Been comparing dog foods again as I'm trying to find a less expensive alternative to the Blue Basics we've been using. Blue Basics contains lots of ingredients like blueberries, cranberries, yucca, peas, chicory root, kelp, and a few other things. This is in addition to the more "standard" type of stuff. This is their formula designed for dogs with food sensitivities. Do these things really add that much nutrition to the food? I would think that introducing items that aren't normally in a dog's diet might increase sensitivity. I've been looking at Purina Pro Plan's sensitive formula and it has the same basic items with good protein and fat levels, but none of the extra food-type items listed above. Comments?

Buy the BEST kibble you can. (BTW--I've heard good about Blue brand) Don't use meat by-products....that often contains the scrapings off of slaughterhouse floors which includes cancerous animal parts (really--research it!) Watch grocery store shelf foods--there's been WAY too many recalls on them--Pedigree just had several recalls within this past week! I make most of my dogs' food, yet add just enough (high quality) kibble (hard food) for crunch (for their teeth). To get on a list for dog food recalls, sign up here:http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recalls/LOTS of info on dog food brands and ingredients on here:http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

Bone Meal. Take a bunch of bones, grind them up to smaller than cornmeal grit.Meat By-products. Animal fat trimmings. Grissle. Animal parts that can not be sold for human consumption. I think I would avoid Purina - their store shelf products are pretty bad things in it. Like buying a car from a dealer who sells junk cars, and now I want to buy a nice car from that one?I used to buy Solid Gold products. I would also give the dogs a little bit of higher quality canned food. I forget the brand names now, but would recognize them when I go through the dog food section of Petco or other stores.I have not had a dog in about 10 years, so I forgot what to get them. . Fred.

Wholesome Ingredients and Their BenefitsBlue Buffalo Ingredient Glossary

I would like to recommend Kirkland (Costco) Super Premium Adult dog food. (Chicken, Rice and Vegetable formula). I have used other brands. Wysong had some issues and I decided to try Kirkland. It is very economical without compromising quality. (The first ingredient listed is CHICKEN). There are some meals too. I also buy canned wild caught salmon and albacore tuna at Costco and give them each a teaspoon (alternating) with their dry food. Add a tablespoon of hot water to create a gravy. They love it and it maintains it's freshness for 6 months+. We store it in an air tight garbage can. It passes my smell test too.

Been comparing dog foods again as I'm trying to find a less expensive alternative to the Blue Basics we've been using. Blue Basics contains lots of ingredients like blueberries, cranberries, yucca, peas, chicory root, kelp, and a few other things. This is in addition to the more "standard" type of stuff. This is their formula designed for dogs with food sensitivities. Do these things really add that much nutrition to the food?Those ingredients are in the bits that are 'added' to the kibble.Are they necessary? No. Are they beneficial? IMHO yes.BUT, they do add sugar which is of course is not listed on the label. So you have to be aware of that if you have a diabetic dog or where added sugar poses a problem.I have been going around and around with Blue. They have substantially decreased the amount of the bits in the food. AND they just about completely eliminated all the bits in the 50 lb bag. When I buy a bag of dog food I want ALL the ingredients to be in there!!Those bits are the most expensive ingredient to the manufacturer. So I guess they are backing off on it to increase their profit line.No surprise there. Every single dog food that gets popular real fast.....the company starts changing the ingredients to make more money while they are on the gravy train. :(Great Life is the first to use those bits and that food was REAL high priced which is why I switched to Blue.Next letter goes to AAFCO they were approved WITH all the bits in the food at X amount percent and now they are lowering the amount and totally eliminating them in the larger bags. Time to make them accountable. And BTW they have repeatedly refused to tell me WHERE their food is processed.:B

