Dog Food

UGH... The more you start investigating the dog food companies the more frustrated you become!!  Aspen is currently on Innova but looking for a new diet. Natura Pet Foods who is the owner of Innova was bought out by P&G this summer. I won't get into all the details on here, but they are a big super company that owns both Iams, Eukanuba, and tons of other random stuff like frebreze ... Bad news!!  Here's the website that kind of explains things better: http://www.dogfoodscoop.com/innova-dog-food.html


So we are on a mission to make a change but what is the best nutrition for your dog or your large breed berner for that matter?  It seems almost everyone has an opinion on the subject. It seems quite practical to ask a vet right?  Often the answer you get is not one that I feel is helpful.  They often recommend brands like science diet or iams. A large dog food companies that  in my opinion provides awful nutrition for your dog!  They do make special medical formulas that are some times needed for a real disease like kidney failure etc but not for allergies alone. My suggestion is to question vets on nutrition!!  Hills and Iams give lots of $$ to vet schools, thus this love affair with this horrible diet!!  Make sure you read lables. Their products are full of corn and by products YUCK!!   Dogs need meat (three meats at the beginning with exceptions). I think at least one of those meats should be in a meal form.  Meal is dehydrated meat with out meal behind the meat it is listed with it's water content so it's better placed further down the ingredient list.  There should also be no corn or soy, by-product meal,  bone meal, blood meal... all bad icky stuff!!   :-)  


 An area I'd like to explore more is the effects of protein on large breed dogs. I  am a little unsure of how much protein a Large breed dog should have. I've read mixed things some saying nothing over 30% others saying it doesn't matter.   I'm kind of being on the side of caution here and not going crazy with the protein.  If anyone has any advice about this I would gladly take it :-)


Now your question might be " well what are you going to put him on then?"   I'm an avid label reader.  I took home education in high school and I can't cook or sew, but I did manage to learn to read food labels.  Because I read labels for myself, it was only natural for me to do the same with Aspen and Picasso (Aspen's brother the cat).  We are starting to widdle it down to a few:  


Side bar: none of these products I have chosen contain ethoxyquin. Ethoxyquin is a possible cancer causing preservative.  It is not listed on the bag because dog food companies don't put it into the food it's added by the handlers of the meat product.  If you don't know call your dog food company or check there website to make sure that your dog food doesn't have this.  It's banned for human consumption so you know it's not good for your dog!!


Ok here are the choices:


1. Taste of the Wild
2. Wellness
3. Blue Buffalo
4. Nature's Variety 


I really like the taste of the wild!  I know that it is made by Diamond.  They have had some recalls.  I was actually almost sold on it because it's at a steal of a price.  $41.99 for a 30lb bag.  Recently though they have made a change to the formula that I noticed (we had some samples of it).  In all the formula's salt is in between the 10th and 14th on the list of  ingredients .  That seems like a lot of salt to me.  Excessive amounts of salt is horribly bad for people and I can't believe that it would be much better for dogs?  I emailed them and got the response that because it's an all life formula puppies and pregnant mothers need more salt.  Eh.. we are going to see what our vet says about this but I'm thinking this counts it out.  It also proves that all dog formulas aren't the best because every dog has certain needs.


We like wellness but wellness also contracts out it's manufacturing.  Many many companies make the wellness formula and package it as wellness.  While this is fine... it's somewhat troubling.  Ray despite his efforts to get a job in the ecology field has landed in the area of food science and well knows the horror stories of things not being tested and rounding to whatever works best for you.  This is in human grad stuff, so can you imagine what steps can be skipped with dog food!! With so many different companies making it how can you make sure that each batch is separated etc?  I called a Wellness rep today and we discussed where the  Large Breed Adult dog food that would come from.  The Large breed adult food is actually made by the Diamond company in South Carolina.  In addition to manufacturing concerns, wellness is also pretty expensive. The large breed being being about $59.00 per bag. Give or take some.  We are looking at the super 5 mix chicken for regular dogs also because Aspen is already being given supplements of glucosamine this might make it slightly cheaper.


We are also taking a look at Blue buffalo.  They also seem to have some decent ingredients but my issue with them is their recalls and they participate in the same process as wellness by having several companies make their formula and put their label on it.  They have had a recall every year for the past year on at least one of their products.  The most recent one being that of having too much vitamin D in the food.  A bonus is that they are slightly more reasonable at around $45.00 per bag. But the Recall thing makes me nervous. 


Nature's Variety I actually just learned about today and I like what I see.  I was a bit concerned because there is only one meat meal but the company ensures that it's mostly made of that meat meal.  So the content of meat is sufficient. Another product they make is a raw diet. They manufacture their kibble at only the Pride company and the raw is manufactured at the base company in Nebraska. The Dry kibble is about what we are paying for Innova now at 51.99 per bag.  The raw is actually pretty expensive.  They estimated that it would cost $2.40 to feed a 50lb dog per day so that would make it... 4.80 for us... x 30 days= a whopping $144 per month.. bit much for a starving college student!!  I would like to try their kibble and maybe supplement a little bit. 


Well we have a vet visit tomorrow to see if the inflammation has gone down in his colon.  Then we will be making the decision on a diet.  I'll make sure to ask about the salt and inform anyone who is willing to listen.  We have a play date with the neighbor Berner so I'd better get my snow gear on.  Remember if anyone has comments or disagrees I take constructive criticism well :-)