What is the best dry dog food?

Question

My dog has been eating Purina One for the past 2 years but lately she has decided that she doesn't like it. I have changed from chicken to beef to lamb to see what she likes best but like I said lately she doesn't like any of it. I don't want to pay a ton for dog food but I also don't want to give her something cheap that isn't really nutritious. My friend is soon going to be moving in with me and we are hoping to feed our dogs the same thing because it will be cheaper. She feeds her dog Beneful. My dog didn't really like the adult version but liked the puppy food of it. Anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

INNOVA hands down, without a doubt.

Answer 2

Here is a nice website where you can check out reviews of dog food out there.

Answer 3

Well it depends on what is important to you. I prefer to feed no grain dog food to my dogs. I rotate between Evo, Merrick's Before Grain and Nature's Variety. These are excellent foods but others prefer to feed the BARF or raw diet, this is also an excellent diet. Perhaps you could try one of these foods and see if she likes it.

I would not recommend any food from a grocery store as they all tend to rely poor quality sources for their products.

Answer 4

Price - wise. I would go with Canidae. It may seem more expensive than you are used to but you don't have to feed as much to keep your dogs satisfied, it doesn't have dyes or chemical preservatives in it - and is a lot better for your dogs. Plus the Canidae ALS comes in a 44 lb bag for 50 dollars or less - so if you have multiple dogs/ different ages you don't have to get two different foods and it should last about 3 weeks or so depending on the size of your dogs - mine are large. I just recently switched from Nutro Natural Choice and couldn't be happier- and my dogs really seems to like it as the one tries to stick his head in the container I keep the food in to sneak a bite more (lol).  

Answer 5

Dont feed any of those instead feed something like wellness. Beneful is c**p and purina is just trash.

Answer 6

Sounds like your dog is doing a pretty good job of training you!  With dog food, you get pretty much what you pay for. Purina is perfectly fine for any dog.

Answer 7

There is no food that is the *best*, different individual dog may thrive on different foods.

What you want to find is the HIGH-QUALITY food that *your dog* does best on.

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

Or check this website; the 4, 5, or 6 star rated foods are all good foods. http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_...

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Read the ingredients before you buy.

Here is my "short list" of rules when I am looking at dog food ingredients:

1) When I chose a dog food, I chose one high meat content. I want to see preferably at least 2-3 out of the top 5 ingredients be meat or meat meal (first ingredient must be!). Meal is simply the meat with the moisture removed.

2) I want to see higher quality grains, such as barley, brown rice, and oatmeal, instead of seeing wheat and corn. Or an alternative starch/carbohydrate such as potatoes or sweet potatoes.

3) I don't want to see any byproducts.

4) I don't want to see a lot of fillers.

5) I don't want to see preservatives that are believed to be carcinogens (BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin).

6) I don't want to see artificial colorings such as the Red, Blue, and Yellow dyes.

7) I don't want to see added sugars (sugar, corn syrup).

8) I don't want to see mystery meats (meats identified only as "meat" or "poultry".)

Here is an article about byproducts:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?...

And an article on what ingredients to avoid:

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?...

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Higher quality food may seem more expensive at first, but it evens out. The higher quality the food, the less fillers eaten (and therefore the less p**p comes out the other end). Your dog eats more of a low-quality food to try to get the nutrition it needs, and most of the food just passes right on through. Also, higher-quality food will make your animals healthier, so you save money on vet bills in the long run.

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What *NOT* to buy:

Stay away from grocery stores brands. They are low-quality foods chalk full of fillers, preservatives, dyes, etc.. (Grocery store foods are those like Beneful, Old Roy, Alpo, Pedigree, Purina, etc.)

Beware "premium" foods. "Premium" does not always mean high quality food. Most of these foods have the same types of ingredients as grocery store foods, just a bit better quality of those not-so-good ingredients. (Premium foods are those like Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Bil-Jac, Royal Canin, etc..)

