Dog food and dog bones and treats

Hi,
Newbie here and this is my first post. Hope to get some pictures of my boys up soon. I was reading on here about dog food (I was searching the web for info on this cuz I wanted to change what the boys were eating). Lots of great info here, thanks! I wanted to try Innova dog food. The place in town here that sold it wanted $40 a bag though . That's a little more than I can afford right now, I was willing to pay $30. So I decided to get Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul. The boys seem to really like it.

What is everyone's opinion on this particular brand of dog food? Seems like the ingrediants are pretty good (but I'm far from mastering that label reading stuff yet)?

I also picked them up a box of cheap milk bones. I know there are better treats to get them (also more expensive) but wondered if it really matters as long as they only get 2-3 per day. What do you think?

I have found that Nylabones (the hard ones) tend to last a long time for chewing, especially with the young pup. I also like to buy the boys bones (beef bones, knuckles, etc...) and they love chewing those. I avoid raw-hide and most other doggie treats as they either eat them too quickly and get sick or can choke on the stuff.

Kong balls are also indestructable!

Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul is a pretty good brand of dog food or so i have heard from others on this site. I feed my dogs Organic Raw supplemented with a bit of Innova.

Did you get them the brand MilkBone or a brand of milk bones lol I know that was confusing. Anyways i think their fine i don't give them to my dogs. im sure there will be other people on here with better info then me on that one.

Also very good idea staying away from the RawHides cause most contain an ingredient that causes cancer in dogs. My dogs also LOVE their Kongs and Nylabones (edible and non edible). They also get nice organic fresh Beef and lamb bones and knuckle bones from time to time. Each gets a at least a beef bone every evening at bed time.

It sounds good to me can't wait to see some pics

do you only compare the cost per bag, or also the daily feeding cost?

if you go into details, you will find that there is either not much of a difference, or the higher quality food comes out ahead even financially.

1 cup of innova adult = 557 kcal
1 cup of chicken soup = 336 kcal

say your dog needs 900 kcal per day, that would be 1.6 cups of innova, but 2.6 cups of chicken soup.


the largest bag of innova is 33 lbs, which would last 70 days under the above calculation, the largest bag of chicken soup is 35 lbs and would last 65 days.

what little difference there is, innova makes up for in far better ingredient quality.

For bones to chew on, go to www.planetdog.com and get them Orbee bones. My dogs have had them for over 4 months, and they still are the same as when I got them. They are soft rubbery, but last better than anything out there.

I get them the brand MilkBone . They love to get treats after baths, toenail clippings, etc...

On the beef bones, etc... I was wondering if the ones you buy in pet shops are ok? I realize getting some nice raw ones from a local butcher would be better, but does anyone know what the differences are? Do the store bought ones have preservatives and yucky stuff in them?

Mordy, Is Innova that much better of a dog food than chicken soup brand? I was looking at the ingrediant comparison list. Here is what they have:

Innova EVO

Ingredient Name

1. Turkey
2. Chicken
3. Turkey Meal
4. Chicken Meal
5. Potatoes
6. Herring Meal
7. Chicken Fat
8. Natural Flavors
9. Egg
10. Calcium Carbonate
11. Garlic
12. Apples
13. Carrots
14. Tomatoes
15. Cottage Cheese
16. Alfalfa Sprouts
17. Dried Chicory Root
18. Taurine
19. Lecithin
20. Rosemary Extract
21. Vitamins/Minerals
22. Viable Naturally Occurring Microorganisms

Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul(TM) Adult Dog Food

Ingredient Name

1. Chicken
2. Turkey
3. Chicken Meal
4. Turkey Meal
5. Ground Brown Rice
6. Ground White Rice
7. Oatmeal/Rolled Oats
8. Potatoes
9. Pearled Barley
10. Ground Millet
11. Chicken Fat
12. Duck
13. Salmon
14. Dried Egg Product
15. Flaxseed
16. Natural Chicken Flavor
17. Carrots
18. Peas
19. Apples
20. Dried Skim Milk
21. Cranberry Powder
22. Rosemary Extract
23. Salt
24. Chicory Root Extract
25. Vitamins/Minerals

Now I can see obvious differences and the Innova does look somewhat better, but the chicken soup brand looks pretty good (fantastic compared to a lot of the other garbage out there). Not sure about that salt though, yucky. Feel free to point out the good and bad in the chicken brand, I'm curious. Thanks!

Salt is a mineral. All animals need salt to a certain extent. Animals in the wild will travel great distances to get to salt. My animals all visit the salt block in the stock yard, even the cats. I have been feeding my animals "raw" food for over 15 years. However, we raise our own beef, pork, chicken, turkey, duck, rabbit and have a private fish pond, so it is easy to do so. While it is optimal to feed your dog the way nature intended it is not always an option. Many may disagree with me here, but if you are providing a nutritionally complete diet (talk to your vet or research online) and adequate veterinary care, love and exercise you have no reason to feel guilty about your feeding practices. I feel that ANY dog ration that comes in a bag is like potato chips. You can acheive the same quantity of nutriment at a higher rate of quality for a lot less money if you take a few hours per month to prepare the rations yourself. I use the plastic freezer containers with lids to store daily rations. See how many potato chips you can make from a 3# bag of spuds that costs 2.50. Now go see how many prepared chips you can buy with 2.50, and the same holds true for ALL prepared food, human or animal, regardless of quality. Processed bones are often loaded with chemicals and can cause digestive upset in your dog. Most supermarkets will have a meat department, and dog bones are to be had for very cheap, or check your butcher who can provide you with some good meaty untrimmed bones, often for a few cents a pound.

wyluli, the most compelling argument is the caloric density by comparison. you have two foods with a similar protein and fat content, and what seems at first glance like very similar ingredients. yet of an equal amount you would feed, the dog can digest and utilize the innova so much better.

this indicates that the chicken soup is by far not as digestible, and does not utilize the same high-quality ingredients as innova.

then there are differences you do not see until you examine the products in detail, such as chicken soup using menadione - a synthetic vitamin K supplement that was originally intended for use in livestock feed but has (at least to my knowledge) never been tested for safety in long term use, and our pets have a life span of many times that of a farm animal raised to be slaughtered for meat.

i'm no saying that CS is a bad food, it's quite decent, but it will never measure up to the standards of a food made by natura pet products.