As you might guess, I'm in the market for suggestions on a kibble I can use as a supplement to my home prepared food for the dogs. I would like a food produced by a company who provides specifics on where their food is made, what country they buy their ingredients from and doesn't try to hide behind the old "proprietary information" excuse. As far as I'm concerned, if they won't tell, I won't buy. I would like a food tested in feed trials, not tested by chemical analysis. The proof is in the dog, not in the test tube. Ideally, I'd like the first ingredient to be a specific type of meat (chicken, beef, etc.) and any subsequent meat ingredients to be actual meat (not meal). But I know I may not find this food.
Here's what I don't want: garbage ingredients such as unspecified "meat" or "meat meal", brewer's rice, corn gluten meal, by-products, animal digest, beet pulp, etc. I also don't want a food manufactured by Menu Foods. Menu lied while pets died during the 2007 recalls. My memory is long. Also it would be nice to find a food without mystery bits in it.
Again, I know I may not find this food (except possibly in Imagination Land.) But suggestions are welcome and appreciated - and I should say straight off that I'm feeding six dogs and not wealthy, which narrows the possibilities even further, I know.
And now for something completely different: My new neighbors have six Pitbulls (a couple are leftover pups from a recent litter apparently) and now a Chihuahua puppy. The highlight of my dog walk this afternoon was when one of the Pitbull pups came up to the fence for some lovin' and my dogs did not notice for like 2 minutes. I got in 120 undisturbed seconds of sweet Pitbull love. He was soooooooooooo cute. I want him! You see how I get into trouble? (Photo is just a sample cute Pitbull pup, not actual cute Pitbull pup.) Tomorrow we go to the no-kill shelter to drop off a bin of food so we might get even more Pitbull hugs and kisses - weeeeeeee! O yeah and the Chihuahua hopped right through the hog fencing to our yard and walked around sniffing my bitches like he owned the place with all my big dogs barking up a storm right in his face. Typical!
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7 comments:
You would probably like Fromm:
http://www.frommfamily.com/products-fs-d.php
Click the bags to read the ingredients.
I second that. Its made in Wisconsin, not far from where I used to live and when the melamine scare came up - I was actually able to call them on the phone, talk to a member of the Fromm family (yes, it really is a small family company) and get detailed information on ingredients, sources and more.
Fromm is the only kibble we buy now. Ingredients mostly from here in the midwest and a wide variety of formulas.
We use it to supplement raw and homemade food, especially when we travel. My dogs have all loved it.
There are all sorts of very solid kibbles out there!
If you are looking for grain-free, your options include Orijen, EVO, Taste of the Wild, and Wellness CORE. (Wellness has a great website, and they discuss where most of their ingredients come from on that. Their customer service is excellent if you need to ask any questions.)
If you aren't concerned about grains, you can try Wellness, Innova, or California Natural.
Most people I know who feed raw feed either Taste of the Wild or EVO when they are traveling (or a freeze-dried raw product, but that's pretty expensive).
Thank you for the suggestions.
Several of those foods are made by Natura who made the first brand I found the chaff in. After that, I was directed to some other sites where other people had found bits in Natura made foods. So I am somewhat put off all their products. I did buy a bag of Orijen once and had no problems with it. But it's not a good option for me to supplement my homemade food with Orijen due to the cost.
I just put Loki on Wellness for Large Breed dogs. He's not a year old yet, so they don't recommend their CORE line for dogs under a year due to nutritional differences. Their website is great, very informative, and they also put up a lot of great customer testimonials. If you ever have a dog that has any allergies, they make products that would be appropriate for the dog.
I'm a big fan of Nature's Variety.
Orijen and Orijen Senior depending on the dog. My two shiba inu's (and the cats too) have been on Orijen since the Menu Foods recall, and they've shown so much improvement in their coats and skin condition. They also really seem to enjoy it.
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