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Old November 4th, 2011, 11:14 PM
Paul Harrison Paul Harrison is offline
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Location: CA
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What dog foods are you using?

Right now I own three rescue dogs. I have used a handful of expensive dog foods (Expensive for me anyway) that were recommended either by a vet or by reading reviews. I've tried the following dog foods on three different breeds of dogs and came to the conclusion that Merrick's Before Grain dog food works the best.

We used pro plan (very soft stool) , Canidae (By far the worst.. after a month we reordered it and it got all of our dogs extremely sick), Blue Buffalo (Pretty good results), as well as taste of the wild (fairly good as well.

We also used bully max dog supplements as recommended by our vet as a multivitamin. I think it's an added bonus since Merrick's doesn't have all the vitamins they need.

So, what is everyone else using?
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Old November 5th, 2011, 11:32 AM
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Myka Myka is offline
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I used Orijen Adult for 4 years or so when I first discovered it and hopped on the high protein, low carb, no grain bandwagon. My dogs (3 of them over those years) did really well on it. Orijen is made by Champion Pet Foods which is based in Alberta, Canada as well so supporting a Canadian-made product is a bonus! Shopping closer to home is much "greener".

When I adopted Roxy in July of this year I switched her over to Orijen as well and noticed that she quickly developed a really nasty body odor and mouth odor. I then rememembered that when I switched Peewee over to Orijen in 2009 that hubby complained about Peewee having bad breath after the switch. I then started looking more into the high protein aspect of their diets, and found many people (online) complaining about stinky dogs on high protein kibbles. I then started reading a lot more about protein and how it is utilized in the dogs' bodies. Based on the various information I was able to find (by respected authors) I decided that the really high protein diets are probably more suited to hard working dogs than house dogs. "Why feed a body builder's diet to a couch potato?" My dogs aren't couch potatoes, but they definitely aren't hard working dogs either. The toughest thing they do in the day is play fetch which they do several times a day, but still not hard working in my opinion!

I decided to switch the dogs to Acana Wild Prairie which is also made by Champion Pet Foods. Since I was happy with the Orijen for so many years this switch made sense. The Wild Prairie is essentially the same grain-free poultry-based food as the Orijen except with more potatoes and peas which lowers the protein from 38% (Orijen) to 33% (Acana WP). This change has been enough to resolve the stinky dog issue. Roxy and Peewee have been on the Acana now for about 6 weeks and I am very happy so far.

For those who love Orijen, but think that lowering the protein without adding grains may be a good idea then Acana is a very good choice. Both Orijen and Acana have lots of fish in them as well. Acana has a Classic series that makes use of grains as well for those who want a quality product without the high price tag of grain-free foods. All the recipes used in Orijen have an Acana "equal".

Orijen Adult (chicken & turkey) -> Acana Wild Prairie (chicken)
Orijen Regional Red (wild boar, lamb, beef) -> Acana Ranchland (beef, lamb, bison)
Orijen 6 Fish -> Acana Pacifica (fish)

There is also Acana Grasslands (Lamb, duck).

www.championpetfoods.com
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Ella - Jun '20 - Reg AmStaff
Squeak - '15/16? - Tabby cat (adopted Nov '18)
Streak - '18 - Black cat (adopted Nov '18)
Peewee - Jan '06 - 6.5 lb Chi (adopted May '09)
--------------------
Roxy - Feb '05 to May '20 AmStaff (adopted Jul '11)
Myka - Nov '98 to Jan '10 - APBT X
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  #3  
Old November 5th, 2011, 04:26 PM
Etown_Chick Etown_Chick is offline
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Scruffy gets Orijen 6 fresh fish. He's done the best on it. Lots of energy, great coat, great stool.
When I'm not living in a motel such a I am now, he also gets raw meat and bones.
The Champion people are also great at answering any questions. For instance I called to ask what exactly they did to the fish - do they just use parts, scales only etc?
They grind teh whole thing, fins, bones and all. That's their fish meal. Works for me.
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Old November 7th, 2011, 06:40 PM
Jumajum Jumajum is offline
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We've been using Inukshuk dog food. They were on 32/32 when they were puppies and now we have them on the 26/16. I've got greyhound/pointer/husky racing dogs. They've been thriving on it. We also amend it with brown rice and game meat (liver, heart, kidney, necks etc)

We had tried Acana Puppy and Jr since I had raised other dogs on it. However, the gas almost killed up on the last road trip
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Old November 7th, 2011, 07:23 PM
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Tommysmom Tommysmom is offline
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We use Acana (the one with grains). We were using Orijen but Oscar does much better on something with a bit of grain.
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Old November 7th, 2011, 11:01 PM
Digston Digston is offline
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I've tried lots of different foods as well. Royal Canin caused my dogs to gain a lot of weight. They aren't active enough so when I tried a high protein diet, EVO, the results were sloppy poos I eventually settled on Nutrience Hollistic. Being laid off has caused me to shop around for a good food with a lower price point. I actually found that a type of food Costco carries has a nice looking ingredient list. Of course I cannot say anything for the quality of the ingredients as I have never been to their factory, but both of the boys are doing great on it and its half as much as I was paying for the Nutrience.
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Old November 8th, 2011, 12:13 PM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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I had great success with Eukanuba Adult Maintenance, as per breeder, but with this dog I decided to rotate in order to feed different main protein and filler sources. This in hopes that the chemicals that go into producing these are different so will have less time to possibly build up in my dog.

I rotate the Euk. (chicken and corn) with Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream (fish and potato) and Acana Lamb and Apple (lamb and oats). Protein and Fat levels are about the same but the grainfree one, TOTW, is lower in k/cal per cup and I find I have to feed more of it.
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Old November 8th, 2011, 01:55 PM
Choochi Choochi is offline
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My guys have been on Go Naturals, Acana, Wellness, TOTW, Honest Kitchen, and Orijen, various formulas of each.

As a side note on Orijen fish, my Dutchie did great on it, my Corso on the other hand it wasn't enough calories for him, he kept loosing weight very gradually over a course of about a year, his skin and coat weren't very nice, and he was getting almost double the recommended amount for a dog his size. He did also have fish breath and it was pretty strong. We switched him to Go Naturals chicken which has grains in it and within a couple weeks his coat and skin improved and he was putting on the pounds.

Honest Kitchen I found gave them massive poops although they did very well on it. Considering how expensive this food is, I wan't happy picking up so much of it off my lawn!

At this point they are all on raw.
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Old November 8th, 2011, 09:57 PM
Etown_Chick Etown_Chick is offline
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Choochi
I think you have a good point - no one food is right for all dogs. Have to go with what works
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  #10  
Old November 8th, 2011, 11:18 PM
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erykah1310 erykah1310 is offline
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Home made raw for the past 6 years tweaked for each dogs specific needs, no poop cleanup, and I have quality control
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