What Food?

A

adellelauren

Forums Regular
Hello. On May 14th myhusband and I will be bringing our first ever Sheltie puppy home. It's been 4 years since we have a had a dog and at the time he was fed Purina. As time has gone by and we researched and realized that a Sheltie would be perfect for us I have been very confused on what to put her on. She will be on Science Diet puppy small bites but I want to switch her over and I am having a hard time between Nature's Recipe and Nutro Natural small bites puppy. I also have three cats that range from 6 month to 10 years old that I am currently trying the Nature's Recipe with. But even for them I am debating between that and Nutro. Any advice would be appreciated. Our new little girl's name is Mia. We can't wait. Excited and nervous at the same time.
 
Welcome to the Sheltie Nation forums! It is great to have you join us. Bringing a sheltie into your home will be a wonderful experience.

This is a great website that discusses the different dog foods and pros and cons to each of them:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
 
Welcome to Sheltie Nation! Food is THE hot topic here, and folks defend their choices with passion and conviction. Recommend you look for no corn, nothing from China. We feed Acana, a Canadian food made by Champion Pet Foods. We like food that's high protein:
http://www.championpetfoods.com/acana/
 
The world of dog food is confusing and everyone has their own opinion on what's the best food to feed your dog. The research into all the different options is enough to drive you crazy.

Personally, I don't have experience with either of the brands you are looking into. What I'd advise, in a general scope, is to keep an eye on the following:
  • Ingredient list
  • Where the food is made (if you can find out)
  • Recall history

For the ingredient list, educate yourself on what the different ingredients in dog food are and how they impact the health of your dog. Learn what 'by-product', '-meal', '-gluten', etc. mean. As with human foods, the closer to the beginning of the ingredient list something is the more of it occurs in the dog food. Learn about fillers as well. Wheat and corn products are often used to bulk up a food but, for a dog, it adds no nutritional value. (Wheat and corn are also common food allergens for dogs.)

Try to avoid foods with ingredients from China. This may be difficult to determine since US dog food manufacturers are not required to state where their ingredients come from. There have been a number of incidents, most recently with dog treats, of seriously sick dogs (and in some cases death occurred) because of glutens from China.

This is where trying to research the recall history of the food comes in. Has the food been recalled and if so, why? When was the last recall?


As for what I feed my Shelties, I've used a number of different products - Eagle Pack Holistic, Blue Buffalo, Wellness and I'm in the process of transitioning to Go. I switched from Eagle Pack to Blue Buffalo because Eagle Pack changed their formula and I wasn't happy with how to changes impacted my dog's coat or stool. I switched to Wellness Simple (a limited ingredient food) from Blue Buffalo (BB for short) NOT because I was unhappy with BB but because one of my dogs had to have their gallbladder removed and I wanted a less complex food. BB didn't have a non-poultry option in their limited ingredient food line and I wanted something salmon based; which Wellness Simple had. I just started transitioning my dogs from Wellness to Go. Again, not because I'm unhappy with Wellness but because I like the fact that Go comes from Canada and there are no antibiotics used on the protein sources. The only reason I didn't use Go before Wellness is because it wasn't available in my area until recently.

Good luck with your food research. Don't let it overwhelm you too much. Just make the best choice you can for YOUR dog and your budget.
 
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I bought a big back of nutro dog food when I fed kibble and I really wasn't happy with it. Their poop was huge and Hadley's coat was dull. I'm sure other people have different experiences, but she had way to much waste coming out for me to be satisfied. If you look at the ingredients, after the first one being chicken meal: Wheat Flour, Ground Whole Wheat, Corn Gluten Meal, Rice Bran -- those are all fillers and don't do them any good nutritionally. They just put them in there to fill them up. and trust me, it comes out just as quick as it goes in. LOL another thing with the corn being in there is almost all corn is genetically modified and that scares me.

I fed Blue Buffalo and honestly, I was happy with it. Their poop was small and they didn't go multiple times day. Food is confusing, I agree, and best of luck making a decision.
 
I feed both of my dogs Nutro Natural Choice, which by the way doesn't have corn gluten meal in it..

first 6 ingredients of the Puppy formula:
Chicken meal, ground rice, rice flour, rice bran, pea protein, dried beet pulp.

First 6 of the adult formula:
Chicken, chicken meal, whole brown rice, ground rice, rice bran,, oatmeal.

Those may be fillers, but they are not bad fillers. My puppy poops maybe 2-3x day, my adult maybe once or twice. And they both produce normal solid waste :ick, hahahaha!

