How about my dog food?

Question

Is Purina Puppy Chow, a good brand of dog food? I havent herd it ever re-called, and it's rather cheap? Is this ok for my dog? Good things and bad things about purina?

Thanks

Answer 1

No, it's pretty low quality. Why not try Canidae All Life Stages? Very affordable, but still a high quality food.

Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to dump cheap leftovers in. Will it kill your dog? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.

Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.

Thankfully, there are some excellent dog foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Pedigree, Kibbles n' Bits, Beneful, Ol'Roy.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Canidae All Life Stages, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix.

Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less p**p!

A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diet's include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now! and Sold Gold Barking At The Moon, Taste of the Wild.

Some pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo. If you can't find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.

Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.

Another option for feeding dogs is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:

http://www.barfworld.com/

http://www.rawfed.com/

http://www.rawlearning.com/

http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawm...

More on dog food:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?...  (Learn how to determine the quality of your dog's food.)

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_... (Dog food reviews. Four stars is a decent food, five stars is a great food, and six stars is an excellent food.)

Answer 2

Purina is not the best but not the worst,something in between.You see,feeding a dog is a problem.I have some friends who have to feed their expensive dogs with cheap dog food just because their stomachs don't accept well-balanced super-premium foods and pets vomited or had allergy.I prefer expensive brands,but..you will never guess.My sister fed her french bulldog..well,just with everything,I couldn't agree to that,but..the dog lived many-many years and didn't have health problems.So if your dog eats that with pleasure and has no problems--just relax

Answer 3

It is not good quality food.  It has a lot of grains and fillers, not a lot of real nutrition.

Here are the first few ingredients:

Whole grain corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, brewers rice, soybean meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), barley, animal digest, calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, fish oil, salt.

No dog, puppy or adult, needs to be fed a food that has corn as a first and primary ingredient by weight. This means there is more corn in this dog food than any meat source.  The second ingredient is chicken by-product meal.  While this is a protein, it is not a high quality one.  The meat ingredients should say "chicken" or "chicken meal", not by-products.

add: My kids would have eaten ice cream and pop tarts all day if I let them--should I say "they're eating it so why change it?"  If you have a Petsmart near you, Blue Buffalo is not all that expensive and has much better ingredients.

one more add & I'm done, lol:  Just because it is the food the breeder gave you --does not mean it's good food.  Breeders have many dogs to feed, so some may look for the cheapest food to buy in bulk.  Purina also has a "breeders program", so they get bulk food for even cheaper prices.  If in turn the breeder recommends Purina, it means more business for the company.

Answer 4

Purina Puppy Chow is a very low quality food.  It is chock full of byproducts, fillers, preservatives, etc.  Basically, it's just c**p in a bag.  

Ingredients that should be avoided in dog food- http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?...

Ingredients in Purina Puppy Chow-

Whole grain corn, corn gluten meal, whole grain wheat, chicken by-product meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), soybean meal, brewers rice, meat and bone meal, barley, beef, sugar, animal digest, sorbitol, fish oil, phosphoric acid, salt, tricalcium phosphate, potassium chloride, sorbic acid (a preservative), dried carrots, dried peas, calcium propionate (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, added color (Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2), Vitamin E supplement, choline chloride, brewers dried yeast, zinc sulfate, zinc proteinate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, manganese proteinate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium carbonate, Vitamin B-12 supplement, DL-Methionine, calcium pantothenate, copper sulfate, copper proteinate, thiamine mononitrate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite.

H-4037

The first five ingredients are whole grain corn, corn gluten meal, whole grain wheat, chicken by-product meal, and animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E).  They are all byproducts and fillers and should never be the first five ingredients, or any ingredients for that matter.

The only good thing about Purina in my opinion is the bags that the dog food comes in.  They are very colorful and the dogs on them are so cute! lol

Here is a list of low quality dog foods.  These foods are often called "commercial" or "grocery store" brands.

Hill's Science Diet

Iams

Eukanuba

Purina

Bil Jac

Pedigree

Ol' Roy

Kibbles 'N' Bits

Beneful

Alpo

Authority

Royal Canin

Gravy Train

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And here's a list of high quality dog foods.  These foods are made from all natural ingredients with little to no bad ingredients.

Canidae All Life Stages

Merrick

Taste Of The Wild

Wellness

Wellness

California Natural

Solid Gold

Blue Buffalo

Orijen

Artemis

Nature's Variety

Chicken Soup For The Pet Lover's Soul

ZiwiPeak

Innova

Fromm

Eagle Pack Holistic

Best of luck!!! ♥

Answer 5

i just saw the vet yesterday and her answer to me was this if the dog is okay on this dog food then leave it alone.

Answer 6

i have a 10 month old dog and that is ALL he has eaten. i have had absolutely no problems with this dog food and plan on continuing to use it.  

Answer 7

It's not a fantastic food.  Miaugh gave you the ingredients, and reading that made me cringe.  I wouldn't want my dogs to eat it.

If you want to look at different foods and find stores in your area that carries them...check out http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com

And yes, a lot of human food has really become low quality.  That doesn't mean we have to eat it though.  I certainly don't feed myself fast food and other processed garbaged...so why would I feed other living things under my care junk that barely earns the title of "food."

Answer 8

Purina Puppy Chow is not a good food for your dog. It has fillers in it such as corn, by-products, soy, and other fillers. These fillers cause many allergies to dogs and it causes numerous trips to the vet, dull skin & coat, and even death. Try a natural or holistic food for you baby. I feed my puppy the Wellness brand and she is healthy, beautiful coat, plenty of energy, and strong teeth and bones. Here are a list of some natural and healthy brands of dog food that you may want to consider: Wellness, Canidae, Innova, Merrick, Chicken Soup For the Pet Lover's Soul, Solid Gold, Taste of the Wild, Nature's Variety, Spot's Stew, Eagle Holistic, and Orijen. Goto the websites and read upon these brands and maybe you will decide to switch your puppy's food. Good Luck!

Answer 9

Just compare the ingredients, I'll let you guess which is best for the carnivore you have in your household now.

First food: Evo

Turkey  

Chicken  

Turkey Meal    

Chicken Meal  

Potatoes  

Herring Meal    

Chicken Fat    

Natural Flavors    

Egg    

Apples    

Tomatoes    

Potassium Chloride    

Carrots    

Vitamins    

Garlic    

Cottage Cheese    

Minerals

Alfalfa Sprouts    

Ascorbic Acid    

Dried Chicory Root    

Direct-Fed Microbials

Vitamin E Supplement

Lecithin    

Rosemary Extract    

Second food: Purina

Whole grain corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, brewers rice, soybean meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), barley, animal digest, calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, fish oil, salt, potassium chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, zinc proteinate, DL-Methionine, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, brewers dried yeast, manganese proteinate, added color (Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2), niacin, Vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, copper proteinate, calcium pantothenate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin D-3 supplement, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite.

S-4001

Answer 10

it is an ok brand of food.  it gives the dog what it needs but not of great quality.  there are other foods that are much better.  if he is eating it and doesn't have any ear infections (sign of allergy-usually corn) then go with it.