# Dog food



## kramsay (Mar 7, 2013)

Looking for advise on what you think is the best dog food. I am currently feeding Diamond Naturals Extreme Athlete, to my almost one year old GSD. But I am recently hearing negative things about the Diamond brand. 

We will be changing to raw as soon as we can get our meat rabbits producing good. But for now I want to feed our girl the best food, that we can afford


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## i8sumpi (Dec 11, 2014)

try blue buffalo. ive heard really good things about it and also sprinkle Dynivite or Dinobite i cant remember exactly what it is called. the Dynovite is a powder supplement that is supposed to work wonders


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## Little-Bits-N-Pieces (Apr 7, 2013)

I have been using Diamond since it came out, it is the best around in my opinion. I've tried Taste of the Wild, Blue Buffalo, etc all the other brands, and none of them preformed like Diamond. 
I have absolutely nothing but positive things to say about Diamond. I feed the puppy formula to all my pregnant/nursing females, and puppies up to 2 years old. I use no wet foods to start the puppies, I soak the puppy formula in hot goats milk and the growth and development is much better than using a wet food. 
After two years of age, they get put on the lamb and rice formula usually.

With the other brands, their coats look dull, and are less soft. They have less energy, don't keep the same condition, and just seem to be lacking something. And with brands like Purina, I will never use them again. Their feed does nothing but give my dogs rashes and skin sores.


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## Tapestry (Feb 5, 2015)

I live in the area that has been hit by every single Diamond recall and their response is always completely lame. Try NutriSource, Annamaet, Earthborn, or Victor.


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## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

Might want to take a look at this website: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ Very helpful.


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## Brink4 (Apr 29, 2013)

I used diamond naturals for awhile and our bulldog did great with it then all the sudden he started losing weight and looking sickly. We switched to taste of the wild and he is doing so much better...it is hard to find a good food for bulldogs because of the allergies they tend to get and they are a lazy breed. It took his stomach awhile to get use to Taste of the Wild but he is doing very well with this food.


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## farmchick897 (Jul 2, 2013)

I like Taste of the Wild but will feed 4Health as well.


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## LadySecret (Apr 20, 2013)

KW Farms said:


> Might want to take a look at this website: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ Very helpful.


I like dog food advisor. They have a lot of good info on the ingredients in dog foods. Hugely informative to have all those ingredients explained so you can make an
informed decision on what to feed our dogs.... But the people that post on there are dog food snobs. If you admit to feeding anything less than a 4 star food, they jump all over you and try to guilt you into changing dog food or going raw. I'd love to feed a 5 star dog food but I have 5 dogs. Two are LGDs and only one is a small breed. I go through a lot of dog food. I just can't afford to spend $50 to $65 per 30 lb bag of dog food that might last 4 days.... I like diamond and diamond naturals dog food/cat food. They are a good compromise. They don't have most of the junk that bigger brands like pedigree, purina, ect have while at the same time keeping the price down. Most of their formulas are rated as 2.5 to 3.5 stars. I've never had a dog or cat get sick from eating their brand of foods. They have had recalls in the past but recalls happen in human food too. Also, taste of the wild (great food), 4Health (love this food too), and kirklands dog food (never fed but heard positive things about) are made in the same plants as all of the diamond feeds. Just an fyi. So if your worried about feeding diamonds, I'd avoid them too.

Something my vet told me when I brought all this up one visit was to look at the fat content vs the protein content. Example: 32% protein and 20% fat will have much more animal protein than plant protein because you don't get a lot of fat from plant protein. So that's an easy way of telling how much actual meat is in a dog or cat food. 32% protein with 10% fat will have much less actual meat. Most of that protein is coming from a plant. Which isn't good for dogs and is even worse for cats.

The other thing he said was if your pet regular digs into a particular food but you open a new bag and your dog or cat won't touch it or they eat a little and them walk off, to pitch it. He said it wasn't worth the risk of forcing them to eat a feed that may having something wrong with it.

Good luck trying to decide what to feed. It can be as complex as trying to decide what to feed our goats!


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## sweetgoats (Oct 18, 2007)

My Vet has recommended the Grain Free from Rachael Ray. I have a little Chihuahua and she was having seizers bad, the vets don't want to do meds they said to go with the grain free and see if that helps. Knock on wood she has not had another one since.

I also have one that has ear infections all the time and since the food change she has not had one either.


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## kramsay (Mar 7, 2013)

KW Farms said:


> Might want to take a look at this website: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/ Very helpful.


