Unbiased Dog Food Resource

[Fanny Fligurl]

Hey all. I know many of us have chatted about what foods we give our fur balls, and for what reasons. I've mentioned this site before, but couldn't remember the exact address to give you. I've found this site to be extremely helpful in narrowing down the search for excellence within the confines of varying budgets.

It was created and is edited/maintained by a dentist, yep that's right. He's just a man who majored in chemistry with a minor in biology who loves his K9s and obsesses with the quality (or lack thereof) found in today's culinary selections for our pets. He does not accept financial contributions, gifts, or samples of any kind from manufacturers so the vast information database is purely unbiased. He posts nothing but ingredients, nutrition levels, ratios, and percentages w/o muddying the waters with personal preferences.

www.DogFoodAdvisor.com

Good news is that I'm pretty sure the food that many of us feed our dogs fall into the 5 & 4-star categories. I think AJ mentioned she feeds Taste of the Wild and I feed Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul, which are both 4 & 5 star depending upon variety.

I receive recall notifications from this site as well. As soon as they're confirmed by the FDA, it appears in my inbox.

[HoneyBadger]

Thanks for the link Amy!

For my poopers, they get the Earthborn Grain-Free line, lately we've been getting the Great Plains Feast and they are both doing extremely well on it. We were using the Primitive before that.

For us, once we did the math on how much per day we were actually spending (cost/serving size/bag size) we found this to be one of the best grain-free foods.

I know most of us dog ladies know this, but I've found that a lot of dog/pet owners are unaware that a dog cannot digest corn in any form. So flip your dog food bag over, and actually READ what's in it.

My cats are on the Taste of the Wild Grain-free - the Bengal has to be on a grain free diet, and this one seems to make his tummy happier than most.

[Fanny Fligurl]

Earthborn is listed as a 5-star dry kibble! The Wetlands & High Prairie TOTW formulas are 5-stars too. We currently have Duncan on Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul, and that's on the 4-star list since it's a grain-based kibble. Dunc has an iron gut w/ no allergies so he makes it easy on us, as Chicken soup is fairly affordable for the quality. However, I've noticed his coat could really use a little more oil/shine.

Thinking of switching him to Taste of the Wild Wetlands or High Prairie. It's $10 more than Chicken Soup, but they're grain-free and appear to have a little more fatty content (natural oils) to help with his coat. Only thing is they don't make a "Large Breed" formula, but I'll just have to keep an eye on the ratios to make sure they fit his big ol' bone structure.

[HoneyBadger]

At least he makes it easy for ya!

My dogs have done amazing on the Earthborn, Nina's coat is downright glossy, and Allie doesn't seem to be suffering from as much stiffness as she used to. Both also eat less than the recommended amount, despite their energy levels. I have found they need less of the Great Plains than they did of the Primitive though, but I'm not sure why....guess it just works well for them.

I did find that switching to a grain free reduced the "pick up" duties by a bit - and when we first went corn free it lowered the yard bomb-age significantly!

[maygoddess]

I know I am not a dog owner..but what AJ says applies to cats too..basically "garbage in, garbage out".. higher quality ingredients will be better digested and thus less "yard or litter box bombage"

Had an interesting conversation with the head of Whiskers, Tails & Ferals here in Napa. I fostered for them. I was telling her my 6 yo cat died of renal failure last month. That is YOUNG for this..or so I thought. She said she is seeing more and more younger animals get renal failure these days...6-8 years old. Their rescue vet says the same thing. I was surprised to hear that. She thinks it is the food quality these days!

If it was indeed from food, you think I would have 6-8 cats with renal failure..could have been something else or she was more inclined to it..but her litter sister shows no sign of it at this point.

Anyway..wanted to mention that..not sure how common this in dogs..but like humans..we are what we eat!!!

[Rollin on 3]

We used taste of wild for our big Rottweiler and we would pump salmon oil over his food. It helped with dry spots and his coat was gorgeous jet black

[LadyGadget]

Our pups eat Canidae Meat and Rice Formula for all ages. When you have a 12 year old (people years...) and a 4 year old who eat out of both bowls one food has to work. And it does. We went from Science Diet Prescription (yuck) to Canidae 4 years ago. And yes, for all of you that know him, Sydney is now 12 years old.

BTW, in the Bay Area, Pet Food Express has a really great selection of good dog foods. And of course, animal feed stores and the like have their favs too.

[CrashDummy]

This guy has put a lot of effort and time into this site. Thanks for posting it Amy. I am glad to see I have been feeding my dogs four star food according to the site.

[Fanny Fligurl]

No joke. I love it when someone puts together such a useful tool, and there's NOTHING in it for them. He does disclose that he receives money for store promotions, but never from manufacturers or anyone that could create a conflict of interest.

Pretty impressive if retailers are reaching out to him to promote their business on his site!