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Comment by Mickey on December 28, 2009 at 2:17pm

I think that if you ask a dozen dog owners about food, you'll get a dozen different answers. But I can tell you that after 12yrs of trying every food out there, I wish I'd known then what I know now...raw food is the way to go, with very limited kibble and some veggies. And when you do kibble, go with No Grain - my dog had hot spots until I stopped with the Grains. I like Taste of the Wild or Blue Buffalo. On the raw side, I've tried a couple and like Nature's Variety. It comes in frozen medallions and Sophie gets 2/day, one in a.m. and one in p.m. plus a handful of green beans (not canned) and a tiny handful of kibble for some crunch. When someone asked me if I'd want to eat carbs in dry food, every day, until the day I died - and that's when I started with some variety. Sometimes I throw in a hard boiled egg. A bag of the raw food lasts me about 2.5 weeks - so about $45/month. In the long term, it's cheaper than vet bills and meds for hot spots and blood tests for allergies.

Comment by LaRissa L. Head on December 2, 2009 at 1:35pm

Thank you for all the excellent advice! I feel more confident in what to look for and what to avoid.
I'm still not sure what my "ultimate" choice will be, but as many of you have pointed out, it's ok to try a few and see what works best for my dog and cats.

as a side note for Sam:
There is a reason I didn't post my vets name, or say that she was in fact paid by a company. I don't know for sure. I just stated that I had heard that some were. That fact shocks me... but i shouldn't be surprised. Working in the medical system has shown me lots of things. Now that drug reps are being watched more carefully, drug companies have upped "school support", by funding or donating to schools and students in Med. programs.
I did make the mistake of saying "most" which I regret saying as I have forgotten the statistics now. Thank you for your advice. As always I can count on dog lovers to give honest opinions! :)

I know companies are out to make money, i just wish it wasn't through cheap products and "magic tricks" that are out to fool people.

Comment by Sam Tsang on December 2, 2009 at 10:57am

A few things:

Most vets are NOT paid by any pet food companies to promote their product, if there are "kickbacks" "commission", it'is illegal and will be publish in public court documents. So unless there are concrete evidence, please don't damage their profession image. Yes, there are vet who are employ by pet food companies for research, teaching...etc.

Dog Food Analysis originate from Boxer world Forum, like Beth said, it is a group of pet owners like you and me rating dog food and posting label info only. There are no labs to test the actual food and see if the content is what they said it is. In order to read your labels correctly, you'll need to read the FAQ, there are a few articles straight from the FDA and AAFCO, get to know their lingo and you'll make better decision for your pup.

My advise is do not get hung up on brand name, like restaurants, owners can change, cooks can change, menu can change, so can your favorite pet food.

Comment by Sky and Lyla on December 2, 2009 at 10:14am

In my opinion, raw is definitely the best way to go if you can afford it or have time (and the stomach) to make your own. You can buy a complete and balanced raw diet (it's like a hamburger patty) that already has all the vitamins and veggies in it. The problem is it's very expensive. You can also find a good recipe for a homemade diet (probably the absolute best way to go) which is cheaper than pre-made raw, but you have to be okay with doing things like grinding organs in your kitchen. Also, if you are choosing this way you have to make sure the recipe you are using is a very good one, and work closely with your vet, which is hard since most vets say no raw or no homemade (yeah, like I'm trusting the people who try to sell me Hills!).

The next best thing is the grain-free kibbles. Orijen is my personal favorite, although I know it can be a little hard to find in some places. I also like the brands Go! and Now by a company called Petcurean. What I like about the Petcurean products, if you can find them in your area or find a way to order them, is that they are both grain free but the Now is not quite as high in protein. Most dogs, unless they are a working dog (i.e. herding, hunting, etc) or are doing sports everyday will do just fine on the lower protein diet, but still grain free, and not gain weight (good for Corgis).

Dogfoodanalysis.com is a great start, but I don't use it solely because it's not a complete picture. I like to buy from companies that are human grade, holistic, and are not owned by large corporations like Mars, Nestle, etc. DFA, unfortunately, does not give you any indication into the quality of the ingredients used. For example, Canidae is rated very high. Canidae used to be a wonderful, excellent, human-grade food. I used to feed it. Late last year, Canidae sold out to Diamond. The Canidae site took "human-grade" off their site (wonder why), changed their formula, is being processed in a Diamond plant, and they have had hundreds upon hundreds of people complaining about how ill their pets are now.

