I was off work almost the entire month of May. When Eagle Pack went up to $53.00 a bag, I just couldn't afford it anymore. I picked up a couple of bags of Kirkland Chicken and Rice at Costco for $21.00 a bag.
A friend told me that the Kirkland brand dogfood was on Whole Dog Journals recommended foods list. So far, the crew is doing well, except the poo is a lot more aromatic than it was on Eagle Pack.
I plan on preparing their food from scratch and will start on that next week.. Have a several good recipes to start with -
What are you feeding your dogs, and how has the economy impacted your decision on what to feed your dogs.?
California Natural white fish and sweet potato. I've been feeding it since 2005. They were never part of the massive food recall, thank God!! One of my dogs is allergic to everything: Chicken, Beef, Grain, Gluten et.. She can eat venison, fish, potato and seems to be tolerating pork. It's great food. She has a healthy, shiny coat and runs agility every day. I also feed my younger lab the same food as she enjoys it too.
I've been feeding Nutro for many years, but am worried now that the FDA is looking at their products, as well as Canidade (sp) and most recently Evanger's canned meat. I'm tired of having to worry about whether the dog food companies are following safety procedures and if they're putting safe ingredients in our dogs' food!
I feed prey model, no grains or carbs unless I need to put weight on. My dogs do great on the prey model, but they don't put on enough condition to be heavy enough for the ring, so I resort to satin balls from time to time, when they are not eating because of the heat of summer or the heat of the two bitches in the house. The bitches are consistant in their appetites, but the dogs are a bit hard to keep weight on. The only "kibble" I ever feed is Ziwi Peak, which is about 6 dollars a day per dog to feed. Way more expensive than the raw, but sometimes I have to feed dry food.
I am feeding Taste of the Wild to my Border Collies. They love the Wet Lands formula which is duck, turkey etc. with sweet potatoes and other natural foods and antioxidants. So far, coats look great, poop is small and not foul.
I have been feeding raw diet for the past 14 years. Mostly chicken, tripe and some beef. I also make my own veggie mixture which I feed twice a week. Along with alfalfa, sea kelp, eggs, yogurt etc. I have rescue dachshunds that I have changed to raw diet with no problem. I have had fatty tumors disappear in the older dogs. Three who lived to the age of twenty. I now have two GSD ages 12 & 9, Five Dachshunds ranging from 2 years - 14 and a saluki who is 3. All are in wonderful shape and in excellent health. I really find that eliminating grains in their diet and processed foods has had a very positive impact for their health and well being. Feeding raw has been very positive for all my dogs.
I breed and show bulldogs. I switched my dogs to grain-free diets 2 years ago and am thrilled by the way they look. People are always commenting on how great their coats look, their stools are small and odorless, the dogs are in perfect weight, I have had no vet visits except for shots, and my two litters raised on this diet were the best looking puppies I have ever had. I prefer to feed Orijen, but I will switch to Taste of the Wild High Prairie if I have a large number of dogs to feed. Orijen runs about $65-75 for a 30 lb bag, as opposed to $40.00 a bag for TOTW. TOTW also has a smaller size kibble which seems to make it last longer than the larger Orijen kibble. Orijen is coming out with a wild boar based diet which I am dying to try, but I will need to cut down the number of dogs I have.
For the past 18 months, I have been sorting through several brands of dog foods in search for something that is nutrionally superior, the dogs will eat with enthusiasm, that keeps silky shiny coat, good weight, with little tartar on teeth, and is easy to digest without sudden bursts of loose stools in my dogs.I have kept the dogs on the same food for at least 12 weeks unless there were disastrous results from the onset that did not self-correct with time to adjust. Like most, I have been wary of grain because I have been "educated" and have pretty much stayed away from it in my test foods. I have been suprised at my results
I began with 6 months of Orijen 6 fish at a cost of nearly $72.00 for a 40 pound bag. After 4 months the dogs quickly showed a distaste for the food, so I switched to their other flavor, chicken, if my memory is correct. Still they would rather starve than eat and quickly dropped more than 10 percent body weight--time to look for something else. Stools were good, coat was adequate, but weight maintenance was horrific.
From there I went to By Natural. The dogs loved their Pork and Sweet Potato. After 12 weeks, they had returned to a decent weight, but coats were dry and stools suddenly became very soft and too frequent. I suspected a formula change that was not agreeable to my toy dogs. Another change.
This time I went to frozen Nature's Variety. I liked the convenience, but the product seemed to be mostly water as the medalions are mushy and very unappealing to the dogs. While the label claims that a 6 pound dog should be fed 2 ounces or roughly 2 medallions of food daily, the label is dead wrong. Dogs need more than 2 ounces of water to survive, and when my group of 9 Papillons finished one bag of food in 1 meal I was concerned. I persisted with the medallions for a month and finally moved to their kibble as an addition to the frozen meat. Still not satisfactory, so this product was dumped in the trash. An expensive experiment.
From there I moved to Canz frozen Real Meat. The dogs were very enthusiastic with it, the texture seemed to be far more to their liking, and it was more satisfying for hunger. Far less messy as well. I used this food for 6 months and found it to be a great food for weaning puppies as well. It is very expensive, though, and ran me nearly $400 per month despite the small portions required to keep them in good weight. After awhile, the cost became prohibitive, so I decided to start preparing my own raw food.
