Switching Foods

[~Jen~]

Some of you may have seen my post on the acme nutrition board.. but heres a small recap. Gwen has had the poo's almost since we got her we have done tons of fecals treated her for everything under the sun her tests come up negitive for everything so the vet has now suggested we switch foods. She is currently on Sensible Choice Chicken Meal and Rice Puppy formula we have changed over to the Lamb and Rice formula. Some food suggested by my vet were Science diet, Nutromax or Diamond. Im curious if any of you have fed these foods and what your experience with them was?

Thanks
Jen

<FONT COLOR="#00FFFF" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by ~Jen~ on January 31, 2001 at 11:59 PM</font>

[Krista]

Well I said this over there too, but thought I'd say it over here too.

I think I would try a baked food before I tried one of those since they all have byproducts and corn in most of their formulas. Baked foods are supposed to be easier to digest since they are cooked slower at lower tempatures than most dog foods which are extruded. Another reason I like them is that they smell like real food, not like most extruded foods that are sprayed with fats to entice dogs to eat.

I'm pretty sure Wellness is baked. Maybe the others will be able to give you some more names of high quality baked foods.

Petsmart Premiere might be a good choice too, as it has some beet pulp in it which is supposed to firm up stools.

Diamond is pretty similar to Eukanuba and Iams from what I have heard, and Rudy was a gassy pooping machine when he ate Euk....

Sorry I can't offer more help.

[Meemoo]

Jen-

I don't know if this is helpful or not, but here goes. We initially had Chiefy when we first got him on Nutrience. Someone suggested Nutro max because it would create less stool. We used that for a while and he did go less often. Then we went to a dog food distributor wharehouse and a woman who saw me getting ready to take some more Nutro said Old Mother Hubbard is a better quality food with natural ingredients. So, yup I changed once again. He has never had a problem eating anything. Anyway, being on Wellness his stool level increased as we increased his food. He goes at minimum 3 times a day. I spoke to a representative at petfood direct and explained my situation. She said yes, wellness is a very good food, however, she has had many customers report that it creates a large stool volume, especially in small dogs. She said they can't seem to handle all the moisture and fiber content which Wellness has a lot of. She said bigger dogs seem to do better on it. She recommended Solid Gold Millenium where she said there is less fiber and moisture and he should do better on it with less stool volume. We are in the process of slowly transitioning him to Solid Gold. I don't know the results as of yet, way too soon to tell. I hope this info. helps a little.

Loren

[Oscar's Mom]

I'm questioning what the person at petfooddirect said. Solid Gold MMillenia has 5% fiber and Wellness Super5Mix has 3% fiber. So, wouldnt you say the SG has more fiber? I'm getting confused with the fiber issue, is the source of fiber the issue?

[Meemoo]

I had the same question and asked the rep. to explain..she told me that it was a different type or source of fiber. Unfortunately I should have written down what she said. Her name is Jennifer, she seemed to be very honest, wasn't trying to "sell" solid gold per say, there are so many dog foods they carry. I thought I have nothing to lose...I can always return for a refund.

[dutchman]

Another good quality baked food is AVO-Derm. I believe the rest of the AVO foods are extruded but not the derm. I would worry much less about stool volume than I would about general health and in many dogs the most visible signs of a good vs poor food can appear as skin or coat problems. Different foods have different calorie contents for the same serving size AVO-Derm tens to be on the higher cal side so you need to feed less. The boys stools tend to be a little on the soft side but my vet says they look great. Everyone always complements how great Frank's coat looks. Tanner's coat has improved a great deal since I got him and put him on AVO products. He had been on one of the Nutro foods for the 2.5 months he was in foster care. Of course I try not to judge the Nutro food when you consider during that time he was dumped in a night deposit box at a shelter, taken into rescue placed in foster care, move to his new forever home. The stress of all that would be more than enough to make any dogs coat look a little worse for wear. Hearts United feeds Solid Gold (I suspect it is either donated or sold to then a greatly reduced cost). When I first got Aggie from them I ended up ordering a bag direct from the manufacture since I couldn't locate a local distributor. Two factors kept me from staying with that food. First Aggie didn't really appear to like it that well and second the cost was very high without a local distributor. Shipping was almost as much as the food and the food was on the high side to begin with. I latter found out as I tried various foods that Aggie didn't like any of the lamb based foods.

Tom and the boys (Frank and Tanner)

[~Jen~]

Thanks for all the replies. I just got back from Petsmart. Part of the delimma is that i DO NOT want to mail order my food i did that in the past with FRR and just had a bad experience. I have been really curious about Diamond because i had never heard of it before. I snagged the igredients off the back of the Puppy Lamb and Rice Omega 3 formula this is what i found.
Lamb
Lamb Meal
Whole Grain Brown Rice
Oatmeal
Corn Gluten Meal
Chicken Fat (preserved with citric acid)
Beet Pulp
egg
natural flavor
Flaxseed
fish meal
brewers dried yeast

Protien 27%
Fat 15%
Fiber 3%
moisture 10%
Calcium 1.2%
Phosphorus o.9%
Omega 6- fatty acids 2.6%
Omega 3 fatty acids 0.4%

Now i havent read much about Euk etc but i know what they have alot of Corn which is usually the 1st ingredient. This food might be getting a bad wrap i dont see ANY by-products and Corn product is listed 5th. Im not opposed to Wellness if i could find it within a reasonable area but so far i cant find anything but the cans and the treats around here. Avo-derm and Solid Gold i would have to mail order. I looked at California Natural, Innova etc i would have to drive 1 1/2hrs to get those from the nearest dealer. http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/frown.gif I really do not think Science diet is the answer. Nutromax looks ok but Diamond has just about the same ingredients.


