What type of natural dog food would be best?
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at
11:03 pm
I was told by my vet that my large breed dog has food allergies and that I need to find a food without wheat, corn, or soy. Does anyone have any experience with these types of foods? I want for her to get good nutrition, but not get sick anymore. Any suggestions?
Tagged with: best • Food • Natural • type • Would
Filed under: Organic Foods
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My dog has allergies too.
I get her Science Diet Sensitive Skin.
Let me see if there is Wheat, Corn, or Soy in it…
Brewers Rice, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Pork Meal, Dried Egg Product, Soybean Oil, Flaxseed, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Chicken Liver Flavor, Potassium Chloride, L-Lysine, Iodized Salt, DL-Methionine, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Tryptophan, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Taurine, Beta-carotene, Rosemary Extract.
You can go to petsmart.com and type in Science Diet and it comes up with a lot of Science Diet dog foods
The butcher shop. Real meat, eggs, even some cheeses. Do you know any hunters? You might be able to buy a years worth of meat for a very good price.
Innova or Evo http://www.naturapet.com/
Most commerical dog food is bad …..
Canidae, Solid Gold, Innova, Wellness, Blue Buffalo, Orijen, and several others will meet those requirements. Get some sample sizes and feed the one you are interested in for a few days before you commit to buy a full bag. Be aware that some dogs are allergic to more than corn, wheat, or soy, though those are the three most common. I’ve just found out one of mine is also allergic to Barley and Beef, so I had to switch to a ‘duck and potato’ food. Try a few out and pick the one your dog does best on. Good luck!
well what ever you do make sure it is not on the rat posing list i got food and it killed my 18 YEAR OLD POODLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Make your own dog food. I do, here is the recipe from my vet:
Use ground beef, chicken, or turkey. Brown in a pan. Add fresh veggies…peas, carrots, lima beans, whatever he will eat…play around with the veggies. Add cooked brown rice. Mix it up. I mix mine with Organic crunchies. You have to find one that doesn’t have the ingredients he can’t have. Not sure which one.
We like California Natural.
I boil fresh chicken bones and chicken fillet…sometimes a little beef for a treat otherwise it’s just good old dog food that has veggies in it…I try to chop and mix bits of carrots into my dogs foods too…real food not canned seems to always make my dog hungry. Sorry, my dog’s never been allergic but she’s picky.
go with Canidae, or Solid Gold or Innova. and even consider reading up on making your own dog food. and to the person who said Science diet, the asker said no corn, the second ingredient in your list is corn.
As someone has already said, here are good dog foods that are natural and human-quality:
Wellness, Innova (EVO), Solid Gold, Orijen, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul, GO Natural, Merrick, Fromm Four Star, Nature’s Variety.. etc. I dunno if it’s safe to recommend Canidae anymore as they did a formula change apparently for the worse, and a lot of dogs don’t like it. If you go on the website http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com and stick within the 5-6* range, you’ll be safe as nothing in there is going to have crap in it. Anything you find on that site will likely have a website with a store locater so you can find a shop that sells it in in your area. The best you can do for your dog is raw diet, if you’re up to it I’ve posted some links for you.
Anything you can acquire from a grocery store is going to be absolute junk.. Such as: Iams, Beneful, Bil-Jac, Wholemeals, Purina(just anything Purina), Ol’ Roy, Science Diet, etc.. Stay away. They all contain fillers, preservatives, and by-products.
http://www.thedogfoodconspiracy.com/tips/reports/dog-food-ingredients.htm
Good for you for being concerned about your dogs health.
http://www.rawfeddogs.net/
http://www.rawmeatybones.com/
http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html
http://www.rawfed.com/
Really anything that isnt sold at a food store. I reccomend the dog food
“Chicken Soup for the Pet Lovers soul”
http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/
very good and high quality dog food! Also check out canidae even though both my dogs hate it, yours may like it!
http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_stages/dry.html
we just changed our dogs to people food …baked sweet potato or reg potato green beans, scoop of cottage cheese, lean ground beef or chicken and carrots….chopped into small bites and their allergy symtoms have vanished and they’ve gotten clear eyes and shiney coats….now my cousin is trying it with her dogs….they have more energy and they love it.
