what food do you use?

cmives · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 1:54 pm Post subject: what food do you use?

hi there. as with anything, there are so many schools of thought out there on what food is the best for your dog. we were using a high priced food but our puppy had the loosest stools while on it. i spoke with a few vets, who all said "don't feed her that food! it is not properly balanced and is too rich for most puppies". SO at my vet's advice, we switched to Iams large breed puppy after having to have the pup on eukanuba low residue to calm her insides. she seems to be doing well on the Iams, but sometimes I read awful things about Iams or other similar pet foods you can buy at PetSmart or Wal-Mart. I don't want to have to special order my dog food, nor go through a specific animal hospital to get it (there is only one nearby that sells it).

just out of curiosity, what brand of food do you feed your doodle?

Keith · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 2:06 pm Post subject:

Bandit does well with Canidae...

Although we tried Blue Buffalo this time, and he REALLY likes it. Then again something about Salmon the he digs.

Blue Buffalo is bought retail @ PetSmart unfortunately...

Omaha Vaccine>>Petco>>Petsmart

I will post some links after a search...

Keith · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 2:10 pm Post subject:

cmives · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 2:29 pm Post subject:

canidae is what we had our dog on before. our breeder sells it so she was very insistent that we continue using it. my hubby did not want to keep the apron string tied so much, with the breeder delivering it to our home every month or so, and since the dog was having stomach problems on it the vets I talked to said to take her off of it.

i feed her the lamb roll by Dick Van Patten (I forget the brand name) for training and sometimes just throw some into her food for a treat. she loves it but at the rate she is growing I could not afford to feed her ONLY that stuff!

i also don't want to feed her human food (we had to do rice when she was really having problems) because she is a dog, not a human, and we feel that she should eat dog food, plus I have little kids so the raw diet is out. my vet seriously warned against using that diet.

If she isn't having problems on Iams, (no itching etc, and she seems to like it) should I look around to find a more "natural" type of dog food? i am feeling guilty because of some things the breeder said early on when we didn't know what the heck we were doing

Keith · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 2:37 pm Post subject:

Here's why we use Blue Buffalo now.

Bandit has allergies to corn/wheat.
The rice he seems to do fine with.
His palette doesnt seem to care for the chicken.
He seems to enjoy the fish & sweet potatoe.
His coat is healthy.
Less fillers means less poop, and less frequent feedings/qty per feeding.
Higher quality food means just that. It goes further as they have better nutritional value and they process it better meaning less poop to clean, and my 12 year old appreciates that! > Wink

~

Iams seems to have quite a bit of filler. Check into it and go from there.

IIRC Blue Buffalo was ~$43/bag for 35# so, <$1.50/# is worth it. YMMV.
I just dont care for Petsmart and thats the place ya gotta go to get it.

momothree · Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 2:49 pm Post subject:

We feed Sage the Kirkland brand (from Costco) Chicken and Rice Puppy formula. It rated very highly on that dog food rating scale. Our breeder feeds it to all her pups. She does very well on it, she loves it, and it is very reasonably priced.
_________________
Doodle mom of Sage

bdbanddad · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 6:47 am Post subject:

We have been using the Iams Puppy Food for Large Dogs as well and have been pretty happy with the results. However now I see that it only gets a D Sad

. I think I will check into something different. I don't care for the large chain pet stores either. Fortunately we have a great place here near Indy called Specks. Great Place!
_________________
Jamie

http://bdbanddad.tripod.com/our_doodle_murphy/index.album?i=5

KMO20057 · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 8:09 am Post subject:

Sammy has (we think) allergies and so we switched her to Natural Balance Duck and Potato to see how she does. The purpose of this food and the other Natural Balance alergy foods is to limit their intake to only two foods, a meat and a starch/veggie that they have probably not yet been exposed to in order to minimize their allergic reaction. Then once you know they are okay on that food with only those two ingredients, you can start adding in other things if you want to or feel the need.... but this food is totally balanced on its own and I know of several people who feed it even though their dogs DONT have allergies because it has such premium ingredients and results in such a beautiful coat... not to mention the fact that the dogs LOVE it! I have never seen Sammy eat so fast!!!!!
_________________
~Kelly~

http://sammydoodle.tripod.com

K9Summer · Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:44 am Post subject:

