I used to feed my doggy poison. :D

[Blumoonwolf]

To be honest, when I read the title, I clicked on it, wondering what kind of a sick person would do that.
When I read what you actually wrote, I'm very moved that you would take the time to gather that information, links, and such to inform people about what is actually in their dog's food.

Some of the ingredients are very vague, (Animal fat in this example.) and that is awful, it could mean anything.
I'm sure most of us know that some big brands have lots of money, and that corrupts them. Now, I don't really know if they collect roadkill, (Just imagining a random guy parking his car and throwing a dead squirrel in his trunk right now, I know that's not how they do that) but they can have big farm owner donating rotted meat, and because that meat smells like meat, your dog will love it. Not only that, but they have "Lower Prices" on famous dog food companies, so more people will buy it.

I could go on for hours, but I just want to thank you for putting this out there!

[wolfgirl2011]

As for one of my dogs, she's fed IAMS, which I hate with a passion. My aunt and uncle are her actual owners, even though she lives with my mom and I, but they supply everything for her. She has trouble keeping weight on and her fur is full of dandruff. I wish they would change her food.

My other dog is on Costco's Kirkland Dog Food and he's doing great on it. He has GREAT body condition, however, the food doesn't do much for his coat. He used to have a dandruff problem before we started him on fish oil pills. One 1200mg pill every other day. Now his fur is extremely soft and smooth and very shiny. I'd love to change his diet to Instinct raw food. However, price is an issue and my mom doesn't want to change his food.

My dad's dog is fed 5 whopping cups a day of Fromm Large Breed Adult. He's overweight by about 10lbs, and he gets two half-an-hour walks a day and at least two times a week goes to the dog park for an hour. So it's not his activity level that's the problem. It's the fact that my dad thinks that if the dog is begging for food, then he's starving and needs to be fed more food. *slaps forehead* I guess when the dog starts getting early arthritis my dad will end up changing how much he's fed a day. On the other hand, his fur is shiny, but is full of dandruff. I reccommended fish oil pills to my dad, but he's confident that his dog is perfectly fine the way he is. And he would be completely opposed to changing food brands.

As for my cat (I got him in May 2014), we've been experimenting with food ever since we got him. First he was on Pure Balance until I figured out that was a Walmart brand of food and immediately switched him off it. I researched food brands online, and found that Science Diet had good reviews, so currently he's on that. Dry and wet. 1/4 cup dry 2x day, and 1 tablespoon wet 1x day. I don't think we're feeding him too much, but he has gained weight ever since being on Science Diet. His fur is completely fine and he hasn't had any health problems besides dirty ears (no ear mites/infection). As for food brands, I'm still unsure of what to feed him. I can't change him to a raw food diet because I simply don't fully believe in it yet/or know enough about it, and every good food I see is only available at a high price. I suppose I could buy a huge bag of it that would last a few months, which wouldn't be a problem. I don't see the point in putting him on grain-free, and I don't really want to because it's more expensive. I'm going to the store to buy him more food tomorrow night or Thursday. Any suggestions? He's a 3 year old, gray DSH, neutered male who is strictly indoor only. He weighs about 11lbs, maybe 12lbs.

[The Winter Soldier]

Science diet is pretty good despite what people say if your dogs doing fine on science diet look into getting him a science diet food that is light weight and give him plenty of exercise as well. They make light weight science diet foods you know and you could easily just buy the light stuff instead of normal science diet foods.

Science diet makes regular and light foods the light foods generally help with weight and regular foods are generally just well regular food. If you not exercising a dog enough they can also gain weight on any food regardless. I would imagine if one where to put a dog on raw diet and not exercise them that eventually you'd start seeing the dog get fat. I mean exercise is important and a raw diet with exercise is usually a smart choice come to think of it a good diet and exercise in general is good for any dog unless they have some underlying health issue that makes them unable to exercise to much.

[Jazi]

Any suggestions? He's a 3 year old, gray DSH, neutered male who is strictly indoor only. He weighs about 11lbs, maybe 12lbs.

Try Earthborn! It's not too freakishly expensive, and has both kibble and canned varieties.

