Grade your dog food...

[penny246]

I dug this up to give to someone on my FL but then I got to thinking that most of the people on my friends list are dog people. Most are not the dog food snob that I am but still might be interested. BTW...one point for the premium foods...they cost more but you feed lese so they last longer and they poop less (big bonus

Comments

[feetwilltravel]

Wow biljac scored really low. I'm surprised... That's what we feed our dogs.

[marillion]

I don't entirely agree with this. Dogs don't need carbohydrates, and I don't see why you'd get more points for adding in barley or oatmeal. They serve no useful metabolic purpose for dogs. I also find it hard to understand why anything made by Dick Van Patten or Chicken Soup would score higher than Evo, which is, in essence, the basics of a healthy, raw diet--just cooked and made into dog food. If I had to serve a commercial food, Evo would be it.

Other than that, it's pretty interesting, though since I feed Freya a home-prepared, organic raw diet I don't have any commercial dog or cat food in my house any more.

[penny246]

EVO is too rich. It gives a lot of dogs the runs...

[marillion]

I think that may be due in some cases to a lack of time to acclimate and the proper enzymes to digest it. When I was transitioning our two senior Irish Wolfhounds to the home-prepared raw diet, I took them of Eukanuba and onto Evo with no troubles while I started adding real food.

[litch]

I don't see why you'd get more points for adding in barley or oatmeal
I imagine soluable fiber has the same salutatory effect on dogs that it does on humans.

Personally I think they overstate the negativity of corn.

[joscelin]

Wow, I thought we were doing great feeding Science Diet versus others.. time to do some shopping around! Thanks for the heads up!

[penny246]

You are not alone. Because it is in the vet offices and vets recommend it (they make a profit when you buy it from them) people use it. They are not at fault in believing their vet is recommending it for them because it is good. Not ALL vets do this!!! Now if a vet prescribes prescription diet, that is different there is usually a specific reason and it is likely important people take that advice.

[joscelin]

Heh, my first dachsie, Biff.. was a junk food junkie.. he LOVED Atta Boy which is some of the worst grocery store food there is.. but he'd pass up a high priced food everytime if he could!

I need to find a good senior food now, Shelby turned 7 this past January and Maggie just turned 10.. time to put them on the old dogs diet methinks!

We have a local company out here called Zamzow's.. they advertise a food called Grandma Z's that is supposed to reduce the amount of poo.. I'll need to run the test by their ingredient list.

[marillion]

You know why all of these better foods reduce the amount of poo is because the ingredients in the food are better digestible and more bioavailable for canines/felines. Take out filler crap grains and voila! Less undigestible stuff and less piles of big poo. The poo also smells better the more natural a diet the dog gets--not that it ever smells great, mind you.

[sketso]

I use the nutro brand, for our jack russel, and it's a wonderful mid-priced GOOD food. Less mess, less shedding, more energy (like a jack russel needs that) and ZERO sickness so far. She eats all she wants, usually, as we don't ration, but she's still solid rippling muscle and in perfect proportion according to our vet (who, btw, reccomends people AVOID the Science Diet brand).

Good post!

[callie_]

Thanks Penny, for the great info. Would you consider making this a public post so I can link it for some family? The comments on Eukanuba and SD were really interesting.