Dog food folks...

[danners84]

Warning: poop-talk in the following post.

I have been struggling with determining the right dog food for our 7 year old lab for a couple years now. Prior to living with us, he was at my in-laws, hence the just recent change in diet.

When we first got him, we transitioned him slowly to Orijen Red. We waited several months for him to adjust, but it seems he just could not tolerate the high protein. His stools never firmed up, and were quite dark. I switched him then to what my parents feed their lab, Blue Wilderness, which I chose because it was still grain free but had a lower percentage of protein and fat. His stools were better, but still not what I would consider normal. More recently, I switched him, along with our recent rescue (15 yo miniature sheltie), over to the senior formula of Blue Wilderness, which is a little lower cal. Stools are finally relatively normal, but he doesn't seem to like it. Who ever heard of having to TRY to get a lab to eat??

I've addressed this a little bit with his vet, but of course they're very interested in getting us to buy their beloved Science Diet. No parasites, possibly just a sensitive tummy with some intolerance that I haven't pinpointed. So maybe he needs a LID food? But which one? Preferably something that is not too high on the protein side.

TIA for your advice/recs!

 

[SB621]

Our 4 year old lab was raised as a puppy on Bentiful (the salmon blend) and when we got her we tried to transition her over to Blue Mountain or Blue Wilderness- I forget what it is called. The bag was around $50 for 30lbs of food and honestly she hated it. Her poop was very runny and she would eat grass and throw up a lot in the middle of the night. Vet told us to put her back on Benetiful. Even though it is extremely crappy dog food compared to other brands that is what she likes and because she grew up on the salmon formula she just doesnt' care for anything else (beef, chicken or lamb). We have tried a few other dog foods but it is always the same.

I would just go with what your lab does best on. As long as she gets regular exercise and is doing well that is all that really matters. I will say that since I don't find her food to be extremely healthful we do supplement her with a doggie vitamin and home baked doggie treats.

 

[UnsetTsavorite]

I have an English Mastiff with a very sensitive stomach and we went through quite a few foods before finding one that worked so I feel your pain! The food that finally did the trick was Natural Balance LID. We saw an immediate improvement almost from the first day and she hasn't looked back since. HTH!

 

[pinkjewel]

I feed my 3 dogs Fromm's Surf and Turf. It is a great food and is also grain free. It is the only food my very picky eaters like, also. I tried so many to find a highly rated food that all three of my dogs would eat-lol. I used to buy it across town, but when a Natural Food Pet Store opened closer to me- I asked him if he'd mind getting it for me. This was 2 years ago and he brought in a few bags for me and to see if others would like it,too. He now carries the whole line and its his best selling line of dog food!!! Most dogs like it and it agrees with most. It's an "all stages" type food. Hope you find something that works for your dog.

 

[LibbyLA]

I haven't had dogs in several years, but at the end of their lives, my aged Great Pyrenees and Dachshund were on a fresh and raw diet. The Pyr (about age 12) had had horrible itchy, greasy skin for most of her life and the Dachshund had been scrawny all his life. Both dogs' coats improved tremendously. It was like a miracle! The Dachshund gained weight.

Based on the experience I had with them, I wish I'd fed fresh and raw their entire lives. The Pyr may not have needed steroids all the time.

I got my cats shortly before I had to put the dogs down and I've fed the cats the cat version of fresh and raw for almost the entire eight years I've had them. When I got a third cat, I fed dry food for a little while but couldn't stand the constantly filthy, stinky litterbox.

Fresh and raw poop is low volume and much less stinky than commercial food poop. I'll feed canned cat food occasionally, and they occasionally get "Kitty McDonald's" (dry food), but my SO (now fiancé) and I make 40+ pound batches of cat food every few months and I freeze it. He bought a heavy duty meat grinder and mixing tub, supposedly to make sausage, but it's only ever been used for cat food.

Fresh and raw dog food (similar to the BARF diet) is a lot easier to do for dogs than for cats. I don't remember the proportions, but they got some veggies, some meat, and things like uncooked chicken wings. No grinding or mixing needed.

liz

 

[Enerchi]

I have a 6 year old yellow lab and a new 3 month old chocolate lab puppy - on two different foods - but the older lab, Ava, has been on Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's soul for about 2 years now and has nice firm, dry stools. No waste in that food. She gets about 2.5 - 3 cups per day (less in the winter when we are all a bit less active) and she looks very good!

We feed based on what our breeder recommends and he is very thorough with his research and making sure the food is balanced for the age of the dog.

Ava highly recommends the Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul! Its gone in 20 seconds!

 

[Haven]

I hope Woofmama sees this, she owns a high end pet food and supplies store. I bet she'll have great recommendations for you. (Maybe start a thread calling for her?)

