Need food recommendation

My 6 year old dog Abby has always eaten Eukanuba. For the past several years she has been getting 1 cup of Eukanuba with a can of Pedigree food mixed in for dinner.

Our puppy Misty is on Eukanuba puppy formula.

Misty's poops are solid, but Abby will get runny poops from time to time. It's been brought to my attention that this is most likely caused by the Pedigree that I've been mixing in to her kibble. I tried to just give her kibble for dinner, but she wasn't too happy about that and wouldn't eat much.

So off to the forums I've gone to research, and I see that Eukanuba isn't too popular either!

So ideally, I'd like to get them both on a healthier diet without spending a fortune. If it's something I can get at Petsmart all the better, but I am willing to order online if I need to. Raw/cooked diet is not ideal for me so I'd prefer to stick to a kibble, and if there is a canned equivalent that I can mix in with the kibble all the better.

Also, for snacks Abby will usually get a snausage and Misty has been getting http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2751556. It's usually just one per day for each dog before bed. They sometimes get sliced hotdogs as treats, even more rarely cheese, and beefhide dental chips made by Cheweez (or the beefhide rolls made by the same people).

I love my dogs, but admit I have been fairly ignorant of their diet needs so I'd like to fix that. Any recommendations/advice would be appreciated, as well as any links to good doggie nutritional information.

Thanks

A good place to start is http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

You can search by ingredients listings, find out about everything from additives and requirements to recall info. and what to avoid - and you can ask questions in the forum section.

Yeah, I used to feed Eukanuba before I knew better. Here's a hint: check the ingredient list up to the first fat source to see the main ingredients. Even without any knowledge of dog food, you can pretty much tell what will be a good food.

Here is Eukanuba:

Off the top of my head, I know you can find Blue Buffalo at Petsmart. It's a pretty decent food.

If you have a Costco nearby, I would recommend going for Kirkland. It has basically the same ingredients as Blue Buffalo, and can be purchased at a very good price.

Ditto what doc said.

A few of my favorites are Innova, EVO and TOTW. But it will depend on each dog. I'm very excited for you. Educating yourself about your dogs nutritional needs is awesome. Be prepared to see changes in your dogs overall appearance after you've changed to a higher quality food.

Thanks for all the info!

I do have a costco nearby but haven't been in yet, so I'll be sure to stop and check it out. The cost of blue buffalo isn't too bad, but if I can get an equivalent for cheaper I may as well =D

I'm looking forward to getting them started on something new. They seem healthy/happy to me now, but if there is improvement to be made that'll be great

I haven't checked out the canine version of evo yet, but I do feed my ferrets the ferret version... At about $20 for a 6 pound bag I don't know if I could afford that for the dogs

Keep in mind that with a high quality food you quite often feed LESS as there are less fillers and more nutrients and sometimes more protein depending on what you go with. You also have less poo, less body odour, better teeth,.... A lot of people feel they have less problems with anal glands and fleas on a good food. There are less medical problems down the line. So it might be worth it to feed a bit more. But I certainly know about a tight budget and that it's not always easy to save up for a bag of food

Another source might be your local feed store. I get the Chicken Soup foods from there and they are less $$ than similar foods from places like Petsmart. Chicken Soup 35lbs is $34 there vs $38 + shipping online. Taste of the Wild (the only other one I can remember the price of) is $35 for the big bag (30lbs) and online it runs $40 and up plus shipping. Shipping can be crazy high with the big bags. If you are like me, you feed the dogs in the morning and think OH CRAP! I gotta get food TODAY! LOL! Not to mention, supporting the little guy is pretty important in today's economy.

Actually that slipped my mind. We do have a local pet store that carries a lot of the higher quality brands of foods you can't get at Petsmart. That's where I get the evo for the ferrets. It's pricey there and they sell ferrets (soooo hard to just walk away from them) so I try not to go there too often. I'll take a look there too

Another great site with discounts is Pet Food Direct. Cheap and convenient way to purchase Taste of the Wild and other foods and treats.

Have you tried Canidae? Canidae is one of the best all natural brands on the market and their new formula has more meat protein & vitamin E and they have also added diversified carbs (gives your pup more energy longer, rather than short bursts). You can get a sample of Canidae at your local retail store and see if Abby approves!

I picked up some Blue Buffalo today (treats and canned foods included), and gave some to Abby for dinner tonight. She's almost completely out of Eukanuba so I took the plunge and let her have the new food as the bulk of her dinner.

Usually she'd get a cup of eukanuba and a can of pedigree for dinner. If I just give her the eukanuba and no canned food she'll push the food around for a bit, maybe take a bite or two then walk away from it.

Well I decided to see if she'd take just the BB kibble without the wet food mixed in... And she LOVED it. I don't think I've ever seen her voluntarily eat plain kibble before so it was nice to have her take to it so quickly

I got some for the puppy too and I'll start mixing it in with her eukanuba tomorrow but I'm sure she'll love it too since she was sniffing the air as I was feeding Abby