Dog owners, what food?

S

S10xGN

RETIRED!
Joined
May 26, 2001
Hi All,

Our best friend (Sheltie) recently died from kidney failure at 8 1/2 years. I'm not sure her IAMS or our table scraps got her, or maybe it was a genetic defect, but we just got a new baby and want to do right by her this time. She's a miniature Australian Shepherd, age 8 weeks and the breeder has her on Diamond puppy lamb and rice mix. I've read good things about it, but my sis-in-law (who works for a vet) says they use Blue Buffalo at home. Thoughts please?
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my German Shepherd had a ton of energy and was always in perfect health on nothing but Iams.. she also crapped a lot less and ate a lot less on that compared to the "cheap" stuff that wound up costing more when i factored in how much she ate..
 
Blue Buffalo is the only thing I give my two German shepherds period.
 
Cute puppy Russ, and I'm sorry about you loosing your other one. I feed mine breeders choice but they're 30 lb dogs. You have to remember that dogs are made to eat meat and not dry food. Mine get scraps as well as dry food. You might want to consider what the vets call BARF which includes meat and bone, but it's got to be keep in the fridge.:)
 
switched to blue buffalo about a year ago from Iams. i have a choc lab and a cocker,they love it and seem heathier,no scratching from food alergies
 
novaderrik said:
my German Shepherd had a ton of energy and was always in perfect health on nothing but Iams.. she also crapped a lot less and ate a lot less on that compared to the "cheap" stuff that wound up costing more when i factored in how much she ate..
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Ditto for my Golden Retriever. 2 cups a day, one in the AM, one in the PM.

Enjoy your new best friend, Russ....she's a cutie!!
 
Just make sure the primary ingredient is Meat, Not meat byproducts or grains. Most of the major dog food manufacturers do quite a bit of R&D toward animal nutrition. Most are pretty good. I feed Purina Pro-Plan myself.

FWIW I lost a 5 year old Brittany to Kidney Failure induced by Lymes diesase. He had a rare autoimmune reaction to the lymes.
 
My Jack likes fresh cat meat...Actually after having to spend a couple of thousand to have kidney stones removed, he's on a special diet of Iams. I still have to yell at the wife for feeding him table scraps!!!
 
There are many good high quality products on the market, just takes a little time and searching. I've had MANY vets tell me the one dog you you DO NOT want to use is ANY brand that has the words BY-PRODUCTS anywhere in the ingredients list. Take a look at IAMS, I'm betting, unless they've imporved their formulay that you will find those words in there.
I've seen some pretty disgusing videos on the net of just what those by-products are!

Meat as the main ingredient, not grains. Dogs are carnevors (sic) not herbivors (sic). Anything with meat first and some rice is good.

Stay away from any brand that has BY-PRODUCTS!!!!!!!!
 
Nutrish by Rachael Ray (available at wal mart) has meat as the first ingredient. I use that in tandem with raw meat on the bone, chicken hearts and kidneys, cooked eggs, and misc natural treats... The high end stuff is nice and they like it but my "kids" are big and with three of them it was just too expensive... Since our oldest by recently passed, we still have two hungry mouths to feed. God luck. Nice looking puppy.
 
turbo39151 said:
Nutrish by Rachael Ray (available at wal mart) has meat as the first ingredient. I use that in tandem with raw meat on the bone, chicken hearts and kidneys, cooked eggs, and misc natural treats... The high end stuff is nice and they like it but my "kids" are big and with three of them it was just too expensive... Since our oldest by recently passed, we still have two hungry mouths to feed. God luck. Nice looking puppy.
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My dog just read this and wants to leave me and move in with you. :)
 
The ingredients breakdown on Diamond vs. Blue Buffalo is negligible. The only remaining difference is the distances between PetSmart (BB) and Tractor Depot (Diamond).. :)

charlief1 said:
Cute puppy Russ, and I'm sorry about you loosing your other one. I feed mine breeders choice but they're 30 lb dogs. You have to remember that dogs are made to eat meat and not dry food. Mine get scraps as well as dry food. You might want to consider what the vets call BARF which includes meat and bone, but it's got to be keep in the fridge.:)
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Charlie, this one won't get any table scraps (I promise!). Our last 2 did and they were shameless beggars, and I'm not convinced it didn't cause our last one's early demise.

BIGPSI said:
switched to blue buffalo about a year ago from Iams. i have a choc lab and a cocker,they love it and seem heathier,no scratching from food alergies
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Scratching... Food allergies... I never made the connection, so we shall see. Thanks for the heads up!

aminga said:
Just make sure the primary ingredient is Meat, Not meat byproducts or grains. Most of the major dog food manufacturers do quite a bit of R&D toward animal nutrition. Most are pretty good. I feed Purina Pro-Plan myself.

FWIW I lost a 5 year old Brittany to Kidney Failure induced by Lymes diesase. He had a rare autoimmune reaction to the lymes.
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We don't have a lot of ticks here, but I swear I saw a few on her belly last year. By the time we got to the vet, there was no sign of them, but this has always been in the back of mind.
 
S10xGN said:
We don't have a lot of ticks here, but I swear I saw a few on her belly last year. By the time we got to the vet, there was no sign of them, but this has always been in the back of mind.
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I think Rusty got his on a trip to Wisconsin But we did bird hunt in TX abot 5 months before he died.

The good news is that there is a special heartworm test called a Snap test that is quite effective at detecting lymes. After rusty our Vet switched. And what we learned at Miss State Vet school advanced the treatment of Canine Kidney failure quite a bit.
 
My 14 year old German Shep mix gets people Food with kibbles and bits. In good health except rear hips give him trouble going up and down steps. What did they give dogs 100 years ago? Scraps, left overs
 
Make your own food . Its a ton of work but its alot better for them than any dog food in the store. I used quality c/plus but it got expensive and are rott started getting a little heavy so the vet gave us a diet to follow which did not include dog food. We used rice with beef or chicken with peas and carrots. The rice is not the minute rice crap either. He loved the food and he lost some weight so we left him on it.
 
Beneful i think is what we feed our jack russells, the oldest one is 13 and has had kidney stones removed, lyme disease, 2 viscious encounters with raccoons,and still acts like a puppy. We have tried other kinds of food and they really wouldnt eat it, they do get table scraps but only meat like steak or chicken nothing processed. They all like oranges and strawberries ALOT.
 
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