What dry dog food now??

My shep is 10 months old, and my girl is a vet tech. She (and her colleagues) recommend Purina One, so we got him on Purina One Healthy Puppy.

take it for what it’s worth, but he seems to be pretty healthy

 

We use natural balance limited ingredient cause our dog is allergic to chicken, I think they have 2 or 3 that are potato free, 26lb bag is like $50 to $60 from petco, price depends on which flavor you pick.

 

You would think So for the price it costs.


https://news.vin.com/vinnews.aspx?articleId=53973

 

I use blue buffalo wilderness for my 2. They do great on it.

 

https://www.natureslogic.com/product/distinction-canine-beef-recipe/

 

I have tried several foods over the years. I was happy with Eagle Creek but their constant price increases and shrinking bag sizes made me look at other options. After much research I switched to the Costco Kirkland Chicken. Check out this dog food review site and Kirkland out performs most of the expensive brands.

https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/brand/

You get a 40lb bag for about 30% less than the designer foods sold at the pet stores and vets. When you look up the designer foods reviews they are mostly less than 4 stars or the same as Kirkland. I now have 3 dogs eating Kirkland and they all enjoy it. I do add some protein canned foods in it once in awhile to give them some variety and extra protein. It is higher in carbs so as your dogs age and become less active, you do have to start reducing portions. If only I could do the same for myself.

 

This is the study:

https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/n...to-know-about-the-fdas-grain-free-diet-alert/

There are millions of animals on grain free foods, and only 524 reports. Tell your vet to calm his tits.

 

I stay away from most Kirkland items these days. I have found their "Organic" food really doesn't sit well with me as a human, so there is no way I can trust their dog food to be any different.

I use Whole Hearted. My dog seems to like it and it's got tons of probiotics and protein in it.

 

Laid into you? WTF? Time for a new vet. I’ve had dogs on grain formulated dog foods that have lived a lot less than that. Dogs, like people, have to die of something and old age is not a cause of death. Personally, I wouldn’t change a thing.

 

They use "linked" in that article VERY LOOSELY. Idiots - same article.

 

Thanks!

 

Probably 524 dogs that were overweight and not exercised regularly.

 

Thanks for sharing, I was unaware of that

 

There has only been one small study that showed a link between grain free diets and heart disease in large dogs. There isn't enough information at this point to go on and I would stick with what works well for your dog so far.

I feed my dogs Wellness Rawrev and they love it. It's the first dry food I could ever get my frenchie to eat on a regular basis and it gets very high review scores.

 

The pup took a fairly nasty spill off a small cliff today on a hike. She was chasing a mountain goat . She limped back to the truck ok but her paw was bleeding and her ankle was swelling up pretty good.

She got some x-rays (nothing broken, just a ankle sprain) and some stitches. Kinda banged up but she'll live. The reason I'm posting is because during check-in the vet/doctor was listening to her heart rate and said she had a substantial heart murmer.

She gets yearly check-ups and this was the first time anyone had said anything about her heart rate. She's about 6-7 yrs old, eats high protein/grain-free dog food and gets PLENTY of exercise. She's not overweight, she's as quick and agile as they come, she can spend all day hiking on/off trail and not miss a beat.

We talked a little about it and he mentioned switching back to a grain-inclusive diet. He also recommended scheduling a visit with a cardio specialist. I have heard about the heart getting enlarged, valve issues and such but given her energy levels I never thought much about her being at risk. Needless to say, now I'm a little worried.

For what its worth, we're going to switch the food back to grain-inclusive and schedule some visits with the specialist. I'm not saying for sure that the grain-free diet is an issue yet, or that there even is an issue.. we need to try some things, wait a bit and see what happens. I'll try to remember to update this in a few months when we (hopefully) know a bit more

 

My working line eats nature’s domain from Costco. Do the research.

 

Here is some good info on murmurs. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/heart-murmurs-in-dogs