foods you just wouldn't feed

SpringerLover

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#1
foods you just wouldn't buy

I work in pet food and supply retail. I get stuff for free or cheap on a regular basis. Even though we sell 'premium and super premium' foods there are some I would never spend the money on. If I got it for free, maybe. But I wouldn't buy it.

Blue Buffalo. So much money spent on advertising for such mediocre ingredients to be so expensive.

Nutro. All versions of it. Same reason as Blue Buffalo.

And go.
 
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#3
There aren't many foods I just flat out would not feed under any circumstances. Depends on the dog and what's going on in my life at the time. I'm very fortunate in that I'm able to see large numbers of dogs on various foods and so I get a lot of perspective beyond what I see in my own dogs and friends' dogs.


Having said that, I am not at all a fan of Blue, either. I see so many dogs with diarrhea on it, and I don't like how they have handled some issues that have come up in the past: The recall a few years ago, the ingredients snafu recently. They just seem sort of unapologetic and dismissive, don't look at the man behind the curtain EVERYTHING IS FINE. And their advertising makes my eyeballs itch.

I also see a lot of dogs with diarrhea on Orijen. The dogs that do well on it do really, really spectacular on it, but the dogs who don't do well on it are just really unthrifty. The cost isn't worth the gamble of which category my own dog is going to fall into when there are so many other options out there.
 

Dekka

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#4
Anything full of grains. A single grain with lots of meat, sure not my first choice but no biggy.

Nothing with by products. Nothing made from 3D meats.
 

*blackrose

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#5
If I had no money and my dogs were starving, I'd feed anything.

That being said, in a normal situation, there are a lot of foods I wouldn't feed.

Blue Buffalo being one. Nutro being another. Basically, almost all foods sold at Petsmart. I think they're very overpriced for what they are.

I haven't tried many of the "high quality" brands simply because I can't afford them. If I were able to get backs for free, or at a discount, I'd probably still look for a food that had the protient/fat/kcal ratio I like to see, as well as one that has more "mediocre" ingredients - I've had too many issues with my dogs not being able to handle the "richer" foods when I've tried to feed them in the past.

If I had to choose between "lower quality" foods, I'd pick one that had feeding trials done over one that didn't. For example, Histamine is currently eating Purina One kitten food, because my only option was Petsmart when I was purchasing, and I was trying to find a food for my budget and also with the "specs" I wanted....it was one of two that fit the bill. She's doing fantastic on it.

Ol' Roy
Kibbles and Bits
Anything with artificial dyes, tons of filler, HFCS.
Basically, this. Although sub out "tons of filler" with the only meat product in the food being a meat/bone meal.
 

Julee

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#6
Nothing with grains. Because allergies.

Blue Buffalo.
Nutro.
Purina.
IAMS.
I used to say I'd never feed a Diamond product, but they saved my ass in WA. I still avoid them when I can.

My dogs did poorly on Earthborn, though if I had limited options I'd probably feed it to Shadow and Copper. I don't actively recommend against it or anything, Bloo and Em just didn't do well on it. Very itchy, lots of goopy eyes.
 

Southpaw

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#7
Anything from the grocery store. Science Diet, Royal Canin.

That's my perspective at the moment at least. I feed Happy Diamond which surprises myself.
 

amberdyan

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#8
There are tons of foods that I wouldn't feed unless I absolutely had too, just like there are tons of foods I wouldn't eat unless I absolutely had to.

But I have to second (or third or fourth) the Blue comment. I actually started Hugo out on Blue because I thought it was a good food and I was able to find it easily. The entire time he was on it he had horrible digestive problems and threw up several times. We've switched to fromm and it's like having a whole new dog.
 

pinkspore

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#9
There are a lot if foods I can't feed because Brisbane is allergic to poultry and eggs. I think Blue Buffalo puts chicken in every single food they sell so they make nothing Briz-safe. There is nothing at the grocery store I can feed him, and few things at a big box pet store, though our local Petco recently started carrying some better foods and now actually has some things he can eat.
 