 

[rubyshoes]

I have only fed my dogs Flint River Ranch food and I have never had a single complaint with it.

My previous dog was a 7 yr old rescue from the pound (she was on the kill list with 2 days to go) and she was in terrible shape, malnourished and had hypothyroidism to boot. I fed her FRR from the moment she got home and she never had a single issue with it... my current dog was healthy to begin with (and 1 yr old when I brought her home from the pound) and she does great on it too...

Maybe look up the website, discuss with vet and try out a sample for your pooch?

http://www.frrco.com/company/about-flint-river-ranch/

 

[Mayk]

I'm always hesitant to weigh in on these threads.. because I'm likely brainwashed.. I worked for P&G for 25 years and sold Iams & Eukanuba Dog food... My Lab and my cats have always been fed Eukanuba. High in protien, the beet pulp which is a mildly fermentable fiber is helpful for solid stools and my dogs teeth were always in great shape as the dental defense ingredients in the product works. Lamb & Rice was often a go to with a touchy stomach... Again.. I'm not looking to get into a fuss with anyone who's not a Eukanuba fan.. it's just what I knew and saw with my own pets... It's not cheap but neither are some of the other items listed here. The Blue Buffalo guy was actually and Iams guy at one time if I remember correctly... I don't have a dog today but the Bengal is on Eukanuba...

 

[webdiva]

Definitely check out dogfoodadvisor.com before purchasing any food to see what goes into it and what ingredients are beneficial and aren't. I'm super picky about what I feed my dogs. I won't even go into how terrible Science Diet is.

Orijen is awesome. If he couldn't tolerate it after a reasonable amount of time (which you did), you could try the same company's lower protein food Acana (both made by Champion foods). Blue Wilderness is ok, but Blue Buffalo has had issues with some foods and I prefer feeding a food with ingredients all sourced in North America. I wonder if it was any of the proteins in the Orijen that didn't agree with him - that variety has a number of different proteins in it so you'd have to narrow it down.

I really love The Honest Kitchen and if you were already paying Orijen prices, it's no sweat. We're currently feeding the Zeal but the Keen is half the price of the Zeal. You can order some samples and see if he likes it! It's dehydrated and almost like feeding raw. If you order on Wag.com, you get cash back points.

Whichever food you feed, I find pureed pumpkin to help form the stools during the transition period. Plus, the dogs love it!

I'm sure Woofmama has some additional awesome insight!

 

[danners84]

Thanks to everyone for your input!

Definitely check out dogfoodadvisor.com before purchasing any food to see what goes into it and what ingredients are beneficial and aren't. I'm super picky about what I feed my dogs. I won't even go into how terrible Science Diet is.

I was obsessive about looking up foods when I was trying to find one that worked for him before, and spent hours on dogfoodadvisor.com. I'll take the recommendations I get from here, do some research on the ingredients, and then order samples on those for which it is available. I had considered Acana before, so that would be a strong contender.

I'm concerned with raw diets for him, as he previously had a GI bleed from bone consumption and I don't want to go back there again. But I will do some research to see if there are some options that do not include bones.

Soldier says "thank you" to all for your input! He's looking forward to some yummier food in his near future

Now off to prep him a sweet potato treat!

 

[webdiva]

Glad it helped! The Honest Kitchen is actually a dry cereal looking food that you add water to, and it rehydrates. It creates a yummy stew my dogs love! So no issues with actual bones.

 

[VapidLapid]

Murry eats lamb Wellness kibble. in the morning he gets a teaspoon of plain yogurt on top with his glucosamine mixed into it and a few bits of chopped apple. his dinner is the same, but with a few bits of meat left from the evening meal the night before. He will eat most anything, is particularly fond of orange sections and arugula. Oddly, any form of chicken gives him the runs and any fish except poached salmon does as well. He behaves badly in the presence of scones.

 

[danners84]

He behaves badly in the presence of scones.

Ha, this had me chuckling. Give Murry some good pets and an orange section from me! Soldier does love cuties.

 

[pinkjewel]

Glad it helped! The Honest Kitchen is actually a dry cereal looking food that you add water to, and it rehydrates. It creates a yummy stew my dogs love! So no issues with actual bones.

I loved the idea of The Honest Kitchen, but none of my dogs would eat it when I tried giving it to them- and I tried several of their formulas. They were so funny. They looked at it, sniffed, touched a tongue to it, literally screwed up their little noses- and looked at me-like, Mom-are you crazy??!! You actually want me to eat that??!!!!

Another similar formula I tried was Grandma Lucy- same reaction...

So I've stuck with Fromm's Surf and Turf.

 

[Hospatogi]

I have been feeding my puppy Acana and she loves it mixed with pumpkin purée. It has less protein than Orijen and the pumpkin has fiber that helps with digestion. So far it's working great I hope you find the right brand for your dog soon!

