|
If your vet is recommending a prescription diet to treat a medical condition and prevent it recurring, always go with the prescription diet.
|
#
?
May 13, 2022 08:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 10:53 |
|
|
My vet told me my cats are too fat and to stop feeding them dry food. I used to free feed them dry food (Blue Buffalo Wilderness Indoor Chicken) and feed wet food 2x/day (Fussie cat or Sheba, they like both) Now that I've removed the dry food, it seems like they're hungry ALL THE TIME. My wet food budget has gone through the roof. Now I'm thinking maybe I can reintroduce dry food on a feeding schedule (instead of free fed) but I'm worried about them scarfing it down and throwing up. Any suggestions?
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2022 05:36
|
|
|
Dry food is fine as long as they have a good water supply. Just check calorie content per volume to calculate how much to feed. The more expensive foods tend to be more calorie dense by a lot. You may need to slightly overfeed and gradually taper it down just so your cats won't want to murder you. Auto feeders are also good so they don't associate you with feeding time and bug the poo poo out of you.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2022 12:45
|
|
|
Merrick Purr-fect Bistro pate foods has updated their formula to get rid of carrageenan and add xanthan gum as a binder. There was no label change. I'm not exactly sure when they did the ingredient switch-- we had a big stockpile due to covid supply concerns-- but it seems to be spring 2022. We were only alerted by our cat getting loose stools without any known cause. Back to trying to find wet food that's decent that's pate form that doesn't include the "healthy" binders she can't eat. 
effika fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Jun 13, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2022 02:07
|
|
|
We feed our dog kibbles like 99% of the time. Yesterday we fed her a stick of carrot and it gave her the runs. Pretty sure carrots are a-okay for dogs, so maybe we just gave her too much at a time. We were planning to work more vegetables into her diet but feel like we gotta be more cautious now.
|
|
#
?
Jul 25, 2022 23:37
|
|
|
So my father suddenly decided that a ferret is the one thing he absolutely must have to make his life complete. He's had working ferrets before over the years, but always lost interest in them and never really looked after them properly. So he saw an advert on a local facebook group earlier today, and is now the proud owner of a 10 week old albino hob ferret (which is probably the most laid-back and happy to be handled ferret I've ever seen). He's unlikely to look after and socialize it properly, so the task is almost definitely going to fall to me. My first problem is what to feed him. The seller provided a small bag of solid food, and the little guy has absolutely no qualms about eating it. Can any ferret owners reccommend a good brand that's available in the UK? The seller uses a brand called Ferret Feast.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2022 22:29
|
|
|
I figure it’s worth asking in here too: my cat Echo developed diabetes while on prednisolone. He’s currently being weaned off the steroids and I’m looking into getting him on a low carb diet that will also prevent crystals from developing. He prefers dry to wet so I’m kind of stuck, and my vet is almost certainly going to recommend a science hills diet which probably isn’t the greatest. Any recommendations?
|
|
#
?
Aug 15, 2022 20:57
|
|
|
Hey thread. I'm looking into the viability of feeding my senior dog home cooked food instead of dry kibble, but I'm getting inconsistencies in some things. Can you guys help me out here? So, necessary preface first: I've got an 11 year old, 50lb pit bull. She's got a wheat allergy, and I've been feeding her Rachel Ray's Nutrish Chicken & Rice dry food basically all her life. She likes it well enough, except when the bag gets near the end, she'll start to not want to eat it. I assume the food's going stale and she's put off by the taste, because once I buy the new bag, she's right back to eating it just fine again. However, this last bag, I think it must've been a bad batch, or she ate something on a walk that didn't agree with her, or something. Due to whatever happened, she spent a full week with escalating, terrible poop issues that got worse until I swapped her to plain canned chicken, white rice, and canned pumpkin for a couple days to let her clear out and reset. So now I'm looking into the feasibility of home cooking her food, mostly to see if it might be worth it, and if she'd get more out of it than the kibble. I did a bunch of googling around, and came up with a recipe I wanted to use as a starting point. I independently found that BalanceIt site that's linked in the OP, and it's left me with more questions than when I started. Here's the recipe I initially input. Please note: this is for a 50lb dog, set to a batch size of one week, and selected for the "Higher Protein or Fat & Lower Carb" meal type, in case you're interested in recreating the recipe yourself. I chose that meal type merely due to the fewer vitamin deficiencies it listed. If I were to go through with this, I'd obviously talk to her vet first. I merely want to get an idea of what I'm looking at before I do that, so I have enough information to have a proper conversation on the matter and know what questions to ask and all that. So, once