Which Premium Dog Food Is The Best?
I have been in the process of switching my dog’s food. As a puppy, she had started out on Iams wet and dry. After some research, I now know that brands like Iams and Purina are low end, so I’m not touching the popular grocery store brands. She is 1 year old and now is on a mix of Merrick (canned) and Halo’s Spot Stew (dry), which she seems to like. Still, I’d like to know if I can do better? Right now, I don’t have the resources or time to prepare homemade or raw food (though I may switch once I graduate. I have been researching a number of high quality dog foods, and I do hope to continue feeding her a mix of dry and wet. Can anyone help me narrow my selection down? Here are the top brands that keep popping up in my research.
Orijen (Most say this the best food, but I only know of one place where I live that sells it. Commuting to get it is difficult, so I’m a little on the fence about committing fully to it right now).
Blue Buffalo: Wilderness Blend (I’d also like to hear how this compares to the other Blue Buffalo food lines)
Taste of the Wild
Solid Gold
Evo
Innova (Again how does Innova compare to its EVO brand)
Halo’s Spot Stew
Wellness
Old Mother Hubbard Creations
California Natural
Dick Van Pattern’s Natural Balance
Earthborn Holistic: Primitive Natural
Timber Wolf Organics
It’s all so confusing. And there always seems to be mixed reviews concerning everything. So which brand out of this list is the most suitable? The healthiest? Any problems that have frequently come up with some brands that should be considered? I’d really like some thorough opinions regarding any and/or all of these brands. My dog is a 15 month, 45-48 lb lab-mix, but she’s short, about two feet at the shoulders. She’s moderately active, (long walks and on weekends, trips to the dog run). But she also has long periods of inactivity, mostly when I’m at school and in the evening. She’s not a particularly picky eater nor does she have any severe allergies that I know of. I hope that helps.
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I would stay away from Halo’s Spot Stew for a couple reasons. One, they claim to have “no animal or plant meals”. The dumb thing about this claim is that stuff like “chicken meal” means the ACTUAL amount of chicken in a food. The definition of chicken meal is as follows: Chicken meal is mainly used in pet foods, its protein content is much higher than regular chicken because most of the water has been removed. In other words, it’s a negative that Halo’s doesn’t use any animal meals.
Halo’s Ingredients List: Chicken, Eggs, Pea Protein, Oats, Vegetable Broth, Pearled Barley, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Whole Peas, Chicken Liver, Salmon, Flax Seed, Salmon Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Pea Fiber, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Blueberries, Green Beans, Carrots, Cranberries, Zucchini, Alfalfa, etc.
Now these are not bad ingredients but they are far from great. Chicken is listed as the first product but once that you remove all the water weight, it comes about 20% of what is claimed on the packaging meaning that Eggs and Pea Protein are the main ingredients. Not the greatest. Also, there are some grains likes oats and pearled barley that shouldn’t be in a top quality food.
Personally, I like Taste of the Wild because the ingredients are excellent.
Taste of the Wild Ingredients: Bison, Venison, Lamb Meal, Chicken Meal, Egg Product, Sweet Potatoes, Peas, Potatoes, Canola Oil, Roasted Bison, Roasted Venison, Natural Flavor, Tomato Pomace, Ocean Fish Meal, Tomatoes, Blueberries, Raspberries, etc.
Also, Taste of the Wild is a 6-Star rated premium dog food according to http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com. And lastly, Taste of the Wild is the most affordable of the truly great foods at $40 for a 30 pound bag.
The worst part about Halo is how INCREDIBLY OVERPRICED it is. $28 for a 10 pound bag! Are you kidding me? That food isn’t half as good as Taste of the Wild, Orijen, Evo or any other 6-Star food yet it’s more expensive then all of them. In fact, http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com gave Halo 2-Stars.
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And to Robert, no I’m not off base. There’s a reason why every company lists “Chicken” or “Lamb” or even in the case of Taste of the Wild, “Bison” or “Venison” first. They are claiming that those are the main ingredients when in fact, they are minor ingredients after the water content is removed. Do you really think Taste of the Wild could charge $40 per 30 pound bag if Bison or Venison were the main ingredients? No, it would cost a lot more. the Chicken Meal and Lamb Meal are the main ingredients and that is why they are able to charge a reasonable price.
Also Robert, that’s why you buy grain free. Then you don’t have to worry about how much grain is in the food. Grains are unnecessary anyway. Potatoes by the way are not grains, wheat is a grain and rice is a grain.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog-food-…
All the brands are given and rated hear
Acana is another great food along with Orijen but I feed Taste of the wild High prairie and feed raw twice a week. my dogs look fantastic!
