A recent comment piqued my interest in dog food. A couple friends buy the cheapest stuff they can find. My Vet recommended and I

[Del in KS]

A recent comment piqued my interest in dog food. A couple friends buy the cheapest stuff they can find. My Vet recommended and I feed Purina Beneful Healthy Radiance dry dog food to my bird dogs and pet. What do you feed and why

[wyates]

We have used Purina One lamb and rice for our pointer and previously for our pit bull. We first went to it because the pit bull had digestive issues and was also picky on food, and the Purina One was suggested by our vet as a good option. It makes for a good all-around dog food for older as well as younger dogs. My wife runs extensively with the pointer, and the dog has never had issues with energy or stamina while eating this food, and rarely has any upset stomach or other dietary issue.

[buckhunter]

I buy Ol'Roy from Walmart. Works fine for my dogs. My first Lab lived 16 years on that diet.

[silsbyj]

I buy Purina. The reasoning......It doesnt give my Lab gas. Let me tell you....she can clear a room real quick when she eats anything besides that.

[usmcturkey]

I feed my dog Purina dog chow or healthy morsels. Our vet recommended this dog food. Another point I check most treats to see where they are made. Most treats are made in China and I am not buying them for my dog. Check it out for your self.

[KMB33]

We dont buy the cheapest we can but it is cheap. It is the Sams club stuff. It is the only thing we have tried that she will eat. We tried everything from Beeful to the cheap Walmart stuff. Only Sams club brand.

[KMB33]

Ol' Roy is the stuff sorry i just couldnt think of th name of it

[Reid Jones]

we don't have any bigger dogs at our house. we have a little poodle and a mix of a shitzu and somethin else. we feed them Iams minichunks. the iams dog food factory is actually here in nebraska so i think that's why we get it. just because it's local you know.

[jlfreeborn]

We no longer have dogs, but we used to raise labs and all we fed em was Purina. I dont know if they still do it or not, but if you kept enough upc's you could get a free bag of food. Might want to check into that and save a dollar or two.

[Jim in Mo]

I agree with buckhunter, when I had dogs I feed them Ol' Roy and the vet said it's fine, he also said if I had working dogs I should go with a higher protein/card diet for the dogs.

[rocky d bashaw]

agree/purina

[hunt_fish_sleep]

Iams and Hill's Science Diet.

[CPT BRAD]

Ol Roy, mostly, if we were doing tournaments or dog shows we'd bump it up to a high Protien and leftovers but mostly the cheap stuff.

[Jeff Bowers]

Del, for 15 years I couldn't say we even kept track of what we fed our pets. For the cats it was Alpo, 9-Lives, Purina, etc... The dogs got assorted Purina stuff.

Then several things happened; Really old animals, and an assortment of food scares. Following that, a diabetic cat and a dog with a tempermental digestive system.

For our dogs, we use the Purina Pro Plan (black bag) with the chicken bits. With that is a touch of Old Mother Hubbard canned food. Sometimes just one fat spoonful. They also like the Alpo chophouse stuff, that has pretty good ingredients. You must give them some soft food instead of all dry.

Cats are stranger. When you see cat food with "healthy vegetables", that's for humans more than cats. Not being domesticated fully, they are "obligate carnivores". That means they must eat meat. Dogs like and can live with some carrots, lettuce, potatoes, etc., but not cats. Especially with our one with diabetes. We use EVO, which is less than 7% carbs. They also get one meal a day of Fancy Feast, from the gluten-free list.

Notes: When you have to actually research things, it can scare you what you find.

-Gluten used not to be much of an ingredient. Then it was used because it's like a "chemical protein". So under analysis, it's supposed to act like one. But animals really need real protein.

-The ingredients on a label are listed in order of percentage. So if "chicken" dog food has "chicken" listed on the third line, beware. Especially if "yeast" or "gluten" are above it.

And finally, dog food today is not what it was 20 years ago. Chicken wings used to be part of the chicken ingredient in dog food. Then they became a money-making scheme at bars. So what's left for dog food? Heads, feet (not legs), and organs (but not even all those).

[Beekeeper]

Del,

My dogs (4 beagles, a lab and 2 mutts) get the Ol' Roy standard ration in the off season, I switch to their high protein ration during hunting season. I've used it for 20 years now. The dogs have shiny coats, good teeth, healthy foot pads and tight stools.