Allright, we all know that the cheap dog food sold at grocery stores is good for our budget. My previous dog ate nutrience dog food for a while then later i switched to a 2.5 times more expensive dog food with no corn meal, meat by products and it had some glucosamine in it. I don't remember the name of it since he died a few years back.
The dogs we have now, have been on dog chow for 1 year, then i finally realized, after some research, that it was far from being a good choice. The corn and the fillers and the meat by-product with some of the last ingredients are quite bad for our dogs we claim to love so much. Look at any other four legged mammals of the predator carnivore type; what is it that they eat and love to eat. It is usually fresh meat like fish, white and red meat. Since they are our best friend and so close to us, they eat what we give them yes, but over the generations, their genes have changed. To what degree i don't know i am not a vet or expert in canine nutrition. Remember the old expression, "you are what you eat" well it really means, you become influenced genetically by what you eat. Dogs don't go hunting like bears or lions, their system is not built to fight all the germs, and different structure of the food that is raw and maybe diseased, including some the the parts that we would stay away from like inside organs, acidity in the bile, some hard to digest bone, cartillage pieces,digestive juice, and toxic parts from the urine and feces on their way out, hair, hardened skin,hoofs,antler,nails, dead roadkill thats rotting. We have been feeding them human processed food that is much cleaner, with very low bacteria and germs as in the dry food and if its our scraps from our family's table, we cooked it so again its clean and fairly germ,bacteria free. I think over the generations dogs have become as weak as us human. We don't eat raw white or red meat normally except for in the last few years human have been eating sushi raw fish, but im sure human don't eat that every day either. The occasional raw type that may be to try once, or at special occasion some people eat steak tartare, oysters and many more exotic types of food, but never every day something raw without getting sick at some point because us to we are accustomed to cooked meat, and clean food from fiber, organic, of farmed grown. Humans know if they want to be healthy they must eat some protein, carbohydrates, organic, vitamins, anti-oxidants, calcium and minerals, including water of course, and in such a delicate balance of them all helps us stay healthy. Well our dogs are just behind in the food chain, and they rely on us for their existence and well-being.
The closest to human but still most adaptable pet is the cat. They can survive in the wild, they hunt, they also cross genes/dna with domestic cat that never ate a squirel or dead animal, so over the generations they kept their wild instinct enough to prolong their existence much longer then dogs. They are much more resistant to worms, infections but yet they still live about the same age of dogs, like feline wild species for wildcats to lions. Diversity of foods and diversity of mating partners have made them much stronger in that respect. To bad i am allergic to cat i would for sure own 1 or 2, to spice up my dogs running life heheheheh!!!
I am no scientist or vet again, but always had a passion for mammals, all the way up to underwater ones like dolphins and whales.
OK i will stop babbling like i know everything and give you some info that is really PERTINENT to the discussion:
I just switched dog food last week-end, since i noticed my dogs have not been eating much of the iams food they were feeding on, almost had to force them to eat their dinner.
When we got our st-bernard, Lizzy i decided to try a better quality food, then dog chow mixed with iams. We switched to chicken soup for dog lovers brand. They were doing well on that, and at some point, my girlfriend and i, wanted to cutback on items in our budget and made the wrong choice to give them purely iams, thinking its better then dog chow. Last christmas to now, my dogs have lost weight which is a good thing, but gradually were eating less and less, and i had to introduce more milkbone cookie, or peanut butter healthy dog cookie into their dinner.
Last week both dogs were down to eating about 1/2 cup a day of the iam and kept coming to bug me to have cookies, and rawhide dog bones. Seeing the issue at hand, i decided to screw the budget for our dogs health, and go find a good quality food were meat is first ingredient in the list. Spent about an hour looking at about 4 or 5 different ones at global food store chain (quality pet food store in america). Was caught between the old chicken soup for dog lovers brand and 2 or 3 other ones, like one i think it was called natures choice or natures harvest. All of the ones i was looking at had NO CORN MEAL and NO MEAT BY PRODUCTS, meat such as salmon, lamb, beef or chicken was on the first ingredient, and they all contained similar amount of glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate (for their joints and fur quality). The iams food i had them on before that, has corn meal as first ingredient, and chicken by-product. Iams did convince to buy their product because it had glucosamine in it and some other marketing in the packaging of the bag like Proactive Health written in huge letters on the bag.
A big difference to me and my dogs is that they like it, i didn't have to put any cookies in it, and they eat the regular amount right away. The new food i am now using is called Premium Edge, i choose the chicken,rice and vegetables one. A notable funny thing is that iams has no american association of quality control backing them up and the others ones do including the one i chose. The AAFCO (associatiation of american feed control officials) where NEW food meet the nutritiunal levels established by the AAFCO for dog food nutrient profiles for maintenance. The new food bag also does not need to emphasize health and proactive in big huge letters to try to sell their stuff either. Other items in ingredients with surprised me in the new food is, whole grain brown rice, ocean fish meal, cracked pearled barley, white rice ,oatmeal,potatoes, tomatoe pomace,egg product,flaxseed,salt,dried chicory root,dried kelp, carrots,peas,apples,tomatoes,blueberry,spinash etc.
I did not have to read to whole thing to see that is it much better for our 2 dogs, and the proof is that they also love it.
The sad shocker is that the government supports huge companies like procter&gamble which is behind the iams food and vets have basically no choice to follow the political BS to keep their cash cow going. I will be positive and exclude the rare vets that act for the better of the dogs and owners, not their wallet,license or else. My new vet is about 1 hour drive away from here because anywhere near where i live they just want $ and don't care for you or your pet. It was actually the owner of global quality pet food franchise in my area that suggested thhis new vet.
Anyhow sorry my writing can be a little long, like a book, but thought it was important to let out the info for whoever is like i was before buying crappy cheap food. After all our dogs don't live long like us so really the vet bills and their food really only costs nothing compare to the cost of bringing up children into human beings, and they trust us to make good choices for them.
Good luck to you all!!
nb: i will be testing iams and premium edge water expansion tonight or tomorow for whoever may be interested in the findings, ill post em up in this section soon.
Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:33 pm
