[Akari_32]

Hey guys! I was wondering what you all thought of the Pet Botanics dry food? Its on sale for $10 and I have a bunch of $5 coupons, so at a $1 a pound, you can’t really go wrong!

Given Bentley’s itchiness, and the fact that I’ve had him on the Pure Balance Salmon and Pea for several weeks and his hair is actually growing back, do you think it’d be worth it to try the Salmon and Lamb formulas of Pet Botanics? They’re pretty similar to Pure Balance, and rank the same 3.5 stars.

[Naturella]

Akari, I looked at both foods, and they do look fairly similar. One thing is that the vitamins and minerals in Pet Botanics may or may not be chelated, which helps with their absorption – so why don’t you go ahead and get the food, it is a good price after all – and maybe see how Bentley does. If he really is showing progress with Pure Balance, you could maybe mix the two foods?

[Shasta220]

Definitely see how he does, but compare ingredients. As itching is almost always a sign of food allergies. Hair loss and red skin most definitely sounds like an allergic reaction. Do you remember foods that you previously fed him that made him flare up? Try finding those on here and compare the ingredients to Pet Botanics, and to Pure Balance. A bit of detective work 😉 I know it seems like a lot to do, and it will probably take a while. But once you can get it figured out, and have a list of all the culprit ingredients, it should be easier to find a food that won’t make him worse.

Also, maybe to help the hair growth, try adding fish and coconut oil? I absolutely adore those…my dogs get fish oil daily, and coconut oil 4-5 days a week. Even my super sensitive greasy-but-flaky skinned lab has improved leaps and bounds on it.

[Naturella]

I’d like to second the oils thing – Bruno gets coconut oil every other day, plus a canned sardine once a week, and on occasion, some raw fish. Plus, he’s on a fish-based food now. Since the coconut oil addition, though, he has been super duper soft! 🙂

[Akari_32]

He’s been on just about every food I can find around here, with all different proteins, and various grains and carbohydrate sources. I don’t think its so much a chicken and grain allergy as it is a pollen allergy (I’m sure he’s got a little bit of a chicken/grain intolerance, but I think he’s got more of an environmental allergy). He got much better over winter (and he was on Purina One most of the time then), and then when it started warming up and the grass grew back and crap started blooming, he got itchy again. He used to hate fish, so I never fed him anything with fish, but he seems to really like this Pure Balance, so he’s either gotten over it, or he just doesn’t like certain fishes… But anyways, I had mom try him on it because I thought the fish base would help his skin out, and it certainly has. And since he doesn’t like fish, I haven’t subjected him to any fish oil lol

[Dori]

Hi Akari 32. I just went on line and checked Pet Botanics Salmon, also the lamb. The Salmon formula contains chicken fat in the list of ingredients. The Lamb formula includes chicken meal in the formula. If you dog is intolerant of chicken then I would not feed any type of poultry at all. You should also try to avoid grains, and soy in the ingredients. I have a dog with poultry allergies. Originally I thought it was chicken, it turned out to be all foul in any form. Always read the entire list of ingredients in each formula before you try it. A lot of foods contain chicken or poultry somewhere in the list of ingredients. It’s a cheap way to boost protein in a food. Also try to avoid foods that have too many peas in the ingredients. My dog, Katie, with all the allergies also have environmental allergies too. She gets worse in the Spring and Fall but always has food intolerances and allergies. Just recently figured out that she’s allergic to alfalfa.

[Akari_32]

Oh, I didn’t realize the lamb had chicken. Must have missed that! I don’t think he has a problem with chicken fat, though. And if he does, the other dogs will eat the food no problems. I just hate for him to only be able to have one food, you know? I do want to at least see how he does on the new bison Pure Balance, as well.

[Dori]

There are plenty of foods your dog can eat that have no chicken in them whatsoever. Once you find a food that he does well on you can then while he’s eating that you can find a different one that doesn’t have anything that he has issues with and eventually have three or four different ones that you can rotate him on. There are probably more dogs allergic to chicken in all its forms including chicken fat than anything else. As I said, there are a lot of different proteins that you can try that do not have chicken or chicken fat, etc. You should really assume that if he’s allergic to chicken he will be allergic to chicken fat.

[Dori]

Akari 32. I forgot to mention that the other allergy he may be having is to the peas. Dogs can be allergic to peas especially when there is an abundance in the food. Don’t worry, there are a lot of foods that do not contain peas if you want to give that a try.

