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I always keep in mind something our trainer told us in our dog training class, read the ingredients label. Make sure the first listed ingredient it protein and not grain. This tends to help the dog like the food a little more, plus it's better for the dog. Right now my picky eater is on Purina One Lamb and Rice formula, she likes it pretty well. It took months to find a food she likes but finally this one stuck.
I use Orijen food for Charlie, it is super high quality food, and it is expensive, but you actually will need to feed less of it to maintain your dogs weight. They have a red meat formula, a fish formula and then a few "lifestyle" formulas (puppy, adult, senior). I haven't met a dog yet who doesn't devour the fish formula (it is a tad stinky compared to other dog food)
This is a great site to get information/ratings for dog foods (and they are independently run)
My baby gets nothing besides her Nutro. Nutro is a really good brand and the sensitive stomach kind is a good choice and the Chicken Meal, Rice & Oatmeal Formula is good for picky eaters too.
California Natural is great. Our neighbor uses it and Catch loves to eat it when he can... but he has a very sensitive tummy so we've found that Eagle Pack Duck is the one formulation he can tolerate.
We supplement with Darwin's Brand natural Zoologic raw food. He is a very skinny dog and we're constantly in a battle to get him to gain weight. The raw food is a huge enticement!
I second thecolorteale's choice. Nutro is really good for them, and they LOVE it!! It can get a little pricey though. Altough it depends on what you're feeding. We have 2 Pits, and they go through a 40lb in about 2 weeks. Lately though, I've been getting them Eukanuba. They like it also BUT, it does seem to make them a bit gassy. YUCK!! Does NOT make for a fun ride up to my parents' house.
Petsmart has the best prices for Nutro, and they have a sale every couple weeks.
My crackhead gets the High Energy formula of Nutro so she can make a 40 lb bag last since it's so high in protein.
Oh man. We have been trying different dog foods for the past YEAR trying to find one that our pit isn't allergic to. Give me a price range and I'll give you some recommendations. ;-)
My (holistic yet practically minded vet) recommended these brands out of the ones that are ok for poor Bones:
AvoDerm (probably what we're going go with)
Pinnacle - Haven't tried
Canidae - this one didn't work well for us but I've pretty much just heard good things about it
California Natural - One of the best foods out there but is a little $$
EVO - Haven't tried
Natural Balance - Currently on this, no complaints other than make sure you transition them gradually
Other ones that I've tried and like for our other non-allergic dog:
Diamond Naturals
Health and Wellness (made by California Natural but not as expensive) - My favorite but they don't carry it around here
General recommendations - scratch anything with corn. You need a more complex digestive system to get much out of it so you're pretty much just going to be picking it up in a day or two. The first 5 ingredients constitute the majority of what the food is made of so make sure they're good ones.
Good luck finding something that works! It can be quite the trial.
Probably not the popular answer but just plain old Pedigree dry. My family has been showing Boxers and Puli(c) for years and it has been great for their coat, super shiny. I no longer show but have 2 Boxers and continue to use Pedigree. They seem to have very few health problems (knock on wood). They are high energy pups so currently no weight issues.
try to stay away from any by-products if you can. That basically means its all the leftover meat from an animal that's not really fit for human consumption. You don't REALLY know what part of the animal is going into it. Mystery meat basically :p All the suggestions given so far are great ones! Brown rice as an ingredient is pretty good too. Just check your local pet store and read the labels! You maye be able to ask the pet store if they have samples your dog could try at home so you aren't stuck with a 40lb bag of food that your dog doesnt like lol
Our puppy had trouble gaining weight when we had her on Nutro. We switched to Royal Canin and she loved it and filled out. We switched our other dog over too.
Thanks for all the suggestions, ladies! Hopefully my fur baby will like one of the brands you suggested. And I'll be sure to look at the labels the next time we go to the pet store. I (and my dog) thank you!
i feed my dogs nutro max it is about 35 bucks a bag but well worth it. goodluck
My dog eats Blue. It has a picture of a buffalo on it, so I always want to call it Buffalo Blue. From what I understand, it's the most natural food that you can still buy at PetSmart (that is, without having to go to one of those specialty natural-dog stores). It's fairly pricey ($17 for a bag that lasts about 2.5 weeks) but it helps with her shedding, and she likes the flavor. The adult formula comes in two flavors, too. We switch back and forth between chicken and lamb every few months to keep her interested.
Ooooh My puppy was a picky eater for his whole life but he is 13 years old now and has Inflammatory Bowl Syndrome so he is a brand of medi-cal (the food they carry at the Vets) It is more expensive but my picky eater LOVES it and it is great for him!!!!