I checked that site out a couple of months ago. Diamond Naturals is a 4 star food 

I just checked it again, and Diamond Naturals Extreme Athlete is a 5 star food


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## kramsay (Mar 7, 2013)

Thanks for all the replies. I think I will stick with diamond  But probably will be changing formulas because she seems to have lost interest in this one. Just worried about the protein /fat levels, she is currently on the highest one that diamond offers (that I know of).She is so high energy that she wasn't gaining weight on the puppy food, when we switched to Extreme Athlete she finally started putting "meat on her bones".

After reading Diamond Naturals Extreme Athlete is a 5 star food I'm not sure if I should switch or not.


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## top_goat (Sep 16, 2014)

I used to feed Costco's Lamb & Rice to my male GSD -- I'd tried just about everything from prescription brands thru the various commercial brands. They all made him sick! When I tried the Costco (Kirkland) brand -- he chowed it down, maintained a great weight and energy, lush shiny coat... it was a match. Every vet checkup the vet commented on how healthy he looked and asked what I was feeding. 

My experience is that, like humans, every dog is different. There's no "one size fits all" dog food. Sure, there are principles to guide us, but in the end it boils down to what can you obtain that gives you the best results in your animal. Good luck in your search!


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## Hannah21 (Jun 17, 2014)

Maybe some one said this already,I heard rabbits are good but,aren't good to eat all the time..something about rabbits don't have all the vitamins and can actually starve just eating rabbit all the time,unless that's just for humans? http://thewannabehomesteader.com/why-rabbit-meat-is-not-the-best-survival-food/


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## Hannah21 (Jun 17, 2014)

I encourage you to try a raw diet and if it doesn't work and plus,it's better for their teeth.


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## kramsay (Mar 7, 2013)

Hannah21 said:


> Maybe some one said this already,I heard rabbits are good but,aren't good to eat all the time..something about rabbits don't have all the vitamins and can actually starve just eating rabbit all the time,unless that's just for humans? http://thewannabehomesteader.com/why-rabbit-meat-is-not-the-best-survival-food/


Rabbits won't be her only food, just a staple in her diet as we will be able to raise them cheaply. She will have lots of other meats; duck, chicken, deer, beef, and pork. Farm eggs and goats milk too.

We are still in the planning stages of raw feeding. Hopefully we will be fully feeding her raw food, produced on our farm with in the year. But for now she will have to eat kibble


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## Tapestry (Feb 5, 2015)

The issue with rabbit is that they have a very low body fat percentage and dogs require more fat than they typically have, but if rabbit is only a part of the diet, it isn't an issue.


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## Brink4 (Apr 29, 2013)

Feed what works for you. No one food is for everyone. If Diamond works for you then I would continue. I would still be feeding it if our high maintenance dog didn't start looking unthrifty with it...all of our other dogs did fine with it. Best of luck


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

Yeah......gonna switch dog foods now... I won't say what I've been buying :underchair: Starts with a "P" :shock:


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## kramsay (Mar 7, 2013)

NyGoatMom said:


> Yeah......gonna switch dog foods now... I won't say what I've been buying :underchair: Starts with a "P" :shock:


I was feeding Tractor Supply (Retriever) brand to our JRT before we got Sadie, our German Shepherd. After we got her, I started researching brands and she went on Diamond less than a week after we got her.

I was amazed to learn what kind of crap they put in some dog foods


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

Yeah, I feel foolish actually...I do TONS of research on goat feed, but just kinda figured that such a popular brand must be alright :/
.......sigh........guess the cat food is just as bad too........


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## Tapestry (Feb 5, 2015)

Worse, since cats really are strict carnivores.


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

I always wondered why they put all that stuff in cat food...shouldn't it be mostly meat?


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## Tapestry (Feb 5, 2015)

Yes, it should be mostly meat, but meat is expensive, and they want to make it mostly cheap, never mind that over time it will kill the cat. The 2 most common causes of death in cats are kidney failure and diabetes. Both are from eating kibble.


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## Jessaba (May 13, 2010)

We feed our schipperke diamond naturals and everyone comments on how shiny and beautiful her coat is and she is doing well on it! We love it! She is very active and wasn't getting everything she needed from the food she was fed before we switched.


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## erinbelle (Apr 4, 2014)

If you haven't switched to raw yet (which is amazing!), I feed Orijen. It is made in Canada and by far the best dog food I've seen. The ingredients are incredible, and though it is high priced, your dog will eat less on it. My 16lb eats 3/4 cups. On Pedigree she ate 2 cups. If that shows you anything. She is also on half raw, which is going really well. 

Good luck!


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