 

[lulu]

No matter what we fed our black lab he had loose stools until we started adding Prozyme to his food. It really worked. It's a digestive supplement powder a breeder told us about.

 

[Snowy]

We take the time to prepare a good raw diet complete with organs and vitamin supplements for our pets because we feel it's a better diet for them. We also give them Orijen just so they don't have to stick with one type of food. To each their own.

I would vote for trying a raw diet (Stellas and Chewys are a good brand I know of. Not the regular brands as they have lots of grain/veggies and too many fillers) and/or also feeding your dog cooked butternut squash or sweet potato as that I hear firms up stool. Fortunately we haven't had that issue with our pets so haven't tried it. But I hear it always works for others.

 

[Joolz]

I feed my 3 dogs Fromm's Surf and Turf. It is a great food and is also grain free. It is the only food my very picky eaters like, also. I tried so many to find a highly rated food that all three of my dogs would eat-lol. I used to buy it across town, but when a Natural Food Pet Store opened closer to me- I asked him if he'd mind getting it for me. This was 2 years ago and he brought in a few bags for me and to see if others would like it,too. He now carries the whole line and its his best selling line of dog food!!! Most dogs like it and it agrees with most. It's an "all stages" type food. Hope you find something that works for your dog.

I also feed my dogs Fromm. I alternate between the different formulations (currently on beef frittata) and my dogs' sensitive stomachs handle it very well and they find it very palatable. Fromm makes all of its food in the US if that matters to you as well.

 

[InnaR]

I feed my two Chinese Cresteds a Blue Buffalo "fish and sweet potato" food. They practically enhale it. They are almost 5 and 2.5 years old rescues and came to us quite a bit overweighted due to spending most of their lives in the basement (the boy) and in the cage (the girl).

They seem to be doing great on that food. I feed them twice a day a bit less then a recommended norm. They are both in a great shape now and very energetic.

 

[woofmama]

Hey everyone
Sorry I missed this thread. If you came into my store these are things I would recommend:

1st suggestion try any of these foods: Acana Ranchlands,Fromm Grain Free (there is a Beef), PureVita Bison. All are lower protein, have excellent digestability and none of these companies have ever had a recall. Fromm is my number selling food followed by Orijen & Acana. PureVita is lesser known but made in it's own plant in MN and are a family owned company. I sell 14 brands as well as raw and have helped loads of customers with problems like you've mentioned. These foods have worked in 90% of the cases where folks have wanted to feed a dry food. Try one of these and add organic pumpkin to the food, buy Nummy Tum Tum, open can put the pumpkin in ice cube trays & freeze. Pop 1-2 in each feeding. Makes for a firm consisent stool. Prozyme is also fantasic to help get a sensitive stomach under control.

If you are open to raw diets I highly recommend Stella & Chewy's. Great company, outstanding product and rarely do you see loose stool on a raw diet. My three very large dogs eat raw about 4-5 meals a week and consistently have very small firm, almost odorless stool. Looks like bunny poop!

If you are interested in a rehydrated food try Grandma Lucy's Pure or Sojo's Complete. Very easy to prepare and the meat is included in the diet. Add water and serve. Highly digestable protein, great small firm stools. My dogs get this 4-5 meals per week as well.

Sometimes it takes time for a dog to adjust! Don't give up. When I got my standard poodle at 4 mths old the breeder was feeding purina. Yuck! He was immediately switched to Orijen puppy, then started raw with-in a week. We had a few rough weeks with very loose stools but he adjusted pretty quick. Has an iron gut now and can eat anything. It's now highly recommended that you vari your dogs diet between multiple protein sources and rotate between raw, canned (I feed lots of canned), dry and home cooked. I don't believe in staying with one brand or dry food only. If there is any potential problem with that brand and it's 100% of your pets diet serious health problems could occur later in life. I'll try to address further the diets mentioned in this thread but just got home from work and need some non-dog food time

 

[Jax172]

We use Natural Balalance LID food as our lab is super allergic to like everything. Dude is also on meds for his allergies. Poor dog.

 

[gemgirl]

We have three Wellness dogs and they're all very healthy as a result of their holistic diet. We feed Wellness dry (and canned as a treat, they LOVE the turkey and duck varieties) and Mother Hubbard cookies and treats. Wellness and Mother Hubbard are the same company. They snack on bananas, yellow delicious apples (minus the peel), berries and they LOVE veggies, so they get their fair share of those every night while I cook. They also drink "apple water". I couldn't get my middle pup to drink plain water, so I invented (LOL) apple water years ago. That's 80% purified water and 20% cold pressed pure apple cider. My three love it and Bella now drinks too.

