What Pet Food You Use?
 

Just curious for those with a dog or a cat, which Pet Food you use and why?

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

I use Ol Roy' cause it's cheap dammit. That and the fact that the dog basically will eat anything...including the cat food at times.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

We use this for our two dogs:

[url=http://www.precisepet.com/]Precise Pet Products[/url]

$50 a bag but has made a big difference in their over all health.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

My wife got stuck on Blue Buffalo a year or so ago. Supposed to be organic and all that jazz. Both our dogs are young so they've never really had anything else to compare. Its a little pricey but the ingredients don't include all that filler junk.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[url=http://www.pedigree.com/really-good-food/food-for-large-dogs.aspx]Pedigree[/url]

recommended by breeder. They do great on it!

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

Been a while since I had a pet, but if I had one now I would definitely use something organic even if it's a little pricey.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

Science Diet is usually the one vets recommend.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=Mattyk;705466]Been a while since I had a pet, but if I had one now I would definitely use something organic even if it's a little pricey.[/quote]


you can buy the cheap stuff and you will just end up making up the difference in Vet bills down the road.

My female dog on the cheap stuff would go about a week on it before getting a bladder infection, which is about a $100 problem to fix.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

I feed my dogs NutroMax Large Breed. It's a middle of the road food. We go through about 3 bags a month (105 lbs) for our three dogs (2 Rotts, 1 lab). The dogs seem to like it and it has the right stuff in it to help keep their joints healthy (a big deal for large dogs).

We buy 6 bags at a time from Petco. When purchasing over 200lbs, you get a 10% discount. My wife also has their discount card thing and for every 10 bags we buy, we get a bag free.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

You guys make me feel bad, lol. I guess the Wal Mart dog food is the worst...maybe animal flower or whatever, but the dog always eats it all and he seems to be generally healthy.

I feel awful because reading these threads it makes me feel like I don't care enough....thats not the case, i just never gave it real thought...

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;705470]You guys make me feel bad, lol. I guess the Wal Mart dog food is the worst...maybe animal flower or whatever, but the dog always eats it all and he seems to be generally healthy.

I feel awful because reading these threads it makes me feel like I don't care enough....thats not the case, i just never gave it real thought...[/quote]


Your dog?


[IMG]http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2007/06/fat_dog.jpg[/IMG]

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;705470]You guys make me feel bad, lol. I guess the Wal Mart dog food is the worst...maybe animal flower or whatever, but the dog always eats it all and he seems to be generally healthy.

I feel awful because reading these threads it makes me feel like I don't care enough....thats not the case, i just never gave it real thought...[/quote]

I thought you hated WalMart? ;)

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

Shameless plug alert!

My brother and sister-in-law(well my sister-in-law does) make homemade dog biscuits, ship anywhere, and are edible by dogs and humans alike (ask JoeRedskin if you don't believe me). They also support a worthy cause:

[url=http://www.bronwynsbiscuits.com/]Welcome to Bronwyn's Biscuits![/url]

[IMG]http://www.bronwynsbiscuits.com/images/chicken_honey.gif[/IMG] chicken honey

also have apple cinnamon, cheddar dill and peanut butter

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=mredskins;705468]you can buy the cheap stuff and you will just end up making up the difference in Vet bills down the road.

My female dog on the cheap stuff would go about a week on it before getting a bladder infection, which is about a $100 problem to fix.[/quote]

Well that doesn't make a lot of medical sense. The food does not result in greater immunity to bladder infections, unless the food contains antibiotics.

I think the bladder infection thing was just a coincidence.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=cpayne5;705477]I thought you hated WalMart? ;)[/quote]

lol busted

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[url=http://www.royalcanin.us/]Premium Dog and Cat Food - Royal Canin USA[/url]

The company I work for owns Pedigree, Nutro, Greenies and Royal Canin in addition to our other businesses. Royal Canin is a bit pricey when compared to your standard petfood brands, but after those quality issues a few years back, I'm happy to pay the extra $15 a bag or whatever it is for higher standards on the back end.

edit- If you really want to get crazy, here's another service we offer - [URL="http://www.wisdompanel.com/"]Dog DNA Testing[/URL]

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

Purina One Senior for my 15 year old Bischon, who's blind and almost deaf. Every once in a while, she gets a can of wet food when we need to give her any meds. Just had blood work done at the Vet, and they were very impressed with her overall health, aside from the cataracts and the hearing loss.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=Schneed10;705480]Well that doesn't make a lot of medical sense. The food does not result in greater immunity to bladder infections, unless the food contains antibiotics.