I used ground beef and added a variety of fresh raw fruits, veggies, egg, and ground sunflower seeds.I added green pepper, broccoli, carrots, cranberries, oatmeal, parsley, sliced cooked sweet potato, and sliced banana--to which I added some probiotics at feeding. Again, the results were phenomenal with superb coat quality, hearty appetites, and stamina. Occassionally, I would prepare large batches and freeze into patties, but mostly I prepared fresh daily. Cost as well as the work involved in preparation was a downside for me. After 4 months, I missed the solid stool of the old days of kibble feeding as well as the convenience. I had noticed that the dogs seemed to do better on the raw with the addition of some oatmeal to bring a more solid quality to stool.
A fellow breeder friend of mine had been using Nutro Lamb and Rice Small bites for years with superb coat quality on dogs of my breeding, so I decided to be lazy for awhile and try it despite the alerts. The dogs are now on their 3rd 30 pound bag. After the first bag, coat change began--but I expected to see a major coat blow with dry coat after the raw diet. The coat change happened and now new is returning and looking pretty darn good so far. While the kibble is certainly not consumed with the enthusiasm of the raw diet which disappeared as I was still dishing it out--everyone is eating and seems satisfied. Stools are firm and small and make for easy clean up.
So I got lazy and suspect that I will likely stick with Nutro and incorporate my old recipe for raw as needed.
For the past 18 months, I have been sorting through several brands of dog foods in search for something that is nutrionally superior, the dogs will eat with enthusiasm, that keeps silky shiny coat, good weight, with little tartar on teeth, and is easy to digest without sudden bursts of loose stools in my dogs.I have kept the dogs on the same food for at least 12 weeks unless there were disastrous results from the onset that did not self-correct with time to adjust. Like most, I have been wary of grain because I have been "educated" and have pretty much stayed away from it in my test foods. I have been suprised at my results
I began with 6 months of Orijen 6 fish at a cost of nearly $72.00 for a 40 pound bag. After 4 months the dogs quickly showed a distaste for the food, so I switched to their other flavor, chicken, if my memory is correct. Still they would rather starve than eat and quickly dropped more than 10 percent body weight--time to look for something else. Stools were good, coat was adequate, but weight maintenance was horrific.
From there I went to By Natural. The dogs loved their Pork and Sweet Potato. After 12 weeks, they had returned to a decent weight, but coats were dry and stools suddenly became very soft and too frequent. I suspected a formula change that was not agreeable to my toy dogs. Another change.
This time I went to frozen Nature's Variety. I liked the convenience, but the product seemed to be mostly water as the medalions are mushy and very unappealing to the dogs. While the label claims that a 6 pound dog should be fed 2 ounces or roughly 2 medallions of food daily, the label is dead wrong. Dogs need more than 2 ounces of water to survive, and when my group of 9 Papillons finished one bag of food in 1 meal I was concerned. I persisted with the medallions for a month and finally moved to their kibble as an addition to the frozen meat. Still not satisfactory, so this product was dumped in the trash. An expensive experiment.
From there I moved to Canz frozen Real Meat. The dogs were very enthusiastic with it, the texture seemed to be far more to their liking, and it was more satisfying for hunger. Far less messy as well. I used this food for 6 months and found it to be a great food for weaning puppies as well. It is very expensive, though, and ran me nearly $400 per month despite the small portions required to keep them in good weight. After awhile, the cost became prohibitive, so I decided to start preparing my own raw food.
I used ground beef and added a variety of fresh raw fruits, veggies, egg, and ground sunflower seeds.I added green pepper, broccoli, carrots, cranberries, oatmeal, parsley, sliced cooked sweet potato, and sliced banana--to which I added some probiotics at feeding. Again, the results were phenomenal with superb coat quality, hearty appetites, and stamina. Occassionally, I would prepare large batches and freeze into patties, but mostly I prepared fresh daily. Cost as well as the work involved in preparation was a downside for me. After 4 months, I missed the solid stool of the old days of kibble feeding as well as the convenience. I had noticed that the dogs seemed to do better on the raw with the addition of some oatmeal to bring a more solid quality to stool.
I then went to Taste of the Wild Bison. The dogs could not eat it fast enough, but stools were often too soft. I noticed that everyone could manage 1/3 cup without digestion issues, but the slightest amount over that was a problem. My tiniest girls had no issues with it, but some of my yearlings needed to add weight and simply had too many days of soft stool when even given 1/4 cup twice daily. I think this food is fabulous, but for a few of mine it was a problem, so I moved on yet again despite the fact that it yielded fabulous coat. I would rather not use several brands of food, but may return to it when my yearlings get a little more mature.
A fellow breeder friend of mine had been using Nutro Lamb and Rice Small bites for years with superb coat quality on dogs of my breeding, so I decided to be lazy for awhile and try it despite the alerts. The dogs are now on their 3rd 30 pound bag. After the first bag, coat change began--but I expected to see a major coat blow with dry coat after the raw diet. The coat change happened and now new is returning and looking pretty darn good so far. While the kibble is certainly not consumed with the enthusiasm of the raw diet which disappeared as I was still dishing it out--everyone is eating and seems satisfied. Stools are firm and small and make for easy clean up.
So I got lazy and suspect that I will likely stick with Nutro and incorporate my old recipe for raw as needed.
I fed Nutro Large Breed Lamb and Rice for many years, but when I checked the ingredients on Kirkland Lamb and Rice, I found them to be almost the same. My dogs did very well on the Nutro, but with the difference in price and basically the same formula I switched to Kirkland. I have been told that Diamond produces the Kirkland Foods. My dogs have been on the Kirkland Lamb and Rice for several years now and the are doing well. Their coats are beautiful. I tried the Chicken and Rice, but their stools were softer than I'd like. I don't have that problem at all with the Lamb and Rice. I am happy with the results.