What do you feed your dogs? (Page 3)

Beneful, I think.

All I could think of after reading the thread title was this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRHxZPV6jts

Many moons ago I was co-caretaker of a shepherd/samoyed mix and we were feeding him the cheap stuff.   He had terrible skin issues and would leave horse-sized piles all over the yard.  Vet suggested a switch to Eukanuba and the change was dramatic:   Skin issues cleared up within a month, and the backyard was no longer a minefield.

Fast-forward 10 years and when we got a puppy, she was fed Eukanuba.  It treated her very well.  I am a big believer in quality foods.   For my pets and my people! :^)

Yeah, that sounds about right.  When our dogs were really growing and training alot there were times when they had 5 cups per day of Purina Pro Plan, or Eukanuba, or whatever we were getting from the field trials at the time.  Lots of protein and lots of fat for energy.....but few "fillers" as we could find.  Feeding a dog food that has grain always seemed silly to me.....they're dogs, not horses.

I bet your pup gets to about 4 cups per day before the amount you need to feed comes back down.  

If I was hunting my dog these days, that 2.5 cups would easily be 4 cups, and she's still be getting leaner from all the work.  Still, no junk food.

I can't believe you called me that.....sensitive as I am.  

All dogs are special.  

There is good dog food and there is crap..........feed as you will, it's your dog.  I'm glad you have backed off your earlier post, because that was crap too. 

Ha, not at all. I don't see that we made any different points ... unless your post is crap too

People may have different experiences with their dogs on different kinds of food, and there are definitely some bottom-tier stuff I would NOT give my dogs. But overall, for most dogs (which definitely do not train hard, hunt, have special requirements etc.) there isn't any good large-scale evidence that mid-range commercial dog foods and up are going to significantly alter/improve your dog's long-term health, longevity, quality of life.

Let me put it this way: there's a huge difference between a $500 bike and a $1500 road bike. But there's actually very little significant difference between a $1500 road bike and a $5000 one. Same principle applies to dog foods.

Domesticated canids have developed to eat pretty much the same foods humans do (generally speaking, and with a higher ratio of proteins and fats). Grains aren't going to hurt them.

We feed our horses hay.....we don't feed grain to our dog.  And, there is one hell of a difference between a $1500.00 bike and a $5000 bike to the folks who can ride.  I can feed my dog crap food or quality food.  I can tell the difference in her coat, her teeth, her energy level, and her general disposition.......but I've spent alot of time around alot of dogs.....most of them the $5000 type.

My dogs eats leftovers.  I thought everybody did this? 

Some dry food now and then and all the fat and trimmings off wild and store bought meat.

My dog is on a prescription diet, so I can't give advice on a brand.  But to the OP living in a rural area, I'd strongly recommend buying online.  I use petfooddirect.com.  I've price shopped them against petsmart, and they're basically the same.  Within a buck or two either way. But you don't have to pay sales tax, which makes a little bit of a difference on $80 bags of food.  Your mailman might not like you very much though.  

Shipping costs can be expensive on a heavy bag of food, but I've always gotten free shipping by entering a coupon code of either freeship or shipfree.  If one doesn't work, the other one always does.  Amazon also sells major brands of dogfood, but don't do prescription diets so I've never bothered to check their prices.

Hahha funny that you say that
My great-grandmother always talked about how in their generation they literally didn't buy dog food for dogs. They just fed them table scraps and potato peels and things they were about to throw out.

Then again, her dog's name was "Hooker" so maybe she was a bit out there. 

Ol' Roy  the Red Bag one..

Can't tell you how many dog owners have complemented my dog's health and coat and ask me what I buy and how much I spend.

They don't like hearing that it is the WalMart brand.

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

That link will give you more than enough information to make your head spin off.

raw

http://www.bravorawdiet.com/product/balance/index.html

Okay, now I've heard it all...we're supposed to feed Hookers?

Growing up, our dog ate the cheap stuff coupled with leftovers and whatever it scrounged off the counter (there'd occasionally be tinfoil in her pooh)...and I know it was a different dog, but that dog had diarrhea, loose stools, it barfed...just stuff we haven't seen with our dog today.  No table scraps and high-quality food at our house has worked very well in our n=1 world.

In the long run, it really isn't a big deal.  We all love our dogs.  Good nutrition's a small part of what we owe these cute animals.  

One thing's for certain though...dogs are sooo much better than cats!  

Default mode for any dog.

The 4th page and no one has mentioned Orijen?  One of the best dog foods that is currently available in the market.

Mine has done great on Orijen for the last 7 years, she is 12 and runs like a puppy when she is not on top of my bed.  Before that she was a eating Karma, an organic dog food, but it had too much grain which was causing problems with her skin.