What food do you feed your dog?

Macdaddy4738

Macdaddy4738

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2005
Toying with the idea of switching Clara to a more premium brand. She has a little skin issues, and is always scratching. Ive read that is probably attributed to bad food.

Anyways, the more I look into it, I realize that the cost (50 dollars or so for 30 pound bag) is not too bad. From what I can tell, I can feed her roughly 40-50% less of the good stuff as it has far more nutrients. Is this true? If so, I could see a substantial savings doing it this way.

Im currently looking at Innova and Nutro. What do you feed your dog? What does your dog weigh, activity level, etc? How much food a day does he/she eat (in cups)?

Thanks!
 
We use Nutro Natural Choice 'Small Bites' Lamb Meal & Rice for our two lab mixes. Our male has itchy skin and he does much better on the 'small bites' formula than any of the others, even their 'regular' lamb and rice. He'd probably do even better if we switched to better treats... but for as many as *ahem* someone gives them... I'm sticking with the $1/lb milk bones.

They are VERY active and pretty lean with really shiny coats. I've read that you can tell if a dog is a healthy weight if you are able to feel their ribs but not see them. Something, also, about it feeling like the bones in your hand from the back side, where the palm side would be overweight. I think the bag says 3.5 to 4.25 cups or something... our female (58#) gets 3 cups and the male is more like 63# and he gets 3.5 cups, plus a handful of milk bones throughout the day.
 
I give my dog that Adult Dog Chow stuff. Either that or Dog Chow depending on what's on sale. She has an awesome coat, she's like 9 years old now and her fur still has that "puppy fur" look to it.

Now if she'd just stop eating everything else that isn't tacked down she wouldn't be such a beefcake.
 
We've been feeding our dogs Purina Dog Chow since they were puppies. Our vet said stay away from the generic store stuff, but dont bother with high-end foods. Her opinion was that a reputable company like Purina is all a healthy dog needs. Its been working for 14 years now.

Growing up, my folks would give our black lab a teaspoon of cod liver oil in her food, supposedly for her coat. We would also give some canned mackeral, but it smelled awful.
 
RenegadeT said:
Growing up, my folks would give our black lab a teaspoon of cod liver oil in her food, supposedly for her coat. We would also give some canned mackeral, but it smelled awful.
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Oh yeah, dogs love that stuff. We haven't done it in a while, but we used to pick up canned fish, ground turkey, etc whenever it was stupid cheap and mix that in with the dog food.

They get a tablespoon of plain yogurt in their food at every meal, too.
 
I tend to agree that 'high end' food is unnecessary, but do look at the ingredients... you want more animal proteins than grains in the top 5 ingredients.

Our female is almost 8.5 years old and our male is 4. Our female has the *softest* coat ever... guessing it is genetic and nothing we feed her but she sheds like the dickens, too.
 
I have 2 french bulldogs currently eating Eukanuba but looking at switching to Nutro or Science Diet (lamb & rice) since one has developed the itchies. Our lab eats Pedigree & they all get their daily fish oil capsule. Frenchies (approx. 20#) each get 1 c of food per day & lab (55#) typically gets 3.
 
trailhugger said:
I tend to agree that 'high end' food is unnecessary, but do look at the ingredients... you want more animal proteins than grains in the top 5 ingredients.
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This is what we follow. I keep my 3 y/o 55lb Border Collie mix on Purina Pro Plan Selects. I do notice with the better foods that have meats as the first ingredients rather than corn recommend you feed less.

I usually give him 2.5 cups a day since he lives with us at our apartment now, but when he was with me on the farm I was feeding him 3.5 cups a day, and he was at the same weight then, but much more active.

He started to gain weight when he moved in the apartment, so I went through a bag of Fit&Trim, that knocked him back down to a healthy weight and I just fed him less Pro Plan to maintain it.

He has probably the shiniest coat I have ever seen on a dog, not sure what in his mix gave him a coat like that.

Our 9 month old Aussie gets Purina Pro Plan Puppy right now till 1 yr then he will be on the same as the other dog.
 
jeepin' jen said:
Our lab eats Pedigree & they all get their daily fish oil capsule.
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This works, I have a beagle mix, just turned 9yrs old last sat., still pretty active. 2 cups of Pedigree complete nutri. a day. Fish oil capsule in the morning. Scratches very little, and her coat is great, the vet says so every time we take her.

45# bag of Pedigee = about $25

Big bottle of fish oil capsules = $7
 
I use Iams, been doing it since day one.

