Quality Dog Food.

[Murphy Slaw]

I've been feeding my Catahoula and the mutt Gentle Giants for about a year.

This is Burt Wards (yes, Robin ! ) brand, and the bags have stories about all these dogs living to age 23 and stuff. So does the website.

I add eggs and raw meat at times, so they get every advantage possible. Besides being my friends, they are also head of security.

While I'm quite happy with the results and stuff, the price has taken several jumps lately and I was just curious what brilliance and insight the "collective" has amassed over these years for the nourishment of our best friends.

[stokes1971]

I've had dogs my whole life.Right now I have a bloodhound and a coonhound. They are fed a combo of dry kibble and chicken thighs. I feel there is too much emphasis these days on "premium diets" for dogs.Back when I was a kid in the 50's and 60's dogs were fed table scraps mainly and some "dog food", canned mostly.They thrived just fine.Before we domesticated them they were basically scavengers and did just fine, a dogs digestive system is like a septic system, it will digest just about anything.Dogs living 23 yrs? I bet they didnt have such a wonderful time in their final years. My coonie is 9 yrs old, they have a 10 yr life expectancy, my vet tells me that when they make it past 10 yrs the 11th and 12th years are usually real hard on them.Burt Ward? Really? If its good enough for him, give it to the birds.Just my 2 cents.

[llew]

We have a senior (12) Australian Shepherd who eats Fromms Senior and my wife has a recipe from a holistic veterinarian for a wet food that's cooked about every two months. She gets the kibble and the wet cooked food twice a day.

[The Watchman]

I think there are a lot of brands that are just available locally or regionally. We use Hills Science Diet dry food, and the occasional wet treat day. It widely known and available around here. If my dog lives to 23 years, he would outlive me.

Noting that the price jumped recently, and I paid $75 for a 50# bag.

[Slothead56]

I feed our Goldens the same food that our breeder feeds, Victor Hi-Pro. I have a 40# bag delivered from Chewy every four weeks.

They seem happy and healthy, coat is great and they have just the right amount of energy.

I avoid table food and other “supplements” completely as I believe feeding consistency keeps a pups gut running like clockwork. (Picking up poop from these guys is very easy.)

Having said that, they are Goldens and will devour whatever they can get their teeth into…..the list of things my 5 guys have eaten over the years is long and diverse. A small sampling:

• 13 oz bag of Hershey’s Kisses;
• $50 box of Godiva Chocolates;
• 12 oz bag of Starbucks coffee;
• 2 entire Easter baskets, Peeps and all;
• 2 raw tuna steaks in blackened seasoning;
• A family sized raw Stromboli (probably 3 lbs of lunch meat and cheese);
• Assorted garbage.

Always an adventure…

[KenL]

My 6-yr. old Aussie tends to get chubby if I don't watch what he eats. I've had good luck with Science Diet Light (Large Breed) that I have delivered via Chewy.com.

He seems to like it well enough, and it goes through him nicely.

If he had his way, though, he'd have a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs every night.

[Gunny]

We feed our 3 dogs a kibble that our friends (breeders/trainers) use and our dogs do well on it. We notice a difference in the amount of poop (less) and overall general health. I need to find out who makes it. We also supplement their food with a veggie mix of sweet potato, snap peas, beet greens, green beans. Use a chopper and put a couple spoonfulls on their food.

Opinions vary wildly even among vets. Some say zero grains and others say cheap food is fine. I know that feeding junk like Old Roy from Walmart will result in humongous, soft craps. There is however price concerns for many as $60+ for 40lbs is not always budget friendly.

We have several friends that are strictly raw, but man is that expensive. One elderly lady has a permit to harvest worthy roadkill and has it processed for her dogs.

[posternutbag]

We use The Farmer’s Dog. We have a nutrition plan, and they ship us fresh food made with quality ingredients every week. The cost runs about $5.00 a day, but our dog loves the variety, with flavors changing every two days, beef, then pork, then turkey, etc. it’s great if you have a picky dog.

[MrDB]

Our little guy will eat great for a couple of weeks then eat hardly nothing for 2 or 3 weeks. It's his pattern no matter what we feed him.

[random works]

We have a nearly 2 year old American Staffordshire terrier ( Amstaff) and a 4 year old Boston Terrier. Their dried dogfood has whitefish or some other fish, we get it from Tractor Supply, and yes the price has gone up.

In reading the ingredients in various 'good' dog foods I see things like beets, sweet potatoes, rice, etc. I have a container in the fridge for leftovers for the dogs. We usually have extra after lunch or dinner and I add it to the dog's container. Every day I mix this with their dried food. From time to time an egg is added. I garden and usually have a good mix of things.

