although I have fed their small breed puppy food – one bag, first food we bought for our doggie before we discovered this site.

Hope this helps! Welcome, and keep the questions coming! 🙂

[Brenda E]

Thanks for checking back! We went camping this weekend and he got diarrhea pretty bad; I woke up every two hours with my poor pup. Being fed up, I stopped feeding him Blue, he’s been eating boiled chicken with some pumpkin and an herbal supplement from The Honest Kitchen for two days and his poop is great. We have two samples of The Honest Kitchen and I bought him a small bag of Wellness brand puppy food. Hopefully his poop improves, but I’m still doing my research on food.

[Dori]

Just want to say all three of my girls absolutely love THK, but as I’ve always said, none of my dogs have ever been picky eaters. They love the smell, taste and everything else about The Honest Kitchen.

[crazy4cats]

I use Honest Kitchen as a topper now and then. I like a break from cans. My dogs do not love it either. If I hydrate with some unsweetened organic applesauce and water, they like it A LOT more! I’m using Love right now. Good luck!

[Yorkieville]

I bought 5 samples of THK food with my points for signing up. Love, Thrive, and Embark.
We tried Embark, and she ate it. Next we tried Love-she didn’t like it. So, then, we tried Thrive, she didn’t like it either. Went back to Embark, she refuses to eat more than a few bites.
Are they all supposed to be green?

[DogFoodie]

Hi Tiffany,

That’s great that you’re willing to cook for your dogs! A couple of great books to take a look at would be Karen Becker’s, Real Food for Healthy Dogs and Cats. You could also take a look at Steve Brown’s, Unlocking the Canine Ancestral Diet.

But, I agree…, you do have to know where to start.

I looked at the ingredients in the TOTW High Prairie Puppy formula you mentioned. There are a few things in that other than the proteins (bison, venison, fish) that could be the problem, such as tomato pomace or flaxseed. If you’re wanting to use kibble as a base, I’d start with a simple food that has one animal protein source and one starch. I might also try a food that doesn’t use chickpeas and lentils as binders since it appears as though your guy might have a sensitive digestive system and those are known to cause some gastric distress. Maybe try a limited ingredient food, such as Nature’s Variety Instinct LID. I’d recommend any of the formulas other than the lamb. You might also like The Honest Kitchen Zeal (assuming that he can eat fish). If you aren’t already familiar with THK, it’s a human-grade dehydrated food that you rehydrate with water.

I would start right now of keeping a list of everything that he eats, his reaction to it, etc. I did that and kept detailed notes and it was the way I discovered my dog’s food intolerances. Keep in mind the ingredients in any treats that he eats as well.

You could also try adding some plain canned pumpkin to his food to help firm up the stools to see if that helps. I’ve been using a product called Firm Up as needed which is dehydrated pumpkin and apple. It works great and I have much less waste because I never used a full can of pumpkin before it went to waste. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_pet-supplies?ie=UTF8&field-brandtextbin=Diggin%27+Your+Dog&node=2619533011

[InkedMarie]

Hi Tom,
First, thanks for adopting this senior gal! I would not feed that food. No offense to your vet but they get very little nutrition education.
Years back, we adopted a senior dog who was obese. She should have weighed about 25lbs but was 43.7. We used Wellness Core reduced fat & she lost the weight. For snacks, you can use some of her kibble from her daily ration, fresh green beans, we use The Honest kitchen quickies but they’re costly.ni think Buddy biscuit itty Bitties and Charlee Bear treats are low calorie.
What supplements are you using? I’ve used Joint Mobility Plus (from SwansonVitamins.com), green lipped mussel, salmon oil, Liquid Gold K9 and salmon oil for ours with bad joints.

[crazy4cats]

Hi Patricia-
Did your vet put your pup on the low residue food due to the gas? Is it a veterinarian prescription food? I give my dogs a digestive enzyme with their meals that seems to help with that issue. I rotate them. Right now im giving them a Vetri-Pro BD tablet with their meals. It contains digestive enzymes, probiotics and soothing intestinal supplemts. It is made by Vetri-Science and I buy it through Amazon or Healthy Pets. I think it is a good idea to rotate kibble and toppers for your dogs. Other supplements that may help with the switch are Fruitables canned digestive support and Honest Kitchen’s Perfect Form. I hope you find something that works!