So sadly, it gets even more confusing when you try to keep up with pet food company "politics." I like this site (http://www.nzymes.com/pc/articles.asp?article_id=9&a=dog&ty...) because they only endorse holistic companies. You will notice that Petcurean and Orijen aren't on there, but I have researched them to the point I feel comfortable with their foods. I also feed Flint River Ranch (Lamb Formula only) upon recommendation from an Aussie breeder. The Nzymes website does not endorse them, but I have spoke with this breeder at length and she has personally been to seen the company and is in close contact with the CEO. About 95% of the people who have bought puppies from her feed this food and she has threatened to leave and take her people if they ever outsource, so I feel pretty comfortable with them too.

So it all just comes down to what you feel comfortable with. I feed primarily kibble (I rotate between the brands listed about, Evo, Now, Orijen, and Flint River) and 1-2 days a week I feed raw (the brands I use for Raw are Bravo and Honest Kitchen), but my dogs get something "raw" everyday whether it's a raw egg, uncooked veggies, etc. Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions. I have done a lot of research on pet food for my guy's and love to share my knowledge!

Comment by Bev Levy on December 2, 2009 at 8:28am

We feed Innova to both the dogs and cats. Everybody seems pleased with it, of course my dogs would eat anything offered so I guess this is not a great endorsement!

Comment by Beauty and the Beast on December 2, 2009 at 8:05am

Don't blame yourself, it's not your fault. Vets usually are uneducated about pet food and yes, they get paid for having certain brands in their offices. It took me a long long time to figure out what dogs really need in food and the website you mentioned helped a lot.
I feed my dog Orijen, it also gets 6 stars on there.
A lot of people recommend Welness because of the price, but you know, corgis don't need to eat much, a cup a day to be exact. So I figured price is not an issue. Orijen have food for kitties too ).
Wellness Core is still good, so don't feel cheap. Try it and if you are not satisfied, upgrade to Orijen.
By the way, I fed my puppy Innova Puppy food and it wasn't a right choice. He had way too much stool and skin problems. Later I found out that there's too much grain in it. I don't know if Evo has any (there should be no grain in your dog food whatsoever).

Comment by Beth on December 2, 2009 at 7:14am

Please keep in mind that dogfoodanalysis is not a bunch of scientists or nutritionists or anything else, just a bunch of people with opinions.

Consider that even for people there is great controversy over diet (eggs are bad for you... no, wait, they are good!.... Low fat, no low carb!..... Nuts are bad snacks, no nuts are great snacks!!!..... Alcohol is bad for you, no alcohol in moderation is good for you!!!) All those human food controversies are just ones I can think of in the last ten years! Now, way more research has been done into human diets than dog diets, so ask yourself if we know so little and messages change so often about people food, how on earth can one group of dog fanciers on the web have all the right answers about what is "best" for your dog?

Then feed what YOU think is good and go with that, and realize that other people including your vet have different ideas that are not necessarily based on the fact that they get "paid by the pet food companies" or whatever.

"DogFoodAnalysis is a part of BoxerWorld.com, one of the largest and longest running dog forum communities on the internet. With many thousands of questions and health related queries in the feeding and nutrition forums on BoxerWorld over the last decade, many of which relate to how to decipher pet food ingredients and advertising - to sort the good from the bad - we realised the need for a dedicated site to help our members choose good quality foods for their pets."

It would be like if the people here at MyCorgi decided to start a nutrition forum and rank the foods, as far as I can tell. :-)

Comment by Joanna Kimball on December 2, 2009 at 4:39am

You should also look at Orijen, if you're considering a grain-free kibble. I've liked that the best of the three (have tried all of them). I agree that a raw diet is the very best of all, and is suitable for puppies. The grain-free kibbles are too rich for most breeds of puppies, though for adults they're a huge step up from conventional kibbles.

Comment by Jessica Lea & Sydney on December 2, 2009 at 1:18am

After several months of research and similar concerns, I decided to go with a raw diet. With raw you can focus on cost savings by preparing your own or you can spend a little more and go for one of the many pre-made options out there. As with kibble, you still need to do your homework on the raw pre-mades. I decided to go with a local company in the Pacific NW, Darwin's Natural (link here). There are a lot of benefits to feeding raw, but I would definitely do some reading on the subject if you are considering it. I've found great information here and through other places like the Whole Dog Journal.