Dr. Tim's Dog Food

Dakotazeb

Dakotazeb

Well-known member
I know, not another dog food thread. Oh well, bear with me. As I've posted before, I have a female Brittany that has allergies. I've been feeding a limited ingredient, grain-free dog food. But with all the talk of these grain-free foods possibly contributing to heart issues I'm thinking of changing foods. We still don't know if the food or protein source is the cause of her allergies so I'm not concerned with the protein source in trying a new dog food. I may very well go back to ProPlan Sport but I have read in quite a few forums that Dr. Tim's is kind of at the top of dog foods. I like what I read on their site and I think the Dr. Tim's Pursuit formula would work well. I also like the probiotics and prebiotics it contains. I know it's kind of pricey but less than what I'm feeding now so price isn't an issue.

I don't want to start a dog food debate. I simply want to know if any of you have fed this food and your thoughts on it. Thank you.
 
I used it for quite some time, don't know why I switched. Actually I switched when I had to start paying the stupid sales tax to Chewys. It is a really good food. I used Kinesis. I hunt the heck out of my dogs and never found the need to feed a 30/20 formula and I have big dogs. Maybe if you are a trialer and dogs are getting worked hard everyday or you are running the iditorod. Anyway my dogs are 90 lbs and 60 lbs. The 90 lb male got 3 cups a day and the 60 lbs female dog got 2 cups. And they gained weight on Kinesis with those amounts.
 
I have a 4 year old female pointer and Springer. I tried Dr. Tim’s- went through 2 40lb bags to make sure I gave it a chance. The Springer did great on it. The pointer had loose stool. Her coat was good, her energy was good and she maintained weight. I changed the amount fed, time of feeding, etc. and couldn’t get it to work. I switched to PPP Sport and haven’t had an issue so that’s what I have used since. Just my experience from limited use of the product.
 
westksbowhunter said:
I used it for quite some time, don't know why I switched. Actually I switched when I had to start paying the stupid sales tax to Chewys. It is a really good food. I used Kinesis. I hunt the heck out of my dogs and never found the need to feed a 30/20 formula and I have big dogs. Maybe if you are a trialer and dogs are getting worked hard everyday or you are running the iditorod. Anyway my dogs are 90 lbs and 60 lbs. The 90 lb male got 3 cups a day and the 60 lbs female dog got 2 cups. And they gained weight on Kinesis with those amounts.
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What breed of dogs do you have? I have a high powered, big running Brittany that has always been on a food that was close to 30/20.
 
Dakotazeb said:
What breed of dogs do you have? I have a high powered, big running Brittany that has always been on a food that was close to 30/20.
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Dr. Tim, Dr. Marty, TruDawg........crazy designer dog foods, someone is making some big money here!
 
hunter94 said:
Dr. Tim, Dr. Marty, TruDawg........crazy designer dog foods, someone is making some big money here!
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You may be right, but some of these foods are actually pretty good. Problem is there are so many dog foods on the market and more coming out every day. Makes it difficult for the consumer to know what's best. My problem is, like many others I'm sure, is that I spend too much time analyzing dog foods. But other than looking at the ingredients and guaranteed analysis how do we know what's best? :confused: Like I said, I'll probably go back to ProPlan Sport and see how she does.
 
Dakotazeb said:
You may be right, but some of these foods are actually pretty good. Problem is there are so many dog foods on the market and more coming out every day. Makes it difficult for the consumer to know what's best. My problem is, like many others I'm sure, is that I spend too much time analyzing dog foods. But other than looking at the ingredients and guaranteed analysis how do we know what's best? :confused: Like I said, I'll probably go back to ProPlan Sport and see how she does.
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i do the same thing....i spend too much time analyzing ingredients as well....i wish the dog food makers were required to list the % of each ingredient on the label...when you see additives such as potatoes, ground potatoes and peas, pea powder it's simply a way to split up the filler and it is still what it is, just more of it...
 
hunter94 said:
i do the same thing....i spend too much time analyzing ingredients as well....i wish the dog food makers were required to list the % of each ingredient on the label...when you see additives such as potatoes, ground potatoes and peas, pea powder it's simply a way to split up the filler and it is still what it is, just more of it...
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here is an example.
Chicken, Chicken Meal, Peas, Potatoes, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Pea Protein, Chickpeas, Apples, Ocean Fish Meal, Flaxseed, Pea Fiber, Natural Flavors
 
Just some info on grain free diets. The heart disease that has been linked to these diets is called dilated cardiomyopathy DCM. 91% of dogs with DCM eat a grain free diet and 93% of those diets have legumes in the first three ingredients. It is theorized that legumes prevent the synthesis or the use of an amino acid called taurine leading to the heart disease. Currently it is not known if the heart changes are reversible. If not this is a fatal disease. Changes to our understanding of the this disease are always occurring. This is the latest info that I have found as of July. Hope this helps and as of right now I’d stay away from legumes. I’ve only posted here once before so I hope I didn’t mess it up
 
The more the mad scientists tinker with things the more problems we will have. I used to drive myself crazy with the food game. Now my pups are on PPP and appear to be still kicking so Im not changing anymore.
 
