Taste of the Wild dog food - Page 3

I fed this food for over 8 months, loved it until I realised all my dogs were losing weight. They were eating quite a lot, but all lost weight after being on this food. Two of my three lost enough for folk to start noticing. I even upped their intake, and the amount they were eating should have shown weight gain, but it didn't. 

I ended up feeding between 5 and 8 cups of food per day, depending on the dog.

I had to switch, and am now feeding Canidea. Doing better, weight back on, with me feeding between 4 and 6 cups per day, depending on the dog.

I wish I had had, as good of results as others have had. It is a nice food.

Yellowrose:  You got that right!  It's all about the money... and pet owners are big money targets.  It's a drag to have to sift thru all the B.S. in order to try to feed our dogs without  poisoning them in the process

Macawpower:  Yes, I have a friend who's dog was the same way, but then another friend with a large working Labrador who is  down to 2 cups a day and she's still a little pork chop.  Like people, dogs have different metabolisms.

I am only feeding 1 cup twice a day -  usually about 8 to 10 hours from breakfast to dinner.  I was feeding 1 and a half cups twice a day, but my dog was too heavy, so I guess a lot depends on the dogs.  I do add an egg now and then, cottage cheese on occasion... raw meaty bones regularly...

Thanks to everyone for their opinions and experiences.  It was interesting to read.

opps...regarding the puppy - check out Molly/Eichenluft's comments.  I don't know her but she seems pretty hip about nutrition, and she's a breeder  which means she has puppies/young dogs. Maybe you can ask her opinion regarding your puppy. 

An added  P.S.:  Take the time to read the labels...and find out exactly what the ingredients mean.    There are brands of food out there that people swear by. One brand in particular stands out..but I don't want to diss any other brands by name..so it shall remain anonomous..  Anyway, this person told me her dog would ONLY eat this particular brand.  She tried different premium brands, but her dog wouldn't eat them and he always won.  I read the label, and besides being full of corn and soy in the top ingredients, it was also full of corn syrup (and food colorings to look pretty).      No mystery there as to why the dog prefered that brand.   Most dogs will eat anything..  and like children, they have a sweet tooth.

Not to get away from the dog food subject again, but most of those top seller $$$ dog treats that line the shelves at Petsmart and the like, are full of sugars/sweeteners, etc.   You could probably take dog turds and mix them with sugar and your dogs will go crazy over it...  :-)  

 opps. accidently submitted twice...so I erased this one.  don't know how to delete it....

i have a question about sweet potatoes..........

before all the dog food problems, we were feeding the van patten natural balance venison and rice.  after all the problems they came back with venison and sweet potato.  i tried it.........i'm very leery of it.  it seems as though all the companies that have eliminated or reduced grains in their product, have replaced it with sweet potato or white potatoes.  i don't believe that anything that starchy belongs in a dog's diet.  i see that TOTW also uses sweet potato.  am i alone or is anyone else concerned about these starchy things in commercial foods?  i have an idea that staches are going to cause a pancreatic and blood sugar problem in dogs over a period of time.  when my dogs were eating the stuff with sweet potatoes, their urine was dark, sweet smelling and sticky.  i'm figuring if this much sugar is coming out of them, it can't be good.

i'd like to hear what others think about it.  personally, i like to see oatmeal used in commercial foods.  i feel it is far less harmful than some of the other things they use.

pjp

http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/products/ingredients/  

This link is from the TOTW website...  

Will be interesting to hear other opinions...  personally, I have no idea!  :-) 

pjp,

I have one girl that can have no grains in any way shape or form, rice either.  I even had to eliminate the Odwalla Superfood juice from her diet, the Odwalla carrot juice is okay.  She has done well so far on the diets containing potato or sweet potato.   Currently on a mixture of Natural Balance Venison and Sweet potato mixed with Evo.   For dogs that can have no grains at all, the potato types seem to be a decent alternative.

unfortunatly we cannot buy it in Belgium, and i do not think it is sold in Europe

if anyone knows differnt can they let me know as it sounds like a very good Kibble

Steve

i still have one bag brand new royal canine to go before i switch it.

Macaw,

If all of your dogs were having a problem with it I doubt it was the food. That sounds more like a parasite problem that was coinciding with the feeding. I realize that not all dogs are going to do well on a aprticular food, but, it seems very strange that all did not do well.

For the person afraid of the high protein %. It is much lower than most of the other grain free foods. 32% vs.42%. The salmon formula is only 25%.

I was a little concerned about this food being from Diamond also. They  actually had a problem with their food a year or so before the big pet food scare last year. I believe it had to do with their grain storage facility in South Carolina. Thankfully this is GRAIN FREE!!!! I think  that Diamond saw how easily they could go out of business and straightened things out. So far all of my dogs are doing great on it.

A great web site to check out if you want to learn about pet (and human) nutrition is:

www.dogfoodproject.com

You will probably find a lot of your answers about ingredients here.

Good Luck and Have a Great Weekend!

Blitz is a big dog, close to 100 lbs. He eats about 2 cups of TOTW 2 times a day and is in excellent weight. He's a couch potato and if he were more active I'd think he'd need to eat more of course. However 8 cups a day sounds like an awful lot of food for any GSD.