Do you think type of dogfood matters? I have often wondered. But I feed mine store bought brands made by Purina, kinda mid price. I think it's around $1/lb. I watched a video by Caesar somebody, a dog expert/trainer and he was hawking a brand by some vet that he's in cahoots with. They make a good pitch for their ingredients and freeze-drying method, but wow, that dogfood is super expensive. Like, $31/lb? Holy cow. I have two dogs, an 11 year old basset/beagle and a 1 year old mixbreed. The old one is the one of most concern. He carries his back left leg sometimes, something isn't right. Never acts like it bothers him in the least, just as happy as he can be. And often runs. And plays hard with the pupppy, like really hard. I read about some affliction and the end result was it was of no concern and the dog has lived for many years after first sign of the 'affliction.' My first thought was hip dysplasia but I have no idea. Vets have gotten stupid expensive. If he shows signs of pain or someone convinces me otherwise, I'll take him in; otherwise, will just keep watching him. I do give the old dog a human glucosamine/chondroitin, 1 pill/day, started that couple of months ago. I pulverize it with a heavy Milwaukee battery lol and mix it with his dry food. Which I put bacon grease on. He has it made! He first started this 'problem' long time ago, like 2 yrs ago. I also feed him meat scraps and often include bones as part of his one daily meal. I give them a couple small treats each afternoon. If nothing else, been thinking of buying a high quality kibble dogfood to use as treats instead of these cheap treats I use. Anyone ever talked a vet you trust about this? Some vets do sell food, so, one must weigh their position with that in mind. But maybe they truly think it's better, beats me. BTW, I could buy cheaper dogfood at the feedstore. Just looking at labels, it might be as good or better than Purina. Do you think commercial foods, dry dogfood, are worthy? Major brand or feedstore?
Dogs n cats are meat eaters, all but the more expensive foods have a lot of grain n fillers in it...they really don't get much nutritional value from it. That's supposedly why people that switch to the "good stuff" report that their pets poop a lot less, volume wise. I dunno, I've never tried it, our outdoor cats get feed store chow, and all the varmints they can catch. The "welfare meals" keeps em around here though...
We were feeding our cats dry food. The vet suggested we should feed canned as it was better for their kidneys. We tried several brands and flavors but they didn't eat it, even with no dry food down. We switched back to dry. Both cats are 15 and in good health.
$31 pound My wife sometimes does 5# ground turkey (Walmart) with sweet potatoes and carrots in crock pot comes out to about $2.50 pound about 10 pounds food dog loves it.
I find it hard to believe that popular dry pet food is a healthy long-term diet but I don't have anything to back that up. Them being canines, it seems that raw meat and/or bone on a fairly regular basis would be a good thing. As for canines 'needing' veggies, I find that a stretch but some say yeah but they eat stomach contents of a kill. Might be a valid point but as for veggies being part of every meal, I dunno. You would think that a study would have been done on this. Of course, the pet food industry would likely want the results quashed! I had a cat that prospered on canned food, liked it. He lived to be maybe 17, pretty normal. We never gave him any extra but he was hell on cat squirrels and would eat them after a kill. Little guy was fast as lightning, amazing to see. Rippled with muscles, a male Burmese. Beautiful cat. House cat but we'd let him out during the day and he would hunt. Very loving animal in addition to his beauty and athleticism.
When we got the bernese mountain dog, the vet we began with reccomended iams dog food as it was a very good choice. Large puppy breed with additives for joints (and all kinds of magic ingredients) She said she could tell by looking at dog poop and tell if it a cheaper brand of dog food or not. Some kind of caca connoisseur I guess. What makes iams so special? She sensed my hesitation and told me to read the ingredients label. I did. Next visit, I let her know that iams ingredients label only accounts for about 62% of the ingredients! "So, don't you think the "missing" 38% ingredients are of fillers that are of no value to the dog?" I asked...... Call and ask iams because I don't know. We switched over to diamond naturals $40 for 40 lb bag and dogs seem to be happy. Switched vets also but due to other reasons.
I think most value an animals life more than a human. So if you don't put your animal first, your a POS in their eyes.