Like others have said, food is a HOT topic here :hide. I think it becomes a hot topic when others criticize or come across critical of what you DO and DON'T feed. The fact that you are here asking for suggestions says you are a fabulous pet owner and will make the right choice for your fur kids! :hugs
 
Food is a hot topic on this forum.

All I can recommend is to not stress over it because all the advice and commercial kibble can make your head spin.

Megansmom said:
I feed both of my dogs Nutro Natural Choice, which by the way doesn't have corn gluten meal in it..

first 6 ingredients of the Puppy formula:
Chicken meal, ground rice, rice flour, rice bran, pea protein, dried beet pulp.

First 6 of the adult formula:
Chicken, chicken meal, whole brown rice, ground rice, rice bran,, oatmeal.

Those may be fillers, but they are not bad fillers.
Click to expand...

FYI, dog food ingredients have to be listed in order by weight, so the heaviest ingredient is the first one, so on and so on.

Based off the ingredient list you posted, chicken is the heaviest the ingredient. However, I really doubt it is what actually makes up the majority of the food.

Notice how many different forms of rice are listed in only the first 6 ingredients: brown rice, rice flour, rice bran... this is a prime example of ingredient splitting.

When rice is broken down, it can be divided into many forms (bran, flour, etc) and of course will weigh less individually. If you add all those rice products together, rice would most likely be the main ingredient of that food, not chicken.

Not saying it is bad food or good food, because I've never researched it, but just wanted to give you a little heads up at how the ingredients can be deceiving.
 
You'll be so excited this last month waiting to bring Mia home - congrats on getting a puppy!
We brought our girl, Julip home in Feb. we completely adore her!

Which food, will drive you crazy for the entire time you have her I'm sure! Its driving me nuts anyway! :yes:

The breeder had her on Pro Plan (has by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, corn germ meal) in other words - lots of "crap". I think the breeders use it / give it, because they get it free at all the dog shows. We went to a dog show in Jan, before we got her & we could have walked out of there with several pounds of free Purina sample food packets. But I knew it wasn't high quality so I didn't even want it for FREE!

We switched her to Blue Buffalo puppy in 2 days (yes I know its supposed to happen over 10 days, but the breeder only gave us about 2 cups, so the switch was done fast as I wasn't buying a bag of it!) Julip did SO well on the switch, thus why we weren't worried, no diarrhea etc. Her stools are awesome on BB puppy! I always say they are like cigars! :lol: In size, shape, dark brown colour. She poops in the morning (before her breakfast & later at night every day - sometimes a 3rd poop occurs - but not every day?
Think its a good sign that she doesn't poop right after a meal - means its literally not going straight thru her!

Now after 2 months of having her, I was on the food search AGAIN, wanted to do grain free, so BB has a new line called Freedom, we tried that, but it wasn't working out, (but we didn't give it 10 days), because her stools got softer every day til diarrhea! And gross jelly stuff? Well that worried me, so we exchanged it back to regular BB puppy & all is good again - back to cigar poops!
Everyone says if its all working - don't switch it! So I think we will stay on BB puppy for a few more months anyway.
Her fur is nice, eyes bright, lots of energy, so far, so good!

All the recalls of these large petfood companies that make 3-6 different brands in these big factories all over, really does worry me! Like the current Diamond food recall, ya its just 1 brand for NOW - but who wants to wait it out til next week, month ... incase?!

I'm aiming for the smaller Canadian Companies (yes live in Canada :wink2:) like Champion Foods (Orijen & Acana) or the one that makes Go & Now.
Our cats eat Acana, while 1 is thriving on it, the other not so much? So looking into trying Go for her. I've seriously lost sleep over food & our girls - I don't put this much effort into OUR food! :uhoh:
 
take4roll10 said:
Food is a hot topic on this forum.

All I can recommend is to not stress over it because all the advice and commercial kibble can make your head spin.



FYI, dog food ingredients have to be listed in order by weight, so the heaviest ingredient is the first one, so on and so on.

Based off the ingredient list you posted, chicken is the heaviest the ingredient. However, I really doubt it is what actually makes up the majority of the food.

Notice how many different forms of rice are listed in only the first 6 ingredients: brown rice, rice flour, rice bran... this is a prime example of ingredient splitting.

When rice is broken down, it can be divided into many forms (bran, flour, etc) and of course will weigh less individually. If you add all those rice products together, rice would most likely be the main ingredient of that food, not chicken.

Not saying it is bad food or good food, because I've never researched it, but just wanted to give you a little heads up at how the ingredients can be deceiving.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this breakdown. I knew it didn't contain a lot of meat due to the protien percentag but I wasnt totally sure how it worked. I'm going to copy this to show my mom how the ingredients work because she is on the hunt for a better quality cat food.
 
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