[“Blue”]

Our shipments arrive frozen solid, did you thaw it before serving? It takes three days in our ‘fridge to thaw fully. And then it has a slight color change. I’m curious if anyone warms it up before serving. I haven’t seen where Darwins says to warm it, but I’d feel better serving it warm or room temp.

[“Blue”]

We currently have the Lamb version GLP and I would expect lamb to be a darker color than those chickpea colored flakes, so I’m betting they’re chickpea flakes. 🙂

Except for the few chunky solid pieces of meat always in the top of the bag, it is difficult to identify the meat in GLP. There are lots of chunks of compacted powdery spice and what must be meat powder, rather than solid meat chunks. I can’t identify any meat in THK, it is really a powder throughout.

They are both rated 5 Star. I prefer feeding GLP as I think it costs less. It’s been a while since I compared though.

[“Blue”]

We feed Blue twice a day with a variety of dehydrated, raw and kibble. His stools are just fine.
Breakfast-
2/3 cup Origen dry
2-3 Tbls homemade milk kefir (topper)
1/2 cup Grandma Lucy’s Pureformance/Honest Kitchen

Dinner-
2/3 cup Origen dry
2-3 Tbls canned dog food (topper) or sardines (not topper)
1/2 lb. package Darwins Raw

These foods are not mixed into one in his bowl just as we place our food separately on a plate. He absolutely doesn’t have a favorite and may start in on any one. He will usually finish one before going to the next food, but not always.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by "Blue".

[“Blue”]

I started to culture milk kefir last December for myself and shortly thereafter began using it as a topper on the dry food when the NWC ran out. We now feed a good quality dry so it’s prolly not needed as a probiotic but it works well as a topper to add moisture and flavor plus the probiotics, and for cheap. Anyone else feeding kefir?

[“Blue”]

Blue says he likes them both. I like the way GLP rehydrates/mixes so he gets that mostly.

[“Blue”]

I’m feeding NWC Naturals Total-Biotics and Total-Zymes which has greatly cut down the room clearing gas. And thankfully he has never had diarrhea. Anyone else try those? I think I learned of them here on DFA as I seldom go anywhere else.

[“Blue”]

Inked, I did check the Darwin’s this evening. An 8 oz. (1/2 pound) pack of Darwin’s is right on a full cup.

I’m not hung up on having to feed him 1230 cal./day. I am hung up on Darwin’s telling me to feed my dog about half the calories he needs. I can only presume in order to mask the truth of how expensive it is to feed my pet their food.

BTW, you weren’t supposed to remind me to watch my dog. 🙂

[“Blue”]

GizmoMom, that’s how I got here and discovered they are recommending only about half of what a 55 lb. dog needs. It’s very disappointing to think I’ve been misled about the cost of feeding their product to my pet.

[“Blue”]

InkedMarie, You got my curiosity up so I went back to their site. I haven’t seen their recommendation for Cups at all. But it looks like you’re seeing a pound of their food is equivalent to a cup. I’ll check that this evening.

On this page http://www.darwinspet.com/resources/how-to-feed-raw/ I found 2 references to amounts fed. First says large dogs may eat 2% of their body weight and small dogs up to 4% per day. Second is a bullet list, which includes 8 lbs. per week for 50 lb. dog, which is pretty much inline with the 9 lb. they gave me when ordering on the phone. (You get this same 9 lb. when going thru the web ordering steps too.)

If I calc 4% of body weight, 55 x .04 = 2.2 x 7 days = 15.4 lbs. per week.
15.4 x 16 oz. x 36 Cal. = 8870 Cal. per week
8870 / 7 = 1260 Cal. per day.
Wow, there’s the magic number to keep his weight up.

I’m sure they are a good company with quality products, but I’m starting to think they recommend low feeding quantity numbers on purpose.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by "Blue".

[“Blue”]

I want a long lasting treat to help him forget we are leaving the house.

[“Blue”]

Crazy4Cats,
I think you are doing right and can see that I’ll head a similar direction also, for simplicity. As complicated as feeding your dog can be, I realize it doesn’t have to be. But I’m glad to have researched foods, quantities, nutrition so that I have some better understanding about feeding my dog in a healthy way.

I’m impressed with what Dr. Mike has put together for us and joined Editors Choice as my way of thanking him.

