I am sorry to jump in like this, but I read Connie's post of the ingredients of Science Diet.

Remember when dogs used to be fed horsemeat? Well, with Science Diet, you can now feed your dog horse FOOD and just skip the horse alltogether! Who needs the food chain, anyway?

We now return to your regularly scheduled thread.

it has a couple of weeks now, and i am completely saturated with info on doog food. Raw, soft, dehydrated, and kibble....

i have been open minded about all of them, and more open minded to the fact that what you see in the stores is not really the best for your dog....(or cat for that matter).

i have read countless articles and opinions on the raw diet, and although i think that it might be the best, i dont think that i can sincerely commit to it. i know that it is not too time consuming. it is just the "new world" thing and i am not quite 'ready', if that makes sense...

i like the idea of the 'Honest Kitchen' foods, and will likely go to that when my GSD pup gets to be 1yr and i pull him from the puppy food.

There is a higher end dog grooming service here in town and i found that they sell some of the "6 star" dry dog foods that are covered in the http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com page.

I bought some of the Solid Gold 'Wolf Cub' food and when given a choice, the pup eats it over the eukanuba i have been on temporarily. I will probably stick to the Wolf Cub for a while b/c i have switched food too much.

i would like to thank all of you here for the great info and direction that you have given me on this subject. especially for the real "scoop" on the science diet food that i was feeding...

my pup now eats his food in the morning....(although i have only been giving him the Solid Gold for 2 days now....)

Good job, Louis!

Two comments that you might not expect:

You mentioned concern about switching among kibbles. I believe that there is nothing wrong with switching kibbles. If you are choosing among the best, then variety can only up your chances of covering the nutritional bases.

I've seen that most of the upsets triggered by switching are when the switch is from one terrible grain-heavy kibble to another.

In "real life," dogs do not have digestive problems from eating a variety.

Also, I remember that you mentioned having chicken parts in your freezer. Personally, I think it's a very good thing to make your dog a separate meal of those when you can.

Kudos on dumping the Science Diet and Eukanuba.

See if you have a place locally that sells "Natures Variety", they are frozen patties that contain everything a balanced diet should contain for a dog, just let em thaw out (I just toss a bag in the fridge a few days before I start using that bag) n toss em into the bowl, look like big hamburger patties n the dog will be healthy as can be

If a dog doesn't eat their food in 5 minutes then take it away, doesn't matter if the dog doesn't eat for 2 or 3 days, they will learn, they won't starve themselves to death. They need to learn "if I don't swallow my food it won't be here to swallow, I better be quick".

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

Kudos on dumping the Science Diet and Eukanuba.

i think that i forgot to mention IAMS too...that is what i started him on...

oh yeah, i also bought him some of the solid gold jerky treats...man does he love them...

on a side note to the high end kibble....the also sell the nature's variety, canidae (sp?), and will special order the INNOVA and timberwolf...all which are premium grade protein packed kibble that are highly recommended on the analysis page as well....

at least i know now that i don't have to worry about buying food @ petsmart anymore, just socialization...and boy does he love that....

Good job. You have indeed taken huge steps in the direction of MUCH better health, IMO.

I have heard of impactions from bones, too. Very rare, and usually cooked bones, but no diet is 100% safe and perfect.

Vets don't usually have much nutrition training, remember, and also remember (unfortunately) that what they do get is usually funded by Purina-Hills et al.

In my years of raw feeding (and helping others) I have seen far more problems from bad kibble than from raw food, but I agree that we all have to do the best thing we are personally comfortable with. You have dumped the true crap foods and started on MUCH better ones, IMHO.

I am a huge fan of Natures Variety... I started with The Honest Kitchen, then I started adding ground beef from the store into it since I didn't like feeding my dogs solely what is, essentially, a bowl of soup LOL. Then I found out about Natures Variety which is a heck of alot easier for me to get ahold of in Orlando than THK was, at first I was supplementing the THK with Natures Variety but ended up just switching to NV exclusively with a multivitamin and salmon oil. My dogs coats have looked great with all the raw-based foods and never any problems. I give the lil bitch raw chicken wings regularly. My male will eat raw chicken breast if it's diced up, which is a big step up since he used to turn up his nose to ALL foods... being around my pup has changed him alot though.

The Natures Variety can get expensive, especially with 2+ dogs, but for 1-2 dogs if you don't mind the convenience and added expensive, I cannot reccomend a better alternative to kibble foods and far easier than putzing around with "real" raw diets, since everything is pre-balanced from the manufacturer. It's ingredients are very similar to The Honest Kitchen which I was a HUGE fan of, and had the ingredients not been so similar, I would have been far more reluctant making the switch entirely.

I stopped listening to my vet a year ago lol. If I listened to them my dogs would be neutered and spayed n be eating Eukanuba and getting Parvo shots (I think it was Parvo) twice a year. Yech.

Louis, congratulations on your dumping of Science Diet, Eukanuba and Iams. I've fed all three before, and have little (well, no) respect for any of the three personally.

I think you've come a great distance by choosing Solid Gold - especially since it sounds like you are still doing your research. Your dedication to doing the best you can figure out for your dogs is to be commended, as others have said.

I just wanted to give you a cheer for the effort you are putting forth on behalf of your dogs. Now if only I could get my own act together to improve my own human diet....but that's another topic!

Best Wishes,

Beth

Remember Hot Dogs are Human Versions of Dog Food.

Sorry, couldn't help myself!