Some Answers about what to feed your pets?

Question

What are your opinions on pet food?

Do you feel that people who feed grocery store brand food because they can't afford high quality food are not doing their pets justice with diet?

What if its a high quality diet or having extra money in case of an emergency?

This topic interests me because there is often a lot of debate on how to properly feed animals. And sometimes the best way to form your own opinions is to learn from others and educate yourself through their views.

Also how do RAW and BARF feeders feel about canned and dry food in any type of circumstance?

No negative answers, I am just looking for opinions and ideas on what I can do in small amounts to help my animals diets. They are healthy and happy now, but my puppy will be graduating to adult food for her and was wondering what I can do once I start that transition.

Answer 1

I personally think dogs should be fed high quality dog food.  I dont give our dogs raw, but think its a great idea.  We do give her carrots, bananas, oranges, peppers, and yogurt.  Our family thinks its crazy but I know when she is older (she's a large breed) she will thank us and we are probably adding years to her by feeding her well.

Answer 2

I think the majority of people feed grocery store brands because they just don't know any better. They just assume that dog food is dog food. Now, that's not to say that there aren't people out there who couldn't afford it, because some can't, but I think most are just unaware of the poor quality of grocery brands. That's why I try not to be judgmental when it comes to what people feed their pets. Sometimes even veterinarians are recommending poor quality foods. People trust their vets completely, so they'll just buy what the vet says is OK.

I feed my dog Blue Buffalo Wilderness. I think that if you have the time and money to feed RAW, you should go for it, but if not there are plenty of good quality kibbles out there to choose from.

Answer 3

From personal experience I can say that I am mad at myself for having fed my dogs junk..  they did great, didn't notice a problem until NOW.. and now that they are senior dogs I've had to completely change their food, and have to pay more in vet bills.. because of deficiencies in their diet for all those years..  instead of just changing the senior dogs, I now have all of my dogs on a higher quality food..   ((I'd love to feed Raw, but I can't even afford to feed myself RAW and I'm a vegetarian.. I was a raw foodist for like 7 months and loved it.. i'd do it for my dogs if I could)

I don't generally think badly about people that feed higher quality grocery.. but I do sometimes wonder what people are thinking when they buy the lowest of the low.. (think 'ol roy)..

Oh, Edit:

in case someone was wondering, I changed them to Blue Buffalo Fish and Sweet Potato .. it was one of MANY things I tried.. and the first one that all of them would eat, and it has helped them all in some way..   (their coats look great on top of everything else)

Answer 4

I worked at a pet store for a while, and I have noticed one huge factor that affects all of people's choices regarding their animals... I don't know what to call it exactly but it's sort of whether or not people regard animals as equal, lower, or not remotely beings like us.  Some people get really upset when a snake eats a mouse, some people think it's cool, the same people who think it's cool might feel horrible witnessing the death of a snake.  Most people have various lines drawn between species that they rationalize one way or another.  I kill spiders, yet would never, ever kill a household mouse.  Some of the people I worked with fed various lizards to the turtles, I thought this was inhumane... but then again, how is it different from a feeder fish?  It's an interesting topic, but I think most people form these opinions early on and keep them their entire lives... it becomes subconscious.  

Anyway, how this relates to dog food, is there's a giant divide between "I want the best for my friend" and "It's a dog".  I spent a long time explaining to my dad all the interesting things I had learned, particularly that premium food is often cheaper (yes, i know!) because you have to feed less, only for him to say "yeah, you know what I think about the topic?  I think it's JUST A DOG!"  So, poor babies back at home will keep eating Ol'Roy (barf) while my rat.. yes a rat.. eats a combination of Science Diet Nature's Best, Newman's Own and Halo... because there is no such thing as a natural rat food.. I closely monitor the protein percentages (because that can do the most harm if it's off), and the little guy is glossier, more personable, and at a more healthy weight than any rat I've ever seen.  Don't think I'm one of those weird "rat people," he's just a rescue from the pet store I worked at, he came in starved and sick, and I meant to nurse him back to health only, but then ended up liking him.  Anyway.

I do think that the "it's just a dog" people will probably never change their minds.  They know what weird stuff is in those bags, but it doesn't matter because "it's a dog".   But I've heard a lot of good reasons from the "I want the best for my friend" people, one I especially liked was a lady who bought a brand (I honestly forget which one... might have been royal canin) because it was the only food that was truly safe for her autistic granddaughter to eat if she accidentally got into it.  Many others had switched because their dog had developed (or they discovered always had) an allergy to one of the 50-70 ingredients in Dog Chow type foods, and a diet with 15-ish ingredients was showing dramatic improvements in the dog.  The best argument, in my opinion, is that in nature a dog eats meat just about exclusively.. so why on earth should it eat something that is a majority of corn, wheat or rice?

So that's my experience with the question, and as for what I think personally and would recommend to others is this:

--You absolutely should feed your dog a diet that lists some kind of meat as the first ingredient.  

--It is completely true that you need to feed less premium food to your dog (just look at the feeding guidelines on the back!), so in most cases it ends up being the SAME price as the cheapo kind.  As long as it's the dry kibble kind.  Oh and did I mention that less food means less dog p**p?

--On that note, dry food has the most nutrition per weight... so wet food is a much more expensive way to go because the dog needs to eat more, which results in a lot more dog p**p.  There are no significant nutritional benefits to feeding wet food, and actually dry food is better for dogs' teeth.

--Tested formulas are what can increase your dog's lifespan incredibly.  When you're talking eating the same thing for 10+ years, the ratio of fats to protein to carbs,  vitamins, amino acids, etc., are going to make a DRAMATIC difference.  Unfortunately, some of the more natural dog diets, like making the food yourself (buying chicken, beef, etc.) or smaller companies that promote limited ingredient, human-grade products are too small and too new to have the expensive, long-term testing that larger companies can have.  Sure Fido's coat is shinier after a few months and he has more energy a year later, but his kidney might fail years from now due to a lack of some vitamin or another, or too much protein or what have you.  It also might not, but the point is we just can't know without long term testing.  And the only company I know of that has that extensive, longitudinal testing to back their "natural" formula is Science Diet Nature's Best.  It's the same formula as regular Science Diet, they've just dramatically improved the ingredient list.

Those are my tidbits.  I am a bit of a hypocrite because I am not feeding my rat a formulated, tested diet--but I can assure you if there was a "natural" one available, I would.  I choose "natural" over tested, but if you can get both, and can afford to get both, go for it.