I think if you don't pay their outrageous rates with a smile on your face while they know nothing about your financial situation or what the fate of the animal would have been had you not adopted it, they think of you as scum.
We actually have a great vet Angus our Pup, gets staff infections when he gets bit by whatever. Wife called Vet, they asked for pictures we sent them. Got got antibiotics and prednisone costs $50 didn’t even have to bring him in.
My last dog was a Yellow Lab. We fed Purina Dog Chow his entire life. He took himself on one last walk and laid down in a grassy meadow near the house and passed away at 14 1/2 years old. Never had health issues other than just signs of old age and was a great bird dog, hunted most of his life. Currently I have a black lab and a chocolate lab. They both started with Purina dog chow but the male chocolate seemed to be allergic to corn and would get itchy skin. I switched both to either Diamond Naturals or local brand Sprout Naturals as both have no cornmeal fillers. Change up the flavor choice and buy whichever one is on sale when I need more. The chocolate male is 13/1/2 and the little black female is 5 months younger than him. The chocolate is showing his age and is getting weak in the back legs, I know his time here is nearing an end. The black still thinks she's a pup and runs around all the time but is just starting to slow down as well. Neither have had any health issues and have been given glucosamine/chondroitin supplements for most of their adult lives. They do get occasional table scraps and always love to "help" when I butcher a deer. They have always been active with grouse hunting, swimming, and long woods walks. I have no doubt some of the higher end dog food might be better for a high performing dog but just can not justify paying that much. Like a lot of things, it's all about marketing.
For years I fed my dogs Pedigree. All but one made it to 15. The one the didn't was killed by a car at 7. Some high end dog food rep I ran into in a pet store said that's the worst food ever. Well buddy I see these people feeding expensive speciality foods and their dogs aren't making it to ten so I think its more than just food.
I've bounced around on food, I try and stay away from food with lots of fillers. Also I like to know where the food is made and where the ingredients are sourced from. Those things are more important than name to me. Had a dog get really sick(put down) back around 08 when dogs were dieing from chinese sourced ingredients. I like to research how many recalls a brand has had over the years as well, I keep away from those. Oh and no peas in the food ever if I can help it. Mainly because dobermans can be susceptible to cardimyopathy. I had one that passed at 8 from it and my 14 yr old doberman passed from it as well. I don't blame food on the 14 yr old, dobies don't really live that long so I feel blessed on that.
My top diet recommendations are in no order, Iam’s, Purina, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Eukanuba. If you want a premium food pick one with a meat ingredient not a meat meal as first ingredient. Not going to get into a debate but the vet bashing is WRONG. We make a fraction of what other professions make with the same education. Consistently are in the top 5 professions for suicide. People yell at my staff on a daily basis saying we don’t care about animals and are only in it for the money. I fired a client today for yelling and cussing out multiple staff members who were trying to help. My son had his wisdom teeth out last year, they charged me 5-10 times what I charge for the same procedure. If anything my oral surgery’s are more complex and involve general anesthesia! I have done thousands of C-section with the exact same drugs as human OB’s use and they charge 20 times what I do! If you have a budget tell us, we will do the best we can but sometimes there are no cheap options. If you want someone to blame look at Banfield, Mars, VCA, Blue Pearl and Private Equity funds. Combined they own 50% of all practices in the US. They are in it for the money and have a huge impact on the price of veterinary medicine. People look at pets as people, they expect the same level of care as their kids! I have to carry multimillion dollar liability insurance to protect myself from the crazy’s! Such as the person who wanted me to make a home visit 100’s of miles away in the middle of the night!
I saw that both dog kibble and Kellogs corn flakes (and other cereals) have very little nutrition but the spray the products with vitamins and minerals etc. And that spray is not as digestible as coming from real food. That said we also feed kibble, both cat and dog. We had a diabetic cat with damaged kidneys, type II chuncky monkey from the expensive food we'd been feeding him all these years. I was told Rx wet food but I did a bunch of research and Fancy Feast Beef and Chicken Pate (this flavor only) had comparable levels to the Rx food. I'm sorry I don't recall the of what level, it was almost 20 years ago. We do both now, kibble and that particular flavor of Fancy Feast.