Dog food-are these ingredients necessary? | Good Sam Community

Bigdog
Explorer
Sep 28, 2014
We have been feeding Cosmo Accana Grasslands or Ranchlands (?) since we got him 4 y/a and it seems to sit with him well. The problem is in his wet foods, he'll eat almost anything out of the package and seems to really like Caesars, which we are trying to get him off of. Have you really looked at the ingrediant lists and manufacturers on the labels? A lot lot of the ingrediants are the ssame, but in different order and chemical names and a lot of the different brands are made by the same manufacturers. Mars comes to mind, for one, and I believe they are in England.
Funny old story. In the 80's, I had an Olde English Sheep dog named Howard. I had just gone thru a divorce and Howard and my little cockapoo were great companions. Actually Howard turned out to be a great chick magnet. I had always fed the little dog Blue Mountain dry and no canned food, so when Howard was rescued, I just graduated to 50# bags. and when I had to give him up a couple of years later, the new owner called several days later and told me that Howard wasn't eating. I asked him what he was giving him and he had switched to Gravy Train which was one of the most expensive in those days. I told him to go back to the
other, which he did and Howard started eating again. Hummm, $14 a bag. Howard was 15 when he died a happy camper. Went down chasing a cow.The new owners had a 5y/o little girl snd 20 acres with cows, sheep and pigs and I got to see him a couple of times a year.
mike_brez
Explorer
Sep 23, 2014
myredracer wrote:
We use Natural Balance dog food. So much dog food in the US has a lot of corn meal in it and Natural Balance doesn't. We've been using for years.

When we take our dog to the US, we have a problem with dog food because US Customs does not allow small baggies or containers of dog food. It MUST be in the original package and be unopened. Ace Hardware carries Natural Balance and we pick up a bag after crossing the border and can bring it back no problem. It's sold in Canada too.

If you cross the border frequently, it can become a big problem. They don't sell Natural Balance in small packages good for only a few days. We've tried a couple of other brands that have small packages and our dog has reacted badly to it (not uncommon).

We only use Orijen from Canada.
myredracer
Explorer II
Sep 19, 2014
Crowe wrote:
Ace Hardware carries Natural Balance

The Petco chain does as well.

That's good to know. We usually hit up Ace Hardware since they have a store at the border.
AZPops
Explorer
Sep 19, 2014
Code2High wrote:
AZPops wrote:
I just feed Calvin what he likes, with the food that works for him. The only problem is, ... the dang kid's got caviar and filet of venison mignon taste.

Oh well, anyone seen the peanut butter? ... Gotta make me a sandwich.

Pops

You can afford peanut butter?

Yeah, but only when the generic stuff goes on sale. ... lol

Pops
Crowe
Explorer
Sep 19, 2014
Ace Hardware carries Natural Balance

The Petco chain does as well.
myredracer
Explorer II
Sep 18, 2014
We use Natural Balance dog food. So much dog food in the US has a lot of corn meal in it and Natural Balance doesn't. We've been using for years.

When we take our dog to the US, we have a problem with dog food because US Customs does not allow small baggies or containers of dog food. It MUST be in the original package and be unopened. Ace Hardware carries Natural Balance and we pick up a bag after crossing the border and can bring it back no problem. It's sold in Canada too.

If you cross the border frequently, it can become a big problem. They don't sell Natural Balance in small packages good for only a few days. We've tried a couple of other brands that have small packages and our dog has reacted badly to it (not uncommon).
Code2High
Explorer
Sep 18, 2014
AZPops wrote:
I just feed Calvin what he likes, with the food that works for him. The only problem is, ... the dang kid's got caviar and filet of venison mignon taste.

Oh well, anyone seen the peanut butter? ... Gotta make me a sandwich.

Pops

You can afford peanut butter?
BCSnob
Explorer
Sep 17, 2014
Time for you to catch up on the latest evolutionary data which shows genetic mutations in dogs at the time of domestication that gives them the ability to digest starch (cooked grains). Look it up.

Look for information on the number of copies of the amylase gene (in humans, dogs, and wolves) and starch rich diets.
down_home
Explorer II
Sep 16, 2014
Dogs have evolved as carnivores all along the way. They eat berries and some low growing fruits too.
I guess some biologist put the receipt together but most of the stuff seems like bowel irritants and fillers.
They say not to feed them table scraps but they survived living with people, for a long time. Of course some things like little chicken bones; and onions and garlic are dangerous in any quantity over time. They eat rodents and whatever carrion they can find and it causes them no problems. I don't thin a diet of wheat, corn, soy and their husks are going to go well with thei systems though.
mike_brez
Explorer
Sep 15, 2014
We feed our dogs Orijen with some tripe mixed in.