[aquariangt]

What kind of side effects does it have on dogs? When I was on it myself it made me a bit like a ravenous animal…

[aquariangt]

I buy dog food made in the US with US sourced product, so I’m fine with it

[aquariangt]

As BC said. DFA rates foods based on the food itself-the way it looks on paper. Blue is rated well for the most part, but many people won’t feed that either. Editor’s Choice if you’re a member has more information on companies themselves.

Forums and other feedback is where we get other information

[aquariangt]

What about a thundershirt?

[aquariangt]

It’s somewhat true. Cheap food adds additives for taste to get the dogs to eat it-and eat a lot of it. It’s similar to fast food. Dogs that are used to eating “fast food” sometimes have trouble adjusting to food that is higher quality, and may take some work

[aquariangt]

4 Dogs for 3 people isn’t too much! I have had 3 for myself for the last year (just 2 now, my sister returned from overseas and her dog is now back with her) so that’s just fine

I don’t recommend most senior foods, they are fairly low in protein. I would find an all life stages that works for all of them and see what you can do from there. Switching brands/protein types may help you keep them eating. Large breed adult food, to my knowledge though I have no giants, is unnecessary, and he should be able to be on the same thing as the rest.

Maybe try some of the fromms? The 4 star have a lot of variation and so its very easy to switch what they’re eating from bag to bag. There is grain free and grain inclusive as well

[aquariangt]

Sojos has a premix that’s grain free. The 8 lb bag is 50ish but makes a lot of food, the 2 lb is usually under 15

[aquariangt]

if you keep your eye on craigslist you can probably find cheap to free crates you could bring next time-whenever next time is. How often do you make it back there? Also out of curiosity, how long is the flight? I get out to England semi-often and it’s 8 hrs for me, hate it! Love to travel, but hate to do the actual traveling part…

[aquariangt]

The difference… what are you looking for there exactly? They are two very different products

The amount you feed depends on what it is. For example: In general (may not always be the case) the stew style cans have a little less caloric intake so you need more cans per day than a heavy meat pate style, etc… the cans will tell you how much they have in them

You can certainly feed a straight canned diet, it’s technically better than kibble. You can mix the two, you can top with canned… there’s all kinds of options 🙂 I would say the advice you’ll most often get on this site is not to go pure kibble with nothing else, but there are certainly quality kibbles out there

[aquariangt]

Have you tried anything else to see if that helps? Could be an intolerance to something in that food. Blue is a somewhat controversial food, and people have issues that don’t seem like they should be happening. There is some murkiness with that company when it comes to laying it all out on the table. I don’t have any experience on it other than one puppy I got was on it so I bought a 5 lb to acclimate her to my house.

How long has the giant had the problems? If it’s just a day or two, you can try adding some pumpkin or probiotics to help her stomach. If it’s been longer, I would maybe bring her to the vet, or switch her diet to see if you can get it cleared up that way.

Which Blue Wilderness Blend is she (he?) on? Sometimes high protein can be a shock to dogs stomachs if they were on something else with much lower protein and jumped to something like wilderness

[aquariangt]

how did you manage to get that picture?! awesome

Do you have any puppy pictures of yours?

[aquariangt]

is that freshpet vital or another brand? Freshpet is on there if so

[aquariangt]

well good to hear you’ve had one that big, because this guy is around 40 lbs. He isn’t the smallest boned guy I’ve met, but he could stand to lose 10+ lbs. Hard to compare to a picture of course, but he looks maybe around the size of the one on the right in your last picture, but much, much rounder. 2/3 sounds good-of course this girl says she is doing what we’ve recommended and his weight hasn’t gone down, so I don’t know if she’s doing much about it.

Too hot for walks, I get that! I go to an indoor dog gym for playtime now…

[aquariangt]

Sandy-how much do you cut back on for weight maintenance? I actually have a pug client (I don’t even want to tell you how much he weighs) and am helping his owner with their weight issues, and id like to try your tactic next

[aquariangt]

Wasn’t your forum rage yesterday about how terrible als food was?

I had goldens for years, tue issues you’re having are common. The foods you fed aren’t great, but I’m not having a discussion with you about it until you can prove to be a regular adult human being

refer to the age/kibble and adult maintenance vs puppy threads, and you will see that Tina is very likely a troll

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

[aquariangt]

I’m going to go ahead and assume that I don’t want to know

[aquariangt]

yeah, I have no idea what possessed him that that would be a good idea. (He was a lab) I wasn’t there when he ate it, but I had the UNFORTUNATE pleasure of being there when it came back

[aquariangt]

my old roommates dog ate and then passed a tshirt…no joke. It was pretty unpleasant

[aquariangt]

C4C-you’re not new. You know what to do, don’t worry. Your dogs will be just fine

Tina-you’re not right-and according to some other posts i found of yours, 4 of your dogs are on hills, people like that in general won’t agree with what most people on DFA have to say. You are either trolling or unwilling to listen, so there’s not much to say to you

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

[aquariangt]

oh, i just read your posts, you feed hills?

nevermind

[aquariangt]

If you’re switching your med sized dog, 9 mod and up is fine to go to adult.