I too wish that all the dog food makers would list percentage of each ingredient too. I think there's obvious reasons why they don't. I doubt many of us would buy a dry food that was 99% corn. :)

Victor does at least tell the percentage of protein from Meat/Plants & Vegetables/Grain. For example, the one I've been feeding (Grain Free Chicken Meal & Sweet Potato Recipe) has 75% of it's protein from meat, 25% from plants and vegetables and none from grain.

Looking at the ingredients list, it's:

Chicken Meal, Peas, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Garbanzo Beans, Sweet Potato, Yeast Culture, Blood Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal (source of DHA-Docosahexaenoic Acid), Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Natural Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Carrot Powder, Tomato Pomace (source of Lycopene), Taurine, Salt, Choline Chloride, Dried Seaweed Meal, Zinc Methionine Complex, Vitamin E Supplement....and about 20-25 other things like

....Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Ferrous Sulfate, L-Carnitine, Selenium Yeast, Copper Sulfate, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement and on and on.

I think the first 5 or so ingredients tell you pretty much what you are feeding. Things like Dried Seaweed Meal are not going to be a major ingredient that far down the list.

So here I have Chicken Meal, Peas, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Garbanzo Beans, Sweet Potato, Yeast Culture, Blood Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal for the most part. I already know 75% of the protein is from MEAT, so that's obviously the Chicken Meal (there's no protein in chicken fat) but maybe they count some from the Blood Meal or Fish Meal too...who knows. I doubt it would be much from those two.

Chicken Meal is pretty good stuff. According to AAFCO it is:

“Poultry Meal is the dry rendered product from a combination of clean flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of poultry or a combination thereof, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet and entrails. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto.” Basically the same as "poultry," but in rendered form, so most of the water and fat has been removed to make a concentrated protein/mineral ingredient.

Whole chicken contains about 70% water and 18% protein. After rendering into Chicken Meal, there's just 10% water and 65% protein. I'm comfortable with chicken meal.

Further, of all the meats you can put in dog food, chicken and turkey have the highest levels of taurine. Fish, like the Menhaden Meal are also high in taurine, higher than the animal sources.

Anyway, the other 25% of protein is coming from peas, garbanzo beans and sweet potato. Peas and Garbanzo beans are indeed legumes, with 5 grams of protein per 100 grams of Peas. There's 11 grams of protein per 100 grams of Beans. Sweet Potato, on the other hand is NOT a legume; it is a tuber with 1.6 grams of protein per 100 grams of sweet potato. Clearly most of that other 25% is coming from the legume side. The sweet potato can't be contributing much protein.

All this amounts to for me is that I'm feeding 75% chicken/blood meal/fish protein and 25% legume protein. So I'm clearly feeding mostly chicken meal. I note also that Victor is adding Taurine, albeit further down the list but it is added.

I'm comfortable with this and the dogs do well on it. Small amounts keep them fit and not overweight. They certainly have plenty of pep.

Now I'm sure some eventually smart marketers will respond to this dilated cardiomyopathy/legume situation and will create a new dog food without the legumes and with lots of meat-source protein and taurine. If and when that happens, I'll be there.

I don't like foods with corn early in the ingredient list. Corn has about 3 grams of protein per 100 grams. But most proteins in corn

..are known as zeins, accounting for 44–79% of the total protein content. Overall, the protein quality of zeins is poor because they lack some essential amino acids. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/corn#nutrients
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Just my .02.
 
Hopefully taurine supplements will eliminate DCM. But sadly it is not known if this is disruption in the production of the amino acid or blockage in the utilization. So the jury is still out. A group of veterinary cardiologists and nutritionists has formed recently to try and answer the question. Hopefully soon.

Good luck to all in figuring out what’s right to feed your companion. As more is learned on the taurine issue I will try to update.
 
Lovethebrittany said:
Hopefully taurine supplements will eliminate DCM. But sadly it is not known if this is disruption in the production of the amino acid or blockage in the utilization. So the jury is still out. A group of veterinary cardiologists and nutritionists has formed recently to try and answer the question. Hopefully soon.

Good luck to all in figuring out what’s right to feed your companion. As more is learned on the taurine issue I will try to update.
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thanks. the addition of taurine in the formulation now of some dog foods is either an admission of the problem or an attempt at prevention.....either way the research needs to continue.
i do think the now popular use of lentils and legumes are at the root of the problem.....doesn't appear that corn as a filler was ever lethal.
 
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