I highly recommend avoiding foods with grain/corn in them- it's a common dog allergy! Same goes for animal by-products- check the first 3 ingredients, those will tell you a lot. At the same time, I also oppose the raw (or BARF) diet, despite its growing popularity- it IS dangerous, and frequently does not benefit the animal, in fact, I've seen it make a lot of small dogs sick (there are a lot of ignorant assumptions in the "primal diet" theory). I feed Orijens, Acana (made by the same people that make Orijens), Instinct, and B.G. Before Grain. I also feed freeze-dried salmon for treats, and chews like dried deer hooves, chicken feet, lamb trachea, pig hearts, etc. Nothing creeps your guests out quite like Chihuahuas hauling dried chicken feet around the house :D
Read the ingredients on the bag -- meat should be the first ingredient, and not corn or some meat by product. I've tried every single high end and natural food out there. Our cats eat Wellness right now. I'm friends with the 3 local pet stores, and they all feed their pets Wellness having access to every brand.
Good luck!
Arineya- raw food diets are very likely to fall short of essential nutrients unless people are compulsive about it. However, I see nothing wrong with raw in conjunction with a normal dog food diet.
Mrs. DG- I don't have issues with raw treats on occasion, but raw food diets can cause problems. People argue that with me all the time, and I mean hey, I've seen Boxers and German Shephards do great on the diet, but I've also seen toy dogs, like Chis and Boston Terriers take a nose dive, health-wise, on a high quality raw diet. To each their own
I have to agree with those who said California Natural - our bulldog pup has the worst tummy ever and what we think is an allergy to chicken. He gets the Lamb & Rice receipe and its the only thing to keep his tummy calm. We tried Orijen and EVO but they were all too rich :-( California Natural only has 4 ingredients + vitamins & minerals.
If you little one has tummy issues, you should ask your vet about getting him a probiotic ... we give our guy FiotaFlora (or something like that) and found it really helps! We also give him pumpkin treats from the organic pet food store - pumpkin helps keep doggie tummies "regular", lol.
Science Diet is my top choice. They also make a prescription line, Prescription Diet that you can purchase through your DVM.
Royal Canin
IVD
Eukanuba
Iams
are other very good foods and highly digestible.
@caitlanc- I second Ms Mini's recommendation of Orijen. My border collie cross gets major stomach issues with every other food. I thought I was going to have to cook her rice and ground beef for the rest of her life, but then I tried Orijen. She's been eating it for 3 years now and hasn't had a single problem. She especially loves the fish flavour, but jeez does it smell!
I just switched my pup to Bil Jac. It's a little more expensive per bag, but it lasts so much longer.....like almost twice as long. And my I did the taste test thing where you put his regular food and then the Bil Jac and see which one they prefer. He always goes to Bil Jac. It's also supposed to allow for smaller poops. And since my dog is 100 lbs, that makes a big difference!
@schnoogles - Thanks for the tip but unfortunately it wouldn't work for us due to availability, a tight budget and his allergies. We live in Cheyenne and so while there are some natural dog foods available there really aren't that many. I've never even seen Orijen at my old feed store in Fort Collins and if anyone within 100 miles was going to have it, they would. Also, we just got back his blood work and both chicken and fish are on the list so that eliminated all the adult foods they have listed on their website. But thank you for the suggestion, it's always good to hear other people's experiences!
I feed my cavaliers Nature's Variety. It was the food my breeder recommended and fed her dogs. Never had any issues. They have quite a few varieties. But honestly, my dogs are not picky and will eat just about anything.
My dog is a very picky eater too, but she loves Nutro. When traveling with her, it's hard to get her to even eat that but by adding a little bit of water or even mixing in a little bit of can food will get her to start eating again.
My dog has a picky stomache, it took at least half a dozen food - I suggest the Science diet (whenever she gets an irritable stomache, the vet puts her on the prescription diet but science diet works well - we sometimes mix it with some rice and it helps her a ton)
we give her Blue Buffalo also and I HIGHLY recommend it to any dog owner with a fickle stomached pup.
Really, though despite recommendations, it's really a trial by error thing. Our trainer recommended Bil-jac to us but it turns out that did nothing for Ellie's stomach so we switched her. Good luck!!
i feed my babies eukanuba with no problems at all. in the past they've had nutro and science diet, but i've stuck with eukanuba weight loss formula for a while now and they love it. i have two miniature schnauzers, that breed is very prone to being overweight especially after you spay them. you'd think that i'd have no problem getting them to eat food, being the little porkers that they are, but they wouldn't even touch the nutro lite formula and weren't too crazy about the science diet lite, either. it made it difficult to keep them on a schedule when they weren't touching their food. they gobble up the eukanuba with no problem :-)
I would just add that if your dog is picky, stay away from IAMS. I used to work at a PetsMart (my first paying job) and IAMS is known to be very bland. Not that I know form personal experience or anything!
I totally second whoever recommended pumpkin for upset dog stomachs! Whenever my dog has some kind of upset-stomach problem, we put a scoop of plain pureed pumpkin on top of her food. Make sure it's not pumpkin pie filling!! She really likes the taste, and it always clears up whatever digestive issue seems to be bothering her.
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Hi hive!
My little guy has fickle taste buds so we need to change dog food brands on him every couple of months. Are there any brands that you recommend?