opinions needed on Dog Food........... - Page 2

I was told never put hot water on food because it will take away the enzymes in the food. I use lukewarm to cool water to soak food. Whatever works for each dog. Dawn Bonome

I feed Royal Canin Maxi GSD24 with excellent results for more than 3 years. No supplements are necessary. For what it is worth, HOT water or heat destroys enzymes in food.

The person that emailed me privately, I did try to email you back but it kept shooting back at me(not literally either). Anyway, our dog's have been on Canidae for about 2 years now. We have tried all the other brands and 2 of our dog's kept getting runny stools. Also are our all black male always had a red tint to his black coat. Since we have been feeding Canidae, they no longer have runny stools and the red tint on our all black male's coat is gone. You can get that I believe at any pet store. If they don't carry that brand near you, you can go on their website and locate a distributor that might be in your area. Their website is www.canidae.com and just to let you know, every dog takes to different foods. What might not be good for another dog, may be excellent for that dog.

I feed Eukanuba Premium Performace to most of my dogs in training, adding meat and/or tripe, organ meats, etc. when I'm really conditioning them hard. I use the senior formula for older dogs and small breed puppy for young pups till about 4-6 months old, or dogs that don't seem to be keeping weight on the way I'd like. T (6 yrs. old) gets fat easy, so I feed him Royal Canin Maxi GS24. He only gets 2 cups a day but you'd think he gets 6 to look at him after laying around all winter. :( One thing I like about Eukanuba is that I can get it anywhere. SS

Canidae is good solid food depending on your dog...everyone of mine but my GSD did well on this, and probably he didn't because he has grain sensitivities (was only eating it two days each week too). So just something to watch out for. But for its quality and price, hard to beat. My cats are on the Felidae.

Just curious. We don't feed it but have heard about Flint River. Anybody use it? What kind of results did you ahve?

DukeAloha, I tried to reply to your email you sent to me privately and it bounced. So here is my reply to your question: In general, I keep the pups on the Royal Canin puppy food on a case by case basis. I have one pup now who is on it still at 7 months, and have two who are a year who I switched at about 6 months to the RC Maxi GSD24 which is an excellent food. I do not have panosteitis issues and do not believe that it is really food related as is popular belief. Most vets are out of touch with food quality. Science Diet, Eukanuba and Iams are not foods I would ever feed or recommend. However, what really matters is the individual characteristics of each dog. The dog should be lean, have a wonderful and glossy coat, clear eyes, no ear or skin issues and be full of energy. Some people like the foods I do not. Canidae, for example, though I feel it is a decent food, gives too many of my dogs looser stool than I want to see. And if a dog has any malabsorption issues as GSDs often do, there are plenty of foods that a given dog will not do well on. In the end, it is personal choice, but in my case, I base it on my results with hundreds of GSDs over the last 10 years. In my opinion, RC is the best and they know the most about GSDs of any food manufacturer in the world. I hope that helps.

The Whole Dog Journal puts out a list of the best dry dog foods available, I am reprinting it here for all to see: Here's the alphabetized list of dry foods recommended by Whole Dog Journal: Artemis, Azmira, Back to Basics, Bench & Field, Blue Buffalo, Burns, By Nature Brightlife, California Naural, Canidae, Canine Caviar, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul, Cloud Star Kibble, Drs. Foster & Smith, Eagle Holistic Select, Evolve Natural, Flint River Ranch, Foundations, Fromm, Go! Natural, Hund-N-Flocken, Innova, Karma, Lick Your Chops, Lifespan, Limited Diets, Merrick, Mmillennia, Natural Balance, Natural Choice Ultra, Newman's Own, Organix, PHD Viand, Pinnacle, Prairie, Premium Edge, Prime Life, Royal Canine Natural Blend, Showbound Naturals, Timberwolf Organics, Verus, Wellness, Wysong. Here are the brands The Whole Dog Journal did NOT recommend..and in some cases, in fact, recommended AGAINST: Beneful, Cycle Adult, Dad's Bite Sized Meal, Diamond Premium Adult Formula, Excel Lamb Meal & Rice, Gravy Train, Happy Tails (made for Albertsons), HiPro (made by Purina) Iams (including Eukanuba), Kibbles 'n Bits, Nutro Max, Maxximum Nutrition (made for Wal-Mart) Natural Choice Adult Lamb & Rice (made by Nutro), Nature's Recipe, Nutra Nuggets, Ol' Roy, Pedigree, Purina Dog Chow, Purina One, Science Diet Adult Original, and Science Diet's "Nature's Best With Real Beef Adult Dog Food. I feed Flint River and love it, my dogs are on the Lamb & Millet formula as I have one dog with a wheat allergy, the only drawback to it that I had seen was when first switching over to it the stools were soft for about 2 weeks, but I think you will get that with almost any food. They are very healthy otherwise and their coats absolutely glisten :)

das_hinterlands Canidae food is really good. I find the best of theirs is the "All Stages" kibble. On a personal note... Dog foods are kinda like "what feels good to you" or buying a car one person likes each make for different reasons. I've tried them all and I have kudos and complaints about each and everyone of the brands out on the market today. The last "real" premium dog food I fed was Innova's "EVO" RM and my dogs did well then went down hill. I thought my bitch was coming into heat early as she started losing hair in clumps and looking "wired" found out it was the food. In a pinch I put her on Premium Edge Lamb and Rice. Here in the mid-west I can get a 35lb bag for $25.00 tax included and this female started looking really fine in a short time. I personally like Raw the best but my health lately hasn't allowed for raw. I was kicking around the thought of going back to the Canidae (which I like) but my dogs have been doing fine on the Premium Edge for now. Here is there link http://www.premiumedgepetfood.com/ Again, food is an individual preference and everyone here has given you theirs. You get to choose in the end. Birdy...

Agree with the Flint River Ranch and Timberwolf Organics as well. Dogs do great on them. Hey DH have been trying to get in touch with you...call me.