Before Grain Opinions.

[Amanda00]

I'm thinking of switching Juno, our german shepard pyrenees cross to Before Grain by Merrick. Has anyone tried it with their dogs? I talked to my pet food store and they seem to like the ingredient list alright, and said it seemed decent.
Any reviews from you guys and gals?

[clm]

I haven't tried it on the dogs yet. I have tried it with the cats and they like the chicken flavour and that's all, but that's cats. Picky.

Cindy

[kathryn]

My cats like the chicken flavour. Remember the canned food is for treats and supplementing.

I recommend it. It's pretty affordable actually.

[Chris21711]

Kathryn - Amanda00 is asking about the dog food.
Amanda00 - I tried it and the dogs seemed to like it, but then they all got the runs a couple of times while they were on Merrick, there were no recalls but I decided to switch brands

Kathryn - you say the canned cat food is only for treats and supplement, if you go to the cat food forum, it seems quite clear that it is the other way around, there are some really good links there.

[kathryn]

I know, but I'm just saying I think it's a good brand.

Before grain was intended for supplemental feeding only and are not intended for use as a complete and balanced diet.

http://beforegrain.com/

It's only ground meat in water. Nothing else. Not a complete diet at all. It's a nice treat though

[Lissa]

While I like no grain dog foods, I was disappointed with the BG lines because of their "tricky" labelling... When you see "buffalo" or "salmon" as the number 1 ingredient, you think wow - it might be great for my allergy dog... But when you look at the ingredients and see buffalo or salmon with its full water content and then chicken/turkey meal as the following ingredients, you realize that the buffalo/salmon is likely not in the top 3-5 ingredients.
The ingredients are pretty decent - I'd prefer not to have potato split up or the use of a cheap oil like canola but overall they're decent. I prefer slightly higher protein as well.
Finally - the kcal per cup is less than all other grain free formulas so you would need to feed more BG than Core (who has similar protein levels).
All in all, I still prefer Orijen

BTW - I would never consider their canned diets completely balanced (for cats or dogs)... Unless somehow it includes all parts of the animal but since they do not advertise it as such, it is unlikely (and even then you generally need to supplement with oils, vits, minerals so not what I consider a balanced diet on its own!).

[Amanda00]

Thanks for all of the info. Juno really did not like Orijen for some reason, but I was looking again today at the store asking my friend who works there and she said that she was going to do the buffalo one, but she has switched her dog onto to many different foods because everytime a new line comes in she wants to try it, so she is done doing that for awhile. But it was encouraging having her say that she would use it and that no one here is giving any horribly negative feedback.
Juno is on Healthwise right now, but I really do not think it is doing much for her. I usually give her wet once in awhile, but it will mostly be dry food.
I would feed raw if it was not so costly and if my 11 month old daughter would stay out of the dog dish! She loves dog food for some reason.......