I think the bladder infection thing was just a coincidence.[/quote]


Trust me it was result of her diet. We went round and round with different dog foods until we got exact right one. We literally treated her over 15 times for bladder issues before switching her to Precise, have not had an issue since been 4 years. I say it is not a coincidence but yo uare also a Vet in your spare time so I am probably wrong.

BTW- Science Diet is one of the worst foods out there but they happe nto give the largest kick back to Vets that reccomend it.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

Puppy Chow

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

To answer others about me hating walmart, it's true. I do. I hate gas companies too but I still have to fill the tank up in the pickup.

That being said, cheap is still cheap during hard times. F Walmart.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

I use blood worms, squid, minnows, fresh fish, crabs, for pet food.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=mredskins;705491]Trust me it was result of her diet. We went round and round with different dog foods until we got exact right one. We literally treated her over 15 times for bladder issues before switching her to Precise, have not had an issue since been 4 years. I say it is not a coincidence but yo uare also a Vet in your spare time so I am probably wrong.

BTW- Science Diet is one of the worst foods out there but they happe nto give the largest kick back to Vets that reccomend it.[/quote]

Okay, if you say so, Doctor mredskins.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=BleedBurgundy;705488][URL="http://www.royalcanin.us/"]Premium Dog and Cat Food - Royal Canin USA[/URL]

The company I work for owns Pedigree, Nutro, Greenies and Royal Canin in addition to our other businesses. Royal Canin is a bit pricey when compared to your standard petfood brands, but after those quality issues a few years back, I'm happy to pay the extra $15 a bag or whatever it is for higher standards on the back end.

edit- If you really want to get crazy, here's another service we offer - [URL="http://www.wisdompanel.com/"]Dog DNA Testing[/URL][/quote]

Royal Canin is what my dog was on for management of her bladder stones. She would get bladder stones from other foods because of an imbalance of the pH in her urine. They put her on the SO product and it eliminated the problem.

mredskins, that could have been the cause of your dog's bladder problems. Stones cause little nicks and cuts in the urinary tract which get infected, often frequent infections are the result of stones. Did you ever get the dog x-rayed for stones?

It's possible the food you switched to balanced out the pH or otherwise prevented the formation of stones.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;705501]To answer others about me hating walmart, it's true. I do. I hate gas companies too but I still have to fill the tank up in the pickup.

That being said, cheap is still cheap during hard times. F Walmart.[/quote]

So your saying you shop every once in a while at wall mart?

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=firstdown;705511]So your saying you shop every once in a while at wall mart?[/quote]

It's very infrequently. very very. And i'm being honest. Sometimes, they will have a DVD release or something at a price that is the lowest, and we will go there.

My wife wanted Avatar when it came to DVD, and Walmart released it that Tuesday for 12 or 13.00. It was the cheapest price in town that day.

That being said. I really do prefer a better shopping experience, even if it means higher prices. Thats why i go to Target way more.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;705514]It's very infrequently. very very. And i'm being honest. Sometimes, they will have a DVD release or something at a price that is the lowest, and we will go there.

My wife wanted Avatar when it came to DVD, and Walmart released it that Tuesday for 12 or 13.00. It was the cheapest price in town that day.

That being said. I really do prefer a better shopping experience, even if it means higher prices. Thats why i go to Target way more.[/quote]

Dude you cannot ever say anything bad about Wall Mart and how they treat their employees if you still shop there. Ever. Its just the way things work. I got ticked a Home Depot yrs. back for something they did and I have never been back in that store sense. If you shop there then your supporting everthing they stand for so how can you bash the way they treat their employees?

The only way they can offer those deals your going for is by paying their employees less and by offering fewer bennifitts.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

Yeah the message of hating Wal-Mart kinda rings hollow if you continue to shop there.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

i love walmart.

i feed my dogs purina one. i pay about 22 bucks for a big bag.

bleedburgundy - i have 2 pure breed mutts. one is from tijuana and the other is from w. va. they look almost identical except the lady is about 15 lbs lighter and smaller. anyways, i did a dna test on my older pup. the results? 10% pitt 10% afgan greyhound 10% sheppard (idk i forgot what the last 10% was). the other 70%? undeterminable.

question - ive heard and read that it takes 3 generations of mating to create a breed. i was told that when 3 generations of mutts have breed, the 4th generation locks into 1 of 7 types of mutts. one being the all tan guys with black muzzles like my pups. is this true? has anyone else heard this before?

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

Taste of the Wild

Hollistic, human-grade meat, NO CORN FILLER...has vegetables in it too. It has Bison, Venison and Lamb with tomatoes, raspberries, blueberries and a ton of vitamins. Basically, what dogs' digestive systems were designed for before they were taken in as pets. Coat ends up healthier, no digestive issues, dogs do very well on it.