 

[minousbijoux]

I am SO disappointed - I just wrote out a hugely long post asking for help with my dog and it disappeared when I hit submit. Gah, I hate when that happens!

I hope its okay if I post this here, OP, if not, let me know and I'll start a new thread.

I have three dogs, two of whom have particular needs. Smiles, the Australian cattle dog, is prone to Urinary tract infections and the vet says that we have to have a constant diet, with no extra treats that might have a different PH. Okay, fine, mainly under control. Our other dog with problems is our young pitbull, Joseph (please no judgements, he was a rescue dog that walked into our lives and he is in fact, the Ferdinand the Bull of dogs, lol), who has skin rashes on his legs and paws. His skin gets so bad that
[Gross alert: skip over this if you don't want to hear the gory details
he gets these red bumps that eventually fill with puss, like pimples all over
You are now leaving the Gross zone - carry on]

Not only that, but it must be painful, because he doesn't want to be touched there, and if you accidentally take his paw, he often winces. Everybody says that pitbulls are prone to food allergies and the way it manifests is in the skin, particularly of the legs and paws. My vet insists that my dogs should stay on the Purina Veterinary formula that he sells. Don't get me wrong, I have know this vet for 25 years and trust him pretty much - I don't think he is pushing Purina just to sell bags of dog food, as he has repeatedly told me to buy it elsewhere because I can find it cheaper. The Purina food is highly processed and is grain-based. The vet says that it is nutritionally balanced with the right nutrients and the grain has been modified to make it easy for dogs to digest. We have pretty much fed our dogs this dog food for a year, and Joseph's rash is still largely around - its definitely so much better than when we found him, but it still has room for improvement.

When I went online and read on pitbull forums and dog websites, I learned that skin allergies in pits are really common and typically originate from food. I also learned that they can be allergic to grasses/weeds, and we have a yard full of all kinds of plants/weeds. The consistent answer regarding food for skin allergies was to feed a raw diet very high in protein, and if not a raw diet, then a grain free diet extremely high in protein. I tried to make homemade food for them, but could not sustain it. Plus, when I told my vet, he almost got irritated with me, saying that high protein diets were not good, as the composition of the protein chains (I think that's the right term) are too complex for dogs to digest, whereas starch is an easier to digest chain. I am so confused. I have tried two kinds of Purina Veterinarian, one specially composed for skin problems. I have also tried the Natures Variety brand Instinct type composed of chicken and turkey meal. While Joseph is better than he has ever been before, I don't know whether its attributable to the food, or to a recent cold snap we've had that has killed the vegetation in our back yard. I admit I have a bias about getting the dog's food from Purina; I can't help but feel that these smaller brands discussed in this thread can make a difference, and were created with the goal of getting higher quality, more nutritious ingredients, into dogs. Rightly or wrongly, I feel that Purina's mission is profit first, the welfare of dogs second and I'm sorry if that reads as a mean statement. It just helps to explain why I tend to believe the pitbull and dog websites over my vet.

So does anyone have any ideas? Has anyone had a dog with skin problems or allergies that manifest themselves in bad skin? We are doing everything else we can think of, cleaning sleeping areas regularly, baths, sprays and ointments, occasional prednisone from the vet (this obviously cannot be sustained) and sometime benadryl to keep him from scratching and licking and generally making it worse.

Does anyone have success stories with the right food combination? Does anyone know what I should do?!!

Thank you so much for any and all suggestions, comments, advice, etc...

 

[danners84]

I hope its okay if I post this here, OP, if not, let me know and I'll start a new thread.

Not a problem! I'm loving reading everyone's posts. PS'ers have some spoiled pooches! Poor Joseph! I would drop the Purina immediately simply because it doesn't seem like it is working for your dog. It sounds like he has major allergy issues. I just read the ingredients list on the hypoallergenic formula. I know that vegetarian dog foods exist, but it is so WEIRD to read a list of ingredients without a single meat in it. I assume the vet has done skin scrapings already to rule out thinks like mites, and there are not signs of fleas anywhere? Soldier had a horrible skin reaction when we went to the beach last summer that bought him a round of steroids, antibacterial/antifungal baths, and oral antibiotics. And the cone of shame. Joseph's allergies may not be diet related at all, but it is worth looking into.

Thanks to all of the recommendations from everyone! I ordered samples from both The Honest Kitchen and Grandma Lucy's. We'll see how the pups take to the rehydrated cuisine. I need to read up on the Natural Balance LID as well as Fromm, Acana, and Wellness. I think I'll buy a few different small bags, see how Soldier takes to them, and then pick a few for rotation.

And Mother Hubbard treats are a staple around here

Thanks to all for the input!

 

[minousbijoux]

Danners, thank you - you're generous to share, but I think I may have to start my own thread...