I used to feed my doggy poison. :D

[Darkest.Nation]

I wouldn't suggest raw; bacteria can be a wrecker.

Yeah, getting all that corn filler gone and filling your dog with quality ingredients does reduce his comsumption amount. I have two 25 lb dogs and they eat less than 1 - 1 1/2 cup a piece per day (we feed them half and half and feed them twice a day) on top of daily treats and strict food scraps. Sometimes they eat 1 1/2 cups a day between them both!

[Apperception]

Very interesting read, thank you for the information. I fed my dogs Gravy Train for about two years until I found out that it carried multiple dyes, corn and many fillers. I then switched them to Natural Balance. That's all they've been eating for quite a while, and I can honestly say that they seem to like it, judging from their reactions.

I wouldn't mind checking out some of the dog feed on your "Great" list. The feed store near us carries Taste of the Wild if I'm not mistaking. My only concern is the price, I would imagine it would be more expansive, and I have large dogs (Neither are below 40 pounds).

[bangarain]

You feed a lot less though so it ends up being less expensive :)

[Darkest.Nation]

Yep. Like, my dogs would be fed, what, 2 cups or more on Purina foods each (Beneful, we know), but between them they eat about 2 cups a day or less with Natural Balance.

(Nice pic of Cooper, BTW. Very well done!)

[Bad Habit]

I can't really compare my dog's before/after eating for TOTW, because he's always on it. When I switched from TOTW to Blue Buffalo, he was eating over a cup of food a day, whereas he normally eats about half a cup of TOTW.

TOTW is pretty pricey up here, but for a dog my size, it's no skin off my back to buy him a 20$ 5lb bag of food, since I just divide it into three portions and vacuum seal two of them. Lasts 3 months, but only because I throw out any unused portion at the end of the month(paranoid about it going stale).

[OneRowdyNight]

Mine had been on a Science Diet for their weight issues, but are now back on their Innova, thank goodness. The extra Fiber in Scinece Diet made the backyard a messy place. x.x

[Cardinal]

I wouldn't suggest raw; bacteria can be a wrecker.

Only if the dog is already immunocompromised. =)

Dogs have lysozyme in their saliva.. Their first line of defense because it kills bacteria.
Dog have highly acidic guts to kill bacteria.
Dogs have very short digestive tracts to rush any remaining bacteria out of their systems before infection can occur.

Generally, a dog's digestive tract can deal just fine with the bacteria and its not uncommon for dogs to shed salmonella while on a strict kibble diet.





Anyways. My laptop bit the dust. I dropped my E-reader. I'm completely internetless unless at a friends. :<

[Wrykku]

Thank you so much for posting this. I had no idea about any of this, and feel really bad about feeding it to my dog. I have switched to totw, and mixed it with her old food to make it easier for her to switch. The funny part is.. she picks all of her old food out and spits it (yes) out onto the floor near her bowl, then goes about eating the totw. And here I was thinking she really liked the other kind. xD She seems so much happier on this food already even though it's only been less than a month, and eats so much less! She also has really no eye gunk any more, which she used to have so bad that I had to clean her eyes every morning. I will have to post before and after pics one day after she has been on it a while.

[Amethyst Howl]

Is this just dry food? mine gets canned pedigree, often mixed with leftovers.

[Darkest.Nation]

It can be either, as my dogs ate the wet Beneful food. It's okay as a snack and such, but as a general meal, unless they have a "thing" where they only can eat wet food, dry food is recommended.

But yeah, we're mainly talking about dry food. Is there a reason why your dog is on strictly wet food (w/ scraps). Oh, I might as well post a list of poisionus foods for dogs, as I've heard many people nearly kill their dogs by dumfoundedly feeding them raisins and such, without even checking to see if it's poisionus.