I did my research and this is one of the highest quality dry foods you can buy. Cheaper than some of the crap, filler-filled brands from Petco too...like Eukanuba. Before I knew better, I fed him Eukanuba and he'd throw it up sometimes.

[url=http://www.wholepetcentral.com/store/product/3008/Taste-of-the-Wild-High-Prairie-Canine-30lb/]Taste of the Wild High Prairie Canine 30lb - Whole Pet Central[/url]



I was feeding Buster Canidae, until they changed their formula and the quality went down a little.




Don't believe me? Look at the dog food ratings here:
[url=http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/]Dog Food Reviews - Main Index - Powered by ReviewPost[/url]



Taste of the Wild = 6 stars (highest rating)
[url=http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showcat.php/cat/8/page/2]Dog Food Reviews - 6 Star Premium Dry Food - Powered by ReviewPost[/url]

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=Smooter;705464]My wife got stuck on Blue Buffalo a year or so ago. Supposed to be organic and all that jazz. Both our dogs are young so they've never really had anything else to compare. Its a little pricey but the ingredients don't include all that filler junk.[/quote]

Blue Buffalo is the ONLY food I'd buy from Petco or PetSmart.

It was one I was considering when researching foods, it's one of the better foods.

Good choice.

Most of the foods mentioned in this thread are 1-star and 2-star foods.

A good rule of thumb is that if you can buy it in a grocery or retail store, it's going to be full of fillers, low quality (or fake) meat and generally bad for the dog.

Good dog foods aren't necessarily really expensive either, but you might have to drive an extra mile or two to find it. I buy my dog food from Tractor Supply of all places.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=firstdown;705516]Dude you cannot ever say anything bad about Wall Mart and how they treat their employees if you still shop there. Ever. Its just the way things work. I got ticked a Home Depot yrs. back for something they did and I have never been back in that store sense. If you shop there then your supporting everthing they stand for so how can you bash the way they treat their employees?

The only way they can offer those deals your going for is by paying their employees less and by offering fewer bennifitts.[/quote]

I agree with all of you guys and admit that i might be a hypocrite.

The truth is, employees in the retail world all get treated like crap. That's the nature of the beast.

So I apologize. I only mentioned target because at least the stores are clean and where i live we don't get the regular "scum of society" type that often frequent walmarts. So sorry to everybody. If I had it my way, we'd never shop at walmart again, but i'm not in charge.

So sorry for kind of being a double standard. I still hate Walmart though, i do think they are the worst in the retail world.

And to firstdown, who said he hated home depot, can you tell me why? You can PM me if you want so we don't take this thread off topic, i was just wondering....

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

What's going on here? This thread is about kibble. :D

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=SolidSnake84;705526]I agree with all of you guys and admit that i might be a hypocrite.

The truth is, employees in the retail world all get treated like crap. That's the nature of the beast.

So I apologize. I only mentioned target because at least the stores are clean and where i live we don't get the regular "scum of society" type that often frequent walmarts. So sorry to everybody. If I had it my way, we'd never shop at walmart again, but i'm not in charge.

So sorry for kind of being a double standard. I still hate Walmart though, i do think they are the worst in the retail world.

And to firstdown, who said he hated home depot, can you tell me why? You can PM me if you want so we don't take this thread off topic, i was just wondering....[/quote]

No need to say your sorry but if you feel that way tell your wife how and why you feel that way and never go to Wall Mart again.Home Depot, It was back about 13 or 14 yrs ago Home Depot did something that ticked me off on a moral issue and I said I would never step foot in a HD again. The only thing is I forgot what it was and my wife laughs at me as I will drive past HD to go to Lowes. I also will not step foot into a Best Buy (customer service sucks) or use Capital One (moral issue) ever again. Its pretty easy to not use those places so take it with a grain of salt that I have those convictions. Its not like I'm saying I'll only buy made in the US.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=Buster;705523]Taste of the Wild



Don't believe me? Look at the dog food ratings here:
[URL="http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/"]Dog Food Reviews - Main Index - Powered by ReviewPost[/URL]



[/quote]

thanks for the link. i checked out purina one. they are all 1 star but my impression of websites like these are that they are for the rich granola type people who take organic stuff way to seriously.

the review did say that lamb (for the lamb n rice formula i buy) is a naturla source of glucosamine which is great b/c my largest pup has a torn meniscus and has to take glucosamine supplements when he limps real bad.

idk, im on the fence about considering switching dog foods. im the type of guy that really doesnt buy into this whole trend of organic stuff, etc. i mean, its a dog, its a rescue mutt, (i consider myself a rescue mutt as well) and we dont need no stinkin organic complicated diet. just pour the crap in our bowl twice a day and im happy. i drink canned beer my dogs eat out of the bag. we are simple people. but then again, if there is a health advantage to switching to a better dog food product at a nominal increase in price i must consider it. besides, what if my dogs dont share my personality and are really divas?

