On the topic of food

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Hi ~ because I feel that some of the food discussions here could be a very useful reference I am going to attempt to cut and paste each under this discussion title. Please feel free to add as you taste test or have new experiences!

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles on September 8, 2008 at 9:44pm
Delete Comment ~ Food ~
As you are aware Canidae went through a formula change recently. I have been on a major food evaluation binge. I was able to attend a trade show with a shop owner over the weekend and went armed with questions and much research. I will share my opinions but wish to wait as I am anticipating the owner of one of the companies to return my call and would really like to hear her side as opposed to her reps.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Erica and Kodi on September 9, 2008 at 9:31am
Delete Comment Hi All, I did read about the formula change in Canidea but I left Kodi on it since he is doing well. Regarding the coat change, I notice that Kodi's deep chocolate color is beginning to get highlights of a nice golden tones (I pay big bucks for this in the salon!) I remember seeing a photo of his daddy and when his hair was long he too had a golden tone to his chocolate coat. As for size, Kodi was 23 lbs. about 2 weeks ago ... I am certain he is close to 30 by now. He grew sooo much in a few short weeks.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Marcia & "Kodie" & "Tannor" on September 10, 2008 at 2:47pm
Delete Comment Has anyone tried "California Natural" dog food..?

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles on September 10, 2008 at 5:42pm
Delete Comment Glad you brought this up Marcia ~
I highly approve of California Natural and any of the Natura products. I would exercise caution with the EVO though because I believe it to be a bit too high in protien, which can potentially tax the kidneys.
I promised to share so here is some of what I have concluded:

My top 3 food picks were as follows:
Evangers
Natura, specifically California Natural and Innova
Orijen

Without going into the extreme specifics I will share that Evangers is NO LONGER on my list. Their product is great however when I contacted them with questions about their breeders program, I told them that they stated they wanted to reward the cream of the crop and no where did it indicate anything about health, testing, responsible breeding - it was all about AKC, fancier clubs and awards won at competitions. I met the rep over the weekend hoping to clarify this, it was stated that LD's were not even an AKC recognized breed and why would I not just breed poodles or labradoodles, so I asked her 'oh so your food is just for AKC dogs then?', she also suggested that maybe if I got my people to breed these dogs to DO something ie. agility, etc... I told her many LD's are used in therapy and also participate in agility. Towards the end she did suggest I just get a tax id and get product for wholesale. Honestly I spend a LOT of money on food and I just cannot financially support this prejudice.

I love Orijen, especialy the 6 fish. It is a Canadian product and they are generally more 'clean' than we are. They have far less chemicals approved for foods there from what I am told. The product is also fresh. The down sides, very expensive, very high protein and can be difficult to get. I buy this and mix with plain yogurt to freeze in Kongs for treats.

Natura Products meets all of my requirements except as a breeder offering an all stage. I have decided that all of the other positive outweighs this. They have never been on a recall list, they manufacture their own food and do not hire it out while looking the other way and all of their ingredients are sourced in the US except I think some of their lamb (from New Zealand). All of the puppies have tried this except Zeke because we did experiment with it when I knew Canidae was changing. All here loved it, I just kept looking for the all stage and did not want any of you to have to continue the transition stage so we stayed with Canidae until we recently moved to Evangers. We will be feeding a combination of California Natural and Innova, I feel it is good to expose them to different sources of protein and foods. The Cal. Nat. is a very simple formula and awesome for puppies. It is also very good for dogs with allergies. We have already begun the transition and had no difficulties with upset tummies.

Innova has announced it is going to do a formula change, there are many who are making waves about garlic in the food (personally I like it). There packaging will also shrink a bit in order to keep the bag price aprox the same with the increases in ingredients they have faced as everyone else has.

Another California Natural Product I really like is their skin and coat supplement.

There are two additional foods I would like to evaluate further but have not had time if you want to look at them. They deliver to you. One is Life's Abundance and the other is Flint River. If anyone checks out first please share.

Okay so this should have came with a long warning, sorry. And because this darn window is so small it is really hard to look over all that I typed so I hope it makes sense. I feel very strongly about my responsibility to give our dogs the very best start they can have and nutrition is a huge part. I need to know this information so I can condidently share it with our puppy families and potential families.

I am sure there will be more to come as I continue to check this out. I am reading a book called 'Pet Food Politics' - the chihuahua in the coal mine - excellent.
I welcome your feedback on this subject, if I can better address your concerns please tell me how. If you find this helpful without being too much I would like to know that as well.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles on September 10, 2008 at 5:56pm
Delete Comment Oh and if you have looked at Wellness brand at all apparently they also had a formula change that was not received well and they have now been aquired by Eagle Pack (another premium food), here is a link if you are interested:

http://www.petproductnews.com/headlines/2008/08/15/catterton-sells-...

We do REALLY like many of the wellness treats though.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Marcia & "Kodie" & "Tannor" on September 10, 2008 at 6:27pm
Delete Comment Thank you Dianne..! That was a great read..full of interesting information.....
When this mix of Royal Canin and Canidae is just about finished, I will pick up some Calif. Natural...it looks like a clean product. I will also look into Orijen.
Thanks again....I appreciate any info you can give..!

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Erica and Kodi on September 11, 2008 at 11:23am
Delete Comment Thanks Dianne. We are nearing the end of our first bag of Canidae so I will begin mixing it w/Calif. Natural. Hopefully he will gradually adapt to it without any tummy trouble.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Marcia & "Kodie" & "Tannor" on September 11, 2008 at 11:24am
Delete Comment Dianne,
Do you have any information on the Eagle Pack "Holistic Select"..? Are you familiar with it at all..? Thanks....

[SusieM]

I have used Eagle Pack "Holistic Select" in the past. For the final six months of my choc Huskador's life (Hazel), she ate only this dry food. She finally passed of kidney failure and although she was almost 14yrs old, she ate a few of the Good Brand/Bad Foods along the way. We found Eagle Pack "Holistic Select" Senior formula a bit too late and I only wish I'd known about it much sooner... :(

The one thing that I CAN tell you about Eagle is that when there was another dog food scare, I emailed them and within about two hours, they emailed me back to let me know that all of the products used in their foods were from their company, they were all holistic and that nothing was imported. Also, I could tell by the way this was written that it wasn't a "copy and paste" deal from a pr person within the company.
Besides the quality of their food, this response went a long way in my book.
I'd use this food again...

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles on September 11, 2008 at 3:15pm
Delete Comment Erica,
Kodi has had California Natural with no issue in the past, as long as you ease him into it you should have no issues. I start with about 3/4's old and 1/4 new and gradually increase each day until I we are completely changed over.

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles on September 11, 2008 at 3:19pm
Delete Comment Marcia,
You may want to hold up just a bit on Eagle Pack. They have recently acquired Wellness (they also have had some formula changes) and I would just let the dust settle first to see if they change anything up and merge or what. No sense getting used to yet another something only for it to change. Here is a link about that acquisition -
http://www.petproductnews.com/headlines/2008/08/15/catterton-sells-...

[Dianne Carter ~ Trinity Doodles]

Comment by Marcia & "Kodie" & "Tannor" on September 11, 2008 at 4:10pm
Delete Comment Alrighty....I will wait on it...I was just curious...I will probably go with the Ca. Natural....it's more accessible also!
Thanks again!