Ok my first question lol

famof61101 · Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:20 pm Post subject: Ok my first question lol

Bella is on Puppy chow right now and I heard it wasnt a very good puppy food....I need suggestions on what to get....I love how they have shiny coats and would like to keep it that way....she also has gas and boy oh boy I though my hubbys was bad....so question is could the gas be caused by the chow and what kind should I have her try?

wildlifecr13 · Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:30 pm Post subject:

good luck.

what brand is she on?

some really love the raw... i just havent been able to bring myself to it yet. perhaps one of these days.

we have bounced around between brands to find a good kibble. we are on Natural Balance Duck and Potato right now... it seems to be treating Zoe pretty well. California Naturals was just fine as well. Innova Evo is considered the cadillac of kibble by many... it has the price to match.

there are a lot of threads on here about various food types, diets, supplements, best brands, etc. whatever works well for your dog is probably the best. it varies by dog. a lot of it comes down to limiting fillers and watching your protein sources.

famof61101 · Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:33 pm Post subject:

They carry that Natural Balance at Petco right??? I was thinking about trying that...

wildlifecr13 · Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:51 pm Post subject:

yep... thats where i get it. and its supposed to be OK from puppy through senior.

we have the Duck and Potato because we wanted to avoid certain ingredients - Zoe still has some gas, but nothing like it was.

they also have treats that are not terrible for them.

kamfam · Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:56 pm Post subject:

We just switched Kam from Nature's Recipe to Canidae chicken & rice (I think). He's doing much better on that. The most noticable thing is the gas...has been reduced TREMENDOUSLY Shocked

!

Idaviruma · Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:52 pm Post subject:

It depends what price range you're looking at, if the money is an issue, the least expensive is canidae and generally runs around $32 for 40 lb bag, depending where you get it, some pet boutiques really jack up the prices, check their website for store locations. As far as quality goes, it depends on manufacturer, I think the 2 most expensive brands that I found at local boutique are timberwolf organics and orijen. The reason for that is because they use herbs and probiotics in their food. They are also small independent companies and focus on quality of the ingridients. I like both brands also because they use omega fatty acids which helps skin and coat tremendously.
I only feed small ammount of raw for the fear of contamination and use of chemicals like soudium nitrite thats used to preserve meat, sodium nitrate is carcinogenic and is illegal in canada and europe.

I like to research about nutrition in my spare time and I've lately come across the issue brought up by swedish scientists that synthetic supplements are overused in human and animals feed resulting in toxic buildup which puts excess strain on liver and kidneys, were oversupplementing ourselves and animals without realizing, vitamins should be natually derived, not man made in the lab. The body has the ability to produce certain vitamins, others we get from food and sun, theres no need for synthetic compounds which do more harm then good. Theres also a lot of questionable ingridients in animal feed used to speed up growth and have caused numerous health problems in humans.

At this point I'm looking into buying food called Natures Logic, its the only one that doesent use synthetic forms for vitamin/mineral sources, I've requested samples of the food and we'll see how we like it.

famof61101 · Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 7:25 pm Post subject:

Wow thank you for all that info.....I will def start looking at things like that....

Beth · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:59 am Post subject:

Price aside, you also need to pay attention to what works for your dog. I tried to switch Daisy's diet up and the only thing that keeps her stools normal is Canidae. When I tried Merrek's she had diarrhea, Fromm's gave her diarrhea, and Timberwolf gave her diarrhea.

Idaviruma · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 10:22 am Post subject:

keep in mind that adjustment period is necessary, usually 3 weeks to a month, mixing old food with new, 75% old + 25% new for few days, then start doing 50/50, then increasing the volume of new food, dogs have sensitive stomachs and it can take a while for them to detox and get adjusted to better foods, also some foods are grain free which will cause diarhhea is switched too fast.
Of course whatever works, mine didnt care much for merrick, didnt like the taste at all, though he loves canned food, hes doing well on orijen now.

Beth · Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 10:24 am Post subject:

Yeah, she has a sensitive GI tract. Even treats will make her unsettled, we wont' be changing anything until I am positively done potty training.

MaddiesMom · Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject:

when shes older give her raw bones, they love it!! just giving kibble is so boring for them. I feel so happy when i see MAddies eyes light up when i take out the raw bones from the freezer Wink

Bethany0016 · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:30 pm Post subject: