which dog food is best?

Good for you ! I'm glad to see you doing your homework on better nutrition for you fur kid! Beneful, pedigree, dog chow by purina or anything at a grocery store or walmart is CRAP :yikes: ! Natural Balance is a great food but there is still better. A better quality food is going to run you more money but you get what you pay for and your dog will benefit healthwise in the long run. Good luck !

Yes, Mordy, so helpful and knowledgeable. There are others too - they debate all of the time I'm just having a senior moment....

We use Pinnacle

We use Pinnacle's Trout and Sweet Potato for the kibble and then we mix in a can of Pinnacle's can food shared between the two dogs for every meal.

Within a few weeks of being on the food, both dog's eyes cleared up. No more excessive drainage. Their coats got quite a bit shinier and their energy levels has gone up, way up. We were fedding them Nutro Lamb and Rice Meal before, which is not too bad, but the difference has been remarkable.

Hans

There is no "best" food.

Now.. beneful, purina, iams.. those are NOT good.

But, really, do the searching yourself, go to dogfoodproject.com and read around a little.

As far as good foods are, I think the foods by Natura are quite good (Innova, California Natural) and Canidae.

Mordy's site is very helpful also and will tell you why foods such as Beneful and Purina are not healthy.

I've had great results with Canidae, as well. I've also noticed that people don't consider it "the best" by any means. Do you know why it has such a mediocre reputation?

There is no "best" dog food. It really all comes down to what works best for your dog.

Now, Beneful, Iams, Pedigree, Purina, etc... these are all horrible foods. Dogs are carnivores, and these foods contain mostly corn and bone meal. They are worse than eating McDonald's everyday, by comparison =/

Some good foods are Timberwolf Organics, Canidae and Innova to name just a few. I always recommend a high quality holistic food.

Oh yeah, and by the way- the initial cost for a high quality food will be more... but you feed a lot less of it than you do with a low quality food. In the long run, you will save money.

Good luck

I swear by Nutro Ultra ( a upgrade of the Nutro Natural choice). All the dogs do great on it, and beleive me, thru the years we have tried alot of different brands.

Go to www.naturapet.com and go to their COMPARE FOODS section. You can see the ingredients of alot of different foods.

Beneful is one of the worst foods out there. Here are the first few ingredients: Ground yellow corn, chicken by product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour etc. Do you see any REAL animal protein in there....I see alot of corn and one by product meal. Beef is listed as number 7...a little to far down there to count for much.

A good food should have at least 2 or more animal proteins in the first 3 ingredients. The more animal proteins in the first 3 the better. This is the first 3 ingredients of a GREAT food... Turkey, chicken, chicken meal,....

A great information newsletter on all dog related things is called the WHOLE DOG JOURNAL.

Ok I'll be honest with you. It's probably great food to feed chickens. They love corn and grains and things. Dogs prefer meat. Corn and grains are often a source of allergies besides. The word "by product" can mean anything. Guts, digest, whatever. Beneful doesn't even identify what "poultry" byproducts they are encouraging your dog to eat. I don't know. Road killed pigeons? Do you see how high up on the list of their ingredients all those grains are? There's also sugar in this food. There's a thread in this board section about dogs becoming gravely ill on Beneful. Please seek it out.

There are some real experts on this board who will go into detail about the ingredients on the bag of this food way beyond what I am saying here. I'm just a lay person who is telling you I would never feed my dog this food no matter what cute PR commercials they show on TV. I think they should be indicted for tricking people into feeding this food. But like I said, I'm just a lay person. But let's try and experiment ok?:

Since dogs are carnivores, if you asked your dog which food he really would prefer to eat, which would he choose. Pay particular attention to the first five or six ingredients, although Beneful's questionable ingredients seem to go even beyond that.

