About Dog Food

[seazr]

A friend of mine has a new pup and she was asking me about dog food. She was considering Iams which I seemed to remember was not rated very high. I also need periodic vindication because we have fed Dakota Kirkland Signature dog food (Costco) since he was old enough to get off of puppy food. Kirkland's Signature is one of the cheapest dog foods and I feel like a bad mother until I re-read how highly it is rated as a quality food!!

Here is the rating site again for those that might not have seen it:
http://www.the-puppy-dog-place.com/dog- ... tings.html

And here is a reminder aboput "people food" that we should not feed our dogs . . .
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... 9&aid=1030

[Lucky Me]

Here is the ingredients of their puppy food....
http://dogfoodchat.com/kirkland-signatu ... vegetable/

What we recently discovered was that it is made by Diamond, and Diamond uses ethoxyquin in their fish meal.
And ethoxyquin is not very good stuff!!
http://www.holisticvetpetcare.com/ethoxyquin.htm

[SamsonsMom]

Iams is one of the higher-priced supermarket brands. It can be found at 95% of grocery stores, and at pet stores too. I believe it is high in grain. But a lot more expensive than a brand like Purina Dog Chow. However, I have heard people rave about how good this food is and their dogs love it.

[Lucky Me]

Not good.....
Iams® ProActive Health™ Smart Puppy Large Breed

Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal,Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum,Corn Grits,Brewer's Rice, Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Fish Meal, Chicken Flavor, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Egg Product, Brewer's Dried Yeast, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Caramel, Choline Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), DL-Methionine, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Rosemary Extract.

These 2 things are not good for starters......plus, a lot of dogs have issues with corn.
Chicken Byproduct Meal
AAFCO: Consists of the dry, ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines -- exclusive of feathers except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices.
Chicken byproducts are much less expensive and less digestible than the chicken muscle meat.The ingredients of each batch can vary drastically in ingredients (heads, feet, bones etc.) as well as quality, thus the nutritional value is also not consistent. Don't forget that byproducts consist of any parts of the animal OTHER than meat. If there is any use for any part of the animal that brings more profit than selling it as "byproduct", rest assured it will appear in such a product rather than in the "byproduct" dumpster.

Fish Meal
AAFCO: The clean, rendered, dried ground tissue of undecomposed whole fish or fish cuttings, either or both, with or without the extraction of part of the oil.
Like with all other animal sources, if a type isn't specified, you never know what type or quality of fish is used.
According to US Coast Guard regulations, all fish meal not destined for human consumption must be conserved with Ethoxyquin (unless the manufacturer has a special permit). This preservative is banned from use in foods for human consumption except for the use of very small quantities as a color preservative for spices. So unless the manufacturer either presents a permit or states "human grade" fish or fish meal is used, you can be pretty sure Ethoxyquin is present in the food even if it is not listed.

more on ingredients....
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php ... ngredients

[seazr]

And IF food isn't challenging enough, Dakota--like all of our past dogs--prefers chlorinated pool water to the fresh water in his dish in the kitchen! I have asked more than one vet about this and they just shake their head and smile; it doesn't seem to be a serious health threat . . .

[SamsonsMom]

LOL my guys prefer the tiolet water over the water in their water bowl. Doesn't seem to matter, if I leave the tiolet lid up, their heads are in it, even if they just got finished with a big drink of water.

So many food worries - I'm very happy my dogs are healthy. I say as long as they are healthy you must be doing something right with their diet.

[KingstonTodd]

Originally Posted by seazr

And IF food isn't challenging enough, Dakota--like all of our past dogs--prefers chlorinated pool water to the fresh water in his dish in the kitchen! I have asked more than one vet about this and they just shake their head and smile; it doesn't seem to be a serious health threat . . .

Do you think he is telling you the pool water is cleaner than the kitchen water?

[seazr]

Originally Posted by KingstonTodd

Do you think he is telling you the pool water is cleaner than the kitchen water?

If Dakota would EVER show a preference for ANYTHING clean, I might be concerned!!!!