What do you feed your dogs?

keisha

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I have been feeding my four dogs Diamond dog food (www.diamondpet.com)for about 2 years. Recently my rat terrier daizee was hit and killed by a car. After a while we got another dog. (not replacing her since she cannot be replaced) Rosie is a 12 week old white bull terrier puppy. The breeder we got her from had been feeding her science diet puppy small bites. (http://www.hillspet.com/hillspet/products/productDetails.hjsp?PRODUCT<>prd_id=845524441760405) Not wanting to change anything for her, we kept her on that. But the problem is that is more expensive and we also have to drive atleast an hour to get it. (though we do buy it in 20 lb bags so it lasts longer) Diamond is less expensive and we only have to drive 20 minutes to get it. So i was wondering which is healthier, and whether or not you think that i should switch her to diamond, or switch my 3 dogs to science diet, or switch them to another brand all together? I would prefer to have all of them on Diamond, (and my dogs really seem to love that food, whereas alot of food we've fed in the past, they have not) but I would be open to consider switching.

Oh and I have a white one-eyed toy poodle named spike who is 8 1/2, a 6 or 7 (we do not know his exact age since we got him as an older dog) black lab named blackjack aka blacky, a 2 year old jack russel terrier named luke, and rosie the bull terrier pup.

Also what do you feed your dogs and why?
 

goldenkitty45

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We've also fed the dogs Diamond (or the Costco brand of Kirkland). I'm not sure if Diamond has changed the formula or what, but Keno was shedding a lot more eating it.

I know its probably not the best food (cost wise its not really cheap to feed a lab), but I got some of Purina's Beneful and she loves it and the shedding seems to be a lot less. Plus her coat is a little softer and shinier then when on the Diamond.
 

sharky

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Taste of the wild .. currently fish formula ... with raw and homemade ...

why ... like cats dogs have little need for grains and also allergys ...

lol.. think feeding a lab is alot try feeding a ridgeback...
 

2dogmom

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I feed Wellness - it is about $1.25/lb where I am and I feel that they have quality ingredients. They also have "simple" formulas and a good selection to choose from.
 

white cat lover

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Science Diet is yucky & way overpriced.

I feed Diamond Naturals to one dog, Taste of the Wild to another, & EVO to the 3rd. Diamond Naturals is decent quality & fairly easy on the budget.
 

faith's_mom

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I feed my dogs premium foods like Chicken Soup, Taste of the Wild, and Wellness...I vary what I feed as it is on sale...Lol! I don't like them to become too 'picky' when it comes to foods either, so I like to switch things up, just in case something goes out of stock for some reason or other.
 

pami

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Do you guys feed wet or dry?

I feed mine wet Merricks in the AM and wet Wellness in the PM along with Wysong Dream Treats for his teeth. And some raw chicken wings throughout the week.
 

goldenkitty45

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Depends on the size of the dog - we feed dry to our lab. However, she always gets a little extra at supper - in the form of whatever is leftover on our plates
 

sharky

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mine get about 50% dry 50% homemade or raw .. tonight it is homemade hamburger and carrots tomarrow likely raw meat and organs

one is 85lbs and one is 15lbs
 

pami

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Is there a health reason you feed dry? I guess I automatically assumed that wet was good since it is for cats.
 

sharky

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dry is a little more okay for a dog since they would eat about 15-30% carbs in the wild though nutritionally it is not needed ... also feeding a dog wet is cost prohibitive.. ie wet food for my 85lb would run about 5 dollars a day ... raw about 6 a day ... homemade with grain about 2 .50 a day without 3 ish ... dry runs about 2 a day
 

katiemae1277

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I feed Vino Chicken soup for Seniors and he gets whatever is left over from the cats wet food
I also will share my food with him occasionally, he really likes chicken nuggets...no sauce though


Vino is really hard to feed at "meal times" so I free feed him, he's very good at regulating himself
 

pami

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Ok Thanks Jennifer.

Katie, my cats and dog love chicken nuggets
 

nekochan

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Currently I'm feeding Nature's Variety Instinct (a grain-free food) but I'm starting to switch to a raw diet because of my Golden's health problems, my vet recommended raw food.
 

wishiwas

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Perky gets Wellness CORE. She is doing so amazingly on it, that I'm not about to mess with it. My family's Cocker Spaniels I have on Taste of the Wild's fish formula to see if that helps with their allergies. I may be looking into trying to find something cheaper though, it's rather expensive feeding four dogs really high-end foods. They sometimes get Merricks wet with their dinner, but not as often since I started spending more on the dry..
 