Being in industrial construction I've worked in nearly every brand of dog food plant. I've seen what those places are like and I would never feed my dog or anyone else's dog the other food! Iams has the quality and production cleaner than a food plant. More expensive? Sure, but I know why and the quality first hand.... not just the finished product on the shelf.
 
my 11yr old just recently developed skin issues and i have been trying many different types of foods. eukanuba, iams, natural choice, and hills science diet. all he kinda liked, but some gave him bad gas and bad poo.

however, recently my vet suggested Holistic Select. it's too early to tell if it will help the skin issues he is having, but he absolutely loves the food and his gas problems are all but gone. he had gotten in the habit of only eating about 1.5 of his 2 meals and now he cleans the bowl at both feedings.

good luck!
 
Our 2 Pekes were scratching and our Pit was farting like a .50 cal machine gun. Vet said switch them to a rice based food and away from the wheat. It worked and we are all much happier now! We chose Benniful (sp?) it is not too pricey at Pet Smart.
 
We've used Purina for years, vet recommended. My approach is, my dogs would eat dirt, drink out of the toilet and lick their a$$es all day long if given the opportunity, so no real point in investing in the super premium stuff. We do buy the formulas catered to different age groups and sizes though. I do like to make sure the top ingredients are things I can actually say and might actually be something you'd find on my plate, beyond that, no real concern. Never had any weight problems or coat/skin problems with any of our dogs either.
 
We feed our lab and corgi beneful lamb and rice. We switched from the cheap ol' roy. Immediately noticed a difference in skin, coat, and land mines in the back yard. Seems that the dogs absorb more of the food now.
 
so I picked up a small bag of Innova (http://www.innovapet.com/product_line.asp?id=1)

For a 33 pound bag it runs around 55 dollars, but the amount fed is almost HALF of what I feed her now, due to how much more nutritious this stuff is. Recommended is around 2.5 cups a day, I was feeding her around 4.

I'll update in a week or so and see if I notice any changes in her. I also bought a Furminator, and she definitely has some dry skin, looks like dandruff coming up :lol:
 
Our two get TOTW (taste of the wild). Rated one of the best out there. No corn and all that crap filler. Best part is it is carried by Tractor Supply among others. Read what is in your food or do a search for best rated dog foods. If you want to try the the stuff just write them and they will send you free samples of each flavor they have. I wanna say they sent me 2 small bags of each one.
 
Purina one is a good choice.our last hound lived on it for 16.5 years...always active.
Stay away from that ol Roy crap...that's like you eating doritos n hotdogs your whole life (tasty but not good for you).
 
Macdaddy4738 said:
so I picked up a small bag of Innova (http://www.innovapet.com/product_line.asp?id=1)
For a 33 pound bag it runs around 55 dollars, but the amount fed is almost HALF of what I feed her now, due to how much more nutritious this stuff is. Recommended is around 2.5 cups a day, I was feeding her around 4.
I'll update in a week or so and see if I notice any changes in her. I also bought a Furminator, and she definitely has some dry skin, looks like dandruff coming up :lol:
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Holy crap $55/bag!!!!!!!. My 9 month old dane/mastiff mix goes through about 30lbs of food a week. She's currently on Purina large breed puppy chow...it's always on sale some place for $9.
 
I have been feeding my 2 dogs and 2 cats food from the pet pantry in Apex NC. Its a local company that ships food right to your door. They have all kinds of foods, holistic, foods for sensitive stomachs, food allergies, ect... Prices are great, food is great. My dogs and cats love them. I have an 8 yr old dog and a 2 yr old dog and I feed the lamb and rice, and sometimes the Salmon flavor. They weigh between 55-60 lbs, and I feed them about 2-2.5 cups a day. Website is www.thepetpantrync.com and they have fast shipping. I dont know what the shipping cost would be to you, but the Triangle and Triad area is free shipping. If you want, they will send you a sample bag to try for free. Its not a skimpy bag either, i think its a 4lb bag. I have been very happy with the food and the service.
 
Update to this....

The food has made a HUGE difference. She has far more energy now, her coat looks vastly improved, and she has stopped scratching so much. She had one little hotspot that no matter what I treated it with, would not go away. Its pretty much gone now.

:beer:
 
Lots and lots of dogs are allergic to corn.

The filler in most dog food is corn.

Not saying that everybody needs to spend $2/pound on dog food... but if your dog has skin issues.... itching, scaling, hot spots, itchy toes, etc, check the label on your dog food and try changing to something with different ingredients.
 
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