Dog Food

[seanboy1]

I've been buying Old Roy (WalMart Brand) dog food for my dog, how much of a difference is there between the cheaper stuff like that and some of the more expensive brands? I know stuff like Science Diet is really good stuff, but it's so expensive.

SeanBoy

[Dawn]

There is a huge, huge difference. Too many to list here. Old roy contains horse meat and by-products. There are a lot of fillers (such as ground corn) in it. Therefore, your dog has to eat much more to get the same nutrition. There're so many differences. Let's see, it also (last time I checked) has a carcinogenic preservative in it.

[seanboy1]

what's a good kind of food between the Old Roy and Science Diet? I can't afford to buy the really expensive stuff.

[Dawn]

I don't like Science diet. My brand of choice is Nutro, preferably Nutro natural choice, but Nutro max is good as well. It is more expensive, but your dog will eat substantially less. When we switched our dog to it from a midbrand food, he started eating 1/3 as much. Actually made it cheaper.

[RWDVM]

Dear seanboy:

I am a vet and perhaps I can help. While Science Diet is one of my top choices for dog feed, I understand that it is more expensive. On the other hand, Dawn is correct about everything she said about Old Roy. It is a lousy food to say the least. I will typically advise my clients that cannot afford Eukanuba, Science Diet, or other top dog food brands, to feed their dogs Purina One. Of the "super market brands", this one is in my estimation is the best. Best of luck to you. If you are interested, please visit my veterinary advice and health management website at the web address listed below for info about me, my website, and my writing.

Sincerely,

Roger L. Welton
Veterinarian, book author, webmaster http://www.askdvm.com

[lindsi]

I feed my dog kibbles and bits homestyle. Is that bad for them? Or is it an ok food to feed?

[bearsmom]

Our local dog shelter uses Kirkland (from Costco), so I'm guessing it's pretty good. I've used Nutro and Iams lately. There are coupons for Iams in our paper all the time, so that helps a lot.

Good luck!

[Dawn]

Kibbles and bits is what I would consider a 4 on a scale from 1-10 (1 being lowest and 10 being highest.) Old Roy would be a 1, who knows, it might be a negative 1, lol. Basically, it's the least nutritious food out there. Look on the ingredient list for Kibbles and Bits and let us know what the first 5 ingredients are.

[goombaya]

seanboy,

Since you currently buy food at Walmart, you might check out the food they sell called Maximum Nutrition, I believe it's identical to Purina One, Sams sells a line called Excel.

Petsmart sells Authority.
At the supermarket there is also Iams.
Just a couple of suggestions.

I have never understood why Vets promote Science Diet so heavily. I mean its better than Ol Roy, but does it compare to Canidae, Wellness, Solid Gold, Innova, Eagle Pack (too many others to mention)? Cost is about the same - quality of ingredients isnt even close.

[kdtod]

i seem to be on the anti-Iams train these days. do some research about Iams and Eukanuba before you choose to feed your dog with it......alot of animal cruelty issues surrounding this product. may be good nutritionally but the stigma attached to their testing procedures are terrible.