Steve

[“Blue”]

Hi Corey,
I can relate to your calorie content puzzlement, since I too had the same puzzlement when I started reading this website last summer. I was hoping the calorie content would be included when the Editor’s Choice ratings came online, but alas, it’s not. (Sorry if I seem disappointed, I am.)

The subject of this thread is about Quantity so I am not addressing the stomach issues, especially since I’ve been most curious about this for some time and get other opinions/thoughts on the subject.

How do you reconcile which food to buy? Find a food(s) Dr. Mike gives 3-5 stars, that you are comfortable buying, feed your dog and watch his weight. Adjust servings accordingly. It does require you use a measuring cup, not a plain scoop or empty soup can as I have done at times.

Food for thought: (pun intended)
Dog food is sold by the pound and fed by the cup. It’s hard to compare those 2 factors. And to complicate it further, the dog food mfg’rs don’t seem to agree on how much to feed, calorie wise.

DFA Calorie Calculator says my dog needs 1230 calories per day. On their websites, Fromm Adult Gold claims 408 calories/cup. Orijen Adult claims 478, so that extrapolates to Fromm recommending 1428 cals./day and Orijen recommending 1003 for my 55 lb. dog. That’s a huge difference between the two, with Fromm over ~20% and Orijen under ~20% of the DFA calculator.

To show the recommended feeding amounts another way,
Food—-Mfgr Cups—DFA Calc Cups
Fromm—3.5———-3.0
Orijen—-2.1———-2.5

You just have to go with the quantity that keeps appropriate weight on your dog. I like this chart for reference. http://media.marketwire.com/attachments/200802/MOD-402887_weight-chart1.jpg

If you want to compare prices of dog food, I think it’s better to compare cups fed per dollar rather than dollar per pound of the bag. Those looking to maximize economy might be more interested in a high calorie/low cost 3-star kibble over a lower calorie 5-star kibble, but it really isn’t that simple as you can see. (And I haven’t even mentioned protein, carbs, vitamins, etc.!) FWIW, I actually measured Fromm Adult Gold to be 4 cups per pound and Orijen Adult to be 3.2 cups per pound. Both claim 10% max moisture so Orijen would seem to be a much more dense food based on recommended serving size, but you may not be getting enough calories.

Sorry if this post rambled and got scattered, a million possibilities exist to feed you dog and I haven’t figured it out yet either, although “Blue” seems to be enjoying and doing well with the mix of 3-5 star rated foods I buy, per Dr. Mike’s rating system. 🙂

[“Blue”]

I’m currently feeding Grandma Lucy’s Pureformance as a topper. It has a short list of ingredients, only garlic in red. Would like to know if it has been considered for inclusion.

Perhaps too, a list of those that have been considered and rejected, or there’s sure to be multiple requests for the same foods.

[“Blue”]

Blue Buffalo makes many types, which ones gave problem to your dog HDM? We’re half way thru our first bag of BB Wilderness Lg. Breed Chicken without any probs.

[“Blue”]

Rather than start a new thread, I will post here, where my new question seems to fit anyway. Under the 5 Star Dry Dog Foods is listed Primal Freeze Dried Formula, but not the 5 Star rated Stella & Chewys FD and the Grandma Lucy’s FD. Is there a reason for this or just an oversight?

[“Blue”]

Hi InkedMarie,
No, not sure what DFC is but I’ll google it.

Patty,
Tks for your continued input. There seems to be a lot more to dog food chemistry than the average dog owner ever realizes. Maybe the Editors Choice selection criteria could include that the mfg’r has to put Kcals on the label. But evidently that doesn’t work if there is no gov’t requirement for truth in labeling.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by "Blue".

[“Blue”]

Tks Patty. I buy your reply about carbs, needed as a binder. But have to question the Kcal response. If Kcals are given on the package they should be included in the review, just as any ingredient is. It can’t be much trouble to include it when listed.

If Kcals change doesn’t that mean the ingredients changed? At that point the whole review is out of date.

Anyway, I don’t mean to argue with you, I recognize and appreciate your many contributions to this site, just want to make the case to include Kcals in reviews. 🙂 A 3-4 star food with 500Kcal/cup is more interesting to me than a 5 star, 300 Kcal/cup food. I haven’t found a food yet that will keep weight on my bluetick at the published serving/weight sizes.

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