What food can I feed my dog?

Question

Ever since the stupid dog "food" makers were intentionally using poisonous chemicals and rat poisoning in their products, I have stopped feeding my 8lb. Yorkie/Chihuahua mix dog food, and have been feeding him hamburger, rice, carrots/green beans, or chicken, rice, carrots/green beans! But, I am concerned if he is getting the proper nutrition that he needs!! I do not ever want to feed him dog "food" ever again, I just do not trust it and probably never will! Who can? Does anyone have any recommendations or anything helpful to me? I would appreciate it very much! Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Try Nature's Variety.  It's a commercial food but it's loaded with nutrients.  I feed it to my two huskies and they eat half of the amount if they were eating some c**p food like dog chow or something because it doesn't have fillers.  They also can run about two miles further with ease.  I was recommended this food by my groomer who is a canine enthusiast.  It's great for their skin (most dry dog food brands contain products that dogs are actually allergic to and irritate their skin) and it also improves their coat.  Also, if you purchase the 30lb bag you get a free 5 lb bag with it.  I think it's a sweet deal.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Sure, you can carry on feeding him that, if you want him to die.

Feed him a good quality dog food like James Wellbeloved, Wainwrights, Hills or Pro Plan.

Answer 3

You should look into feeding your dog a raw diet, there is a lot of info on feeding raw, basically it includes feeding your dog raw meat. It is healthier and safer, but you need to be educated on feeding this way and chances are no vet will help you with it because they are generally 'funded' in part by some very deep pocketed pet food companies.

http://www.rawlearning.com/

Answer 4

There still are some really good foods out there.  Do lots of research of the ingredients, you will learn what the foods should have in it and what it shouldn't have, then you can decide for yourself.  I use Wellness Core, Wellness Senior for my older dogs.  Other ones I use are Innova and EVO.

Answer 5

I don't blame you for feeling this way - I did too after all the recalls.

However, that said, the diet your feeding isn't correctly balanced for your dog.

I highly recommend visiting the Innova web site below. They make ALL their own food - none of it is outsourced. Ingredients are great, no by-products or harmful chemicals. They also make some grain-free foods (EVO - which I now feed to my dog)

Another alternative is feeding Orijen or Acana from Champion Pet Foods (website below). They are a smallish family-owned operation outside of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I trust them as well.

Good luck with your search - and its great that you are putting so much thought into the health of your dog! :)

Answer 6

chocolate

Answer 7

hope this helps ;D

http://www.pier55.com/Pets-Animals/Healt...

Answer 8

You could try Canide it is a high quality food for dogs, or you could try the raw diet otherwise known as the barf diet, google BARF diet for dogs and cats, or RAW diet for dogs and cats, there you can read about the diets.

Answer 9

Not all dog foods are potentially dangerous. You should try a high quality one, most of them use human grade ingredients and are safe.

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 of the high end foods can be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness and Solid Gold. 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. Anything with five or six stars is a great food.)

Answer 10

forget brand names....flip your dog food bag over and look for the ingredients. if your dog food has ANY corn listed at all it's NOT a good food. (corn, corn by-product, corn gluten, corn syrup, corn meal...etc.)

corn is a filler. it's a way for a dog food company to make CHEAP food. corn is very hard for dogs to digest, some dogs cannot digest it at all. it's known to cause allergies, allergic reactions, hair loss, skin problems, etc.

all the hype about the dog food recalls were due to the CORN in the dog foods being contaminated.

also look for any "by-product" meats. such as chicken by-product, beef by-product, or lamb by-product ETC. these are not good meats, they are the left over parts which can include hooves, hair, intestines (w/f***s), diseased and/or cancerous tissues etc.

good foods that i can think of off the top of my head are:

Innova, Canidae, Solid Gold, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul, and Blue Buffalo.

they are a bit more pricey...but that's because the ingredients aren't c**p. c**p dog foods like Purina, Pedigree, Pro Plan, Iams or even Science Diet, they all have CORN in their foods. Not to mention the Iams company does ANIMAL testing!! In fact those foods list a grain as their FIRST ingredent or by-products. *uck!*

Vets recommend these foods because these food companies (Purina, Puppy Chow, Pedigree, Science Diet etc.) supply their clinics w/medication, free food, supplies, and equipment. Vets only study pet nutrition for 2 weeks in vet school, and the classes are taught by people from those nasty dog food companies like Hills Brand- Science Diet, Purina, Eukanuba, Iams etc. so OF COURSE they are going to recommend the nasty foods, they've been taught to. they don't know any better. i was lucky, my vet educated himself on dog food and never recommends those foods.

just flip the bag over and read the ingredients. forget the pretty packaging or the "claims" of scientific testing etc. it's all hooey. you can find most good foods at larger pet supply places. or online.

Innova-

http://www.naturapet.com/brands/innova.a...

Canidae-

http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_sta...

Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul-

http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssou...

Solid Gold-

http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/

Blue Buffalo-

http://www.bluebuff.com/

i personally feed Solid Gold Hund-n-Flocken Lamb.

my 8 yr old catahoula looks like a 4 yr old dog! that came straight from my vet.

Answer 11

i feed my dogs pedigree. But i hear there are many more good foods for dogs. like innova and solid gold ect. make sure your dog dosen't get in to chocolate, grapes and some other human foods, they can be harmful. My aunts dog got ahold of some chocolate and they almost lost her. she barfed up blood!!!!! i'm happy i wasn't there!!

Answer 12

There are many forums found online that advocate raw feeding and offer a variety of suggested diets. You should take a moment and check them out and I am certain you will find a combination of foods that works best for you and your dog.

Answer 13

Look at companies that use natural, human grade ingredients. Anything you can buy in a grocery store is crud. So are most foods at big-box petstores.

Look for foods at smaller petstores, feed stores, and pet boutiques. They usually carry the higher-quality foods.

Here are some examples of GOOD dog foods:

* Artemis Fresh Mix

* Blue Buffalo

* California Natural

* Canidae

* Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul

* Eagle Pack Holistic Selects

* EVO

* Fromm Four Star

* Innova

* Merrick

* Nature's Variety

* Orijen

* Solid Gold

* Taste of the Wild

* Wellness

* ZiwiPeak

.