1.
Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, sugar, sorbitol, tricalcium phosphate, water, animal digest, salt, phosphoric acid, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium carbonate, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3), added color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, zinc sulfate, glyceryl monostearate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, garlic oil, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite.
F-4090

OR
2.
Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Lamb Meal, Chicken Fat, (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Ascorbic Acid), Menhaden Fish Meal, Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Lecithin, Brewers Yeast, Natural Flavors, Monosodium Phosphate, Choline, Linoleic Acid, Rosemary Extract, Sage Extract, Ferrous Sulfate, Mixed Tocopherols (Source of Vitamin E) Zinc Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Manganous Oxide, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of B2), Yeast Culture, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Extract, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Streptococcus Faecium Fermentation product, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Cobalt Amino Acid Chelate, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Niacin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, D- Biotin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium, Iodate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Papain, Bacillus Subtilis, Aspergillus Niger, Yucca Schidigera Extract.

Timberwolf - Lamb and apple is very good product and my dog enjoy eating it.

Because the price isn't spiked??

I agree. That is the only reason I can come up with. It's like people are suspicious because of the price.

I think there was a reason, but for the life of me I can't remember it. I bet Mordy would be able to tell us, if she ever had a spare moment to catch her breath these days.

But it is a good food and gets great results with a lot of members on the board. I myself feed Innova Adult and am looking at trying a bag of Innova EVO the next time I go in for food.

Seems They are making nice food but fail to find out a good pricing strategy.

Where does it get a mediocre reputation?

I've never tried it, so I can't say how good it is, but there have been many people of late who have mentioned how satisfied they are with it..

If you feed it and are happy with it, what's the big deal? Do you need others to believe in a dog foods reputation in order for you to feed it...... *crickets*... no, I didn't think so.

BP's right. Who cares? Everybody knows who Purina is, right? I mean, you say "Purina" and everyone on the street will say DOG FOOD! That's their 'reputation'. So they must be best. And we all know the slop they make. "Well known" can sometimes mean "well taken in". To me, it's a matter of taking the path well worn and believing everything you hear, or taking the path less worn and just objectively looking at the results yourself. I've never been a good sheep. In the end, reputation can mean the difference between feeding Beneful or feeding Innova or Eagle or NB or Canidae. I kind of figure that when I look at my dog and how's she's doing, I don't need anybody else's opinion. I've got the raw data right in front of me. Just to keep her fresh and unbored, I will switch her now and then to NB. She is going to eat Canidae and NB on rotation for the rest of her life barring any unforseen allergies.

Original OP, please do one more experiment. Take a look at the photos of the dogs on this forum. Then note the ones that look fabulous and ask the owners what they feed. I can guarantee you that among them Beneful has a bad reputation and Canidae does not.

Sometimes I think Canidae should issue an apology that goes like this: "We are really sorry that we charge a fair price for our dog food".

No, to me its more like they are smart enough to know that they can capture a decent and steady market share in a VERY CROWDED market by cutting out the Brouhahaha and PR and instead producing a top quality food for a good price. I think they are VERY smart. They are a small producer of dog food geared to the educated buyer who understands what a quality dog food is and marvels at the price. The other companies are competing with each other to see how far they can stick their hands in the wallets of dog lovers. While that is happening, and they are fighting for the same market, Canidae is quietly sustaining its own share of the market under the circus radar. They run a lean company and that means they can pour more of their capital investments into quality rather than flashy bags. It seems clear to me that they have no intention of becoming a giant in the PR field. It's kind of like these drug companies that pour billions into TV Commercials to tell you that you have an illness that requires their overpriced medication. Yet, if they didn't pour those billions into hype, they could pass the savings onto the consumer. I have long thought that the premium pet food industry is into price fixing. Looks more to me like Canidae isn't playing.

ToscasMom - YOU GO GIRL!!!

I agree with you whole heartedly!! I did my homework and chose Canidae. The answer to the "how good is it" question lies within my dog and he's doing great. He looks great, has a lot of energy, and everything comes out good if ya know what I mean!! The proof is in the pudding (or the poop in this particular instance.....). I don't care what others think so hmmmppphhhh!!

i feed Royal Canin becuase the chis liked it and generally there picky lol, since then they've decided there bored of it so im debating between canidea or Merrick, both of which are great foods (and will work well with my dane) i REALY like merrick though. (heck id eat it)

generally steer clear of by-products and corn, and any food where REAL meat is not the first 3 ingredients.

Before you try Merrick, you may want to read this thread: http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32412&highlight=Merrick