I get everything listed in there, I started looking for ways to correct the various listed nutrient deficiencies. For example, the site lists the recipe as being low in calcium. One of my ingredients in there is eggs. I figured I could take a couple shells, bake them, grind them into powder, and supplement the calcium that way. Googling around seems to confirm this. Doing the math, I'd need ~4-5 eggshells to cover a whole batch of food. However, that site doesn't have eggshells as an ingredient, so I can't add it to the list to factor that in. Another example is iodine. Seeing that deficiency, I planned on adding kombu to the recipe, as I know that seaweed is very high in iodine. The site lets me add kombu(as kelp) to the recipe, but then tells me there's still no iodine in there at all. This is because, surprise, it doesn't list iodine as a nutrient in any of the seaweeds it has on file. Ok, another deficiency is vitamin E. Google says there's vitamin E in eggs, spinach, and soybean oil. Ok, maybe it's not enough between the three things. Google also says that good sources of vitamin E are, among others, sunflower seeds and red bell peppers. BI doesn't even have sunflower seeds as an ingredient, and when I add red bell peppers to the list, it doesn't look like it moves the nutrient amount at all. So, what's going on here? I can't seem to get fewer than 6 nutrient deficiencies from this site. I get that they're trying to sell their vitamin powder here, but, come on. Like with the iodine, Google also says your average large chicken egg, the same ones I have in the recipe, each contain ~24mcg of iodine. When you math it out, the recipe the site made calls for just about 3 eggs per day, so there should be ~75mcg of iodine, which is equal to 0.075mg of iodine. Yet the iodine level listed in the nutrition section is listed at 0.002mg for reasons. And this also isn't helping the whole point of the project anyway, which is to look into the feasibility of actually home cooking my dog's food for the last few years she's got here. I'm really thinking this almost isn't worth the hassle at this point. I dunno, please give me some opinions on this stuff, and help me figure out what to do from here. Should I even bother wrestling with this any more, or quit while I'm ahead and just keep feeding her the kibble, or what?
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2022 18:30
|
|
|
Jet just had a scare where he seemed to not be eating any dry food at all for a few days, but instantly downed an entire kitty gogurt when offered one. I’ve tried giving him wet food aka pates and chunks of meat in gravy before, but he would always sniff it, lick a couple times, then never touch it again. So I always feed him dry food. But he’s a fiend for Churu. It looks like he may prefer gravies and sauces over chunks of meat and thick pates. Those aren’t too hard to cook. Has anyone ever made gravies and sauces for a cat as a supplemental wet food? If so, how did you ensure it was both nutritionally complete and appetizing for the cat? Should I maybe not bother and just buy some particular brand?
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2022 22:47
|
|
|
Dazerbeams posted:I figure it’s worth asking in here too: my cat Echo developed diabetes while on prednisolone. He’s currently being weaned off the steroids and I’m looking into getting him on a low carb diet that will also prevent crystals from developing. He prefers dry to wet so I’m kind of stuck, and my vet is almost certainly going to recommend a science hills diet which probably isn’t the greatest. Any recommendations? https://www.farmina.com/us/eshop/cat-food/farmina-vet-life-feline/751-urinary-st/control-feline.html This is what I was feeding.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2022 05:31
|
|
|
neogeo0823 posted:Hey thread. I'm looking into the viability of feeding my senior dog home cooked food instead of dry kibble, but I'm getting inconsistencies in some things. Can you guys help me out here? I think kibble should always be available, but if you want to make some nice potato/yam/chicken/rice dishes for your dog that's a nice thing to do too! You're seeing why my friends who tried to go the homemade route eventually just supplimented. For what triggered this, usually "Person" dog food is made by diamond or whomever and just gets a different label. Bags will be different batch to batch and there may be a different plant making it, like blue buffalo wilderness. You seemed to have gotten very unlucky with a bag, like I have with blue buffalo wilderness.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2022 14:50
|
|
|
Soylent Yellow posted:So my father suddenly decided that a ferret is the one thing he absolutely must have to make his life complete. He's had working ferrets before over the years, but always lost interest in them and never really looked after them properly. So he saw an advert on a local facebook group earlier today, and is now the proud owner of a 10 week old albino hob ferret (which is probably the most laid-back and happy to be handled ferret I've ever seen). He's unlikely to look after and socialize it properly, so the task is almost definitely going to fall to me. Ferrets can do well on a high protein cat food, but they are notoriously picky and may not recognize it as food. Probably best to stick with the brand that you already know it will eat. E: Sorry I don't know brands of cat food or food labeled for Ferrets in the UK. One of the few foods here that's popular for ferrets is "Marshall Farms" - which is a safe bet because I think that's were most ferrets come from in the US. e2: Oh gosh I didn't realize that post was from a month ago. nunsexmonkrock fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Sep 15, 2022 |
