[darksidedork]

The best advise I can give you is to stay away from anything you can find in a grocery store or chain pet store. With an exception to Solid Gold that can be found at petco and Wellness at petsupermarket. (In my area) All these foods contain corn gluten, by products and many other harmful ingredients. We eat Canidae in our house which is a very good food with a decent price. Others are Innova EVO, Nature's Variety, Orijen and oh the list goes on. If you want an upgrade with the lowest money out of pocket, I would suggest trying Canidae. Good luck!! and YAY for looking for a better food!!

[reynosa_k9s]

I used to feed what I thought, at the time, was a premium dog food to my dogs and cooked for them on the weekends. I did that for many years and always considered my dogs to be beautiful specimens in top health. Then I switched to RAW. The change in my babies since has been nothing short of amazing. One of mine had bad breath before but no longer. All have such pretty and plaque free teeth. My GSD's coat shines even in the dark and is sooooo silky. All that plus 'doo-doo patrol' has dropped by more than half. Whooohoooo!!! lol So, bottom line here is I really suggest looking into a RAW diet. I was a big skeptic in the beginning but my furry babies looks and health is all the proof I need to become a promoter of the RAW diet.

[Shalva]

I have been feeding raw for about 7.5 years now...... we have weaned three litters to raw and my dogs are doing great.....
s

[digger]

Just a quick note....there is no kibble on the market that is good for your dog.
Science diet and Hills perscription is one of the worst ones.
***commercial dog foods have deadly perservatives and most know how to hide them***
Please people....do your research and do your part in keeping your dog healthy

[raggedyannedoll]

We feed our Doxie the senior formula from Orijen. She loves it and her health, already good, is now great.

[sadieandbelle]

We feed our dogs Royal Canin and always have because I've been under the impression that this is the best quality commercially-available food. Have I been mistaken?

Please advise-
Ryan

[FrancisRoch]

What foods are good? Some people criticize the common brands and tell us to do research, but give us no information about alternative brands or links/books of research.

The problem I have with these criticisms is that my childhood dogs ate purina and survived 12-15 years each. My neighbors dogs were fed the same stuff found at the grocery. I've known any dog owners who only bought food not found at the grocery store.

So what's the catch? If only 100 animals in the U.S. die of eating grocery store dog food, I'll take my chances. I bet more dogs die each year of trees falling on them than food poisoning.

It's not that I don't care about my dog, I'm just a skeptic and not one to panic if there are a few isolated cases of bad food.

[CaityK]

I've found my dog, who has skin allergies and epilepsy, has done remarkable with the "raw food diet". We give her all the ingredients she needs to stay healthy without all the harmful preservatives found in store-bought food.

At first we prepared it ourselves when we were trying to save money. We'd buy chicken, rice, grains, vitamins, vegetables, etc. when they went on sale and often in bulk. Dogs don't mind if there's a few brown spots on their veggies.. so, we saved a lot of money that way. The only problem with that method is it could be a little time consuming.

Now we purchase the prepared raw food portions at a locally owned pet store.

[CaityK]

Originally Posted by FrancisRoch

What foods are good? Some people criticize the common brands and tell us to do research, but give us no information about alternative brands or links/books of research.

The problem I have with these criticisms is that my childhood dogs ate purina and survived 12-15 years each. My neighbors dogs were fed the same stuff found at the grocery. I've known any dog owners who only bought food not found at the grocery store.

So what's the catch? If only 100 animals in the U.S. die of eating grocery store dog food, I'll take my chances. I bet more dogs die each year of trees falling on them than food poisoning.

It's not that I don't care about my dog, I'm just a skeptic and not one to panic if there are a few isolated cases of bad food.

It's not so much that dogs will die. It's pretty much the exact same thing as people recommending other people to eat organic- it's just healthier for the dog to eat organic as well. Store brand food tends to have more preservatives. Just like people do better eating natural food without addictives, dogs do as well.

Not to say a dog can't be healthy eating commercial dog food. They definitely can. There's just a lot more health benefits to feeding dogs a natural diet.

This is especially true for dogs with health issues and skin conditions.

Here's a good site that explains a lot more about the benefits of feeding dogs natural food:

Raw dog food diet

[Sheltiemama]

My kids get home cooked foods only. I give a combination of chicken or salmon, green beans, cauliflower, apples, oatmeal or rice and a daily supplement.