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

I buy Science Diet for my dog. I just buy that because my sister is an assistant vet and she told me if she ever caught me buying Pedigree or Purina she'd pour it in the garbage because it's very unhealthy for dogs. And my dog likes it and has never really had any health problems so it's easy to stick with it because it works. I know it's more expensive but you pay for quality I suppose.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=over the mountain;705536]thanks for the link. i checked out purina one. they are all 1 star but my impression of websites like these are that they are for the rich granola type people who take organic stuff way to seriously.

the review did say that lamb (for the lamb n rice formula i buy) is a naturla source of glucosamine which is great b/c my largest pup has a torn meniscus and has to take glucosamine supplements when he limps real bad.

idk, im on the fence about considering switching dog foods. im the type of guy that really doesnt buy into this whole trend of organic stuff, etc. i mean, its a dog, its a rescue mutt, (i consider myself a rescue mutt as well) and we dont need no stinkin organic complicated diet. just pour the crap in our bowl twice a day and im happy. i drink canned beer my dogs eat out of the bag. we are simple people. but then again, if there is a health advantage to switching to a better dog food product at a nominal increase in price i must consider it. besides, what if my dogs dont share my personality and are really divas?[/quote]

I'm not a health nut, organic vegan treehugger that eats only nuts and raisins myself. Until I did a little research and actually saw the differences in my dog from the food switch, I never bought into it myself.

Fact is, there are a TON of foods that are really bad for dogs that use corn fillers, horrible quality ingredients, etc. I'm not trusting my dog's health to China's quality control standards. He is not a person and won't care what's in his bowl (he eats paper), but he is a member of the family and a living creature, so I'll take care of him.

I saw 2 other dogs in the family (same breed, Boston Terrier) die before the age of 10 from cancer and other health issues...they ate Pedigree and table scraps their whole life. I don't want to give up my dog or watch him suffer in the end because I wanted to save a buck. My dog is 8 and still has the energy of a puppy...that has to be a good sign. Yeah, it's annoying sometimes and we're afraid he's going to live until 20, but hey, he's part of the family.

Sure dogs will eat anything and look happy...so do McDonalds customers...doesn't make them healthy just because they're smiling.

If I had to eat the same meal twice a day, every day...I'd try to pick something healthy for myself.

Besides, Bison meat...heck, I'd eat that. :D

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

yeah buster thats my dilemna now. am i being hard headed? probably. maybe its about time i look into this and make a switch and stop being lazy, content. but about a month ago my vet asked me what i was feeding them, i said purina one, i asked if i should switch. they said no, purina one is good. my pups are in great shape and weight.

can you recommend a quality dog food that has glucosamine? sorry i should do my own research but figure you could save me some hassle. going thru the site you linked had a zillion different dog foods.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

We use the Costco Kirkland brand. For the "cheaper" kinds it is rated very high. Everything I've read says to avoid Purina and similar. Basically it came down to Costco or $50 bags. I went with Costco.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=over the mountain;705545]yeah buster thats my dilemna now. am i being hard headed? probably. maybe its about time i look into this and make a switch and stop being lazy, content. but about a month ago my vet asked me what i was feeding them, i said purina one, i asked if i should switch. they said no, purina one is good. my pups are in great shape and weight.

can you recommend a quality dog food that has glucosamine? sorry i should do my own research but figure you could save me some hassle. going thru the site you linked had a zillion different dog foods.[/quote]

Remember vets are vying for your money. Most either recommend a dog food that they sell or don't want to offend customers and tell them they are feeding their dogs crap. When customers feel talked down to they tend to go be customers elsewhere.

I agree with some of the others. Buying at least decent food for my dogs just seems humane. If someone showed me that the food I bought wasn't good I'd buy something else. If it costs more then so be it.

Re: What Pet Food You Use?
 

[quote=Smooter;705464][B]My wife got stuck on Blue Buffalo a year or so ago.[/B] Supposed to be organic and all that jazz. Both our dogs are young so they've never really had anything else to compare. Its a little pricey but the ingredients don't include all that filler junk.[/quote]

Something just seems wrong about this statement.