*sigh* I HATE food shopping!!
Jen

[Meemoo]

Hey Jen-

I don't know how far you are from these 2 distributors of Solid Gold or even if you are interested in trying it out..But here are the 2 stores in Greensboro, NC

All Pets Considered
2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro, NC 27408
Ph: 910-574-1444
E-mail: Kmgodfrey@msn.com
URL: www.allpetsconsidered.com (http://www.allpetsconsidered.com)

Beechline Kennels
3410 Spring Garden Street, Greensboro, NC 22407
Ph: 336-855-8292

Loren

<FONT COLOR="#00FFFF" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by meemoo on February 01, 2001 at 09:58 AM</font>

[~Jen~]

I called All Pets Considered they are out most of the time she said they are gonna start making a larger order, when they get it in they have a waitting list... can you believe that??! I will not buy anything from Beechline because they are a grooming, trainning kennel here thats been to court a couple times for cruelty to animals.

Jen

[Meemoo]

Sorry Jen--

Just trying?!<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm36.gif" border=0>

Loren

[~Jen~]

No.. dont be sorry!! Thanks alot for taking the time to look http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

Jen

[Krista]

That Diamond formula doesn't look too bad...

I have never seen that kind before. The only formulas I have seen here in Dayton look more like Euk with chicken byproducts and such in them.

Are you dead set on Lamb?? How is price-wise compared to others foods along those lines?

[~Jen~]

No im not dead set on lamb i just want to find something that works for Lil Gwen (new name Lil Gwennie Poots..lol) Actually Diamond is pretty cheap compared to the SC i am currently feeding... OK in fact i was shocked its a TON cheaper if could convince myself that its a good food than i would probably switch everyone over to it my guys seem to do ok with food changes except last year i had them on Science Diet and they had da poo's pretty bad i was told it was probably too rich for some of them. You can get the *new* diamond Omega Puppy Formula for $25 for a 40lb bag thats LESS than a dollar a pound pretty unreal as far as the food world is concerned i have always paid at least $1 per pound. How do the igredients stack up to the petsmart that you feed Krista?

Thanks
Jen

[LisaH]

We've been feeding Annie Nutro Max for years, and she does great on it. Her teeth look good and her coat is always very shiny, never dry.

[~Jen~]

Ok just out of curosity i took a trip over to http://www.eukanuba.com and found that their puppy lamb and rice doesnt list any by-products in their ingredients. I thought that eukanuba was full of corn and by-products? Corn meal is the 4th ingredient but i have no idea what Ground Grain Sorghum is??! LOL Food is so confusing!

LisaH i have heard LOTS of good things about Nutro im really considering it! Im just baffled how the lamb and rice formula's of dog food seem to be better in some brands you would think it would be just taste.

Thanks
Jen

[Krista]

Well maybe the lamb formulas are less prone to having byproducts since fewer people here in the US consume Lamb on a regular basis, but we basically eat Chicken all the time and there's tons of stuff left over to put in dog food.

I know that there were things in the Euk puppy formula that I fed Rudy over a year ago that I did not like. They have stopped using BHT and BHA however, which is a good thing.

As Far as the ingredients compare to the Petsmart Premiere....Well, the lamb does not have corn in it, but it does have some corn oil in it. The herring meal in Diamond does pose some concern to me though, because fish meals are usually (mandated by US law) preserved with EQ (cancer causing agent) before they are sold to pet food makers. Since the pet food company didn't add EQ they don't have to list EQ on their ingredient list. The only fish meals I would trust are those made by the food maker and certified EQ free as foods like Solid gold do.

I feed the chicken formula since it is the only by-product free, chemical preservative free food sold where I can buy it easily in my local area. It also lists corn gluten meal as the fifth ingredient, which is as high as I would tolerate it. You pay about 22 for 30 pounds of the chicken, but I usually buy it in 15 pound bags for about $13. I really like it being baked, the boys like it and the results are good. I would be tempted to switch to a another food though if a another good baked chicken formula became available locally that was corn free.

does that help at all?

[Mark]

Hi Jen,

We mix the Nutro Max with the Nutro Natural Choice kibble. Natural Choice is the one kibble they have that has Glucosomine & Chonodritin in it. We feed it to all three kids. Good enhancements for Dachsie's because of potential back difficulties and large breeds for the hips. http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/smile.gif

Mark

[DavidJ]

I feed Bogey a semi-BARF diet but if I had to feed him kibble and I was back in the U.S. I would definitely consider Flint River Ranch. It's baked, not extruded and delivered to your door for free. It doesn't seem much more expensive than other premium foods either... Or is it?

Flint River Ranch (http://www.orderflintriver.bigstep.com/)




------------------
David, Saori and Bogey
Tsukuba, Japan
http://bogey.sa-da.com

[Krista]

Well I fed FRR, and was pleased with the food itself, but had some delivery problems and so quit using it. In defense of the company, it was likely the distributor I went through to blame. I did call the company to complain as well, but never heard anything back from them.