A Little Overwhelmed

[Sachasmommy]

Hello everyone. My name is Sachasmommy and my family consists of 10yr old rottie named Sacha that I lost to cancer on 6/30/08. A 41/2 yr old brindle boxer named Dakota and a 10 week old female rottie named Lexi. I also care for my 11yr old lab mix named jackson who lives with a family member for companionship. With the arrival of our newest family member, I decided to look into the new foods out there. OMG, my head is spinning.I need your help. How do I choose a great food for my babies and not break the bank. What is a great food any way? All I really understand is no grains. My puppy was raised on Iams Lg breed puppy. As we near the end of the bag, I want to switch her to her new food. Then my boys after.Plz help

[Mat&Murph]

It is always overwhelming trying to get the best food without going broke in the process. I am going through the same thing with my boys but the breeder and Vet both recommened Pro Plan. I use Giant breed cause my guys are soo big. When they are full grown they will be 250 lbs. So I imagine your babies will be fine on Pro Plan for Large breed. Good Luck and Welcome to Pets.ca

[luckypenny]

Welcome to Pets.ca Sachasmommy. I'm so sorry for your recent loss of Sacha .

A grain-free kibble I'd recommend is Orijen but it's best you do as much research to learn what makes a dog food excellent. Initially, it may be more expensive than pop commercial food but you feed less. Bonus is, you're much less likely to be visiting the vet for food related issues . Another food I hear many ppl recommend is Wellness Core.

A great website to learn more about quality food and ingredients to avoid:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index....badingredients

Browse their website, there's so much information available.

Unfortunately, ProPlan has very little meat and consists mainly of wheat, corn, rice, and just too many ingredients I'd want to avoid feeding.

Chicken, brewers rice, whole grain wheat, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine), corn bran, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), pearled barley, fish meal (natural source of glucosamine) animal digest, dried egg product, calcium phosphate, salt, potassium chloride, potassium citrate, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, Vitamin E supplement, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, ascorbic acid (source of Vitamin C), manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium carbonate, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite

You may also want to check out the food forum here for lots of discussion on dog food.

So....are we gonna see pics of your furbabies ?

[the gang]

i agree with lucky penny!!! orjen is super the pins have been on for about one year, it has done us very well, also welcome to the board i also have a dakota and a lexi brenda and the pins..

[emmabean]

I'm new here too-- Hi Sachasmommy!

Have you tried vegetarian dog food for your dogs? I know it sounds crazy but if being veggie for humans is more healthy, it might be for dogs too. They still get all the protein they need. I've been hearing more about this lately. What do you think? Do dogs *need* meat? I haven't really done any research yet.

[Love4himies]

Dogs have different nutritional requirements than humans and unless it is absolutely necessary for health reasons, dogs should be fed meat.

[Dog Dancer]

Well lots of input here. I tried a vegetarian food for my dog with allergies many years ago and after five days threw it out. Dogs are carnivours and need meat. When you look at the ingredients posted here for the ProPlan see that chicken is listed as the first ingredient. But you should note that distributors do that to trick you. If it lists chicken as opposed to chicken meal that means they're using the amount of raw meat to base their ingredient list. Once the chicken is processed and cooked (making it chicken meal) it dries out and moves WAAAAY down the list. Now your first ingredients are basically junk corns and starches - which your dogs do not need. It's very confusing for sure.

I feed my two dogs Orijen 6 fish as one dog has a poultry allergy and this works well for us. I have found that most vet recommendations are not really good foods, just something they've been suggesting for years. It may not kill your dog (hopefully) but it won't really help either.

[Sachasmommy]

thank you all for helping me with this important decision. I finally decided on Innova EVO.
Also I appreciate the welcome and thoughts for my Sacha. I know most if not all of you have been where I am in grief. Glad to be a member and will post pics soon.