I also feed my dog Halo’s.There are several things I like about Halo’s.1)Halo’s uses no rendered meat 2)Price is good(in my state it’s one of the cheaper brands and still not a store brand)3)food and taste is great for my maltese/toy poodle whose also one of the most finicky eaters when it comes to dog food-she eats it on a daily basis..skipping a day maybe once a week 4)low in grains not like Solid Gold Just a wee bit 5)L.Acid in it
Merricks can food is great.My maltese/toy poodle loves it..I don’t use can food too much in her diet but she loves it for whever she’s ill.
I do supplement my dog’s dry food with other brands almost every meal ie Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural,Halo’s,Stella & Chewy freeze dried raw,and looking at a few other brands as well.We tried Wellness & Solid Gold but both brands didn’t agree with her medically.Natural Balance is another good one.My dog won’t even touch dry or can food.
As far as Halo’s goes,my dog does wonderfully on it even medically.She’s been on it for almost 4 months & has never been healthier.She does really well on low grains than grain free or grain heavy dry foods.
Well all my dogs are on that “Purina garbage”, and they keep right on winning in the show ring and on the field trial grounds. So maybe it isn’t as bad as you think.
You might notice that most of those claiming that this or that dog food is so great don’t have any of these; http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp43/… to back up what they claim.
Halo is a very good food. There are several that are just as good that cost less but Halo is a very good food. Hades is way off base. His reasoning is full of errors. He has been reading too much dogfoodanalysis which uses the same falacious reasoning. There is no way to know how much meat is in a food unless the manufacturer tells you. You cannot know from the ingredient list. A food that lists four meat sources does not necessarily contain more meat than one that lists one. The only conclusion you can draw is that there is more of the first ingredient by weight than there is in the second and more of the second by weight than there is of the third etc. That one meat ingredient could be as much as 50% of the food (any more would jam the extruder). The four meats could be: 15% 10% 8% and 5% for a total of 38% but there is no way to know. I think Hades is basing his reasoning on the fact that between a pound of chicken and a pound of chicken meal, there is more protein in the meal when the water is taken out of the chicken; nevertheless you still cannot determine how much is in the food from the ingredient list. By the same token, you cannot tell how much grain is in a food by the number of grains. There could be a larger percentage of grain in a food that has one or two than one that has 4 or 5. This is another case of faulty reasoning by the dogfoodanalysis people. They also don’t know how to count. They call one food “grain heavy” that has four grains and don’t say anything about the six grains in another that they rank higher. They berate tomato pomace in some of their foods and don’t even mention it in some that they rank higher. They say that grains are not a natural part of a dog’s diet but don’t mention potatoes. Have you ever seen a dog dig potatoes?
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_…
I’d check out the ratings there.
I currently feed my dogs regular Blue Buffalo and I’ve noticed a difference in their fur, skin and general health already but I’m going to to switch them to Taste of the Wild soon. In my opinion it’s the best food for the price. Going by that websites ratings, it costs about the same as Blue Buffalo, but is a bit better for them!
From what I’ve heard I think Orijen is one of the best brands out there. Innova is up there as well. That website has detailed info about each brand and type of dog food out there.
There are tons of opinions on this…feed your dog whatever she does good on
Personally, I feed Wellness. Dry only, i dont see a need to add wet food to a dog’s diet.
It suits my dog
Personally, I feed Wellness. The dogs love it and they are very healthy. They don’t NEAR poop as much as they did when they were on crap food. Their bodies actually use more of the ingredients.
As for the person with all those ribbons, that’s great, but if you had the choice of eating McDonald’s every day or a balanced diet of healthy food, what would you chose? Think about that before you buy another bag of the “crap food” as you called it, because you honestly hit the nail on the head. Ribbons don’t mean a thing to me – my pets health DOES though, and that’s why I feed Wellness. She’s not another ribbon; she’s not another stud or just another breeding factory with a pedigree a mile long. She’s a family member. I feed my children (human and fur) the best food that I can.
I would recommend Blue Buffalo. It is made with real meat,It has fruits and vegetables,nutrients,antioxidants,no by products,no artificial colors or preservatives, and no corn,soy or wheat which alot of dogs are allergic too. On their website you can print off coupons so it’s probably cheaper than the others. And it is proved to be healthier than the others you may use. The blue wilderness formula is for very active dogs. It has more protein and is low-carb. So if your dog is active I would get that kind.
You will never get the same answer from most people…Most are really comparable, just because it costs more money does not mean that it is any better then the next (when it comes to premium foods)
I have been looking recently at Halo… Looks to be one of the most supreme ones on the market, and Ellen Degenerous would not co-own something that was bad. She is an animal nut just like most of us on this section.
I currently feed Wellness Wet & Dry.
I would suggest Wellness. They have dry and canned if you like feeding a mixture, and they also offer a grain-free variety which would be alot healthier for your dog. That is what my parents fed before everyone got switched to RAW. My dog was on Orijen and did really well on it before I switched him to the RAW diet.