DK Doodles Are Eating Good!!! The Food Group's Commercial Food Survey

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Several weeks ago, I asked the Food Group Members to tell me what commercial foods they are currently feeding, as a kind of general recommendation for DK members. Although we have an extremely large and active Commercial Foods section, as well as many other discussions about various foods, nutritional info, supplements, allergy issues and everything else you can imagine, some people evidently have trouble wading through it, or just don't want to be bothered looking, lol. We still constantly see the question posted in the main forum "What kibble should I feed my dog?" I hope this will help.
My fellow group members have really been doing their research, and I was just stunned at the wide variety of premium foods and varied diets their doodles are getting. These are some very well fed pooches!
At the time I started gathering information, we had 186 members in the Group. (I'm proud to say that we now have 196!) I received 49 responses, which is more than a quarter of our group, and I would venture to say covers most of the active members.
Although I asked for just the names of the commercial foods (kibble or canned) that they are feeding, I also got information about extras, supplements, etc. I will break the reponses down into separate posts here, and include that info, too.
Two of our Food Group members, Lynne Fowler and Dianne Carter, have done more to help educate, teach and counsel our members than any one could ever ask or expect. Each of these ladies has very special regimens with regard to feeding their dogs, and that will be posted separately as well.
I am not a statistician, and did not use spreadsheets to organize my info. People left me messages, and I wrote everything down on a big yellow legal pad. Then I shuffled through all my yellow papers and counted how many are feeding this, how many are feeding that, etc. (Many of our Food Group members are rotating or alternating between different commercial foods, which is a very good thing to do, so there is a lot more info than just 49 brand names, lol) Anyway, my point is that this is by no means a scientific survey. However, if you're looking for good food(s) for your doodles, this might be a very good place to start.

If you have questions, Please Visit the Food Group: http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup

[nate]

Our pups are on Orijen Adult.  If the local pet shops are out, we buy 1 5lb bag each of Taste of the Wild "Pacific Stream" ( fish ) and "Wetlands"( poultry ) and mix the two together.  That's the best "emergency" approximation of that Orijen formula we've come up with -- and our boys can switch to that mix without any issue.  They don't like it as much, but that doesn't surprise me -- Orijen is one of the 'fanciest' pet foods out there and about 40% more expensive that TOTW ( which is also a top tier food ).  The ingredients are quite a bit better, and it has a stronger smell ( Taste of the Wild almost has no smell by comparison ),  The different brands and lines within them each have varying ingredients and proportions , so it's hard to find a 1:1 swap when you're replacing or transitioning --- but mixing can work really well!

TOTW and Orijen are both at the top of the recommended "Food Group" list right now ( actually the first 2 entries ), so I wanted to share that trick.