Julee

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#10
There are tons of foods that I wouldn't feed unless I absolutely had too, just like there are tons of foods I wouldn't eat unless I absolutely had to.

But I have to second (or third or fourth) the Blue comment. I actually started Hugo out on Blue because I thought it was a good food and I was able to find it easily. The entire time he was on it he had horrible digestive problems and threw up several times. We've switched to fromm and it's like having a whole new dog.
I really have not met any dogs that actually do well on Blue.
 

SoCrafty

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#12
If I were poor and we all were starving I would feed anything I could afford. That being said, under normal circumstances I refuse Nutro products. My old dog used to eat it and would throw up bile every day until I linked it to the food. I would not feed Ol Roy, Kibbles N Bits, Beneful. I was OK with Blue Buffalo until I read the controversy surroundinv their ingredients. I don't like the Dick Van Pattens products anymore.

Since I read that Shelties should only be eating up to like 30% protein, it limits what I can feed, so I found a couple 3 and 4 star foods in my area for a reasonable price that I will wind up feeding.
 

Dogdragoness

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#13
Anything sold at walmart.

Blue buffalo
Nutro (used to be a decent food, it's a shame)
Innova
Evo
Canidae
Because of who owns them

Primitive naturals because there is only one formula I would be willing to feed and there is no option for rotation within the brand.

Acana, Orijin, back to basics because they are too expensive.
 

*blackrose

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#14
Oh, I totally have a bias against Science Diet, too. I don't really know why, I know a LOT of dogs that eat it and and do just fine, and I have no doubt about the efficacy of their prescription products. I think I can buy bags at work for cost + 10%, and I just...don't really have any desire to? I'd rather feed the "high end" Purina products? *shrugs*
 

Dogdragoness

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#15
Of course there are certain circumstances that I might find myself forced to feed a crappy food, like the zombie apocalypse or some other kind of apocalyptic senario, for example. Hell, Josefina and I might be eating dog food together if things got that bad lol.
 

*blackrose

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#17
I cant believe I forgot to list this lol. Does it even have any real meat or veggies in it?
Yup.

Ingredients Chicken, Brown Rice, Whole Grain Wheat, Cracked Pearled Barley, Soybean Meal, Chicken Meal, Pork Fat, Chicken Liver Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Oat Groats, Lactic Acid, Soybean Oil, Vegetable & fruit blend (Green Peas, Apples, Cranberries, Carrots, Broccoli), Dried Beet Pulp, Iodized Salt, Flaxseed, Calcium Carbonate, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Choline Chloride, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Taurine, Mixed Tocopherols for freshness, Phosphoric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Natural Flavors.
I don't know. I've seen a lot worse ingredient wise. And I feed something that I wouldn't feed based on ingredients, but I love the results I'm getting, so I feed it. But....I just don't like it. Maybe it is the protein/fat content? Most of the foods are below 25% in protein and that just seems weird to me. It certainly doesn't seem any worse than Iams or the like, and I'm not near as prejudice against them.

Or could be all those years of hearing "Science Diet IS THE DEVIL", I guess. I was an impressionable child. :rofl1:
 

Southpaw

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#18
The Blue Buffalo stuff always makes me laugh because Juno did excellent when she was on it. If it wasn't so expensive I'd put her back on it in a heartbeat.
 

SoCrafty

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#19
That particular one isn't that bad. Guess I grew up under the impression of the evilness of it too! ;)
 

crazedACD

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#20
I won't feed anything made by Natura, since it was bought by P&G, I don't want to touch it. They have had numerous problems since the change. I also have my own conspiracy theories against it.

I don't want to feed Diamond. I despise them. But I am right now because there is nothing else. I am feeding the cats TOTW because they seem to do very well on it. The dogs are on Diamond GF until I figure out something else. I think though I want to avoid beet pulp for allergy reasons.

I guess good manufacturing processes are most important to me.

I really have not met any dogs that actually do well on Blue.
My dogs do fine on Blue. But yeah the price tag holds me up... and it's copacked... ehhh. If it were being made in it's own facilities I would consider it.
 

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