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

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The Commercial Foods:

Taste Of The Wild: 10 members feeding

Specific formulas mentioned:
Wetlands Classic
High Prairie
Bison, Venison
Pacific Stream

Innova and EVO: 10 members feeding

1 using canned, 1 using puppy formula
Formulas mentioned: Small bites
large breed puppy

Orijen: 6 members using

2 Orijen users are feeding puppy formulas.
Specific formulas mentioned: fresh fish kibble

Nature's Variety: 6 members feeding

Formulas mentioned: Prairie Venison, Prairie Chicken, Prairie Salmon
Raw Medallions, Instinct

Natural Balance (Dick van Patten): 6 members feeding

1 member is using canned NB
Formulas mentioned: Venison & Sweet potato
Lamb & Rice for sensitive stomach
NB Meat Roll

Wellness: 5 members feeding, and 1 member considering it

Formulas mentioned: Super 5 Mix
2 members are feeding Wellness puppy formulas

Solid Gold: 4 members feeding

All SG feeders are feeding SG puppy formulas. Two are using the Hund N Flocken formula

Fromm: 4 members feeding, 3 are considering it

Formulas mentioned: Large Breed
Four Star

Kirkland: 4 members feeding

Formulas mentioned: lamb and rice kibble
chicken puppy formula
canned chicken and rice
canned lamb and rice

Canidae: 3 members feeding

All Canidae users are feeding the "All life Stages" formula

Evangers: 3 members feeding

All feeding Evangers Classic canned chicken & rice (good for sensitive stomachs)

The Following Foods are each being fed by 2 members:

Life's Abundance both dry & canned

California Naturals Lamb & rice mentioned

Merrick Cowboy Cookout & Wilderness Blend mentioned

Blue Buffalo Chicken & Brown rice for puppies, Wilderness canned & dry mentioned

Chicken Soup for the Dog lover's Soul Senior formula mentioned

Royal Canin Large breed puppy mentioned

The Following Foods are being used by 1 member each:

Blue Ridge Beef (a raw food) chicken & beef

Sojo's

Now! by Petcurean

Horizon Complete puppy

Avoderm

Honest Kitchen

Deli Fresh

Acana

Whew!
I have a doodle to walk!
When I come back, numbers on homecooking, raw feeding, "add-ins" and much more! Stay tuned!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Homecooking:

Nine of the members who responded to my request feed their dogs homecooked meals on a regular basis.

Lynne Fowler is our homecooking Guru and mentor. Many of you know that Lynne's Standard Poodle Magic was one of the dogs who died as a result of the melamine poisoning in the 2007 dog food recalls. Ginger, Jack and Cody, as well as many DK doodles, are now benefitting from Magic's legacy. Lynne has recipes and tips for feeding your dogs a healthy homecooked diet, in the Homecooking Section of the Food Group.
http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/homecoo...

Many other Food Group members add fresh foods to their doodles kibble on a regular basis. This is an easy way to add variety & fresh food nutrition without actually having to go near the stove, lol.
Popular "add-ins" include:

plain yogurt- several people use this for it's probiotic benefits
oatmeal
cooked chicken
cooked eggs
canned salmon & tuna
cooked salmon & other fish
assorted vegetables (Jackdoodle loves lima beans!)
cottage cheese
broth- low-fat and/or low sodium for flavoring

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Some common supplements that our respondents mentioned using on a regular basis include:

Salmon oil
Multi-vitamins
digestive enzymes

Information on these and many more can be found in The Food Group.
Visit the Food Group: http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Although my survey request was for commercial dog foods, several of our respondents combine raw feeding with kibble.
Commercial raw foods mentioned, also included in the list above, are:

Nature's Variety raw medallions
Blue Ridge Beef products
Honest Kitchen products

One of our members who feeds a home made raw diet uses kibble for her puppy, and will switch to the raw diet when he is older.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Dianne Carter, of Trinity Doodles, is one busy lady; a breeder of beautiful ALD's, a single mom of equally beautiful children, yet she is always available to help our food group members with feeding questions, especially regarding the care of puppies. Every time somebody posts a question about feeding puppies, I send Dianne an SOS...and she always responds. Dianne has done extensive research on canine nutritional needs, and is always investigating commercial products. She likes Acana and Orijen brands in particular, and Evanger's Classic Canned Chicken & Rice for sensitive tummies. Some other recommendations from Dianne:
"We especially favor ACANA grasslands ~ lamb & fish when environmental conditions in humid, moldy Fl lend themselves to increased ear gunk ~ because this formula has sweet potato rather than white potato it is less inclined to cause a sugar problem leading to more yeast issues. Most of the year we can use the others with white potato with no issue. We do also use canned EVO and Natural Balance Venison & Sweet Potato, and Fish & Sweet Potato (again mostly in the height of yucky ears). If grains are not an issue we like the simplicity of the California Natural formula."
Thanks Dianne, for all your help.

[Tante & Jordan & now Annie!]

Fascinating! Thank you Karen for putting all that info together.

[Leslie and Halas]

Thanks for posting this. It's good to see it all in one place. This gives me some ideas for when I want to rotate another food in. If it weren't for the food group, I probably wouldn't have heard of a lot of these, so thanks to you and Lynne for starting the group.

[Karen Gaffney]

Our dogs eat evo red meat. Nimbus is a bit sensitive to poultry and grains so this works well for him

[Sally, Echo and Emmi]

Thank you, Karen and Jack, for putting this all in one place for us to read! I am very appreciative!

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

Great Job Kiddo!

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Very nice job Karen. Very interesting. Thank you for doing this. I especially like hearing from Diane as we are in Fla. now and fighting the battle of chronic ear infections. I feel due to all the swimming and the very humid conditions here. Will try her recommendation however and see if it helps/

[Jeannine]

Thanks Karen,
Huge job there!
Since I know Lynne and Magic's story, I feed my girls home cook food. I always make sure that their diet is 80% meat like chicken, beef, pork mix with fish, 10% brown rice and 10% vegetables like spinach, sweet potatoes, green peas and carrots.
I find out that Thalie is not drinking as much as she should do so I add more broth or water in her food.

Also twice a week they have a yogurt and / or cottage cheese treat.
With their meal they get fish oil capsule and 1/4 tsp of mare herbs.

I personally will never go back to any commercial average type of food.