There is no food that is the *best*, different individual dog may thrive on different foods. What is best for one may not be the best for the next. And just because a food is good quality, it doesn’t mean it will jive the best for your dog.
What you want to find is the HIGH-QUALITY food that *your dog* does best on.
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Read the ingredients before you buy, especially since you have a dog with allergies.
Here is my “short list” of rules when I am looking at dog food ingredients:
I don’t want to see mystery meats (meats identified only as “meat” or “poultry”.)
1) When I chose a dog food, I chose one high meat content. I want to see preferably at least 2-3 out of the top 5 ingredients be meat or meat meal (first ingredient must be!). Meal is simply the meat with the moisture removed.
2) I want to see higher quality grains, such as barley, brown rice, and oatmeal, instead of seeing wheat and corn. Or an alternative starch/carbohydrate such as potatoes or sweet potatoes.
3) I don’t want to see any byproducts.
4) I don’t want to see a lot of fillers.
5) I don’t want to see preservatives that are believed to be carcinogens (BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin).
6) I don’t want to see artificial colorings such as the Red, Blue, and Yellow dyes.
7) I don’t want to see added sugars (sugar, corn syrup).
Here is an article about byproducts:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=ingrd
And an article on what ingredients to avoid:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients
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Here are some examples of GOOD dog foods (I believe these are all corn, wheat, and soy free. But I recommend double-checking the ingredients to make sure there’s nothing your dog is allergic to.)
* Artemis Fresh-Mix
* Blue Buffalo
* California Natural
* Canidae
* Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul
* Eagle Pack Holistic Selects
* EVO
* Fromm
* Innova
* Merrick
* Nature’s Variety
* Orijen
* Solid Gold
* Taste of the Wild
* Wellness
* ZiwiPeak
Or check this website; the 4, 5, or 6 star rated foods are all good foods. http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
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Higher quality food may seem more expensive at first, but it evens out. The higher quality the food, the less fillers eaten (and therefore the less poop comes out the other end). Your dog eats more of a low-quality food to try to get the nutrition it needs, and most of the food just passes right on through. Also, higher-quality food will make your animals healthier, so you save money on vet bills in the long run.
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What *NOT* to buy:
Stay away from grocery stores brands. They are low-quality foods chalk full of fillers, preservatives, dyes, etc.. (Grocery store foods are those like Beneful, Old Roy, Alpo, Pedigree, Purina, etc.)
Beware “premium” foods. “Premium” does not always mean good nutritionally, and is not a nutritionally high quality food. Most of these foods have the same types of ingredients as grocery store foods, just a bit better quality of those not-so-good ingredients. (Premium foods are those like Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Bil-Jac, Royal Canin, etc..)
Another thing to be wary of: A lot of vets will recommend what they sell in their office. They get profit from the brands they keep on their shelves, that’s why they push it. Truth is, vet schools don’t focus a lot on nutrition. It’s not saying that a vet is a bad vet because he recommends those foods, a lot of vets just are told “this is good food”, so they pass the message along without proper nutrition knowledge. Also, some dog food brands (like Hills) support vet schools, so vets have heard of it from the time they start college, which makes them think it’s good as well.
Hills company, the makers of Science Diet, are heavily involved in vet schools. “Hill’s scientists author more than 50 research papers and textbook chapters each year and teach at leading schools of veterinary medicine” (Source of quoted section: http://www.hillsvet.com/zSkin_2/company_info/company_info_general.jsp?JSESSIONID=HMz2B3Jn3hv0rnSoxCobfbBhOec35ODG7yh5t3P0vcvhOtzRlQ9M!598359213!167846923!7005!8005&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302026072&bmUID=1196192566575 )
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“Big box” petstores like Petco and Petsmart rarely have quality foods. (There are some higher quality foods at those locations, but most of the foods aren’t.)
Also, grocery stores and Walmart aren’t good places to buy food either.
Your best bets for getting quality dog food are:
- small, locally owned petstores
- dog boutiques
- farm supply stores
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When switching foods, do it gradually. I do this over about a two week timespan:
25% food A, 75% food B
50% food A, 50% food B
75% food A, 25% food B
100% food A
.
Wellness
http://www.wellnesspetfood.com