Hi cmives! I saw that your pup is on Eukanuba low residue for tummy problems. Our Summer has a very sensitive stomach, and after trying MANY different brands, the only food she didn't have diarrhea on was low residue. It has chicken in it, so I assumed that Summer could tolerate chicken. So I started to look for a chicken based food with similar ingredients. I found Eagle Pack Holisitic Select Chicken and Rice. We started her on the eagle pack and it worked like a miracle. After having chronic diarrhea for months, she finally had normal poops. I recommend it to anyone who has poop problems. Hope this helps!
www.eaglepack.com

Bridget, Summer, and Duke

dshell74 · Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 6:11 pm Post subject:

I've tried several super premium foods for my boys in an attempt to avoid HORRENDOUS gas and this is what I've found so far. California Natural and Wellness must taste like cardboard because my boys will not eat it. Period. Chicken Soup and Merrick were so-so - they would leave it sit for a while before eating it. Timberwolf Organics gave them the runs. They LOVED Pet Promise but the gas was absolutely the worst. I'm not a fan of most foods sold at Petsmart, but, Nutro NC Ultra and Authority Harvest Baked got two paws up from my boys with Harvest Baked edging out Nutro NC Ultra in the end. I order it online when they have free shipping. I know that as parents it is our job to make sure that they eat what is best for them, but, I'm okay with a premium food that they like versus a super premium food that they tolerate.

Maureen · Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 7:57 pm Post subject:

Boy, I've seen lots of discussions on what to feed Doodles, but I've NEVER seen one stay this civil, for this long! you guys are AMAZING! Shocked

Jac, Di...other breeders do you want to verify this? Very Happy

I have seen the volume difference between foods with fillers and foods without, in my own back yard and there is NOTHING that could take me away from the "premium" foods... yet, KIRKLAND is an amazing food in its quality, considering its price! It is made by an old commercial feed company, which is probably why they could make such a good one and sell it so cheaply.

_________________
~Maureen
LabradoodleRanch@aol.com
www.LabradoodleRanch.com

dshell74 · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:14 am Post subject:

I used to take my boys to the Walmart of veterinarians (long hours, large client base, supposedly reasonable prices) and actually had a vet tell me that I should feed my boys Science Diet or Iams because they are better foods than Merrick or Chicken Soup. I'm not a vet, but, I've done a little reading on this topic and one look at the ingredients list tells me that neither Science Diet or Iams is better than Merrick or Chicken Soup. I have a friend at Purina who is a brand manager for Pet Promise. She admits that Pet Promise isn't the top of the line in super premium foods, but, it has a pretty good ingredients list and supposedly it has some of the best palatability on the market, which does matter. If my boys could tolerate corn and soy I'd probably still be feeding them Pet Promise.

Chesterpal · Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:04 pm Post subject:

I think we've all talked about mixing the new food with the old food to transition when changing brands...I just wanted to mention it again and because one of the funniest Chester things was when we did this and he would pick out the new food and eat it then spit out the old brand.

KMO20057 · Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 7:57 am Post subject:

Yes I have heard of dogs doing that. When we switched Sammy from the breeders food to Nutro we mixed it and also added some "prophelactic" pumpkin (1-2 tbs of pure canned pumpkin can solve loose stool problems) and she was switched over in a matter of 4 days without a hitch.

When we switched her from Nutro to the Natural Balance we did it all at once because it was an allergy concern and we didnt want to feed her something she might be allergic to any longer than we had to.... but she still did just fine- maybe she has an iron stomach!
_________________
~Kelly~

http://sammydoodle.tripod.com

dshell74 · Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:36 am Post subject:

Canned pumpkin works wonders and my boys will eat it right up. They also love canned sweet potatoes, which seems to work comparably.