Tina-I don’t know what you’re talking about, my dogs are always on ALS foods and they have no weight issues. Don’t overfeed and you won’t have that problem. Foods that are for maintenance are too low in protein (usually) for my liking

[aquariangt]

That was me just making a point-A she went to a well known veterinary school, B that’s how all of them think. If you were to take every webinar from whole dog journal, you’d probably have more education than they get

[aquariangt]

So my cousin is a vet. She had 1 class on companion animal nutrition. When my mom asked her about dog food when she got her new dog 2 years ago her response was “unless your dog has a need for a prescription diet, it doesn’t matter what you buy, they’re all the same”

Yep

[aquariangt]

You won’t get much agreement to that here. Vets aren’t that trained in canine nutrition, and tend to just tell you what dog food companies feed them

[aquariangt]

Correct. Marketing is marketing is marketing. Check that label and that will tell you if it’s appropriate for your puppy.

Case-it kind of depends on the breed, I have a sheltie, a miniature schnauzer, and a westie. They are done growing earlier than larger type breeds. I don’t know the science behind the two levels of food, other than ALS/Puppy foods tend to be higher in protein, but I’m not sure exactly when it’s “safe” to switch-but I’ve given 9-10 month olds “maintenance” food before

[aquariangt]

Canned food is definitely not bad-in fact, it’s technically better than kibble (just not as cost effective or convenient) and as far as figuring out if it’s a good food-take a look at the label. There are articles on this site that will help you decipher the labels on dog food, and you can also just take a look at the reviews of the canned food you are considering and see where it rates.

There are a myriad of reasons her stomach could be upset, so that’s a hard question to answer, but overall I would work on finding her a food she enjoys more. There could be something about the food that is upsetting her, which is why she is trying to avoid it.

[aquariangt]

They can throw whatever they want on the bag title-that’s all marketing

[aquariangt]

Puppy and all life stages are the same thing, by Aafco standards

[aquariangt]

I would try some raw and see if that gets her going. Nature’s Variety Instinct, Sojos, The Honest Kitchen, if you have a place you can get something like bravo or primal (ive never used them, but people seem to like them) or even maybe freshpet chubs or bags of food. Try just that to start, and if she goes for it, mix in some kibble

[aquariangt]

Some dogs are like that. I recommend using smallest sized bags of food, and smallest cans, and finding one that works-maybe getting something really high value mixed in like a dehydrated raw, normal raw topper, etc.. remember, making them skip a meal won’t kill them, but will make them more enticed by the food for the next meal

Some dogs get bored quickly, which is part of the reason i do rotational diets.

[aquariangt]

There are a few blue buffalo threads out there, I would go read those and you will see some of the reasons that it potentially isn’t on there. Many (myself included) do not trust them as a whole

[aquariangt]

I like what you said about your dog maybe not being friendly. That’s a bit pet peeve of mine and people calling out “he’s friendly” usually means A. that he has no manners (as their lab just jumped into the face of one of my herding or terriers who do not find amusement in being mauled down) or B. Their dog hasn’t been snapped at or corrected for improper manners. They then will blame the person (whose dog would have normally greeted them acceptably) for not having a friendly dog, when mine is on a leash that I have control on.

This is a huge point of irritation in my life

edit: clarity

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

[aquariangt]

I don’t make my dogs heal on walks either but I do expect them to walk with a loose leash

[aquariangt]

Freshpet, or other fresh/raw are going to be the best bet.

Orijen has peas very far down
Nature’s Logic has no peas
If you don’t mind Natural Balance some of their LID has no peas

[aquariangt]

for some reason i figured suburban gal would pop into this thread, and i also figured she’d disagree with everything anyone else said.

I would like to add one note-it doesn’t matter AT ALL how well trained your dog is. There is always, always, always a chance for a dog to be spooked, interested, or other reason for him to take off. Part of the reason I don’t use retractable. You never know. There is never a guarantee your dog won’t run, anyone who tells you otherwise is lying/inexperienced.

[aquariangt]

Simply Nourish LB is a 1.2% calcium max-I think that’s close to ok, HDM?

I personally have simply nourish in my rotation (though I only use source-and I think that line only has large breed adult, not puppy) It’s really the only thing I use from Petsmart. I have used Nulo’s Freestyle line, so would probably use the medal series which is a petsmart exclusive as well. I don’t use anything blue, and wellness-just haven’t, but some people swear by it.

Of the three as long as SN is acceptable, I like that-but if its a wolf dog I think you for sure want to avoid any possible grain?