Another nicely priced option is Whole Earth Farms, which is made by Merrick. WEF is a 4.5 star food (compared to Science Diet which ranges from 2.5 stars to 3.5 stars) and is available for about half the cost. They also have a canned and dry selection.

[BlingBling]

Any suggestions for a 7 year old neutered DSH, about 10lbs, with possible stage one kidney disease?

[wolfgirl2011]

Any suggestions? He's a 3 year old, gray DSH, neutered male who is strictly indoor only. He weighs about 11lbs, maybe 12lbs.

Try Earthborn! It's not too freakishly expensive, and has both kibble and canned varieties.

Another nicely priced option is Whole Earth Farms, which is made by Merrick. WEF is a 4.5 star food (compared to Science Diet which ranges from 2.5 stars to 3.5 stars) and is available for about half the cost. They also have a canned and dry selection.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been looking around at various other brands. And so far I've liked Nature's Variety Instinct, but it's expensive, and Merrick and Solid Gold, which aren't as expensive. I'll take a look at the two you suggested. Thanks!

[Imzadi83]

Any suggestions? He's a 3 year old, gray DSH, neutered male who is strictly indoor only. He weighs about 11lbs, maybe 12lbs.

Try Earthborn! It's not too freakishly expensive, and has both kibble and canned varieties.

Another nicely priced option is Whole Earth Farms, which is made by Merrick. WEF is a 4.5 star food (compared to Science Diet which ranges from 2.5 stars to 3.5 stars) and is available for about half the cost. They also have a canned and dry selection.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been looking around at various other brands. And so far I've liked Nature's Variety Instinct, but it's expensive, and Merrick and Solid Gold, which aren't as expensive. I'll take a look at the two you suggested. Thanks!

You might get cheaper prices if you shop around (both on and off line) and look around for coupons.

[Lee-Sins]

Since this is a dog food topic, I figured asking this here would be alright.

I usually make homemade treats from salmon/halibut/deer/moose that I've personally caught/hunted for. Though I was looking around at petco the other day and they had a fairly large selection aswell as the feed store I usually go to and figured I may as well spice things up and mix the treats around. I believe one of you stated having a drawer for just dog treats either on this topic or on a different one.

I was wondering what sort of dog treats you normally get and what are the better ones c:

[Jazi]

Since this is a dog food topic, I figured asking this here would be alright.

I usually make homemade treats from salmon/halibut/deer/moose that I've personally caught/hunted for. Though I was looking around at petco the other day and they had a fairly large selection aswell as the feed store I usually go to and figured I may as well spice things up and mix the treats around. I believe one of you stated having a drawer for just dog treats either on this topic or on a different one.

I was wondering what sort of dog treats you normally get and what are the better ones c:

Might have been me? I have a training toys drawer and a treats drawer.

Honestly I get whatever's from a decent brand and on sale. We bounce between bil jac, zukes, natural balance, and dogstar mostly. Sometimes wellness and solid gold go on decent enough sales for me to nab them too. We get the soft, breakable treats or the soft small "training treats" (and still usually and up breaking them.

[wolfgirl2011]

Since this is a dog food topic, I figured asking this here would be alright.

I usually make homemade treats from salmon/halibut/deer/moose that I've personally caught/hunted for. Though I was looking around at petco the other day and they had a fairly large selection aswell as the feed store I usually go to and figured I may as well spice things up and mix the treats around. I believe one of you stated having a drawer for just dog treats either on this topic or on a different one.

I was wondering what sort of dog treats you normally get and what are the better ones c:

Might have been me? I have a training toys drawer and a treats drawer.

Honestly I get whatever's from a decent brand and on sale. We bounce between bil jac, zukes, natural balance, and dogstar mostly. Sometimes wellness and solid gold go on decent enough sales for me to nab them too. We get the soft, breakable treats or the soft small "training treats" (and still usually and up breaking them.

Dogstar is a great brand from my experience. They're small enough to be training treats and they're enough to motivate and reward my dog when needed. They have treats that can be used as training treats, or bigger treats that can be broken up. One of my favorite treat brands out there.