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2022 12:48
|
|
|
Hey folks! I've been feeding my cat Crave dry food and Friskies wet, but want to upgrade her to something a little fancier. She's still at least the same weight or slightly higher since the last time we went to the vet (who recommended trying to reduce how much we feed her slightly), so I'm hoping improving the quality of her foods could also help, as well make her coat a little shinier like it remember being at some point earlier. She seems to be taking ok to Weruva wet food, although she turned up her nose at Tiki Cat wet food last night and had an accident this morning, so I need to slow down the transition. I'm also looking into either Orijen/Science Diet for her dry food. Is it worth making these changes, or are any of the original more than fine? Also finding conflicting things about Orijen even from just a quick search in this thread, so not sure what the general sentiment there is. Also if it's just better to reach out to the vet directly and get a list of recommended foods, I'll do just that and hold off on any making more dietary changes. Last I mentioned the brands I was using, there wasn't any explicit concern, but that was a while back. reversefungi fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Oct 1, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2022 02:37
|
|
|
Any food listed with "complete" will be OK. Individual cats may do better on some things than others (e.g. our cat can't do xanthan gum) but if it calls itself a "complete" food it'll have all the nutrients needed. Basically don't worry about min-maxing your cat's food. Wet is usually better but dry is fine if they are good about drinking water. That's about it. If you notice they like a food and their coat seems nice and they have energy and their poops are good, keep up with it! Be sure to transition slowly-- start at 25% new food and slowly increase it over a week or so. If you go too quickly, you can upset their digestive system (and sometimes need antibiotics and probiotics to reset it, if you're unlucky). Frankly it seems better these days to look at what brands have a lot of recalls and problem reports and avoid those. Then find a brand that fits your budget and your cat's needs.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2022 15:33
|
|
|
So is it bad for cats if I'm always feeding them something different every meal? Their foster mom was cycling through a few different wet foods because they get sick of the same thing quickly and stop eating and I didn't want to change their routine while they were transitioning to their new home, but when I tried switching them to something more consistent they did indeed start ignoring their food and gnawing on anything and everything that was not food when I wasn't around, mainly the underside of my bed. So I went back to getting them a few different wet foods to cycle through and just keeping them on the same dry food at night which they don't seem to mind as much. Am I damaging their digestive tract by doing this? Should I just switch to dry only since that's the only thing they'll consistently eat the same of? My previous cat had to be put to sleep after many rough financially and emotionally draining years of kidney disease so I'm loathe to switch to dry only, but I don't want to just be causing other health problems. e: I know people say that dry is not an issue as long as you have a fountain or something to encourage them to drink more but I got that and on top of the filters being too expensive for me to regularly replace, it doesn't seem to actually have that much of an impact on how much they're drinking. yellowyams fucked around with this message at 17:13 on Oct 1, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2022 17:08
|
|
|
If they're used to food being swapped out, I see no reason not to do that if they don't get the runs from it. You may even try to get food that has several flavors in a line so the base ingredients don't change to much, just the proteins/flavorings.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2022 00:15
|
|
|
effika posted:Any food listed with "complete" will be OK. Individual cats may do better on some things than others (e.g. our cat can't do xanthan gum) but if it calls itself a "complete" food it'll have all the nutrients needed. Basically don't worry about min-maxing your cat's food. Wet is usually better but dry is fine if they are good about drinking water. That's about it. If you notice they like a food and their coat seems nice and they have energy and their poops are good, keep up with it! Thanks for this! I've been feeding her a mix of wet and dry every day (which our vet approved of) and thankfully she's always been pretty good about drinking water regularly. As far as brands go, the wet food transition is going decently, but our cat is clearly LOVING the Orijen dry food. I gave some to her last night and refilled her automatic feeder today, and she's actively trying to break in to get some more of the orijen. While she usually prefers dry, I've never seen her go this crazy over a flavor/brand before, so it's nice to see her get this excited about her food!