[Tera M]

Honest Kitchen

[Naturella]

Kim, I’m glad I could help! 🙂 Many many many good people on this site have helped me enhance my knowledge of most things dog (and even cat, although I don’t have one), and I know you will learn a lot here too.

As far as travel – kibble is very convenient, so if you get them used to something, that will be easy when you travel with your “pack”. Also, dehydrated raw/freeze-dried raw are fairly convenient options too, plus, I hear boarding places will still feed dehydrated, but not actual frozen raw. Some brands are The Honest Kitchen, Sojos, Grandma Lucy’s, Nature’s Variety (I think they have freeze-dried).

One interesting brand I wanted to invite you to try is Wysong. Their Epigen line has zero starches as binders, which makes it pretty unique, plus it is very nutritious and protein-rich, and the kibble is tiny. They also offer some dehydrated/freeze-dried options. Epigen is on the pricier side of dog foods, but I think it is quite worth it. Aside from Epigen, they have other great kibbles that are also small and have no corn, you just have to look through the ingredients. I have a bag of the Nurture with Quail (has some brown rice) by Wysong that I will try in my rotation soon, and it was pretty affordable ($5 for 5 lbs on Petflow.com), plus, you can find even better deals on them on some of the online shopping websites (Petflow.com ; Chewy.com ; Wag.com). I just love their philosophy as a company, so check them out. But all other suggested brands are completely viable options, and GREAT choices as well. Don’t forget that rotation of food brands is also essential for the dog’s well-being as this way they get not only varied proteins, but varied combinations of vitamins and minerals, which helps make their overall diet more “complete” and “balanced”.

Let us know if you have any more questions! 🙂

[Pat G]

Have you tried Fromm, I have had great success with the Duck and Pheasant combination. It is low enough in fat for the little guys and an very small kibble. I also have a 5 lb Maltese and he is prone to pancreatitis so I feed him Honest Kitchen Zeal. It is a dehydrated food so a bit messy for their little faces but worth it since it is only 9% fat.

[Patricia T]

The Honest Kitchen?

[Naturella]

Vianca, I am not a pro, but from what I know, different breed puppies mature differently – a small or toy breed puppy can be considered an adult and fully-mature at 6 months of age; large and giant breed puppies can continue growing and be considered puppies for up to 2 years! So I don’t know where the 5-month mark came from. I do know that adult dogs just don’t need the extra calories from puppy food, that is why the amount should be reduced, but as with every dog, you need to watch activity levels and overall body condition and adjust accordingly – for example, reduce food if she’s getting chunky or is in general not very active, and increase food if she’s too thin and/or very active. As for the dog being spayed, I don’t know if you have to reduce her food, maybe one of the pros here will jump in on that part. For my Bruno, I only reduced his kibble 1/4 cup from his 1 cup/day allowance after being neutered, but that coincided with him being 6 months old and an “adult” now. Also, now I complement the loss of kibble with various toppers (wish I did that when he was a puppy, but oh well, he got his fair share of bully sticks, fish skins, etc.), so he hasn’t really lost the calories, but he burns them just fine.

My Bruno is 13.5lbs and he’s at moderately high activity level. He is supposed to get 1 cup at most of food, I think, for his weight group. I feed him 3/4 (heaping) cup of dry food plus The Honest Kitchen as a topper and coconut oil/yoghurt every other breakfast, and a raw egg, canned sardines, and a raw meaty bone once/week for each. He is lean, muscular, and in good body condition.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the actual amount – just observe your dog and adjust accordingly, and eventually you will find an amount that works for her.

[InkedMarie]

I have used The Honest Kitchen for almost ten years; always will. My dogs love it! I can’t add to the pros & cons; Sandy & Akari covered them.

[InkedMarie]

Most dogs love canned; have you tried some? They’re different consistencies. Some are like stews (Weruva comes to mind), some are “smooshier” (Canidae Pure) and some are really hard (can’t remember names). Canned is better than dry anyway & a Chi wouldn’t eat much. I haven’t fed much freeze dried but use dehydrated. The Honest Kitchen is smoother and Stella & Chewy is chunkier. If you’re interested in dehydrated, contact the companies & ask for samples.

