Dog Food

[Wesley Crusher]

All,

I have been buying Blue Freedom for my two dachshunds for about a year and I am just finding out that there is a class action lawsuit against Blue Buffalo due to toxic levels of lead in the food. Needless to say, I am upset.

What (dry) food are you guys buying for your dogs? I want to make sure that I am giving my dogs the best food possible.

Thanks,
Wes

[GB-man]

My dog has severe food allergies so I have to feed her a certain limited ingredient diet (merrick). If I did not have this limitation I would go with orijen or acana.

[SG56]

Originally Posted by GB-man

My dog has severe food allergies so I have to feed her a certain limited ingredient diet (merrick). If I did not have this limitation I would go with orijen or acana.

So does mine :( I think chicken, rice, and watermelon are the only foods he tolerates :'(

Along with 1.5 apoquel a day, the only food he tolerates (other than merrick which he hates) is purina one chicken.

we have fed raw and grain free before. It's difficult with the current crew.

If you go and google dog food, it's a complete mess. One will say the food is great, the others will say bad things about the food.

[Old Expat Beast]

Our very healthy seven-yr-old Jack Russell gets fed twice daily on pureed pumpkin, yam, carrot, broccoli and chopped boiled chicken (made in batches every four days and refrigerated), and a handful of this...

[rootbeer7]

We use fish4dogs.com for our 4 year old French Bulldog. Thank goodness he's fit and healthy and never visited a vet apart from a check up.

[MonBK]

Never feed your dog avocado, onions, garlic or grapes.

[Abdullah71601]

Pet foods have some pretty lax FDA limits compared to food fit for human consumption. IIRC, the limit for lead in dog feed is around 10,000 ppb (10 ppm). If you were a company, and were discarding pet food at 10 ppm lead, it would be regulated as hazardous waste. Yeah, that's healthy for your dog.

[MonBK]

Originally Posted by Abdullah71601

Pet foods have some pretty lax FDA limits compared to food fit for human consumption. IIRC, the limit for lead in dog feed is around 10,000 ppb (10 ppm). If you were a company, and were discarding pet food at 10 ppm lead, it would be regulated as hazardous waste. Yeah, that's healthy for your dog.

That's why a 50# bag is so heavy.

[Wesley Crusher]

Originally Posted by Abdullah71601

Pet foods have some pretty lax FDA limits compared to food fit for human consumption. IIRC, the limit for lead in dog feed is around 10,000 ppb (10 ppm). If you were a company, and were discarding pet food at 10 ppm lead, it would be regulated as hazardous waste. Yeah, that's healthy for your dog.

Is it really 10000 ppb?

According to what I’ve been reading, Blue Freedom was documented at 140 ppb and Blue Buffalo (the cheaper version) was documented at over 800 ppb. 10000 seems really high.

[Abdullah71601]

Originally Posted by Wesley Crusher

Is it really 10000 ppb?

According to what I’ve been reading, Blue Freedom was documented at 140 ppb and Blue Buffalo (the cheaper version) was documented at over 800 ppb. 10000 seems really high.

FDA/CVM set limits for animal feed, not necessarily dog feed. Some toxic metals (such as arsenic as a poultry antibiotic) were approved for use in animal feeds by FDA. Others are limited based on natural occurance and removal feasibility. The limits are dramatically different than food safety guidelines for humans.

But for context, FDA approved limit for lead in children’s candy is 100 ppb.

[jbreeden]

I used to feed my Shar Pei Merrick, but i read an article about Costco dog food, if i remember correctly it is produced in the same factory as Blue. Anyway, i thought it was worth a try as is was less than half the cost and even with his severe allergies he does really well on it.

[Knappo 1307]

Merrick here also. we have a 16 yo dachshund, 12 yo Chihuahua, 4 yo min poodle all healthy and going strong....

[Tj O'Reily]

We give our guy Taste of the Wild. If you believed the label it looks to be pretty good, with real meat first on the list with vegetables and other healthy sounding things, and they have a small breed formula. It's fairly expensive so I hope I am paying for more than marketing. My 150 lb Mastiff is doing very well on it. We used to feed our German Shepherds a raw food diet due to one of them having severe allergies. That was so much work all the time. I would do it again if I had to, luckily I don't this time.


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[Abdullah71601]

Originally Posted by Tj O'Reily

We give our guy Taste of the Wild. If you believed the label it looks to be pretty good, with real meat first on the list with vegetables and other healthy sounding things, and they have a small breed formula. It's fairly expensive so I hope I am paying for more than marketing. My 150 lb Mastiff is doing very well on it. We used to feed our German Shepherds a raw food diet due to one of them having severe allergies. That was so much work all the time. I would do it again if I had to, luckily I don't this time.


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Dry dog feed is made from rendered protein sources. The higher end dry feed uses rendered meat. The cheap stuff uses rendered offal (and a lot of fillers).

The meat is typically QA failed meat or stuff that falls on the floor of the factory making chicken or beef for people. Once meat hits the floor it's condemned under USDA rules. It is not refrigerated and gets hauled off to a rendering plant in a dump truck where it is processed into a material resembling sawdust, which is the protein base of the feed.

Offal (pronounced awful) is guts, heads, feathers, feet, and other bits (everything but the squawk). It is similarly processed into a sawdust like material. Arguably, offal is a more nutritious base, but people don't like "meat byproducts" in their dog feed.

The dog feed company adds their proprietary blends to the protein base and form it into a dry pellet. A product derived from enzyme digested chicken hearts and livers is added to the feed to make it palatable for dogs.

Do dogs care which protein source they get? Doubt it - they'll eat cat poo out of the litter box.