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2022 23:14
|
|
|
Does anyone have any experience with "Smalls" brand food? It's freeze dried in a cookie-dough style tube. One of our cats is fairly picky about what food she will eat. We've rotated through a lot of the premium brands over the years. Between that and the issues with availability these days, it's driving my wife crazy. We're also trying to cut down on the our recycling volume, so the lack of cans is attractive. But we really just want to make sure we're getting good food for our cats.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 17:43
|
|
|
yellowyams posted:So is it bad for cats if I'm always feeding them something different every meal? Their foster mom was cycling through a few different wet foods because they get sick of the same thing quickly and stop eating and I didn't want to change their routine while they were transitioning to their new home, but when I tried switching them to something more consistent they did indeed start ignoring their food and gnawing on anything and everything that was not food when I wasn't around, mainly the underside of my bed. So I went back to getting them a few different wet foods to cycle through and just keeping them on the same dry food at night which they don't seem to mind as much. Am I damaging their digestive tract by doing this? Should I just switch to dry only since that's the only thing they'll consistently eat the same of? It's fine. It isn't like in the wild they would only eat shrews and turn their noses up at birds or bugs. A cat that is fed one thing all the time for years has their intestinal bacteria adjust to process that one thing, so when you change it their guts get mad and they get the runs. If that one food ever becomes unavailable you're gonna have a bad time. If they get a variety of foods their intestinal bacteria will prime for that and be fine. Some people think feeding multiple foods encourages an animal to be fussy. I guess I can see it. If you ate Bachelor Chow and nothing else your whole life you'd be fine with it, but once you had a taco you'd be reluctant to go back to it. But if the cat has already tried multiple foods that opportunity has passed and there's no reason not to continue what you're doing.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2022 20:44
|
|
|
I’ve got two three month old kittens, and their shits smell so bad it may peel the paint off my walls. I’m feeding them Wellness Core Kitten, and they each are getting 1.5 oz (half a can) of fancy feast classic pate kitten every night. I had the same two cats for 20 years, and they died last year, so I’m an experienced cat owner, but really out of practice with kittens. Is this just how kitten poop smells? Should I try a different cat food? I fed my old adult cats wellness core original with no wet food, and their poops smelled normal.
|
|
#
?
Oct 13, 2022 00:13
|
|
|
What's the thread recommendation for a cat food for a 15 year old healthy cat that's a bit underweight and doesn't really like Nutrical, even if it's mixed into her current favorite wet food? She's a grazer, doesn't really eat much at once, either dry or wet. We feed her 3x daily and she eats half of what we give her, then later wants it repositioned to eat the other half or otherwise. There's a recent eating refusal medical crisis, details are in the cat thread, where we had to force-feed her A/D until she got her appetite back. The appetite is back, she's happy to get fed, now we just gotta get her weight up since she doesn't eat much at once.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2022 22:02
|
|
|
Have you looked into those caloric pastes/gels? You can try mixing that in with her wet or dry food. Or even give her excess treats, if it is really that dire. What is considered underweight?
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2022 21:51
|
|
|
The old thread forever ago use to have a dog food tier list, is that gone? I use to feed my prior dogs blue buffalo but i havent had a dog in almost 4 years so I'm sure its changed. Rescuing a mix puppy this weekend:  Was thinking about doing baby blue buffalo, grain free high protein chicken and pea. Thoughts? Edit: I read the fda case about grain free and peas. But those numbers seem crazy low. Also when i was reading through ingredient lists it sesms peas are in almost everything. fyallm fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Nov 23, 2022 |
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2022 02:29
|
|
|
I just adopted a dog who is sweet, lovely, and very underweight. She also seems pretty picky with her food. At the moment she is eating taste of the wild Pacific stream, and seems to only like crunchy kibble. I will probably eventually try to get her on some kind of fresh food but at the moment I just want to shove calories into her because she needs to gain about 15 pounds. She is not very food motivated and doesn't seem to "get" treats. How can I put some meat on her highly visible bones?
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2022 16:53
|
|
|
fyallm posted:The old thread forever ago use to have a dog food tier list, is that gone? You will likely give your dog grain free dcm. Hope this helps.
|
|
#
?