[Pat G]

I use Honest Kitchen for my guys but they are little, the three of them make up one 35 lb dog. Again I have heard good things about Fromm Canned, I think its called Gold Naturals but not sure, you can look on their website

[jakes mom]

How about Honest Kitchen? More expensive than kibble but might work out comparably to good canned food.

[Pat G]

Fromm has an excellent wet food, low fat and good for the little guys. I feed one of my dogs Honest Kitchen Zeal, because his had a nasty bout of pancretitis. I feed the other two Honest Kitchen Thrive because of sever food allergies. If you go on the Fromm website I am sure you can get the information about their canned food for special needs, it is chicken based and I have heard really good things about it.

[crazy4cats]

Hi Jeffrey D-
I’m not sure how you feel about supplements. My dogs have sensitive tummies with intermittent loose stools. I use “Firm Up” when I add canned food to their kibble. It is dehydrated pumpkin and pectin. In my opinion, it is more convenient than adding canned pumpkin and applesauce (pectin) to their food.
I also learned about helpful supplements on http://www.dogaware.com. I have and currently rotate, Gastriplex by Thorne, Vetri-Pro BD by Vetri Science, and Perfect Form by The Honest Kitchen with great success. They all contain enzymes, probiotics and supplements such as slippery elm that help control loose stools.
My dogs have not been diagnosed with anything. But, I suspect leaky gut or IBS due to previous intestinal parasites and over use of antibiotics.
I feed Victor grain free kibble with various toppers. Such as canned, frozen raw nuggets, eggs, sardines and dehydrated.
Good luck to you!

[crazy4cats]

Awesome! I bet vacations are very few and far between. Thank you for sharing. I think the Big Dog Natural food actually looks pretty good. I might check it out as a topper as well. The Honest Kitchen is not going well at my house.

[Tiyapup]

I add some pre-mix + raw on top of my dogs’ kibble. I love the idea of giving them some less processed food, but I don’t yet trust the pre-mixes enough to feed them exclusively. I’ve rotated through Sojo’s, The Honest Kitchen, Grandma Lucy’s Artisan, and Grandma Lucy’s Pureformance.

My main complaint is that the meat to mix ratios seem suspiciously unscientific. Sojo’s says 1 cup dry mix to 1/2 cup meat (seems like not nearly enough meat; I do 1:1). THK says 1 cup dry mix to 1 cup meat, and Grandma Lucy’s says 1 cup dry mix to 1 OR 2 cups meat. The whole reason I started adding the premix to the meat was that I was a little worried about messing up the calcium. These instructions don’t necessarily make me feel more confident, so I keep the kibble around.

Dogaware.com has a very informative write-up about premixes for anyone who needs more information (premixes aren’t reviewed on this site).

[Dori]

LOL Cyndi. I was going to jump in on the amount of food you first mentioned. When I first read your post I thought. That’s a heck of a lot of food. That can’t possibly be right. Then GizmoMom jumped in.

Akari. From all that I know about pork, you absolutely have to freeze it a minimum of 2 weeks (longer probably better) to rid it of any parasites. Very important. Even if you buy it frozen at the store you still need to freeze it at home because you have no idea how long they froze the pork. I’ve got a 5 lb. Yorkipoo, a 6 lb. Maltipoo and a 7 lb. Maltese. They each get 1/4 cup of raw diet twice a day. Two to three times a week I split a small can (grocery store tuna fish aisle) of sardines in water to their meals. I don’t give them eggs because my Maltipoo is intolerant to any and all things poultry. On days that I do not give them sardines added to their meal I give them once a day a little squirt of Sardine Oil which I keep in the refrigerator on top of their meal. I use Nature’s Logic. I like the company and trust them. I also give them two or three times a week once a day only maybe about 1/8 tsp. (maybe a little less) of coconut oil. I just put it on their food and they eat it. I don’t give them more than that with the coconut oil because their poops will immediately get kind of soft, dark and gooey (sp?). Sorry for that poop description but that’s the only way I know of explaining it. Just in case it happens to you. I don’t think any of my gals digest the coconut oil too well. I have to say that sometimes weeks go by that I don’t bother with the coconut oil. I don’t see that it helps them one way or the other. I have tried the coconut chips that are sold but they come out looking exactly the same way they went in. White coconut chips in and out.

