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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Dog Food?

I have been reading the book Pet Food Politics, and it has made me take a very hard look at the food I feed my dogs. This book makes the point that many pet food manufactures do not know where their ingredients are sourced from, and that is how contaminants such as Melamine (pet food scare of 2007) can end up in pet food. Because Dante is such a small dog (smaller than a cat!), what he eats is very concerning to me, because just a small amount of toxins of contaminants could make him very ill, or kill him. And of course what I feed Dante I have to try to feed Marley too!

(This only applies to Marley and Dante, as Sterling has to be feed Science Diet (large breed puppy lamb meal and rice, but really who needs to be specific!)).

I have been looking around for an alternative to just feeding them kibble. Now I do not want to offend, just educate! I started my dog guardianship by feeding Dante Eukanuba (which is now very low on my list, lots of by-products, corn, fillers, things I cannot pronounce), which is what he was feed when he was a puppy. He has always been a picky eater, and so we have tried: Royal Canin (ok, but expensive for what you get, still has fillers), Nutro (wouldn't eat, bag went to the shelter), Natural UltraMix (stopped eating after 1/2 the bag was gone), Nature's Recipe (same), Solid Gold (wouldn't eat, Marley ate it, good food though, lots of different protein sources within their variety's), Nature's Variety RAW (lol, wouldn't touch, Marley ate it, way good though!), Wellness (got bored, pretty good, some grain), and the most Recent, Innova EVO (still likes it, but with less gusto, and he is getting rather chunky on it). Most of these have been the small breed variety, and Dante will not consistently eat any type of dog food! (Lol, of course he just wants Sterling's SD, LBP, LMR!) So, in a last ditch effort to find him something good to eat, I have gotten KEEN from the Honest Kitchen. It is a dehydrated raw food that is nutritionally complete, made with human grade ingredients, and made in a human food plant! And it is something that he will finally eat!!!!

I am going to try to rotate in Honest Kitchen for Marley's evening meals, as I cannot afford to feed it to him all the time (silly big dog!). Marley currently eats a mixture of Solid Gold WolfKing and Kirkland Signature Adult. (Yay for Costco!) I am wondering if anyone else has had any experience with feeding food types other than kibble or canned? Anyone think that dog food is dog food? Let me know!

3 comments:

DOGGIE STEPS Dog Training, LLC. said...

AWESOME dog food info.!! Right on the money!!! More meat and less fillers is the way to go...for more good dog food info. check out:
http://www.doggiestepsdogtraining.com/index.html

Thanks for the great info.!! Our dogs thank you!!

Mark Siebel
http://www.doggiestepsdogtraining.com/index.html

Emily said...

We have a very pick eater, and seem to have done exactly what you have! My pet dog, Tizzy, has changed food more then I can count. We have finally found a pretty good food that she has liked for a few months now. It's called Bil Jac, and she likes it... Although the SD Tahoe eats or the Purina Burgess eats is still the best....

Brian said...

You mentioned some good foods. But another good one is Nature's Logic. They don't put any synthetic vitamins or minerals in their food. They use whole foods to provide all the nutrition a dog or cat needs. Cool concept.