Most Trusted Dog Food Companies

[JacksonsMom]

Who would YOU say are your most trusted dog food companies?

I just got through a bag of Natural Balance and while Jackson seemed to really really like it, and is doing pretty well on it (in regards to coat, breath, eye goop and boogies, stool, etc), the fact that it's a Diamond product concerns me. I know the huge recall they had was a while ago, but it was a big enough thing to really concern me. Just not sure I'm too comfortable with any Diamond foods, really. Good foods for the price, yes... but I've read a few things recently that concerned me.

Heck, even Champion Pet Foods has had their issues. Something a few months back showing where they were getting their fish meats were coming from the waste of a fishing company. Would have otherwise been sent to rendering to be disposed of. They also killed a bunch of cats in Australia. But I think most of these issues were fairly small scale and they handled them in a really good way. I am thinking of going back to feeding Acana. Only stopped because I thought Jackson needed low fat but I don't think he does anymore.

But in general, I would say I trust Champion WAY more than most.

When will you write off a company? How many recalls does it take, or many mistakes can be made, etc?

[PWCorgi]

Natural Balance is a Diamond product? Since when? LOL, I must have missed something major

As far as ethics go, top of my list has to be The Honest Kitchen. I've never heard a bad thing about them.

[CharlieDog]

Yeah, I've never heard of anything negative about Honest Kitchen.

I thought Natural Balance was made by Dick Van Patten or something?

[PWCorgi]

Originally Posted by CharlieDog

Yeah, I've never heard of anything negative about Honest Kitchen.

I thought Natural Balance was made by Dick Van Patten or something?

He is CEO or something. I don't take that much notice of it, except for their Alpha line, I don't care for their products.

[CharlieDog]

The bags have his name plastered on them, lol. I used to feed Oz their LID diets, because they actually had ones that don't have sweet potato in them, but I ended up finding out that he does fine on TOTW's High Prairie, so he and Enzo are both on that. Sometimes I rotate through TOTW's stuff for variety, but I try to stay about from sweet potatoes and too much beets in their food. It seems to cause stinky ears in my too if the sugars are too high in the food.

[JacksonsMom]

Yup, NB is made at a Diamond facility. As are: Canidae, Kirkland, Solid Gold, Nature's Domain, TOTW, Chicken Soup.

I don't know what exactly, but I get an uneasy feeling with Diamond. Sometimes I wonder how they can produce such "good" food at a cheap price? And when Evanger's got in trouble for having a totally different ingredient in their food (I think it said it contained beef, but when tested, there was no beef in it at all, but something else), it makes me sooo uneasy about so many of these companies.

Even Merrick, who used to be a trusted company, has WAY too many quality control issues for my liking.

Btw, today I was THRILLED to see THK being sold at my vets office! I did not even see a bag of SD in sight.

[Kat09Tails]

The Honest Kitchen comes to mind. Addiction similarly I've never heard of an issue with. Must be a dehydrated dog food thing. lol

[JustaLilBitaLuck]

Yeah, I think Natural Balance might be manufactured by Diamond, as are Solid Gold and Canidae, but they're not a "Diamond Brand", like Diamond/Diamond Naturals/TOTW/Chicken Soup/Premium Edge.

I would say, going on company ethics and practices and NOT products, my top three would probably be The Honest Kitchen (dehydrated), Stella & Chewy's (raw) and Canine Caviar (kibble).

[PWCorgi]

Yup, NB is made at a Diamond facility. As are: Canidae, Kirkland, Solid Gold, Nature's Domain, TOTW, Chicken Soup.

Okay, I knew that, but that is different than owning them. They only manufacture their product. Still enough to make one feel uneasy, but if you are talking about anything other than manufacturing plant, then they are two completely separate companies. Natural Balance ships in their OWN ingredients to the plant (for example, the chicken that goes into Diamond products is NOT the same grade chicken that goes into Natural Balance).

This is soooooo popular in the dog food industry. There is only a handful of companies that actually manufacture their own food and don't outsource to a different companies manufacturing plant. It helps them keep their food cost down. Some that come to mind are Precise, Fromm, and Lotus.
(ETA: Lotus actually looked into canneries to make their cans, and they couldn't find anything that they liked standard wise, so they built their own cannery! This makes me wonder what they felt was wrong with all the other canneries)

Fromm as a company has less employees on their payroll than the small company that I work for, which isn't that many! They actually hired someone from another pet food company to work their extruder and he quit after 48 hours. In his exit interview he said that it was just too much work, as they actually require employees to run tests and count times on the extrusions, he was used to just hitting a button and sitting there for 12 hours. So if manufacturing is a big issue for you, you might want to check out Fromm, they have two current grain free formulas (beef frittata, surf and turf) and will have two more (gamebird, salmon tunallini) in the next few months. Amazing company and super reasonable pricing.

[JacksonsMom]

Originally Posted by PWCorgi

Okay, I knew that, but that is different than owning them. They only manufacture their product. Still enough to make one feel uneasy, but if you are talking about anything other than manufacturing plant, then they are two completely separate companies. Natural Balance ships in their OWN ingredients to the plant (for example, the chicken that goes into Diamond products is NOT the same grade chicken that goes into Natural Balance).

This is soooooo popular in the dog food industry. There is only a handful of companies that actually manufacture their own food and don't outsource to a different companies manufacturing plant. It helps them keep their food cost down. Some that come to mind are Precise, Fromm, and Lotus.
(ETA: Lotus actually looked into canneries to make their cans, and they couldn't find anything that they liked standard wise, so they built their own cannery! This makes me wonder what they felt was wrong with all the other canneries)

Fromm as a company has less employees on their payroll than the small company that I work for, which isn't that many! They actually hired someone from another pet food company to work their extruder and he quit after 48 hours. In his exit interview he said that it was just too much work, as they actually require employees to run tests and count times on the extrusions, he was used to just hitting a button and sitting there for 12 hours. So if manufacturing is a big issue for you, you might want to check out Fromm, they have two current grain free formulas (beef frittata, surf and turf) and will have two more (gamebird, salmon tunallini) in the next few months. Amazing company and super reasonable pricing.

That's REALLY good to know! Thanks for all the amazing info.