Oh! I forgot to mention that I feed commercial raw diets. I don’t feed any poultry whatsoever. Remember no bones that contain marrow. Way to fatty is the marrow. Beef ribs with a bit of meat (not a lot) are fine. If he actually eats the bone then you don’t need to also feed the meal. If he just chews the bone for entertainment value then, yes, feed the meal. Mine just think they’re toys. Will chew for a bit and then leave them laying around. The only dehydrated food that I feed (haven’t for a while) is The Honest Kitchen Zeal. The Zeal formula is because Katie (Maltipoo is intolerant of all things poultry. I don’t feed anything with potatoes in it. I had to stop feeding THK because of the alfalfa (again, Katie’s issues with alfalfa). They have started producing the Zeal without the alfalfa but are still trying to clear out their old stock and also their old boxes. Until their web site ingredient list does not include the alfalfa and the boxes do not say alfalfa then I’ll wait them out. I will go back to the Zeal at that time. OK. Sorry for such a long post. Anything else I can help with just ask, if not me, then someone else. Hey also I’ve been thinking for the longest time that you should change your name to The Coupon Lady or just Coupon Lady. Anyway anytime I see your name I always think…Oh? It’s the coupon lady. LOL!

[aquariangt]

you may try some probiotics or pumpkin while you transition to the higher protein, especially orijen and other close to or over 40% proteins. Honest Kitchen’s Perfect Form is a nice one, and plenty of other options as well. 11% protein is quite a jump for your yorkie and if you have a sensitive stomach it may take a little bit for him to get used to it. But yes, some dogs do struggle with protein that is quite that high

[Dori]

Hi Maureen. There is only one Editors Choice List for Foods. There is not a specific list for raw foods. The two raw foods that I am remembering that appear on the August list are Primal and Stella and Chewy’s.

I may have missed or overlooked an earlier post of yours about The Honest Kitchen. The Honest Kitchen is not a raw dog food. Is that what you were wondering or did you just want to know if there was a separate raw dog food EC list?

• This reply was modified 11 years, 7 months ago by Dori.

[Nancy C]

A couple of thoughts: My 10 yr old Golden R will eat about anything but not in a gobbling it up sort of way. HOWEVER, I have just lately been adding TO the bowl some sample packs of The Honest Kitchen flavors (which they sent for free in a box) and I have mixed that tog with Fromm’s Four Star Salmon, Dr Tim’s Kinesis GF, and Acana Grasslands, and she has LICKED every food molecule out of THE BOWL every time! Each pack has about 100 calories, so I reduced the calories in the dry kibble to make room for the HK food. THK food is wet such that it will coat all the kibble in a nice way if you stir it. also, I have added Coconut Oil to the food, putting little dollops on top of the food. Both my dogs LOVE coconut oil and it is SO GOOD for them. (The substitute mailman just commented yesterday how beautiful the Golden’s coat is — that it is noticeably thicker and prettier. I told him I’ve been giving her coconut oil. He said it has made a difference.) Dr Becker recommends 1 tsp per day for every 10 to 20 pounds of weight. It’s like CANDY to them and I think makes contents in the bowl more interesting and tasty. I sometimes snip large fish oil capsules and drop the drops on the kibble. Also just bought some very high quality Norwegian Salmon Oil. The woman at the pet boutique said several pumps of this on top of kibble really upgrades the flavor.

[Naturella]

Liz S, I also think adding canned will do much, much good! When I use canned, I prefer the pate-style ones, and I add a bit of water with the canned and kibble (I mix dry and canned usually), and make it mushy/porridge-like/soupy, and this way I try to counter the dryness of the kibble.

