Top dog foods

[brunie's mom]

In the February edition of the Whole Dog Journal they have listed their favourite choices of the best dry dog foods. They are in alphabetical order :
1) Azmira
2) Back To Basics
3) Best In Show
4) Canidae
5) Eagle Pack
6) Flint River
7) Natural Balance
8) Pinnacle
9) Prime Life
10) Solid Gold Health
11) Show Bound Naturals
12) Timberwolf Organics
13) Wellness
They also said that any that were on the list last year were still great choices but they did not have room to write up them all.

Anybody feed these choices to their dogs???
If so what do you like about the food??

Gina

[Roscoe's dad]

I feed barf, so it is not on the list, when I fed kibble it was Nutro natural or Precise. I would like to see a list of top 10 foods not to feed your dogs. all the brands listed are good kibble, but I am of the opinion you should feed the best you can afford, and if you can afford IAMs Eukabana, Science diet etc., you can afford most of what is on the list.

[brunie's mom]

Their "not recommended" choices were:
1) Science Diet
2) Eukanuba
3) Sensible Choice
4) Nutro
5) Beneful

Gina

[AngelBunny]

We feed all the dogs in our house--personal dogs & fosters--Wellness. I believe BARF is the best diet for dogs & it's only a matter of time before I go that route.

What do I like about Wellness?

The fact *I* thought it tasted good.

Before I fed it to my dogs, I sampled some of the chicken. I thought it would be very tasty w/ milk--altho I never went that far.

How many people have the confidence to try their dog's food? (BARF excepted!)

[animalhouse]

I feed my dog Nutro Chicken and Rice. He has a beautiful coat and overall is healthy. After reading all the posts here I went out and got him Wellness. He went on a hunger strike!!! And his skin got flakey when he did eat it. So I switched him back to Nutro. Having nothing to do with cost I feed him Nutro because he seems to do well on it. Just out of curiosity what is in or isn't in Nutro that makes it so horrible? I've read the label and it lists chicken meal as the first ingredient and it has no by products listed.

Thanks!

[Sheenagirl]

I personally don't see anything wrong with Nutro. My daughter feeds Nutro Senior All Natural to her Rottie. I fed Sheena the same Nutro after she refused to eat the Canidae - she loves the taste of the Nutro. I am trying the Wellness right now but I wouldn't have any problem with switching back to the Nutro Senior All Natural. After much controversy on all these premium foods I am in the process of trying some different ones to see which one agrees with Sheena the most. :D

[Bevyvuska]

I think most people here have a problem with Nutro when it's not Nutro Natural. I believe that the Natural is better than the regular or MAX. Personally I feed Canidae & they carry it at my local feed store (Used to do it as an order but there were enough of us, that they stock it now) and it's only $28 for the 40lb bag. Last I looked the Nutro Natural was $32 for a 40lb bag. Anyway, If they are doing well on the Nutro Natural then I wouldn't worry about it. My dogs liked it, but when I switched to the Canidae, they loved it, plus they smelled better & got rid of their gas for the most part.

[brunie's mom]

Yes Bevyvuska, I also think the Nutro Natural is not too bad. In the article in the HDJ it was the Nutro "Premium Nutrition" that they did not like. They wrote that it contained way too many grain fragments. The ingredients are : beef meal, ground whole wheat, rice bran, corn gluten meal, poultry fat,wheat flour, ground rice, dried yeast, monosodium phosphate, dried buttermilk.
This is alot of grain:( The Nutro Natural seems to have more meat.

Gina

[TrishB]

I'm not arguing for one or another here, but I did want to point out that this study was to compare "Natural" diet foods, it was not a comparison of ALL foods. Just to keep it in perspective.

[rottnelmo]

I feed Solid Gold Hund-N-Flocken. My Rottie just loves it.

*I* like it because it is an all natural food with only natural perservatives. No bad stuff for my guy!

I have personally actually eaten his food, but I have tried his Solid Gold Treats, but no on purpose. I needed to pop some in my mouth during training, and forgot they were there and started chewing on them. They werent soo bad.

[DixieGrl113]

I feed BARF but earlier this month went on a trip and took along a bag of Wellness Super 5. My girl loved this kibble. I like it because, it had no corn, no by products, a lot of fruits and veggies along with human grade meat sources. Her allergies did not flare up once. She must've thought I was feeding her a bowl full of cookies. I added yogurt the first meal because I knew that this dog is not a fan of ANY kibble. She inhaled and 2 seconds later looked to me for more. That impressed me. So the ingredient list along with my dog reactions (or lack there of) made me like this kibble. If there was ever a reason I HAD to feed kibble again, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a bag or 2 of Wellness. Thanks for the recommendation AngelBunny

[Akita&Dal]

I feed Wellness & am very happy with it, because my dogs are happy with it!

I have an 8 y.o. rescue akita as well as a 6 y.o. rescue dal. I *used* to feed them Nutro, & thought it was great! However, continued use of Nutro caused Kuro (my handsome akita) to develop excema. He also scratched & bit himself to relieve the itching -- it was so bad he began to loose his fur.

I switched to Wellness & am thrilled with the results -- within a week Kuro's skin problems vanished.

A tip I got from one of the top Akita people in North America -- switch between different 'flavors' in the same brand IF your dog can take it! My guys have cast iron stomaches. By giving different types of meat -- fish, beef, lamb, chicken -- you're giving your dog all of the appropriate amino acids/proteins they need.

[CarolineS]

Originally posted by TrishB
I'm not arguing for one or another here, but I did want to point out that this study was to compare "Natural" diet foods, it was not a comparison of ALL foods. Just to keep it in perspective.

The title of the article is "Choose the Best Dry Food". It wasn't specifically looking at kibble that purported to be "natural", it reviewed some of the more common supermarket and pet store brands, along with the higher-end kibbles. WDJ did spend a lot of time pointing out why Purina Beneful was no where near as "natural" and full of good stuff as they claim. ;)

[tlatey]

Does anybody know anything about Diamond Dog Food?

[rottnelmo]

Diamond has by-products in it...but other than it does have flax seed and Omega Three...

*I* no longer feed it because of the by-products, IMHO there are better foods out there.

I used to feed solid gold, but am now feeding Eagle Pack Natural and finding that they have much better coats.