Comparison chart for the dog food wars

[mastifflover]

For the ongoing dog food war. This is a chart which will compare the ingredients of the dog foods. It lists ingredients in order.
http://www.naturapet.com/display.php...wiz&animal=Dog
You can also compare treats and this works for dog and cat foods

[Prin]

Yeah, that one is so biased toward Innova and California natural (it's their company's website). They don't list any of the foods that might be better than theirs. Like for Wellness, they only have the senior or puppy formulas, not the adult ones... They don't have Wolf King either.

[technodoll]

prin you took the words out of my mouth

[Prin]

Dog food companies are very sneaky.

[wdawson]

it does give some insight as too what certain ingredients are(the chemically named ones) and what they provide to our doggies.

[technodoll]

this site is also good http://www.iei.net/~ebreeden/kibble.html

[Prin]

I like that one better.

it does give some insight as too what certain ingredients are(the chemically named ones) and what they provide to our doggies.

The only problem is if they don't use an ingredient, even if it's not a bad one, they'll find something bad to say about it, and if they do use a bad ingredient, they'll never admit to it being bad...

[Prin]

Here's an example:

Oatmeal which they do use:

Oatmeal is the dry ground product of cleaned oats with the hulls removed.

Oatmeal is a good source of carbohydrate energy. Natura uses Oatmeal with its natural nutrients intact and without preprocessing. This is in contrast to the fractionated oat ingredients used by some manufacturers such as oat bran, oat flour or feeding oat meal, which have been leeched of much of their nutritional value.

A natural, healthy grain that's rich in B vitamins, oatmeal is the featured grain in HealthWise products and is used in Innova and California Natural Healthbars because its sticky texture helps hold the biscuit shape together without using artificial binders.

And millet, which they don't use, which is a grain that vegans apparently hail as one of the best out there:

Ground millet is any of various cereal grasses cultivated for grain or fodder.

According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, millet is an important food staple in much of Asia, Russia, and western Africa. In the United States and Western Europe, millet grains are are used chiefly for pasture or to produce hay.

The nutrient content in millet is not as biologically available to animals as other grains. Instead of millet, Natura uses whole grains such as barley, oats and rice, with higher biological values.

From what I have read thus far, dogs benefit more from millet than from oatmeal. Oatmeal is in there mainly for the fiber and the protein content, from what I have read. It's also higher fat than millet and lower in carbs. From what I have read about millet, it is easily digested, is the only non-acidic grain, rarely causes allergies and is gluten free. It also has the best proportions of amino acids of any grain other than kinoa. It reportedly prevents colitis, ulcers and kidney stones. But still this company paints it in a not-so-nice light. I dunno.

What's a high biological value anyway? More worthy of life? If it meant nutritional, they'd use nutritional, wouldn't they?

[mastifflover]

Honestly I think the best food is raw even though I don't feed raw at least you control everything that goes into it. I do feed kibble and it works for me and Bud when I win the lottery and retire all my Mastiff's ( at least 3 more) will eat raw. I am sold on it and from what I see of all the dogs I know on raw they have had marked improvement in coat and a couple with health issues do not have them anymore nothing major but UTI's. Two of these dogs were on Solid Gold and one on Fromm Natural. The owners also say it is cheaper in the long run but definitely not more expensive then the $70.00 bag of kibble and at least 2 a month and remember the expensive foods are smaller bags. Yes I know you feed less but one of those bags is only about 2 weeks worth of food for a giant breed plus supplements. When I was feeding Solid Gold I was spending over $200 a month, for a dog with the worst gas. I did switch to California Natural which Buddy and I really liked I think you really need to pick a good food that works best for your dog that you can afford. We did switch again to Diamond Large Breed then to Kirkland and that is where we are now.