[bdex75]

I have researched this up one side and down the other. In our 20+ year marriage we have had 5 dogs that we have had the pleasure of caring for that have passed. 4 of the 5 from cancer. Only commonality for them is us and the large commercial grade dog foods.

Having had 3 at once (St. Bernard, Lab and Basset) we had to be somewhat careful what we fed from a cost perspective as we went thru a lot of dog food. So we fed the higher end Costco food. Good reviews from the dog food review sites etc. Once we were down to one dog (St. Bernard) we switched to Blue Buffalo (the higher end BB). When we got our Standard Poodle we continued on that path. About a year ago we lost our Saint (cancer) and I got serious on finding the best food, even if it means me preparing it from fresh ingredients. I looked at a raw diet which my highly educated and well published veterinarian nixed due to ecoli concerns. That and my poodle starting having colitis pretty bad with Blue.

We ended up looking at Fromm and Acana and chose the latter. My poodle preferred the Appalachian Ranch by a large margin. We mix with a little bit of the Fromm and rotate that between pork and applesauce and duck and sweet potato for variety. And to save a little cost as the Acana is $85 a bag.

We feed 1.25 cups total in the am and again in the pm for 2.5 cups a day total.

The amount of "waste" is significantly less than any other 50lb dog we have every had. Great food but there are a lot of good ones out there.

Google dog food reviews and there is an independent site that reviews them ingredient by ingredient.


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[christianj]

We tried all the "natural" and higher priced dog foods but our picky eater (a Treeing Walker Coonhound rescue) didn't like them. So she's a Purina Dog Chow dog surprisingly! Costs us a fortune in bones and treats since she's just as picky there but she like cheap dog food.

[Mick8moses]

I am a dog person and honestly the best diet is the BARF (raw food) diet. That being said, it's a great deal easier to pour a bowl of kibble.

As my saying goes "I don't always feed my dog kibble, but when I do I choose Taste of the Wild"



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[bdex75]

Originally Posted by Mick8moses

I am a dog person and honestly the best diet is the BARF (raw food) diet. That being said, it's a great deal easier to pour a bowl of kibble.

As my saying goes "I don't always feed my dog kibble, but when I do I choose Taste of the Wild"



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I am going to look at this again. Our vet quickly dismissed it but this thread had made me curious.


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[pickettt]

Originally Posted by bdex75

I am going to look at this again. Our vet quickly dismissed it but this thread had made me curious.


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As the owner of veterinary hospitals, I will tell you that different vets have different views on raw diets. We're all for it.

[bdex75]

Originally Posted by pickettt

As the owner of veterinary hospitals, I will tell you that different vets have different views on raw diets. We're all for it.

Thanks. We will ask a different vet at our clinic.


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[prh12]

we feed our working Cocker Spaniel raw food. have done since we got him and he loves it and is doing very well on it...apparently it is human grade meat. as a bonus his ‘deposits’ are usually small and solid so much easier to pick up. As brands go he particularly likes ‘Jack Wolf’. It may just be available in the UK but I’m sure other countries have similar products available.

[Wesley Crusher]

Thanks, all. I will look into all brands mentioned as well as the raw food diet.

[cruise_bone]

Buster gets Earthborn Small Breed. Moreso for the small kibble size than the nutritional benefits. He just does small kibble better. There are many other varieties out there.

https://www.earthbornholisticpetfood...ic/small-breed

My ex spoiled him even worse than I did and he won't touch his kibble unless there is some savory goodness added to it. I usually buy a whole roasted chicken once a week, cut it up and add a few tablespoons to his food twice a day. He prefers it warm rather than right out of the fridge cold. Or I add left over steak from a restaurant outing, or bacon on the weekends.
Spoiled boy. And worth every bit.

Sometimes you need to rotate something different into the Mix. He started out on Blue as a puppy and I may rotate in Blue's small breed chicken brown rice for a change. https://bluebuffalo.com/natural-dog-...n-rice-recipe/
With the spoiled boy additions as well.

[BBL]

So, now curious... to the 'discriminating experts' here who follow FDA and populace's negative reviews and other dog food (revealing) reports, please tell me what you know about Hills Ideal Balance.
Thanks,
DM

[Dr. Robert]

I used to feed my Portuguese Water Dog Gracie, Innova dry dog food.....good stuff, but after they sold out to a big conglomerate production was moved from California to Midwest & they had recalls, my pooch got sick, luckily not serious. I switched to Anamaet Salcha dry dog food, no problem now!

[BNA/LION]

Watch pet fooled on Netflix.

I'm convinced our two dogs died of cancer from eating commercial dog food.

We are figuring out what to feed our new puppy Callie...

[BBL]

Originally Posted by BNALION

Watch pet fooled on Netflix.

I'm convinced our two dogs died of cancer from eating commercial dog food.

We are figuring out what to feed our new puppy Callie...

BNALION: An absolutely awesome pic of your new family member!
Love it!

DM

[BNA/LION]

Originally Posted by BBL

BNALION: An absolutely awesome pic of your new family member!
Love it!

DM

Thank You! Have a Wonderful Weekend!

[TK-710]

Wellness Core. 90 lbs, 8 years old. Perfect health and weight.

BC964E40-2771-409C-BD2A-99077A95CF96.jpeg

[Abdullah71601]

If you are worried about bacteria in raw meat feeds, you can minimize the risk by dipping the meat in a weak bleach solution before you prep it for Fido. You’re looking for about 500 ppm of bleach in tap water (normal tap water residual chlorine is less than 6 ppm). That’s about one teaspoon of household bleach in a pint of water.

Before you all get all upity about bleaching your dogs food, you should know that the chicken you eat is treated similarly. It’s either disinfected with chlorine solution or peroxyacetic acid (PAA). It’s sprayed and dipped regularly in a weak solution at the processing plant to meet USDA food safety requirements.