Another thing to be wary of: A lot of vets will recommend what they sell in their office. They get profit from the brands they keep on their shelves, that's why they push it. Truth is, vet schools don't focus a lot on nutrition. It's not saying that a vet is a bad vet because he recommends those foods, a lot of vets just are told "this is good food", so they pass the message along without proper nutrition knowledge. Also, some dog food brands (like Hills) support vet schools, so vets have heard of it from the time they start college, which makes them think it's good as well.

Hills company, the makers of Science Diet, are heavily involved in vet schools. "Hill's scientists author more than 50 research papers and textbook chapters each year and teach at leading schools of veterinary medicine" (Source of quoted section: http://www.hillsvet.com/zSkin_2/company_... )

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"Big box" petstores like Petco and Petsmart rarely have quality foods. (There are some higher quality foods at those locations, but most of the foods aren't.)

* Blue Buffalo

* Castor & Pollux

* Eagle Pack Holistic Selects

* Natural Balance

* Solid Gold

* Wellness

Also, grocery stores and Walmart aren't good places to buy food either.

Your best bets for getting quality dog food are:

- small, locally owned petstores

- holistic pet food stores

- dog boutiques

- farm supply stores

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When switching foods, remember to do it gradually by mixing the two foods together for a week or two.

1/4 food A, 3/4 food B

1/2 food A, 1/2 food B

3/4 food A, 1/4 food B

all food A

.

Answer 8

My german shepherd has been on purina alpo since he was a puppy, he is now 15 years old.The vets are stunned on how old and healthy he is. He has out lived the life span of a german shepherd. So please to the people who are saying its bad, actually find out about the food, before you faulsy answer anybodys q's.

Answer 9

I researched food for my dog. And most the food you would think is good is actually really bad for them. I found the cheapest food that was GOOD food, was the Maximum Nutrition from Wal-mart. You want at least the first 4-5 ingredient's to be meat, not corn and stuff as that is just fillers.

The BEST food overall tho, is homemade, because you know EXACTLY what is in it.

I hope this helps!

I cant remember the site's that I saw this on , sorry.

Also, Benful I read gave a few peoples dogs seizures. so I would deff. not feed that to my dog.

Answer 10

My dog has been eating Purina One for the past 16 years.  Sometimes she seems to lose interest and becomes finicky about eating.  

When this happens I mix in something else with it, such as half-can of wet dog food.  Lately I've been mixing in a small amount of food from the kitchen.  A scrambled egg mixed in for example, and she loves it.  Eggs are very healthy for dogs.  Also, if I'm cooking something with hamburger meat, I'll put aside about a tablespoon full and cook it separately and then mix it with her dry food.  Same with chicken, cook a small amount aside from your own portion, and never add any spices or other like you would for humans.  Just the raw meat, then mince it a bit and mix with a good dry food.

I know Purina One is not the absolute best dry food but it is affordable quality.  Mixing in bits of other protein and fat such as beef, chicken, eggs adds a new component to my dog's diet that keeps her eating well.  

She's 16 and still going strong.  When I walk her other people think she's still a puppy and can't believe she's 16 years old.

Answer 11

Ok FYI both of those foods are bad for your dogs... try Wellness or EVO if they wont eat it cook up some hamburger and mix it in with the food for a while and slowly stop mixing it in by dereasing the amount of hamburger

Answer 12

Mine also doesn't care a lot for One, but is fine with Beneful or just regular Dog Chow.  Personally, I have failed to be all that impressed with all those designer dog foods, which seem mostly to just cost more.  I have been feeding Purina foods to both my cats and dogs for over 40 years, and they have been uniformly healthy and lively, and long-lived.  In fact. my dachshund preferred the Cat Chow, and was remarkably trim and fit for his breed, way into old age.

What you can try is blending two varieties--like adding the Beneful she likes to the One, or something similar--though I'd stick with good quality dog food.  But that way, you can enhance the flavor with something she likes, while not breaking the bank.