My dog is small too (Jack Russell-mini Rat Terrier mix (we think, as he was found in the bushes), 13.5 lbs), but I never really fed him a small-breed specific food except for his very first one when we adopted him. Foods I have tried that he did good on (and could eat the kibble with no problems) are: Blue Buffalo Wilderness, Vets Choice Holistic Health Extension, Dr. Tim’s (slightly bigger kibble, but oh well, he managed it just fine), Nutrisca, Earthborn Holistic Grain Free, Victor Grain Free (lots of samples), Nature’s Variety Instinct (samples), Now! Fresh (sample), NutriSource Grain Free (samples), Annamaet (samples), Wysong (samples), and I have a lot lined up – Back to Basics, Canidae Pure, Dogswell LiveFree, Wysong, NVI, more Victor Grain Free (which, in my case (heads up to LabsRawesome), told me I could PURCHASE the samples at $0.33/baggie, but wouldn’t send me free ones, AND I had to pay the shipping… But I stocked up at 5 samples/food, lol).

All the kibbles aside from Dr. Tim’s were small enough and just fine to manage. For canned I have fed Wellness Core, Nutro Natural Source and Nutro Ultra, and now I feed The Honest Kitchen (THK) dehydrated with water instead of canned. I also add a raw egg once a week, coconut oil with some lukewarm water every other day, and yoghurt/kefir every other day, as well as a canned sardine and its fish juice from the can once a week too. So you can use some of these for variety and to cut the costs of canned.

[InkedMarie]

If you can afford it, feed raw. I would start with turkey, looks like you can also use lamb and goat. If you’re looking to feed dry, turkey may be your only option. Possibly duck; I think duck eggs are different than duck as a protein. The a Honest Kitchen dehydrated has a duck and turkey.

[DogFoodie]

What about The Honest Kitchen’s new base mix Kindly, to which, you add your own fresh meat? THK actually has six grain free recipes now. I’ve tried Farmina and liked it ~ I found it to be budget friendly as well. Nature’s Logic isn’t grain free as it contains the pseudo grain, millet; but, it’s a great food.

If you haven’t already, you could take a look at Susan Thixton’s site. There are several companies that have signed her “Pledge.” “The Pledge” is a manufacturer’s statement of quality and origin of ingredients. I cannot say for certain (without going through each brand on the list) that all of those who have signed The Pledge are China Free; however, there is a specific column on the document where the manufacturer must indicate whether or not China is the country of origin for each ingredient. There aren’t a lot of foods on the list. There aren’t many kibbles. Some of the foods are frozen, raw diets that can only be shipped to certain locations, etc.; but, it’s a place to start and if nothing else, it’s interesting.

This link is to The Pledge, specifically: http://associationfortruthinpetfood.com/the-pledge/

Here’s another link to Susan’s regular site: http://truthaboutpetfood.com/

[Susan B]

Wow! Just Wow!! I feel like banging my head down on the desk. I had believed Merrick to be a quality food. Honestly, if I could, I’d move to the Great Northwest and just go salmon fishing everyday since he LOVES salmon.

I need a grain free and poultry free quality food (with no Chinese ingredients) if anyone has any recommendations. I am going to check on those previously suggested, Honest Kitchen, etc., but finding something without grain and any form of poultry protein is difficult.

[DogFoodie]

While I can’t say that this is the case with every food that contains synthetic vitamins and minerals, but those that do use them are far more likely than not to contain ingredients sourced from China. Taurine in particular, from what I’ve read.

If you truly want China free products, you might take a look at Farmina, Nature’s Logic, The Honest Kitchen or Primal (Primal sources Taurine from Japan).

[pugmomsandy]

Some suggestions: feed slightly less volume per feed, feed him only twice a day if he’s old enough to do so, give a multi-strain probiotic daily, add some fiber (ground psyllium, coconut fiber, chia seeds, pure pumpkin puree) or fiber products like The Honest Kitchen’s Perfect Form or one called Firm-Up with each feed, or find a food with higher fiber content. My dogs that eat foods with pea fiber or chickpeas or lentils have solid stools.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 7 months ago by pugmomsandy.

[Stewart]

Hello everyone, I’ve been a lurker and finally decided to join. I wanted to get some advice about a homemade cooked veggie pre-mix. My little dog(Graham) does raw muscle meat with The Honest Kitchen pre-mix. He’s been on it for a little over 2 years. I want to make my own because I think I could save some money. Does anyone know of a recipe for a homemade pre-mix?

Background- the reason he is on the pre-mix is because he has severe allergies. When I first got him I knew I was doing raw with him just like my cat. But he kept throwing up or regurgitating his food. No matter the brand of raw, homemade or commercial he couldn’t keep it down. He would thow up in his sleep, it was bad. We did an ultra sound, allergy test, x-ray… we even tried kibble but that only added diarrhea to the mix. It was really bad at one point. I cried thinking I might have to give him away because nothing that I was doing was making him better. I was sad and frustrated all at the same time. Then one day I noticed small bits of bone in his throw up and thought maybe it’s the bone? Sure enough that’s exactly what it was! We also stay away from things found on his allergy panel(potato, rice, lamb) but the bone was the main culprit behind him throwing up raw. He’s 3 and we had a hard first year but everything worked out.

Also can someone point me area for directions on how to get a picture up? I’m missing something.

[GSDMom]

Hi all, just saw on the HK website that they are introducing a mix that is fruit, grain and potato free…just add meat. Any opinions on this? I’d like to try it for my GSD instead of feeding dry food.

Also… would LOVE opinions on this after you’re done shaking your heads (haha!) Growing up we had a GSD boy that refused “dog” food since he was a puppy. So, my Mom cooked for him…for 12 years! We didn’t know anything about proper nutrition back then and certainly didn’t know about supplements. So, our King ate a bowl of cooked steak, or chicken or chicken/gizzards until he was 12. He had colitis and all he took was some kind of capsuled medication, 1 a day. That’s all. How would that go over today? 🙂

• This topic was modified 11 years, 8 months ago by GSDMom.

[crazy4cats]

Hi CW-
Wow! This is a frustrating situation. I have two golden labs. They ate anything and everything up until a few months ago. One has decided to be a little bit picky. He likes to have something mixed in with his kibble. I mix either canned or fresh foods in and he eats it right up. For fresh, I rotate between eggs, sardines and frozen raw. He will not eat the Honest Kitchen Turkey flavor any longer. The other pup, who tends to be a little bit chubby still eats anything. He is glad to eat whatever the other one doesn’t! LOL!

I received a sample of Now Fresh large breed dog food a while back and the kibble was very large. They are a very good company if you want to try giving a larger size kibble a shot.

I fed the Royal Canin Vet food for a short while when they were pups due to stomach issues, and you are right, crazy expensive!!!

Good luck to you!

[aquariangt]

What about mixing in canned and/or dehydrated to help get him eating? Dogs often won’t reject things like the honest kitchen or sojos

[Tracy W]

I have a 3-year-old Husky named Cookie who struggles with food and environmental allergies and yeast infections in her ears. I have tried her on all sorts of different foods, and I’ve found she reacts negatively to beef, bison, lamb, and chicken. She did very well on Grandma Mae’s Country Naturals Farmhouse Blend (which is pork and fish based), and she also did well on Holistic Select Duck and Holistic Select Sardine & Anchovy, and Lincoln Biotech’s Zinpro (expensive!!!!!). The problem is, she doesn’t like any of those foods very much. In fact, my mother-in-law and husband feed their dogs beneful, and Cookie LOVES it, although it doesn’t agree with her. She even likes my chinchilla’s food, but doesn’t like her own. :-/

I guess I’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations of foods to try for her that won’t break the bank? I’d consider doing raw if 1) I knew how to source it affordably and 2) I knew she would still be fed raw when I go out of state.

Some of the kibbles that don’t work include:
Wellness Super5
All of the TotW
Nutro LI Venison
California Naturals, with grain
Exclusive
Precise, both chicken and lamb
Verus opticoat
Earthborn Holistic, various recipes including the potato-free ones
Merrick – she did OK on it but there was fur in the duck-based kibble. Fur? Really? They make ducks with fur now? And Merrick told me it was natural. :-/
Whole Earth Farms
Diamond Naturals
NutriSource

I was considering The Honest Kitchen’s Keen, but I’m concerned about the potatoes, and I have nowhere to get it locally. Does anyone have any suggestions?

• This topic was modified 11 years, 8 months ago by Tracy W.

[cindy q]

I have a very picky standard poodle that is 10 mos old. I have tried numerous food that she would eat for a few days and then not eat and some she wouldn’t eat at all. All quality food like Orijen, Honest Kitchen (this one she wouldn’t eat at all) Now Fresh. I started feeding Primal freeze dried and she loves it! It is expensive, what can I add in to cut the cost?