Dec 6, 2022 22:18
|
|
|
Gangringo posted:I just adopted a dog who is sweet, lovely, and very underweight. She also seems pretty picky with her food. At the moment she is eating taste of the wild Pacific stream, and seems to only like crunchy kibble. I will probably eventually try to get her on some kind of fresh food but at the moment I just want to shove calories into her because she needs to gain about 15 pounds. Does she like peanut butter? As many of us know, peanut butter has a million calories per very small portion.  PB also works nicely in a treat toy so it can keep her busy if you don’t have the same energy level that she does. If you can get her interested in cheese, besides the calorie benefit, pilling will be a lot simpler in the future. Cream cheese or American cheese are really good for that.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2022 18:10
|
|
|
Rabbi Tupac posted:You will likely give your dog grain free dcm. Hope this helps. Very helpful  Everytime I read these studies or anything it doesn't seem like an actual 'likely give your dog dcm": https://thesciencedog.com/2022/04/0...es%20in%20dogs. fyallm fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Dec 9, 2022 |
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2022 20:28
|
|
|
Is there a way to feed my cat wet food without all the waste that comes with individual cans? I would love to feed her dry food, but she has issues with constipation stemming from an old pelvis injury.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2023 22:52
|
|
|
YeahTubaMike posted:Is there a way to feed my cat wet food without all the waste that comes with individual cans? I would love to feed her dry food, but she has issues with constipation stemming from an old pelvis injury. Sometimes I get the big 12.5 cans (like this), weigh out the portion at meal times, then put a can-cap on it and chuck it in the fridge. I’m also a maniac and microwave their food for 10ish seconds so it’s not cold.  Otherwise some of Stella & Chewy’s wet food is in little juice-box look’n containers. Not sure if anyone else does that?
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2023 06:25
|
|
|
Crocobile posted:Sometimes I get the big 12.5 cans (like this), weigh out the portion at meal times, then put a can-cap on it and chuck it in the fridge. That's way better than what I've been doing -- I feed my cat 1 1/2 cans of food a day because she likes to be as difficult as possible in all aspects of her life, and after I've scooped out the half, I wrap the other half in the smallest plastic bag I own & put it in the fridge. That can-cap is going to be a game-changer, I can feel it. Thanks for the tips!
|
|
#
?
Jan 14, 2023 19:29
|
|
|
I've been feeding my cat Solid Gold Indigo Moon for years now, along with one small can of wet food per day and a pet fountain. This has been fine, although she tells me she is constantly starving and wasting away at all times. However the Petco near me has stopped carrying Solid Gold products and it seems the price is going up elsewhere too, not that that's surprising. The last time I looked at one of these threads it had a nice list of good cat foods and I just looked them up and picked the cheapest one that my jerk cat would eat. Is there a good, affordable dry food I should look into as an alternative, or should I just suck it up and accept that this rear end in a top hat is going to eat me out of house and home? I'm in the eastern US if that helps narrow down price/availability.
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2023 20:52
|
|
|
How is Diamond Naturals dry dog food?
|
|
#
?
Jan 15, 2023 21:48
|
|
|
Have you looked at Chewy.com for buying Solid Gold food? I get the Winged Tiger on there, and have it on auto-ship so it's 5% off. But now that you mention it, the price has gone up $6 a bag since November looking back at my shipments. I just noticed the kibble shape changed again too. Makes sense now why, pet food inflation is real. But at least you can get the Indigo Moon in the 12 lb bag, I don't have that luxury with the Winged Tiger flavor. And looking at the old Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain that I would buy my cats, that bag has gone up $10 too. Looks like you're gonna have to bite the bullet. Maybe 5% off is good enough.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2023 22:59
|
|
|
We’re adopting two cats this Saturday. I’ve never had cats while my partner has but in the distant past, so we’re both brushing up on the latest and greatest in cat care. I feel pretty confident in everything I’ve researched except for nutrition - I don’t know what sources are trustworthy, and it seems like a lot of those in the OP stop short of giving actual recommendations. It’s also easy to find guides for kittens up to the 4 month mark, but I’ve been lost on what happens between there and adult cat. My questions are pretty general but for context:
We’re going to have to make some accommodations for their background, varying depending how they adjust to a home setting. Okay, questions. I’ve heard the recommendation with kittens is to let them have access to dry food at all times, does that advice apply up to a year old under ideal circumstances? I do see the table posted earlier has calculations for kittens for their daily calories, so I’m not sure how free feeding matches up with that, especially with two where it would be hard to know who ate how much. Does anyone know a good source on expected growth milestones for kittens past the 4 month mark? We’re going to speak to a local vet also, but hoping that can wait at least a couple of weeks to build more trust with them first. We’ll go sooner if we notice any red flags, I’d just love a baseline to work against for monitoring their weight gain to make sure they’re on track. I gather from this thread Hill’s is adequate but not ideal. Debating how quickly we could try to move them to something else, since they’ve spent the first half their life eating in the wild and the second half with something consistent. We should probably still make the transition gradual, over the course of a week or so? For picking out new food, I get that GA = Guaranteed Analysis = the min % of protein, fat, fibre, and moisture. But I don’t get what the recommended overall intake actually is? Do we literally just rely on the food saying “complete” or “balanced” and ignore variations in % between brands as long as they have both of those things present? I have no idea how to figure out what we’re aiming for. The amount of selection is totally overwhelming, and I’m in Canada so it’s less than in the US lol. I don’t really know how to pick, and I feel like this is one of the more important decisions we need to make to give them the best chance at healthy growth given their rough start.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2023 22:11
|
|
|
kaom posted:We’re adopting two cats this Saturday. I’ve never had cats while my partner has but in the distant past, so we’re both brushing up on the latest and greatest in cat care. I feel pretty confident in everything I’ve researched except for nutrition - I don’t know what sources are trustworthy, and it seems like a lot of those in the OP stop short of giving actual recommendations. It’s also easy to find guides for kittens up to the 4 month mark, but I’ve been lost on what happens between there and adult cat. Other people will give you more specific advice, but I want to tell you it's OK if your choice isn't perfect. They've made it this far eating whatever they can catch, so a nutritionally complete food provided regularly in a safe and calm environment is icing on the cake! Wet is better than dry, if it fits your lifestyle/budget and they'll eat it. Other than that, look for something that's complete and that they'll eat. A lot of places won't outright say "eat Brand X food" because Brand X may have a recall or something, or your cat won't like it, etc. Set a couple of general guidelines and see what looks good from there. (E.g., going for meat instead of "meal" like some sources recommend.) Leave the dry food out for free feeding and see how they do. You sound like you're home often enough to see if one hogs it all or they are scarf & barfers, or if they gently pick at it all day, etc.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2023 01:16
|
|
|
I’ve got two dogs. One is a 13 year old pekingese/terrier/schnauzer mutt still super healthy doing great and an 18 week old working cocker spaniel. The older dog has been on Acana grain free poultry for years, always done great on it. The puppy is currently eating HIll’s science diet puppy food. Doing great on it as well with no issues. Eventually I’d like to have them on the same food when the puppy moves on from puppy food. My issues is that I really don’t want to go grain free/food with pulses for the new pup. I know the DCM risk is still being figured out but avoiding it entirely would be nice. I also wouldn’t mind moving the older dog away from it even though she’s been fine on it. I’ve been researching my rear end off on foods and my brain/gut honestly steers me towards the standard vet recommended brands like Hill’s, Purina Pro Plan, Royal Canin and such. The WSAVA/AAFCO/etc backed foods. People will say it’s junk, just look at the ingredients, but that really doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s also really disingenuous that you hear how vets are paid to push those when it’s not quite the truth. I’ve also heard things like how the WSAVA only exists to lobby for their partners which… just is not true at all as far as I know. Plus the smaller more “natural” brands market their stuff like crazy and make deals with tons of businesses and influencers as well. The more I read the more i’m kind of realizing I’ve been pulled in by boutique pet food that sounds and looks good to me vs food that is ideal for dogs, if that makes sense. Not that Acana doesn’t seem like good quality food, but yeah. It’s all very tricky to navigate. I’m just wondering if you all could give me some input here. I know at the end of the day it’s going to boil down to everyone trying their best to make the right decision based on a very hard to navigate field. Thanks! Kilometers Davis fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Feb 8, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2023 20:12
|
|
|
