[James P]

Mary, I applaud you in that you are trying to help your pups live a longer life through better nutrition!
I would suggest you do your own research and make your own decision as to what is the best food you can feed them.
Though we all hate to admit it, sometimes cost comes into that decision as well, and that is something each one of us has to decide.
I can tell you what my wife and I do for our 4 Miniature Schnauzers, 2 are 15, 1 is 11 and 1 is 9.
We feed 3 different foods mixed together. Schnauzers have issues with too much fat in their diet, so we mix together two low fat dry foods and top it with a fresh food, like Farmers Dog.
The reason we mix is because I do not trust pet food manufacturers and if we do get a product that has a serious problem, it will only be 1/3 of their diet and it should reduce the problems my dogs get from it. I also expect that some batches of dog foods that go out will be of more inferior quality than other batches of that same food. Mixing reduces the hit my dogs take on their nutritional intake.
Also, we change protein sources every couple of years. Chicken for a couple of years, then Turkey, etc. If any of our dogs have allergy issues to that protein source, then we change back until allergy issues subside and try a different protein source.
Good luck to you in your search!!!

[James P]

A C
Thanks for letting me know what you are feeding. I will look into the Annamaet since you have been having good luck with it. We also keep ID canned food here for those times that our girls have stomach upset. Living on 11 acres in a rural setting means that our girls have access to all kinds of bugs and poop to eat. It is not unusual at all for one of ours to have to skip a meal to get back on track. Our vet lets us keep Cerenia in tablet form for those times that we think that the next step is necessitated. That along with a days worth of ID normally restores gastric order.
Yes, our girls have Schnauzer bumps. The older they get the more prone to them it seems. With one of our first Schnauzers we would have the bumps removed any time she was knocked out, teeth cleaning, etc. It didn’t matter though, she always grew more. We just ignore them and pet around them now!
We do our own grooming and I do notice that if we cut too short along the ridge of their back, they will get acne there. I think that is a specially oily place on them and may take special care, which I haven’t figured out yet.

[James P]

a c
For years we fed Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Small Breed Chicken and Rice mixed with Blue Buffalo Freedom Grain Free Small Breed Chicken Recipe. We had a few upset stomachs here and there, but no pancreatitis, which too much fat in miniature schnauzers diet causes. Then we screwed up and started adding some off brand canned food I had found cheap, just because we wanted them to have a little something special. The canned food apparently had too much fat and gave one of my girls pancreatitis.

Once we got her cured I wanted to significantly drop the fat in their diet just so she would not have any repeats as I am afraid that once they have pancreatitis, they are prone to it. We now still feed the Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Small Breed Chicken and Rice, but now mix it with Wellness Core Grain Free Reduced Fat. The Wellness Core Reduced Fat is a well rated food and I would feel comfortable feeding it alone if I had to.

I have read that sometimes Grain Free foods can have too much protein and cause kidney problems. That is another reason why I feed a combination of a grain free food with a light grain/vegetable food. Our oldest schnauzers will turn 13 this year and we did their blood work last fall. Their levels were all great with no problems at all.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by James P.

[James P]

And I want to add one thing I do that I don’t see done much by anyone else. I always mix two foods together for my dogs, normally from different manufacturers. I pick my two favorite foods, buy a bag of each and mix them together in a large container and then feed out of that.
1. If I get a “bad batch” from one manufacture, my dogs have only been eating half as much as they would have if that was all they were eating.
2. If I get a batch that is short on minerals/nutrients/etc. the other food will provide them with some of what they should have.
3. I am able to give my dogs more varied nutrients this way.

Folks are going to say this isn’t a good idea because each food is formulated to be complete by the dog eating a certain amount. I believe that as long as the end result is all the vitamin/nutrient/calorie/protein/etc. requirements are being met, it doesn’t matter what it is that they are eating.

I having been doing this for well over 20 years and every one of my dogs has lived well beyond what their expected lifespan is generally thought to be.

[James P]

I have been an Amazon customer since 1998. So far this year I have bought over 500 different items from them. You really have to be careful of the reviews there. Quite often competitors give items 1 star reviews, while shills for the item may give it 5 stars. Plus, a large percentage of our population are idiots with no common sense. If a review really leads you to believe one way or the other, look at the reviewers other reviews. That can really tell you a lot.

Here is what I did last time for our 4 miniature schnauzers when I needed to switch foods. I gleaned what information I could from several internet sites such as this one by careful analysis, creating a list of foods that fit what I wanted. I then researched each one by individual ingredient giving them a yes or no rating. After that I again went online and started reading reviews by the general public on many different sites with a very critical eye toward disregarding the flakes.

You are not going to find the perfect food. Some people think they have, but as long as imperfect people are involved in its production, it will never be perfect. Do the best you can, take some time and use your common sense. You will end up with a food that your babies can live with.

[James P]

We have used Science Diet ID food for many years. but only whenever one of our dogs has severe gastrointestinal issues and we need to get her on the road to recovery. It is relatively gentle in those situations.
That being said I wouldn’t feed any of the Science Diet foods long term. I believe all of the Science Diet brand is high in grains, grain is not good.
Originally the only canned ID was turkey based and grey colored, it was ultra low fat. Now they have a couple of other flavors that are not quite as low fat but still under the ID line. Chicken and vegetable stew and something else I can’t remember.

There are better options out there for your specific condition. Tell this forum more about what exact stomach issue your dog was diagnosed with, and the folks here can help you out with what they use for the same problem.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 12 months ago by James P.

[James P]

I would like to add that as long as Amazon exists, and sells dog food, there will continue to be price pressure on other retailers to keep prices down.
Love them or hate them, Amazon does help keep prices down across many market segments.

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