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I was curious if anyone knows what brand and type of dog food would be better or best for my Miniature Pincsher, he doesn't have a problem eating the food I buy and seems to like it very well, I buy Beneful Orginal (type of beneful varies sometimes I choose the healthy weight or the healthy coat) But I was just curious if there was a better more nutrious store brand dog food besides Iams because he flat out hates it! lol Thanks!
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Answers
There are just so many opinions on this--you've gotta decide for yourself. Bottom line: when it comes to the subject of pet food, the person who ultimately makes the decision should be you. Don't let anyone make the decision for you.
To help you in your decision, here are my dog's before/afters followed below by MY *OPINION* on dog food: fc02.deviantart.com Raw_Collage_by_Colliequest.jpg www.dogster.com
In my opinion, it's important that a dog food be meat-based. Any dog food with meat as the first ingredient is a step up from other foods. Even better if it's meat meal, since the high water content in regular meat means that the food does not have as much meat as the ingredients label says. Ideally, a food should have several meat sources--several or all of these meat meal, no corn, and as few grains as is possible.
That said, I prefer not to feed commercial products. For one, if you make a homeprepared diet, you don't have to worry so much about species-innapropiate ingredients for another. Even the best dog foods contain these.
My Papillon mix is fed a 100% prey model raw diet, and doing great as you can see in his before/after pictures. His vet was impressed, and though she's not a fan of raw she told me to keep it up.
Keep in mind that homeprepared diets are not so simple as tossing your dog cooked or raw meat and vegetables--there's more to it than that. Before feeding any homeprepared diet, you need to do your research. Even more so than with finding the best commercial food. Much thought should go into preparing a homemade diet for your dog, both before and continuing into feeding it.After leaving the realm of commercial foods, my dog Treader developed cleaner teeth, better breath, a shinier and softer coat, small much firmer and less frequent stools, and more energy.
Well-bred dogs will be healthier dogs in general, whether they're eating corn-based chow or meat-based chow.
Here is an article that provides some food for thought: rawfed.com
If you have any interest in feeding raw, come down to the raw forum and look for Gio's thread "So you are interesting in feeding raw..."
And though I don't care for Iams in general, here's a link to a study they conducted: www.iams.com
Funny that most of their formulas are corn-based if they've found that animal protiens are better. Anyway, I'd take anything coming from the dog food companies with an extra helping of a grain of salt.
Since you're looking for store brands, well the best thing you could find in a grocery store is probably Iams or the Purina formulas that actually contain meat. But if you can, I do recommend giving the foods in pet stores a look--at the Pet Supplies "Plus" in my area, I was able to find a 20 lb bag of Diamond Naturals for about $20. If you ask me, it's a decent food.
beneful original is horrible! don't be taken aback as i used to feed this too. and i have no clue what i was thinking. It has mainly grain, dogs are carnivores, the only meats it has are by products, it has sugar, it has preservatives like bha and bht, it has color. not good at all! iams, although a bit better, is also very grain heavy.
avoid anything with corn,wheat,or soy, artificial colors,and preservatives.
what do you say you come over to the dogster forums, food and nutriton section and we can fill you in. and you should check out sedona's thread "confused about dog food".
Chocolate
answered 1 week, 6 days ago.
Helpful? /1
If your dog is doing well on the Beneful, and you feel good about it, stick to it. There is no logical reason to change. All but the cheapest foods are formulated to exceed the AAFCO minimums for each nutrient. Many people on the net obsess over ingredients, but have no information about how much of each nutrient is available in a food. Thus they have no basis to tell you whatever they feed is better for your dog.
I have seen case after case of people with a dog doing well on Beneful or something and being convinced to switch to a ''better'' food and having trouble. Then they are advised to try another ''wonder'' premium food, and another and another until their dog has been in misery for months from food that isn't working.
I have had 20 different dogs and the only time I had to change food was to Science C/D to control a UTI problem.
Much of it is marketing. I find Beneful's advertising on the imaginative side, but it certainly is better than many others.
"If your dog is doing well on the Beneful, and you feel good about it, stick to it. There is no logical reason to change."
No logical reason besides it has horrid ingredients!!!
Go to www.dogfoodanalysis. com for a good & unbiased look at commercial dog feed.
Pippin CGC
answered 1 week, 6 days ago.
Helpful? /0
Hi, Beneful is a very poor food. I'm sure he likes it, but it is something like eating at McDonalds every day. Over time one won't be as healthy as someone eating a healthy diet.
You need a food that has a named meat and/or meat meal in the first five ingredients, no corn, no byproducts, no animal digest, no soy and no unnamed meat or protein.
Disregard the answer that most all dog foods meets or exceed nutritional standards. That dog knows little or nothing about dog nutrition and just parrots what some unnamed or possibly imaginary school feeds.
Anyone with some common sense should be able to figure out that dogs that are carnivores shouldn't be eating, fillers, cheap grain, chemicals, mystery protein from God knows where, and sugar.
Good Luck.
Bad ingredients in Beneful Original: Ground yellown corn, chicken-by product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, animal fat, rice flour, soy flour, sugar, propylene glycol, tricalcium phosphate, phosphoric acid, salt, animal digest, calcium propionate, L- Lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, added color (Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, pyridoxine hydrochloride, menadione sodium, bisulfite complex, garlic oil and a few more of the supplements. Look at the first ingredients? Why corn? It should be meat! Dog food companies like Purina, Iams and all these others don't care for the qualtiy of there ingredients, they use the worst ingredients so they will make more money. Dog food companies like Orijen, Solid Gold and those companies use the best ingredients because they care for the quality of there food and animals. Ran out of characters, can I paw-mail you about these companies and ingredients? Tell me if you want me to and I will be more than happy to!
another thing you must do when you choose is Google up the "exotic" ingredients and additives on that lable. I cannot remeber the ingredient, but when my dogs ALL started having stomach upsets for no decernible reason, I checked an old bag against the new bag (I had the bag downstairs to use for trash) and found a new "additive" I GOOGLED it and found that it was used as a "suppliment" and could cause, gagging, vomiting, stomach ulcers even AND erosion of the esophagus. I cannot remember the ingredient, but it IS in common use.
I switched foods to a locally produced one. I have had BAD experiences with well known national brands. I avoid them now and I'm lucky to be in an area where feed stores carry locally produced kibble.
Choose whatever food your pup enjoys, but limit the selection by researching the ingredients, it could save your dogs life.
When you rate Beneful online out of 100 points it gets -22! This is by far one of the worst foods you could buy your dog. Always read the ingredients and pick something that starts out with some type of meat. If it starts out with for example lamb meal stay away from it as well. I have switch all my guys to Blue Buffalo and they are in the best shape I have ever seen them. Next time you go to the store read the ingredients and judge it for yourself.
I feed Scarlett cooked chicken boneless breasts,hamburger, turkey, green beans, sweet potatos,no corn! and supplement with Evo small bites. I have tried honest kitchen which is a dehydrated food. she ate it a couple times, but it did not turn her on. I, too, want to feed her the best. They are here for such a short time that I want to do the best for her.
Orijen fish is excellent but expensive. I feed Ruby Acana, the same company that makes Orijen. Acana is cheaper then the Orijen but is still a great food and has no corns, by-products or grains. Do an internet search and read up on dog foods and ingrediences. You will be shocked to see what is in the grocery store brands......I know i was!
I feed Taste of the Wild. The best food my budget can afford. My dog loves it and now when we visit family their dogs eat it like it was their first meal in months.
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