Commercial Foods-The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Tell us what commercial foods have worked for you and which have caused problems; information, questions, warnings and advice on dog food companies, ingredients, brands, and switching foods.
(Recall information now in it's own discussion here in The Food Group)

[Joy & Buddy]

Buddy is 13 months old and has been on TOTW Pacific Stream for about 2 months. He does quite well on it. Protein is 26%. I've talked to them a few times and they are helpful. But it does have canola oil in it and Orijen maintains that dogs cannot process canola oil. I tried switching Buddy to Orijen because given all my research--and I have done a lot!--(and endorsements here) it seems like a great food but he didn't do as well on it. I'm not sure whether it was the chicken or the high protein. He was on Wellness Large Breed Puppy and then Innova Large Breed Puppy until he was about 10-11 months old, when he started having the runs. So we switched--seems like we tried a few different foods before settling on TOTW Pacific Stream (the owners of our pet store feed their two Newfoundlands the same formula).

But here is my question/dilemma: I took Buddy for his first all over haircut--he was matting up quite a bit now that he is going through his coat change, even though I have been working on the mats--and the groomer said his coat was quite dry and asked what I am feeding him! So maybe it was because I have been using Cowboy Magic this past week. Or maybe he needs a different food? I'm pretty committed to grain-free because it makes sense to me and I would love to feed Orijen or Acana (at this point I would choose Acana because it has a slightly lower proten count). Can't find Acana locally and I'm not sure about Orijen now because when we tried it, Buddy burped a lot, threw up a bit, had runny stools. I did transition him slowly. So any thoughts about a food I should try? Or keep him on TOTW through the coat change to see if maybe it's not the food? Try a different Orijen formula? The groomer mentioned duck as a way to keep the fat content up for his coat.

Any help would be appreciated! I really appreciate this discussion!

[Lynne Fowler-Oodles of Doodles]

Add a fish oil capsule to his food. Poke a hole in the gelcap and squirt it in or onlynaturalpet.com has it in a pump squirt bottle. It works great on dry skin dull coat and has many other benefits. No dry kibble will be perfect.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Also, the groomer is mistaken about the duck formula "keeping the fat content up". Yes, duck itself has more fat than many other protein sources, but when it's in the form of dry meal used in kibble, that's no longer true. For that matter, lamb is a high fat protein source, too. But in a dry meal form, lamb, duck, chicken, beef are all pretty much the same in terms of fat content when they're used in dry dog food.
Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids in the form of fish oil or evening primrose oil capsules do wonders for dry skin & coats. If you go with the EPO, give a 500 mg capsule once a day as you would a pill. Some of our dogs eat them whole if they're placed in the food bowl; for Jack, I put it down his throat.

[Joy & Buddy]

Thanks for both replies! I had thought of fish oil, but since he is on a salmon/sweet potato food, I thought he was getting enough. But I guess not, so I will add it in. I think Orijen's 6 Fish is probably a great food and when Buddy is a little older, I'll try him on that or another non-chicken Orijen formula.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Orijen 6 Fresh Fish is a great food. Many of us consider Orijen the best kibble you can buy. But every food doesn't agree with every dog. It also can take a week or so when you switch foods for a dog's digestive system to adjust.
Keep in mind that fish oil can contribute to soft stools; some of our dogs get diarrhea from it. The EPO doesn't seem to cause this, so if you already have problems with soft stools, you might want to try the primrose oil instead of the fish oil.
Keep us posted on how things go!

[Joy & Buddy]

Thanks Karen! Do you think the protein level in Orijen could have contributed to Buddy not doing well on the Adult Formula? (He didn't do well on Innova's Large Breed Adult either, which was the first place we went when he developed loose stools on Innova Large Breed Puppy. And all three of those foods have chicken in them.) I love Orijen and would love to feed it! I also consider it the best kibble. I'm trying to sort out if it's the protein level or perhaps chicken that he was reacting to--I already eliminated grains.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The thing about grains is, dogs who have digestive issues often do better with foods that contain rice. I doubt that the chicken or the protein level is to blame. A simple ingredient chicken & rice food has worked best for many of our FG members who had digestive issues with soft stools, diarrhea, etc. So if you are determined to stay with grain-free, you may want to try giving Buddy plain (NOT vanilla) yogurt and or plain pumpkin with his meals; that might help.
What kind of treats is Buddy getting; sometimes that can be the problem, too.

[R Ullrich]

I'm confused. Buddy is my first dog since I was a kid. I found out through this forum that I should not feed him Iams. I tried Nutro but then found out that was as bad as Iams just more expensive. I see that Canidae has recalls and that Evo Innovo has been purchased by companies that were involved in recalls previously. So what is actually good?

[R Ullrich]

Has anyone tried Flint River Ranch?

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

I have not, but I believe our fearless leader, Karen likes this product. I thought about buying this for my chihuahua at one point, but cannot locate near me.
I would say the most popular grain-free food is Orijen right now and maybe Fromm for a food with grains. Evo, Innova and California Naturals are very popular, but they have been bought by Proctor & Gamble recently ("big" dog food companies that have been involved in past recalls). I know it gets very confusing about what is good. If you just start reading through a bunch of our discussions, you can find something that will work for Buddy. You are right that Nutro and Iams are both not good foods. Honestly, I thought Nutro was great until the recalls in 2007. And after joining DK, I know it does not have high quality ingredients and moreover, Nutro's parent company does not have the quality controls that are needed to avoid a recall situation....

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Plus, Nutro contains menadione, which is a very dangerous form of synthetic vitamin K.
I have no personal experience with Flint River products, but i think they looked good to me the last time i checked the website.
Orijen/ Acana is a great line, Fromm's, Solid Gold, I'm liking another Canadian line called Horizon right now & may try it, Wilderness, Blue Buffalo, Petcurean's Go! Natural line, these are some brands I feel good about right now. Canidae and Wellness are decent foods, too. Nature's Variety has good ingredients but they have had some recall issues recently, so use caution. I also like the ingredients in Evanger's products, but there have also been some issues with their quality control recently, too. However, all of these and the current Natura products as well are all far superior to Nutro or Iams.

[Joy & Buddy]

Taste of the Wild is also a good food, I think. My Buddy likes it. Canidae did have some recall issues not too long ago. I would feed Acana if I could get it locally. Oh, and Karen, I tried EPO to help Buddy's coat be less dry and it seemed to cause loose stools in Buddy! So, I backed off of it.