[Akari_32]

I live in the land of Ol’ Roy and Purina Dog Chow. There’s really not much available locally that my mom is going to deal with. Pet Supermarket and Walmart, that’s all we got (that mom will shop at). Pet Supermarket has the crappiest selection of food I’ve ever seen for dogs with allergies. Everything is either chicken, has chicken, is crazy low in protein, or is all carbs. Or it’s chocked full of potatoes, which irritates the crap out of me. And then Walmart is…. Well, Walmart. Pet Supermarket does have Instinct, which Bentley likes, but it’s not always an option given the price. It also didn’t seem to help him at all, but we tried the beef.

This is the first time he’s ever been on a food with peas until now, so I doubt that’s a problem.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by Akari_32.

[Shasta220]

Gosh, sorry you have such a lousy selection. I entirely understand though. When my minimal budget, I can’t afford nearly what I’d like to. We have awful selection too – just a Walmart and a few little pet boutique shops. I’m sure my lab’s flaky skin is some sort of intolerance, but at least she is on a food that never makes her stink, itch, and lose fur. She is WAY better than she was on her food last year, and hasn’t had a foul odor or hot spot since!

I will have to second Dori though – dogs allergic to chicken will be triggered by about any poultry source. Have you ever thought of buying food online? I know there are several sites that will offer free shipping, discounts, etc.. Personally I’ve never bought food online, but everyone who does that I talk to seems to be content with it, and most of them say they’ll never buy from stores again.

If it is just seasonal allergies (always that slight possibility.), I’ve heard of people who swear by raw local honey.

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by Shasta220.

[Akari_32]

It’s not me we have to worry about when it comes to buying, it’s mom. It’s her dog and I’m done paying for his food when I have nearly 200 pounds of my own dogs to feed (and a dozen and half other animals), as well as pay bills and such on less than $200 a week. I actually just bought my guys some super performance off of petflow because I got a good deal on it ($50 for the 40 lb bag!). I have no problems with driving 20 minutes out and going to 3 different pet stores to get the best deals on dog food, but mom has given me a strict limit of Pet Supermarket and Walmart when it comes to Bentleys food, for the sake of her busy schedule. I pick it out, she pays for it. She’s the kind of person that thinks Science Diet is super awesome food and Dog Chow is acceptable. Bleh….! However, I find much better deals locally with coupons than I do online. I find it’s much cheaper to buy crap-tons of small bags that are on sale with coupons than it is to buy large bags.

I did have her buy some local-ish honey from the farmers market the other day. It’s made about 45 minutes north of us, but hopefully it’ll help. I haven’t started him on it yet.

[Shasta220]

I’m sorry about that situation :/ man, it’s gotta be tough, for sure. It definitely sounds like you’re doing the best you can, at least! If you were to find a little pet boutique store nearby (not out of your mom’s accessible driving range), would there be any chance you could talk her into one of the foods available there? I used to be the same way with my parents. We had to buy whatever was available at Walmart or Fred Meyer (a similar drugstore) at a cheap price. Poor baby pooches used to be on Dog Chow and Ol Roy! I finally found a 3 star food for only 25$/40# that we bought for a year or two. I saved up and would buy our senior’s dog food at a feed store (after parents paid big vet bill for medications to heal disgusting hot spots…..those things were almost unbearable to look at! They were so bad that the new vet we took her to thought that she had been burned!). Eventually, I got my parents up to Diamond Naturals at 30$/40#, and the store we buy from is just a couple minutes away from Walmart luckily.

[Akari_32]

Also, with the buying online note, he’s only about 8 pounds, so to get any free shipping for his food would just be ridiculous lol

The only Diamond foods down here that are sold in smaller bags are TOTW and Canidae. Pet Supermarket does have Diamond Naturals, but only the humungo bags, and they’re $40. I don’t think that food is worth a $1 a pound lol But if Diamond wasn’t so bad about recalls, I’d have Bentley on his TOTW High Prairie Puppy every now and then. He loved that stuff.

Mom used to feed my dogs on dog chow, but I’ve since taken over now that I can afford it. Been a few years now, and they never skip meals, and look much better. In fact, Haley hasn’t had a hot spot since. She usually chewed herself up out of boredom, but I’m sure some of it was food related.

As far as any boutiques go, there are none locally. There are some if you drive all the way out past PetSmart (a 15 or so minute drive) or in the opposite direction (a 30 minute drive). Not much around my city. Lots of places for people to eat, but not for pets lol

Moms always like “why can’t have normal food??” (Meaning, whatever the other dogs are eating, or something from the grocery store). I tell her that’s what she gets for having a dog with allergies. (I’m the one who bought him for her LOL).

[Shasta220]

Hah. I completely feel you!

