# dog food advisor and my hunt for a good food



## lyredragon (Jul 28, 2010)

Dog Food Reviews | Dog Food Ratings

I was happy to see this site Today. It would have saved me a lot of hunting if I had known about it. It explains a lot about the ingredients. After a while my dogs just weren't doing as well with home prepared diet so I set out to find a cost effective dog food that had quality ingredients. What I came up with in my wanderings and label hunting.

I had them on a raw diet for a while, and as much as it's nice to give them raw food, we don't have many places they can eat it without making a huge mess. Cooked diets were less messy, but too much prep time. On top of that, getting the portions right with home prepared or raw meals is kind of tricky. In the end we agreed that kibble is just more convenient. 

Before I did tons of research. I knew I did want a couple of things 

I wanted a dog food with no wheat, barley, or rye. these all contain a grain protein called Gliadin, which is the gluten protein that causes so much trouble. Most people think it's only in wheat, but it's not.

No corn. Foxxy gets tear stains with a corn based food. I know chihuahuas came from a place that they were fed corn tortillas, but after feeding them a corn based food even for a little while, their coat wasn't as nice, and her tear stains were terrible.

No beet pulp. I'm sorry, feeding the dried up remains of sugar beet production is not my idea of a good ingredient. I'm in Nebraska. We feed beet pulp to our cows when we want them to gain weight for slaughter. On top of that, how much sugar is left?

no dyes. Dogs don't care about dyes, and they're toxic to boot.

no sugar, corn syrup.

Animal source as a first ingredient

no beef. As good as it may seem, beef is really hard to digest. For example, a tanker of beef fat got a leak in it in Texas. they cleaned it up using nets and spears. People use beef fat to make candles, and people think it's okay to put that in a body?

Fish meal or protein. My dogs prefer fish flavors for some reason. they'll take a fish flavored dog food overa chicken one, and both of those over lamb or beef. Foxxy is really picky. She doesn't like lamb at all. 

Also, I'm just not that into wet dog food. No matter how good it is, you're still mostly paying for water. If the dog food is going to be processed, it might as well be dry. It should be better for the teeth that way. 

Wow. just that list of things eliminated 95% of all dog food, including "vetrinarian recommended" iams, hills scince died, Hills perscription diet, all foods put out by purina, not to mention almost all of the wet dog food, all store brands, even organic storebrands like from whole foods and Trader Joes, newmann's own, even Royal Canin and Wellness was on the chopping block.

Oh and Bil Jac promoting their "gluten free" treats? yeah. . .about that, bil Jac. When you say "gluten free" and one of your ingredients includes wheat flour right there in the list, it is false advertising. I totally e-mailed them and demanded a recall when I saw that. 

Oh sure I could go all expensive with Blue Buffalo, Zwipeak, and so forth, but I am on an _extremely_ limited budget 

After months of looking and trying I came up with only 2

Dogswell Nutrisca Chicken and Chickpea Recipe
Wellness Core 

Nature's recipe had been on sale for quite a while at about $9-$12 per 4lb bag. I was getting the salmon and sweet potato until I realized that they use menadione. That sent me back to the store. Wellness Core is awesome for about $10-$14, but it's on the border of what I'm willing to pay. Sad thing is, Ocean flavor my dogs go nuts for is always the most expensive.

Nutrisca is the one they have now. It was $9 for the 4lb bag. Sure, it is chicken first, but it has menhaden meal in it. I'm satisfied, at least, and hopeful it remains on sale


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## Island Protector (Dec 31, 2010)

> Nature's recipe had been on sale for quite a while at about $9-$12 per 4lb bag. I was getting the salmon and sweet potato until I realized that they use menadione. That sent me back to the store. Wellness Core is awesome for about $10-$14, but it's on the border of what I'm willing to pay. Sad thing is, Ocean flavor my dogs go nuts for is always the most expensive.
> 
> Nutrisca is the one they have now. It was $9 for the 4lb bag. Sure, it is chicken first, but it has menhaden meal in it. I'm satisfied, at least, and hopeful it remains on sale


I'm trying to figure out how long a 4 lb bag would last 1 4lb chi. How often do you have to buy it?


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## lyredragon (Jul 28, 2010)

They both get about 1/3-1/2 cup per day per dog and both my dogs are in the 6-7 lb range

The standard weight of a half cup is supposed to be 4oz, but there has to be more than 18 1/2C servings in the bag, or the measures are a bit lighter than usual. it always seems to last a full three weeks at least, so maybe the 1/2 cup is weighing 2 oz instead. . I'll have to check that..

I prefer to get the small bags because I don't want the stuff going stale. Ingredients begin to degrade the moment the packaging is opened, and since we get paid every two weeks, it's really easy to pop over to Petco next tot he market and get the stuff


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## Island Protector (Dec 31, 2010)

Cool, thanks!


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