[Soon_2b_doodle_mommy]

Just to chime in here, not to sound snobbish or anything but Ive heard a lot of not-so-good stuff about IAMS actually from www.peta.org Apparently, there is abuse at the companies. There was a video on the site of someone working for PETA[people for the ethical treatment of animals] who went into an IAMS factory..or some place where they were doing experiments..and all I see to remember is lots of beagles or bloodhounds or some breed similar looking to those lying down in rows, fat and dying and people in white lab coats injecting things into them and there being HUGE dishes of food and i dont really know you'd have to go to the site to see for yourself, but what I do know is IAMS was said to abuse animals and experiment on them.

I don't know..just thought I'd mention it.
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~ Soon to be labradoodle mommy!! We're adding a doodle puppy to the family sometime after june 27[my birthday]! ~



~A dog is a mans best friend ~

[Tinaweena]

Boone was eating Science Diet when we first got him. Then I went onto a different forum and learned about ingredients and all that stuff and now he's on Canidea. He loves it, he poops alot less, and he eats alot less of it because he gets the nutrition he needs from alot less food. So really if you compare prices it works out the same.
Worse foods, you have to feed alot.
Premiuim, you have to feed less therefore the bag lasts alot longer.
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¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·´ *Tina, Booneand Jin*

[cmives]

i have also read things stating how horrible Iams is. the thing is you can't believe everything you read especially from extreme groups such as peta. my vet has been feeding his dogs iams and science diet for 20 years now and they are the best dogs ever. they are in his animal hospital every day and do school visits, etc. They are really healthy great dogs.

I also know the family who used to privately own Iams before P&G bought the company and I highly doubt that they'd let horrible abuses go on there. you can do a google search about any of the major dog food chains and you will find websites claiming how abusive they are. i just find it very hard to believe that a large company would even try to get away with things. they can be too easily busted.

on a side note, i have talked to 3 different vets who have all said that some of the smaller "natural" dog food companies do not have the proper balance of nutrients in their dog food but rely on people wanting to give their dogs "human grade" meats, etc. in their food. that too, can be very damaging to a dog. in the example of Canidae (which all of the vets i talked to told me to get my dog off of), they use human grade meats, but it is not properly balanced for a dog. it is too rich for many dogs and therefore causes stomach problems.

i can say that after switching our dog off of canidae and onto iams, her stools are firmer and less volume than when she was on canidae. she also eats the food; the canidae would sit uneaten for quite a while. i think she didn't like it and didn't like how it made her feel.

so I would definitely take what you read with a grain of salt and figure out what works best for your dog. i can't believe my dog growing up ate GAINES BURGERS (remember those?) and lived to be 17 years old. by the way, that dog was a "mutt" but now that I see pictures of him, he looks like he very well could have been some sort of labradoodle! it is uncanny the resemblance between him and our current dog...

[dshell74]

Even though I feed my boys a premium food, on some level I do agree. I had two childhood dogs who lived to be 16 and 17. We fed them Alpo dry and canned and Purina Dog Chow, with an occasional Gainesburger. I lost a Belgian Shepherd to hemangiosarcoma (less than a week after getting a kennel cough vaccination) in Oct 2005 at the age of 10 who ate Natural Balance for over half of his life. This can be likened to people as well. I had one grandfather who received good nutrition and health care and who didn't smoke or drink and he died 3 days before his 60th birthday of colon cancer. My other grandfather grew up really, really poor with inadequate nutrition and no medical care to speak of, was an alcoholic and a 2-3 pack-a-day smoker who died at the age of 78. Not to toss nutritional guidelines to the wind, but, sometimes there are other factors at play besides nutrition and medical care.

[amckechnie]

HI

the BARF diet is an acronym for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food and also stands for Bones And Raw Food.

for full details please look at www.barfworld.com.

In short though it is feeding dogs & cats naturally with raw food as they would do in the wild.

I have been feeding my 2 since they were 4 months ( now 11months) and what a difference !! less agressive when playing (were hyper and agressive on dry food, and very nasty smelly poos) very healthy coats etc.

I started out blending all veg myself until I discovered Anglian foods who produce food based on BARF - very cheap and they deliver!!


there is a website on it with helpful tips and advice - well worth it and isnt as much hassle as you may think.

http://www.ukbarfclub.co.uk/

good luck xx

[cmives]

i have had several vets warn me against the barf diet. one big reason is because when you have kids in the house, it can be very dangerous if they get their hands on the raw food.

i know this won't be a popular opinion, but i don't want to spend more time making my dog's food than I spend making my own family's food. i think there are plenty of good dog food companies out there who can do a much better job making well-balanced dog food, and I don't want my dog eating people food.

when we were out of town when our dog was just a puppy, our breeder was nice enough to board her for us. however, she fed our dog "people food" and since then our dog has been quite the beggar. of course, she'd rather eat "people food" but i would rather she ate dog food since she is a dog.

i know people who do well on the barf diet, but I know it would not work in our household.

[KellyDoodles]

I've noticed several people kind of putting down Petsmart. Why? What do you/they have against it? I lived in a smalllll (pop. 4000) town for 15 years and recently moved to a town of about 90,000. I am thrilled to have a Petco to shop at, LOL!

Just wondering...
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~Kelly~
Human mom to Jacob and John
Doodle mom to Farley

[amckechnie]

have you tried barf!!!!!


the BARF diet is an acronym for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food and also stands for Bones And Raw Food.

for full details please look at www.barfworld.com.

In short though it is feeding dogs & cats naturally with raw food as they would do in the wild.

I have been feeding my 2 since they were 4 months ( now 11months) and what a difference !! less agressive when playing (were hyper and agressive on dry food, and very nasty smelly poos) very healthy coats etc.

I started out blending all veg myself until I discovered Anglian foods who produce food based on BARF - very cheap and they deliver!!


there is a website on it with helpful tips and advice - well worth it and isnt as much hassle as you may think.

http://www.ukbarfclub.co.uk/