Kilometers Davis posted:I’ve been researching my rear end off on foods and my brain/gut honestly steers me towards the standard vet recommended brands like Hill’s, Purina Pro Plan, Royal Canin and such. The WSAVA/AAFCO/etc backed foods. People will say it’s junk, just look at the ingredients, but that really doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s also really disingenuous that you hear how vets are paid to push those when it’s not quite the truth. I’ve also heard things like how the WSAVA only exists to lobby for their partners which… just is not true at all as far as I know. Plus the smaller more “natural” brands market their stuff like crazy and make deals with tons of businesses and influencers as well. The more I read the more i’m kind of realizing I’ve been pulled in by boutique pet food that sounds and looks good to me vs food that is ideal for dogs, if that makes sense. Not that Acana doesn’t seem like good quality food, but yeah. It’s all very tricky to navigate. I’m just wondering if you all could give me some input here. I know at the end of the day it’s going to boil down to everyone trying their best to make the right decision based on a very hard to navigate field. Thanks! I'm glad people are being more discerning reading about this stuff. I can only speak for my institution but Hills and Royal Canin had little meaningful input beyond a couple of optional lunch-time lectures, the nutritional curriculum was spearheaded by a brand-agnostic boarded nutritionist and WSAVA member. We're not told to hawk the big brands and they're not funding secret junkets or kick-backs. I just want to put sick animals on food which has actually had trials, which boutique brands tend to not do. I also find that the vast majority of people who ask me what to feed their new pet just want to be told a brand and dislike being given a variety of options - so yes in that instance I'm probably going to default to recommending a brand that runs trials. I should also add that part of vet training involves spotting bullshit in published papers but I'm not going to pretend I'm fully up to date on all published literature and don't have any particular insight into the veracity of recent trials. Ultimately I care that a diet is providing the correct amount of fats, carbohydrates, amino acids and vitamins/minerals; that the animal will actually EAT it; and that it isn't causing detrimental health effects. There is a lot of creativity in the industry around how ingredients are presented (e.g. wet weight instead of dry matter) so I don't even put a lot of credence in the "look at the top 5 ingredients" anymore (within reason, it still needs some protein in there), and I'm a bit skeptical that people are actually checking the bioavailability of the scads of natural ingredients going into the highly marketed newer diets. I used to be very tightly wound about pet nutrition and it's part of the reason I went on to be a veterinarian. I unwound significantly after formal study. Your puppy will likely continue to do well on Hills' over the counter diets. They will probably also be fine on Acana once they've reached adulthood. I'm not going to write an essay but my general guidelines tend to be avoid supermarket brands because they do tend to be junk-foody (having said that my rear end in a top hat cat will only eat Fancy Feast), do stick with a puppy diet to support them through that rapid growth stage, feed your pet something they actually like and will maintain condition on, and feed what you can afford. I don't like raw diets for a list as long as my arm which I'll not get into. Personally, over the years I fed my dog Go!, Hills for a while, Orijen 6 fish for omega-3 support until the DCM risk was identified, and then Acana because he liked it. I'm sure not everyone will agree but I don't really mind. Lastly just a small plug for "fillers". They get such a bad rap. I'm not talking about corn, which is actually surprisingly bioavailable and probably one of the most studied ingredients, but just general fibre content. There is a place on the diet landscape for physically larger kibble that gives the stomach stretch to encourage a feeling of fullness and aids with faecal bulk but doesn't have the calorie density to match. There's no harm in pooping that out. And we like poop because it expresses anal glands so you (we) don't have to. Tamarillo fucked around with this message at 11:00 on Feb 9, 2023 |
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2023 10:39
|
|
|
Tamarillo posted:There is a place on the diet landscape for physically larger kibble that gives the stomach stretch to encourage a feeling of fullness and aids with faecal bulk but doesn't have the calorie density to match. There's no harm in pooping that out. And we like poop because it expresses anal glands so you (we) don't have to. My Lab-Border Collie has an allergy to chicken. He’s been on the lamb and rice dog food from Costco and he has trouble with his anal glands sometimes. Our newer Lab-Pit is also on that food and has had one instance of anal gland problems. We’ve been supplementing both dogs with a little extra fiber via Citrucel tablets and we can continue that, but if anyone has a suggestion of a dog food with more fiber but no chicken I’m all ears.
|
|
#
?
Feb 9, 2023 21:09
|
|
|
Having had an old, finicky dog, I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to mess with a diet that’s working fine for a 13 year old. The puppy can probably go on whatever seems good to you, or be on the Acana for a while and switch later. My 3yo husky mix is on Orijen with grains now and I do have to say I noticed an increase in muscle mass when I moved her over from Acana.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2023 13:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 10:53 |
|
|
Anyone heard if anything is going on with Solid Gold? I 've been using it since it was one of the foods the last thread recommended and my two dorks love it. But I went into petsmart and it was pretty heavily discounted and when I asked what was up they said they were getting rid of their dog food line up.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2023 19:06
|
|
