Dog food survey

FCSpringer

Moderator
Thought I would put a couple neat sites up to let you check out dog food surveys, and have a recourse to help decide what to feed your dog, with out the big feud that can get going. Pretty cool info. On the one you can click on the star rating and you will most likely find your food or one similar. Tons of reviews. Neither one is on the home page, so you can go to there home page to find your way.

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/now-dog-food/

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=grain_free
 
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I think the Dog Food Advisor site has dog foods more properly rated than some of the other sites that seem to think organic and natural is the only way to go.

I was please to see that the NutriSource I'm feeding received a 4 Star rating.
 
I think the Dog Food Advisor site has dog foods more properly rated than some of the other sites that seem to think organic and natural is the only way to go.

Yep, I was surprised to see that also. Native made the 4 star and I was already expecting it to much lower before I looked.
 
I'm always highly suspicious of these ratings and consider them as suspect as the marketing bile spewed out by the dog food manufacturers. Dog Food advisor rates Newman's Own as a 4 star, has soybean meal, ( organic), an ingredient basically shunned by every other manufacturer of quality dog food, for real good reasons. 30 years ago the rage was Science Diet, Eukanuba, NutroMax, Iams, now you feel derelict if you feed them. Now Blue Buffalo, Taste the Wild. All designed like fishing lures, exotic ingredients, to entice the fisherman, ( dog food buyer), to choose them over the competing "ordinary" brand. If you have the time and storage, you can literally buy ground beef and pork, chicken thighs,( deboned), cheap frozen veggies, brown rice at Sam's and cook up your own. If you want to, throw a once a day vitamin in for good measure, but you don't need it. Add oatmeal, flax, or whatever suits your creativity. It will still be cheaper, and better, than some of these fashionista dog foods. From a health and nutrition standpoint, ground beef is no more valuable than fillet mignon, and there is a lot more similarities between Old Roy and Royal Canine Cynotechnique 4800, than there are differences, as indicated by the 40.00 price difference!
 
Thanks again for posting these links fellas. I've always been interested in Diamond dry food, as a local mom and pop shop has it nearby for a decent price (I like to support the "little guys" when I can). I noticed it's a 4-star food, and well worth looking into. I didn't know a thing about it before, but I do now. :cheers:
 
My own experience:

I tried about 3 different brands of the super premium dog foods. They all had the high quality ingrediants and were highly rated on the dog food websites. I fed each of them for 3 -4 months before slowly transistioning to another one. For each of the three, my dog looked great and had good energy, BUT, he never had a firm stool (sometimes the stool was pretty bad, too), and he drank lots of water (not that drinking water is a bad thing, but he drank ALOT).

At the urging of many dog people, some of them very experienced, I tried Purina Pro Plan Performance. It took alot of pursuading and I cringe everytime I read the ingrediants list. However, my dog does great on it, looks good with lots of energy, and his stool is always firm. Also, he drinks much less water than before.

While the designer brands are very appealing, PPPP is working out better for my dog.

--shinbone
 
You'll have just as good a luck with Diamond or ProPac, with stool quality, and save about 20.00 a bag. I think there is way to much emphasis on stool firmness. Do you have a firm stool all the time? If you want concrete stools feed Science Diet Maintenence, don't read the bag though!!!
 
I am sure there are a lot of good foods out there and cost is important but I look at it this way.

I don't run my truck on corn and I ain't running my dog on corn either.:D


My dogs just don't do well on foods with grain in them but I do find I have to add cooked rice to keep their weight up during hunting season.
 
My own experience:

It the urging of many dog people, some of them very experienced, I tried Purina Pro Plan Performance. It took alot of pursuading and I cringe everytime I read the ingrediants list. However, my dog does great on it, looks good with lots of energy, and his stool is always firm. Also, he drinks much less water than before.

While the designer brands are very appealing, PPPP is working out better for my dog.

--shinbone

That's just it, the designer brands look more appealing to us (Humans) because we associate some of the ingredients that would be good for us. Dogs have different requirements than humans and while these so called designer brands may indeed work out well for our pooches, it normally comes at a much higher price. Your mainstream brands (Purina, Nutrisource, Native, Iams etc..) have been in the feed business for a LONG time and have spent millions on researching nutrition for our pets over a long time, so they can never be discounted because those "ingredients" don't look appealing to us..

Purina for example has been researching and formulating dog food for decades and the goal for most manufacturer's (Purina included) is to produce a quality feed that meets or exceeds our dogs nutritional requirements, while still making it affordable for most people.

The best dog food is always the one that your dog does well on. Energy, coat, stools and overall general health are the tell tale signs.
 
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It is helpful to see all the different brands and the way they are rated. It helped to decide which brands to try for my dog. She had parvo when she was a pup and she's a sensitive stomch ever since. The price was not that much to get over it either. All together it was less than$600.oo to get her better. The vet I go to is a farm vet.
 
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