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keisha

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Ok so what do I look for on the food labels to know whether or not its a "good food"?
 

sakura

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Our 4-month-old labrador retriever eats Eagle Pack Holistic Large Breed Puppy dry food and then he gets a little bit of By Nature Organics or Wellness wet food.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by Keisha

Ok so what do I look for on the food labels to know whether or not its a "good food"?
same as a cat .. but realize most dog foods protein will run 20-40% with fat 10-20 vs a cat 30-50 and 20-30
 

calico2222

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We feed our dogs (1 choc lab, 1 lab/shepard mix, 1 Samoyed and 1 pug) Beneful dry in the morning (small portions) then dry with 1 can of wet alpo split among the 4 of them at night. Plus whatever is left over on our plates after dinner (only steak, hamburger or chicken breast, no pork and no bones).

If you don't want to stick with the expensive brand that takes that big of a trip to get, mix what you have left of that brand with what you feed the other pups until her system gets used to it. That is one mistake we did, just switched without mixing and it can cause major digestive problems. Honestly, unless your dog has major health problems that require a special diet the expensive brands are over rated. I mean, I would like to eat more healthy, but sometimes all I can afford is oodles or noodles or spagetti O's. It all depends on your finances and what you can afford.
 

faith's_mom

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Originally Posted by calico2222

We feed our dogs (1 choc lab, 1 lab/shepard mix, 1 Samoyed and 1 pug) Beneful dry in the morning (small portions) then dry with 1 can of wet alpo split among the 4 of them at night. Plus whatever is left over on our plates after dinner (only steak, hamburger or chicken breast, no pork and no bones).

If you don't want to stick with the expensive brand that takes that big of a trip to get, mix what you have left of that brand with what you feed the other pups until her system gets used to it. That is one mistake we did, just switched without mixing and it can cause major digestive problems. Honestly, unless your dog has major health problems that require a special diet the expensive brands are over rated. I mean, I would like to eat more healthy, but sometimes all I can afford is oodles or noodles or spagetti O's. It all depends on your finances and what you can afford.
It's all good and well to say 'feed what you can afford', however, having been there, and done that (when I was younger, living at home, and had mainly 'outdoor' farm dogs, I have found the benefits of feeding premium diets (and supplementing with RAW), to be much better than simply feeding brands like Pedigree, Beneful, or other products that use grains as the 'main' ingredient. Granted, lots of dogs and cats seem to do fine on these diets, but think about it this way, these are actual meat eaters, and we are filling them with grain...If dogs and cats were wild things still, they wouldn't opt to eat corn, wheat, or other popular fillers that companies use because they are 'cheaper than meat', and don't seem to do any harm, they are hunters and would kill to eat. They are not true omnivores like us, or bears. Sure dogs and cats occasionally browse on grass, but they don't eat it to survive.

On the premium diets that I have been feeding, I go through much less food, because the dogs\\cats digest more of what is in the kibble, so I actually go through much less food, because they eat less. I also have less clean up. With dogs that I have acquired who have had varying problems (from allergies, to digestive issues) premium diets have aided in getting the animal back on his way to health.

My grandma had a poodle a while ago, which she acquired because the owners couldn't afford meds that he 'needed' to be on...(he was on a purina brand of food btw), well she changed his food to a grain free diet, that had more actual meat protien, and of course less of the starches, and he was off the meds in a month, and doing great. The poodle puppy I recently bought, had been on a diet that was high in starchy fillers; he had itchy skin already, and he's only a 10 week old pup (now), really watery eyes, and a coat that was drying out. He has been switched to Nature's Recipe puppy, and the itchy skin is gone, and the eyes are not all crusty every morning; his coat is getting better, too, although he hasn't had much of a chance to grow alot out (I will see more changes as he grows coat in) Now, these are just a few examples of what a premium diet can do, and these are only my experiences, and I do not claim to be a 'know it all' according to premium vs non-premium diets, but I do know from results I have seen in my own pets, that it can make a huge difference, both in the pet and in my budget.
 
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