[aquariangt]

Canine Caviar advertises a lot that they are good for canine cancer

[aquariangt]

If you’re going to the beach, there are long lead lines you can get that would still give you more control than a flexi leash

But, overall, I never recommend them, kinda hate em to be honest

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

[aquariangt]

I completely agree with HDM. If it comes out that BB is doing this, that to me is more despicable than the way Purina markets itself. Purina-yes, can be misleading, but technically, they don’t outright lie. They don’t totally claim to be something they aren’t.

I also don’t like the way BB has gone about this “We’re a small family company” “We are saddened that purina has resorted to attack tactics” etc…

They aren’t that small. And they love to attack. I certainly don’t approve of Purina, but one way or the other, this furthers my choice of not using BB

[aquariangt]

Yes, what foods had you tried in the past? They could help narrow it down. I have one client whose dog has serious intolerances and she found feeding a kangaroo diet helped a lot. You definitely want to try and find some meat for your pup

[aquariangt]

Acana is great but hardly mid ranged in price-in the states at least. dunno if it’s cheaper in Canada where it’s made. Suburban Gal is right about EB Holistic, it’s very reasonable for it’s quality. Fromm’s 4 Star is less than some. Simply Nourish Source. Whole Earth Farms

[aquariangt]

from a quick peruse on the site it looks like Merrick, Earthborn, and Precise in the big bags are the cheapest price/lb. I’ve never personally fed my cat any of those (I use fromm’s and simply nourish source-and then any stew style I can find in hopes of getting her to actually eat canned food-pates? Forget about it!) but I like the brands for dog food so they are probably fine for the cat as well. If she has a petsmart, simply nourish is nice for the price

[aquariangt]

My understanding is that high protein has very little to do with weight gain in dogs-though some of the others that are more knowledgeable may be able to expand on that more. You’re really looking for lower fat when it comes to that, yes? Dogs gain energy off protein, better than they do off carbs, so a diabetic dog for example would want a high protein, low fat, low carb diet

[aquariangt]

Blue Buffalo looks good on paper, but unfortunately many people have issues with them, and they’re cryptic with their processing

[aquariangt]

Becky-that depends on your dog, and what you are going to and from. I don’t mix at all when going from one to another, but if your dog is on a lower quality moving to a higher quality, the richness will probably screw with their stomachs. One of mine has a bit of a sensitive stomach, and he gets digestive enzymes for the first few meals, and the girls it doesn’t bother at all.

As far as how much and how often, it again depends on what you’re feeding for how much, and how old they are for how often. I feed twice a day, but if they are a puppy under 6 months, that isn’t the case

[aquariangt]

I am not very versed in large breeds, but brands that don’t suck from petsmart (and again, this is just based on BRAND, nothing to do with large breed nutition-though I will type in ones that aren’t grain inclusive as per BC’s comments on wolf hybrids, also which I have no concept of):

Wellness Core
Nulo
Castor and Pollux Ultramix
Freshpet Vital
Simply Nourish Source

Really the only ones I care about there-and I only feed 1.5 of them. I did however see at my Petsmart the Nature’s Variety Instict (including Raw) were on their way in, so that’s good.

Also-love the name Khaleesi. I have a Daenerys 🙂

[aquariangt]

Just bumping to agree with M2C. I thought about including it, then didn’t for some reason, I personally wouldn’t use them, in all honesty, but I know some that are ok with it

[aquariangt]

maybe look into the natural balance limited ingredient diets.

Many of them still have peas and potatoes, but if you look for ones that advertise sweet potato, they come in smaller amounts (the peas and potatoes)

[aquariangt]

Hey Betsy-I replied in the other thread as well.

From my knowledge-

Venison, Lamb are warming
Duck, Whitefish, Pork are cooling
Chicken, Turkey, Beef, Salmon are all neutral

this is off the cuff without any looking up

[aquariangt]

Hi Betsy, this is kind of related to your food energetics topic as well.

I had noticed once that Liesl was stretching out on the wood floor, like REALLY stretching, and sticking her face under the ottoman, only going outside when she had to, and always staying in the shade… etc (not too a scary alarming rate, just more than she should have been) and that was on a lamb rotation. She also felt warmer than usual-and nothing really wrong with her according to the vet.

I did some research and found some articles about the yin/yang foods with warming and cooling. The next bag I picked up after reading this was duck based-one I normally use anyway (Fromms game bird) and that seemed to reduce the problem. This was last summer. I tried Lamb again in the winter, and the issue was drastically better. So while I don’t know a ton about the Chinese healing properties and such, this one seemed to make sense. So while I don’t know if everything about that is true-with some of the allergies and whatnot- the lamb warming definitely seemed to make a difference with her, but not with Willoughby or Dani. I am not sure why it seemed to have a different effect on Liesl, but for the next few months, I’ll be avoiding lamb foods

Venison falls under the same category, but I haven’t tested a venison based food, and am reluctant to until winter again.

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