DW Community Catch-up Thread
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What kind of food do the dog owners here feed their dogs? The shelter I got my dog from (and volunteer at) stresses high quality organic grain-free dry food. So that’s what I bought! Well, my posse of dog moms (my dog’s siblings’ owners and I have become friends, haha) have slowly had their vets tell them that grain-free isn’t better. And, in fact, can actually be bad unless your dog has an issue that requires a grain-free diet. Curious if anyone else has heard this?
I haven’t heard that. I feed them Sojos, which is a dried food you add water to. I switched when he had a bunch of teeth removed and needed soft food. The initial soft food, the kind you normally think of, is really high in fat so he gained weight. He loves the Sojos. It is basically dehydrated.
Before that I fed him Blue Buffalo as that was all the rage at the time although now I’ve heard opposite. I feel like what’s best changed daily. Every other day they say the food that was last touted as the best option is now bad because of whatever. I swear you can change foods hourly and still be an evil pet mom for not getting them a slab of steak at each meal.
At Casa De Fyodor we serve Solid Gold Hund-N-Flocken, which makes Hound of Fyodor’s fur smell like kind of like fritos, as it did for our last dog.
“. I swear you can change foods hourly and still be an evil pet mom for not getting them a slab of steak at each meal.”
Hound of Fyodor is a super picky eater and for the first year we had her, we needed to mix wet food into her dry food to get her to eat. We tried tapering off several times unsuccessfuly. Eventually we were confident enough that she wouldnt kill herself on a hunger strike that we went cold turkey. She wouldn’t eat for the first 24 hours and it was a good three weeks before she was eating every meal again.
We are feeding Canidae dry – the one for senior dogs. When our little one went through…something where she was vomiting all the time we started giving them some canned food (with dry). And I think that is when they put on a lot of weight. So using that up (where they only get it once a week) and then sticking to dry.
I’ve also started hearing that grain-free isn’t necessarily better. I too feel like what JD said. The Vet on Saturday said the food didn’t have to be low-fat or anything, nor grain-free. So I’ve been considering finding a different one but so far this one doesn’t upset little dog’s stomach so probably will just stick with it.
Also, when I first took away the canned food, the little dog refused to eat for around 24 hours herself. But she got hungry enough she decided the hard food was better than no food.
My dog is a super picky eater *with dog food*. We’ve tried a few different brands of grain-free food (assuming that was best) and none excite him. I guess they’re now saying grain-free foods are linked to heart disease in dogs. One of my dog mom friends freaked out and threw away their food. I’m going to switch again when we finish this bag, but am not sure what to switch to. And if I’m opening it up to food that I previously thought was lesser quality because it wasn’t grain-free, he might even like the taste better.
@Copa – you might try and see if you can get samples from some of your local pet stores. Also, I know PetSmart is a chain but the people who work there can be helpful. They don’t carry the brand I use but I was asking about the food samples they had out. She asked what food I currently use – she said it was a good brand and she couldn’t really sale me anything better (that they carry). It does have grain in it (I think rice) just not corn, wheat or soy. I think one of those is what upset my little one’s stomach.
We feed our dog a grain free Costco brand food. Grain free because she has sensitive skin and stopped getting rashes when we switched to the grain free, and Costco brand because she’s a Great Dane who eats 5 cups of food a day.
My little middle-aged poodle lady only has 1 tooth left so I feed her Ollie: http://www.myollie.com. I like it because it’s all totally organic and fresh and you put in your dog’s specifications and health needs and they ship it right to you. She’s so picky that I also add in either some skinless chicken breast (from a rotisserie chicken) or some hard boiled egg, along with green beans, to get her to eat it. We’ve done well with Ollie for the past year or so. I’ve also heard that grain free isn’t the best and Ollie isn’t, but it’s very balanced. I may actually start making her food myself and using Ollie to supplement; if I do that I’ll be making a mixture of lean ground beef or bison (I think she has some mild chicken allergies), green beans, carrots, brown rice, and sweet potatoes. I’ve held off on making it so far but with 1 tooth and her super pickiness we may be there.
I fed her Merrick (from Petco) for a couple of years and she did well on that too, but I wanted to move to something that was even fresher. If your dog is younger which I think he is, that might be the way to go. Mine is almost 11 and is remarkably healthy and active except for the teeth. 🙂
