What food should I change to?

Question

I am feeding my dogs IAMS but I found out they do ANIMAL TESTING for it so I am changing it. Whats a good food for my dogs?

I am feeding my cats Meow mix. but it doesnt have good ingredients. so which cat food should i feed my cats?

Answer 1

go with diamond dog food my dog absolutely LOVES the stuff, it is made in america,it has no byproducts and no corn ( corn can make a dog's skin itch) and for a 40 lb bag it's only 27 something and since the food is light weight it is like a HUGE bag but with cat food i'm not sure but make sure to get something made on this continent because there is less chance of it having a recall ( lead poison) and it is normally a better quality

Answer 2

When you are choosing pet food, it is important for you to learn how to read ingredient labels. They tell you a lot about what kind of meat is being used and whether the food has any cheap fillers which does not benefit your cat/kitten.

You want to feed a food which is high protein - meaning the meat source must come from wholesome muscle meat. Make sure to select only food that list chicken, lamb, rabbit, beef, turkey, venison, salmon, whitefish, herring or a combination or those and not one that says by-products (chicken by product, meat by product, fish by product)

Stay away from too much fillers like corn, corn gluten meal, wheat, wheat gluten, soy, oatbrans, etc. These are all cheap filler which help reduce the cost of manufacturing but brings little to no benefit to your kitten.

You would also want to stay away from preservatives like BHA/BHT and Ethoxyquin which are proven to be harmful to your kitten. Also you do not want other artifical preservatives such as propylene glycol and propolyneglycol .You need natural preservatives such as Vitamin C, Vitamin A or Rosemary.

Your cat need an essential amino acid called Taurine. Cats can only receive this from eating wholesome meat. Choose a food that contains ample amount of Omega 3 sources - Salmon Oil, Flaxseed Oil or Canola Oil.

When you are well educated in learning how to read pet food ingredients, shopping for the best food for your pets would be easier.

Answer 3

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/cat? 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 and cat 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, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Canidae/Felidae, Fromm, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety, Nature's Logic.

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 (dogs)/Sold Gold Indigo Moon (cats).

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 and cats 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.rawfedcats.org/

http://www.rawlearning.com/

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

More on dog and cat 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. It's for dogs, but most of the high quality brands also put out excellent cat foods. Anything with five or six stars is a great food.)

Answer 4

I have my dogs on beneful, the healthy weight one, its a green bag, they love it and it keeps them fit. good luck

Answer 5

Good job in realizing that those foods are not the best choices.

Nutram is one of the best foods i have seen yet. It is made in Canada using local ingredients and none of there formulas contain wheat. They do dog and cat food and have specific formulas for differnt life stages. eg. for dogs they have puppy, large breed puppy, sensitive stomach, ghigh level activity,  etc... and for cats they have weight control, urinary tract care for males and one for females, plus many more that the meet specific needs.  

Basically what you want to look for in both cat and dog food is that the VERY FIRST ingredient be a specified meat,(chicken, lamb etc...) if it is corn rice or any other kind of :"filler" go to the next bag. If the first ingredient is a meat BY-PRODUCT, you are not getting quality meat per se, it could be anything from feathers to toenails to hooves. The best first ingredient is some kind of meat (usually chicken) MEAL.  Meal means it is dehydrated and ingredients are listed by weight, so if it is first on the list you can bet there is lots of meat in it because dehydrated meat weighs much less than non-dehydrated meat.

I hope this helps. I switched all my cats and my dog over to better foods once i learned all this. Some of the brands i have found to meet this criteria are Nutro, Royal Canin, Performatrin, Nutrience, Wellness and of course nutram.

ps. if you are worried about the higher cost of these foods, it is worth noting that the cost of these foods are around the price of a cup of coffee per day. Also, without all the fillers, your cats/dog will eat less and therefore p**p less.  I have definitely noticed the difference.