The dogs like the variety and honestly I think they would turn their noses up at plain dried food now.

[rllink]

When the kids were little they wanted a dog. We went to the pound to look at them, not to get one. My wife is not a dog person. In fact, she said don't come back with one. We found a little Beagle there that was just too cute to walk away from, so we brought him home. First thing, the wife wasn't happy and said that he wasn't going to live in the house. That was fair enough, I grew up on a farm and we always had farm dogs that lived outside. But then the kids wanted to name him Buck. We were out in the back yard with him, so I went inside and told the wife that the kids wanted to name the dog Buck. Immediately she didn't like the name Buck because the family on Married With Children had a dog named Buck and she didn't like Married With Children. So I went out and told the kids that mom didn't like the name Buck. My son suggested Buck Naked. I went in and told the wife Buck Naked. She didn't like that either, but I told her it was only going to get worse, so we went with Buck Naked, Buck for short.

We have a big back yard and I build a kennel with a doghouse behind the garage under a tree to corral him. I went to WalMart and got a big bag of Old Roy dog food and a bag of Old Roy dog treats. The cheapest stuff money could buy. We had Buck for eighteen years. He lived outside all his life except the last three weeks of it. I used to take him pheasant hunting and out in the boat fishing with us. Beagles are not good bird dogs but he did his best. We took him camping. In the winter I would put a hundred-watt light bulb on an extension cord under the doghouse to heat the floor.

Anyway, back to Old Roy. When the temp got down into single digits in the winter I would heat up a can of noodle soup and pour it on the Old Roy so he got a hot meal. When the guy at the grocery store found out I was feeding my dog soup he would give me expired cans of it. When I would go out with it Ol' Buck Naked would be laying there in the sun like it was a holiday at the beach. Several times I went out there when it was ten below to feed him or let him run and I would think he was laying there dead and feel like we killed Ol' Buck Naked, only to find that he was just taking it easy. I would take him to the vet once a year for a checkup and I felt bad because he lived outside. I would apologize to the vet for making him live in a doghouse and eat Old Roy dog food. She would tell me that he was healthy and happy so that was all that was important. So she sold this expensive dog food and dog treats and when she was done examining him she would try to give him some Milkbone kind of treat that was supposed to be super healthy and he wouldn't take it. I would always pull an Old Roy out of my pocket and toss it. Buck Naked would catch it in mid air. He loved those things. It got to be a thing at the vet, she would try to entice him with her treat and I would toss him and Old Roy. One time she went out and bought a bag of Old Roys and palmed one like it was one of her's and he grabbed it so fast he almost got a finger. When my son was ten he fed Buck Naked and entire bag of Old Roy treats just to see if he could eat a whole bag of them, and he did. My son said he caught every one of them in mid air and didn't miss or drop a single one.

Buck Naked lived a happy, healthy outdoor life for eighteen years. One summer while the wife and I were on vacation and my son was home from college Buck Naked had a stroke. My son took him to the vet. Nothing she could do. We cut our vacation short and came right home. I had never heard of a dog having a stroke. By that time my wife had warmed up to Buck Naked and let him in the house and even made him a little bed, but he didn't like it there. He would stagger over and lay in front of the patio door on the hard floor all day and whimper. We bought him some of that fancy expensive dog food from the vet and he turned his nose up at it. That went on for three weeks and then one day I let him out because he seemed to be getting a little better. He went out to his doghouse and an hour later I found him out there dead.

So that is the story of Buck Naked. He lived on Old Roys and noodle soup. He was our only dog.

[iim7V7IM7]

Our male Australian Shepherd will be 13 in November. We feed him Dr. Tim’s Kinesis for many years now. It is an all life stages formulation good for puppies, preganant, regular and senior dogs. You need to factor in the Kcal density of an food that you feed or your dog may become obese. We supplement this with salmon oil, a probiotic and a joint supplement.

[Mr. Jelly]

I have worked with feed companies and pet food companies. From my experience Royal Canin makes pet food that is every bit as good as human food. Better in many ways really. Personally, I think it's over the top and not worth it. But that's me.

[Rolph]

We have an Irish Setter, Welsh Corgi, and Border Collie. Hill's Science diet plus whatever healthy human food is available. Very expensive food, but seems to keep the inflammation down. I think dogs get really bored if they only eat kibble. Would you only eat one food for your entire life?

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by Rolph

Would you only eat one food for your entire life?

No, but I'm not a dog. Mine still devours the same kibble every day with gusto. Oh, and I also know humans who, given the choice, would eat the same thing every day with no qualms.