Variety Pet Foods?? *help.
Normally, I refuse to buy dog food at a pet store. After exhaustive reading about pet nutrition, I ended up coming to a conclusion about the direction I want to go with feeding Dixie. I'll feed her the way I feed my family - if I don't recognize the ingredients, I avoid it as much as I can.
When we got her, she was used to Nutro, so we've kept her on that diet because her digestive system doesn't like change very much. But now that she's older and more developed, I want to try to transition her to something better.
I've already searched these forums to exhaustion, and I've gleaned a lot of fantastic information. I just want to ask about a food I'm having trouble evaluating.
VARIETY PET FOODS (they have a website!)
As near as I can tell, this food is darn near perfect. I read the ingredients list on the can, and here is the list:
Turkey, Turkey Broth, Poultry Liver, Cracked Barley, Ground Brown Rice, Whole Brown Rice, Carrots, Chicken Meal, Sweet Potatoes, Potatoes, Peas, Egg Product, Guar Gum, Flaxseed Meal, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Salt, Carrageenan Gum, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Iron Amino Acid Complex, Sodium Selenite, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Choline Chloride, Folic Acid, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Biotin, Ascorbic Acid.
Guaranteed Analysis: Crude Protein (min.) 8.0%; Crude Fat (min.) 6.0%; Crude Fiber (max.) 1.3%; Moisture (max.) 78%
I recognize all the ingredients, and would even eat them myself if they didn't come out of the can all gross and mushy!
So my question, finally, is if any of you guys can see anything that I can't -- any red flags that I missed? If I'm going to use this food regularly, what sort of supplemental nutrition would I need to provide, if any? Is a wet-only diet okay for a dog? (She has plenty of things to chew for her dental hygiene.) Does anyone feed their corgi on Variety products?
As a new corgi mom, I really appreciate any insight you wonderful bunch can provide :) I just want the best for my little girl!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ellen Andersen on
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Does it seem a bit low on protein? I don't know...I'm asking, reall. I've seen dog foods (depending on the meat source ... fish, fowl, beef) up to about 38%). The food I use (Taste of the Wild) has 25% (could be 28%...don't remember off the top of my head).
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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Protein should be 24-25% for young dogs till they are 18 months and then can be higher. Mine get food up to 28-32%. I also feed TOTW(salmon) and Canidea.
Have you ever checked out Dog Food Analysis? It should give many foods and you can read their ingredients. I prefer dry with a bit of canned as I think it's better for them. Just my opinion.
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Reading Jane's post reminded me....Mine get the TOTW dry (I switch between the 'flavors' some...they like all of them) as their daily staple diet. I enhance it in the evenings with cut up raw carrots (they love those) and a squish of salmon oil. I'll usually add a small amount of something extra yummy, like eggs (from my hens), yogurt, a little spoon of Newman's Own canned stuff (they love it and the ingredients are nice), or something like that..just to spice things up a bit. When I add something like the canned stuff or other goodies, I cut back on the dry.
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Permalink Reply by Amelia Craig on
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I thought the protein looked low :\ Which is surprising to me since there are some good sources of protein right there in that first line. I was thinking I could just offer an additional protein source, but I'm not sure what would be the best way to do that. Maybe an egg (if I remember right from school, they're mostly protein), or chicken breast? I just really like the idea of being able to give her a food that has as many "whole" ingredients as possible. But of course it's more important that she gets complete nutrition. I'll look into Taste of the Wild, and I'll check out that Dog Food Analysis.
Thank you so much for your input, guys :)
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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I'm guessing the low protein is due to it being a canned formula. Many of the canned products have a lower protein content than wet (doesn't make sense to me but seems to be what I've found). For example Taste of the Wild (which I also feed) has a 25% protein for one of their dry kibble but a 7.5% protein for the same formula in a can. I really don't think most wet foods are made to be fed exclusively unless its for cats. I think they are meant to be fed WITH a dry kibble unless its a prescription diet. I personally would never feed a wet food diet only and would prefer a dry only. If you want it softer add water to the dry.
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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The protein content is not low. You cannot compare canned dog food to dry dog food. Canned is mostly water, as any food in its natural state would be, plus they add water in processing. Dry food has removed all the water, leaving a concentrate. If you feed canned food, you have to feed a much larger quantity to get the same nutrition It's an expensive way to go, generally speaking, for all but toy breeds. Most people use canned food to add to dry for a treat. I prefer to buy lean hamburger and add some of that. I think you'd be better off with a good quality dry food.
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Permalink Reply by Megan C on
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Good things: Turkey and Turkey Broth
Not so good: Poultry Liver (should be chicken or turkey or duck, i.e. a named species) Ground Brown rice followed by Whole Brown Rice is ingredient splitting which makes me suspicious that if they were added together then there would be more brown rice than meat in the food. The added vitamins and minerals are not chelated so they can have lower bioavailability.
Canned food is nice as the dogs get the added moisture and the foods can be lower in carbohydrates than dry as the food does not have to be baked into an extruded meat/carb cracker.
What are you looking for in a food?
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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on
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Personally, I do not like to feed wet food to my dogs. Canned food is expensive and doesn't do anything good for their teeth. Very rarely (maybe once per year) I'll buy a can and mix it with their food for a couple of days as an added treat. Most of the time I'll just add a real food to their bowls, like beans or carrots or a bit of ground turkey, as I know that it's fresh. This is just my way of doing things, though. :)
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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I'd definitely suggest a good quality dry kibble instead of trying to feed all canned food.
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Permalink Reply by Aber, Ragnar and Kelso on
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Since dry kibble is about as far away from a natural diet as one can possibly get, I wonder why so many of you think it's so much better and healthier than a wet/canned or (not that anyone even mentioned it yet) raw diet?
By the way, it's a fallacy promulgated by pet food makers that dry cleans their teeth. It cleans about as well as eating pretzels cleans ours! And that's if your dog actually even bothers to chew up its kibble thoroughly (everyone with a canine hoover, raise your hands!)
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the question wasn't about WHAT to feed it was about the specific brand and whether to feed dry vs wet. I don't think feeding dry vs wet has as much to do with tooth health as overall cost. Wet food is WAY more expensive than feeding dry, you have to feed 1 can per 1 cup of kibble fed and ingredients are essentially the same. I personally don't think feeding one food company's wet food is any more healthy than feeding that same company's dry food and adding water to the kibble. Would be very interesting to see a study on that topic though.
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The difference is that the dry food will still have a much higher carbohydrate content and be more highly processed than the canned even if you add water to the dry.
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/07/21...
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/11/08...
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