The reasoning behind the switching can be found in several articles, but check out Dr. Richard Pitcairn's book on natural health. It explains it pretty well, and there's also Kymythy (sp? weird name anyway) Schultz's book too. Just think about how over time eating the same thing every day is going to give you high levels of one thing, low of another, never varying. A dog's diet does not need to be balanced every day; it needs to be balanced overall. Deficiencies occur over time. Switching is great because 1)They get used to it and don't have digestive upsets, 2)required nutrients are obtained in balanced levels, and 3) what one food is lacking in, another may be high in. Read labels and decide which ones to feed together or switch between. Stay away from corn and gluten products, as well as beet pulp and other things that basically break down to sugar or filler.

OK...it is interesting that the two pet supply stores recommend to me Solid Gold and told me it was the highest grade food I can buy...but only one post so far recommended it and reviewing the list of All Natural kibble foods on Leerburgs website Solid Gold does not appear. What is the boards comments to this product? After the recommendations by these two stores I was anticipating an overwhelming claim by the board that Solid Gold is absolute top shelf. Comments?

Solid Gold is a very good dry food, but it's a little expensive and in my area, hard to find. The other brands I mentioned were much easier to find and about $5-$7 cheaper per 30-35 pound bag. Also, another factor for me, is the Natural Balance goes on sale at Petco and I stock up when it does. You'll find most of the top brand dry foods run about $33-$35 and up for a 30-35 pound bag.

Do a search for the different dog foods using the search function and you can usually find a link that has the ingredients, how they match up, etc.

I've used Solid Gold occasionally. It's good, as far as average petshop stock is concerned. I go to specialty feed stores to find the really good stuff, but I have also used Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance. The only thing I don't like is that it has beet pulp, which is essentially sugar. It is reasonably priced, however <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> as far as decent kibble. SOME FORM OF RAW IS STILL BETTER! AND CHEAPER! Sorry, couldn't help it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.

So is The Honest Kitchen stuff considered "raw"? I mean, technically it is, but it's not messy or a pain like raw, n technically it's "dry" until you mix it with water.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> If you don't mind paying shipping, or have a local supplier (I have one but I haven't used them yet) then it should be as easy as petstore junk. I was feeding Nutro for a while, smaller stools, I believe human grade ingredients, but I've lost interest in kibbles.

OK...Here is a question...could I fee my pup 1/3 Solid Gold, 1/3 Honest Kitchen and 1/3 Wellness. Mixing it up meal by meal or mixing within the same meal or will this throw thier systems out of wack or will they get use to eating these three foods and be able to switch hit inbetween meals? Comments?

You can feed your dog any combination you want, but it takes more than one meal for a dogs system to acclimate to a food type. I believe it's recommended to slowly switch over a weeks period, i could be wrong on this. You could buy one of each and feed each bag/food until there's about a week left and then switch over slowly to the next food.

Nutro is not human grade ingredients. Very few kibbles have human grade.

Eric it sounds like you are going to feed a high grade food, so you should be fine with whichever one you go with. Find the one(s) your dog will eat and go with it.

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....... I would see what the general concesus is in the real world.

I would learn what the ingredients actually are (mean) on one of the comparison sites, such as:
http://www.feedmypet.com/dog-food-comparison.html

It may not contain every food. What it WILL do if make you familiar with the more and less desirable ingredients so you can read the labels when you're shopping and make an informed decision.

I'm afraid that many stores and even vets are prone to suggest the food they have been "sold" -- by lots of sales reps with glossy brochures and "studies" done by their own companies. Science Diet is, in my own opinion, great at selling an inferior (I consider it extremely inferior, based on the ingredients) product.

The point is to decide based on the ingedients and not on the ads.

I feed mostly raw, but I do believe there are good foods out there for sale these days. So far, none of the ones I would consider top-quality are the ones in the big TV and print ads or in the vet waiting rooms. So we have to read labels.

Good for you, for asking and researching!

P.S. You won't find much argument among canine nutrition scientists, IMO, that corn is something to avoid, and that foods heavy in any grain are not formulated for the way a dog's system works.

Just wanted to post my 2 cents on this. I also tried the raw diet, and with a kennel of 7 dogs, plus puppies, it got to where all I was doing was preparing meals for my dogs!

So, I now feed them (alternating every couple of months between mixing two of the three together) Solid Gold Mmillennium Beef and Barley, Innova EVO, Eagle Pack (a VERY good food for GSD's).

See if you can purchase the food directly from the distributor for your area, and you can often cut the cost down by a small percentage.

Whatever you end up feeding your dog, watch the protein. Anything too high in protein (above 23%) isn't good for young growing pups, as it can cause them to grow too quickly, and thus, cause Pano (panosteitis, inflammation of the long bones), and can also cause hip dysplasia problems. There have been some studies that suggest that HD is 70% environmental and 30% inherited. It would, therefore, be in our best interest to try to negate any environmental issues! (other culprits? there are many, such as slippery floors, jumping from too high up at a young age, extensive running at a young age, poor diet, any many others)

Best of Luck!

With regard to Melanie's post about too much protein. While I, too, have heard this, I've recently, though, read that it's not true, and is more of an old wives' tale. I think it was Dr.Pitcairn who said this. Restricting protein is more likely to cause abnormal growth in relation to HD. Does anyone have hard evidence to the contrary? It kind of makes sense that restricting protein could be just as likely to cause problems. Dysplasia is known to be a type of scurvy, and also in the same book, a study is cited in which 8 litters of puppies were given high doses of vitamin C until age 1 1/2. The puppies parents either had HD or had previously produced pups with HD, yet every single pup was HD free at age 2. Pretty interesting study. I believe it was Wendell Bellfield, or some guy with a name very similar! Anyone know more?