Dog Food Thread
 

Do you cook for your dog? Do you source freezer burned meat and feed them that? Do you look at the ingredient list on the bag... or is Ol'Roy at Walmart at $15 for 40lb of chow good enough food for your dog?

I'm curious how much people spend on food for their furry friends here and if there is anything in particular that they look for in the food they feed them.

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I buy Diamond Naturals All Stages food for my dogs because I have 14 year old dogs and I have 6 month old dogs... it's nice to just feed them all out of one bag. That said, I chose Diamond Naturals because the first two ingredients are both meat. Did reviews and found that the Naturals line of Diamond brand food is rated highly. The kicker, though, is that it is $38 for a 40lb bag. That is by far the cheapest I can find dog food that has meat as it's first two ingredients.

https://www.chewy.com/diamond-natura...xoCSVIQAvD_BwE

https://www.diamondpet.com/wp-conten...ont-080521.png

Science diet since always

Costco chicken and rice dry food for all of mine. Coats are pretty, healthy looking, no farts. Pretty cheap compared to the better brands. Think it's $30 for 40lbs.

Same two first ingredients as the one you listed.

costco mature dog food, I think it's diamond brand with a kirkland label. She seems to do well with that food, one time I got her beneful or whatever and her hair started looking pretty rough.

some canned food because she loves that shit

some pieces of meat when I cook it (the unseasoned part)

biscuits, treats and an occasional tortilla chip as a treat she loves those. Also carrots, she loves a few pieces of carrots every once in a while.

You got me excited... but I don't see it at that price. I see it at $45.

https://www.costco.com/CatalogSearch...kland+dog+food

My boy Louie farts up a storm no matter what he eats. The dude is constantly ripping. He will wake himself up after farting. It is highly amusing.

Purina pro plan large breed

https://www.chewy.com/purina-pro-pla...8aAtQNEALw_wcB

Salmon oil added once per day as a supplement. This stuff is great for coat shine and tons of other benefits with omega 3 fish oil. I just squirt it on the kibble

https://www.vitalpetlife.com/product...MaAub1EALw_wcB

Hard boiled eggs for treats. Plus chicken hearts and gizzards. Chicken and beef liver. All of which are my treats but I give in and share with the big fart knocker

We just got our first puppy last month so new to this we have just been using the same stuff the breeder gave us Royal Canin pupp food

first 5 ingredients
water sufficient for processing
chicken by-product meal
chicken
chicken fat
chicken fat

no clue if that is good or not haven't had time to research it yet, Puppy loves sugar snap peas, red peppers

Royal Canin is owned by the Mars family. I'm not an expert, but I think it's a quality product. They also own the Nutro brand.


The first ingredient you listed "meal" will usually have a high concentration of protein. I'm surprised that there wasn't something on the bag saying "First ingredient - chicken." When you see that it typically means that they're using a slurry instead of dry meal.

The cheap dog foods are usually full of corn, which is just filler. The high end stuff is probably good, but damn, it's going to get expensive if you don't have a small dog. Hills, Blue Buffalo, Royal Canin are all good. Merrick, a brand that TSC carries, is also go od. Just find something your dog will eat.

Oh, and moderation is key. And don't give them table scraps; dogs need more than just protein so you shouldn't just give them chicken over night. And if you happened to have bought your fur baby from an old guy in Chinatown you probably shouldn't feed him after midnight.

Wife was buying some iams something or other that had meat as the first 2 ingredients.

But he’s old as all **** now and got pancreatitis and vet recommended switching him to science diet low fat. So that’s where we’re at now.

I’m no nutritionist, but I’m not 100% sure dogs need a pile of meat these days. Wolves sure, but these aren’t that. Domesticated dogs have been eating what we eat for like 5000 years. So during a large part of the domestication process that was probably a lot of grain.

IDK. But I heard the grains line of thinking somewhere. Might be bullshit. Who knows.

Small dog thankfully lol , we needed something my son who has allergies could tolerate and my wife wanted something that could be a therapy dog so she could bring to work . My SIL was a vet tech for years I just haven’t had a chance to talk to her yet .

https://i.ibb.co/zXM5vwS/89-B638-D3-...4-A36-D0-F.jpg

On a side note:

This is a great place to go to check out the ratings of various foods and you can sign up to have them send you an email, when there is a recall of any kind on dog food.

There are more recalls than most people think, primarily from salmonella.

https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

Diamond Naturals Beef and Rice for my 120lb lab. He loves the grain-free stuff but there are supposedly studies showing grain-free isn't good for their hearts. Opinions on that differ depending on who you ask but I figured better safe than sorry.

Toddlers occasionally snack on pet food so these companies have to maintain human food safety standards. Well, they're supposed to anyway. I would bet that a lot of the recalls are "better safe than sorry" situations.

Another thing to keep in mind is that pet owners will switch their pet's food from some low quality stuff that is basically sawdust to a high protein premium product and then say that there is something wrong with the new brand when Rover starts shitting like a cup of pudding thrown into an oscillating fan. You have to change their diets gradually.

Thanks Bwana....Great read and very helpful to see where your pets food ranks/recommended.