I wonder if there was any chance of her trying to get into a home made diet, possibly if you gave her a list of ingredients and offered to prepare several freezer meals?

Other than that, I guess just keep going with whatever you can do. It’s so wonderful that you’re trying to look out for lil Bently!

[Akari_32]

She doesn’t have the time or money for that. She works 3 hours out of town 4 days a week, and when she is home, she’s still working, and driving all over the county and surrounding counties.

[Bobby dog]

Hey Akari:
Are the only kibbles Bently did well on are the Pure Balance GF Salmon and Purina One? Was that Purina One Beyond?

How’s Gary?

I have been a couponing queen this last week. I bought $140.00 worth of pet food for $100.00 and scored tons of samples from one of the Managers at a pet store I frequent that loves Bobby!

[Akari_32]

He did great on Innova Prime Red Meat (beef and lamb). The recall has made me reluctant to go back to Natura in general, but I’ve got some EVO coupons that I want to use. He did ok on the Purina One. He was on that because I was being lazy and I had so much of it lol But then all the sudden he got terrible red, itchy skin again, and then we’ve been fighting ever since to get him back to normal again. The Pure Balance is the first food since then that’s helped.

Good job! I’m actual my couponing right now lol the table is covered in coupons and I’m trying to figure out where to get the best deals :p (and when I say “covered” I MEAN covered!).

[InkedMarie]

15-20 minutes is too far to drive? I must be used to where I live. I’d be thrilled to find a decent store of any kind that close.

[Akari_32]

For mom, yeah. Like I said, she’s not a believer in good pet foods. I don’t mind driving out to all the different pet stores around, but she doesn’t like to.

[Shasta220]

So, how long does it take for him to go through his average-sized dog food bag? (I’m guessing 6-10lb?) I wonder if there’d be the possibility of you being able to pick them up if your mom paid for the food? Then maybe you could grab a couple bags once a month or so?

I’m completely used to driving a little bit. I’m in a tiny town with nothing but a grocery store, so I have to drive 15-20m almost every day just to get to Walmart, church, dog class, etc. (Only thing that’s close is my riding lessons, hah! Only about a mile away! Yay!)

[Bobby dog]

That is a great idea Shasta, would your mom go for that? Sweet talk her and sell her on the great deals you find and how it will hopefully keep Bentley healthier through the summer month’s!!!!!! 😉

[InkedMarie]

How about Mom shopping at a good store while she’s driving everywhere for work?

[Dori]

Oh Marie. We are always of a like mind. I gave up trying to help. I don’t think anything is going to change. For every positive response there has been a negative come back. I love helping people, as to most of us here, but there’s got to be some give on the other end.

I too felt…What???? 15 / 20 minutes is too long a drive. Gotta drive past stores at some point in their lives. I’ve got stores 5 minutes away and stores I drive an hour to if there’s a dog food that I need or want and they’ve got it and I want it NOW for my girls.

[Akari_32]

I already do get the food and she pays. And the likely good of her having time to pick food up between estimates and permits is very slim. There’s no help needed in that department. You all are the ones that feel there is. That’s not my problem. My problem was wanting to know how Pet Botanics compared to Pure Balance. What’s available is what’s available. If he can only eat one food, then so be it. Thousands of dogs do it. Moms going to do what it is she’s going to do, and she’s not going to change it till she has to (ie, I move out). Case closed.

[Bobby dog]

Hey Akari:
I missed reading your mom paid for the food but you shopped for it. lol

Anyway, I would give Pet Botanics a try especially since the other dogs could eat it if he didn’t do well on it. It looks comparible to PB.

Since Bentley might or might not have intolerances to some food I would always try a new food as long as it met your criteria for pet food regardless if it were similar to another food’s recipe or not. Another brand will at least have a different vitamin mix, protein/fat ratios, and may or may not have a different carb if nothing else providing more variety for him. That’s the only way you will find more options for him. At least you have two other dogs to give food to if it doesn’t work out. You already have a few to fall back on so whenever you have an opportunity for a new food I say go for it. 🙂

I checked out the PB Bison when I was at Wal-Mart this past week; it’s DFA rated 4.5. I will give it a try within the next few months. I picked up RR’s new zero grain flavor; the coupon was about to expire so I will save the PB Bison for another month!

I just finished up Avoderm Trout & Pea GF and Bobby did really well on it. His head and the black spots on his body were very shiny. Check that out for Bentley if your store carries it.

Just started 4Health Beef GF (he’s had that before so it is part of his regular rotation) and after that it will be Nutrisource’s Chic & Rice or GF Lamb Meal to start the summer with (two of my many coupon/sale deals from this weeks couponing!)

[Author]

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