Kibble Thread - What Do You Feed, What Result/s?

[poochmad]

Ever since the Orijen removal, I have been trying to decide what to feed Henschke (and soon his buddy). I thought this thread might be useful to assist people like me trying to determine what to feed their dog now that Orijen has been removed.

I'll start.

I've fed the following:

Advance Puppy - results: itchy coat & consitently sloppy poos. Dog was not interested in eating it. Persevered for 1 month.

Orijen puppy - result: some hard stools and some soft (first stool hard, second bit soft) Smelly poos and farts! 50/50 mix of soft and hard stools. Itching stopped. Dog eats it. Persevered for 3 months. (Was going to change kibble regardless.)

Your turn.

Edited December 2, 2008 by poochmad

[JulesP]

Pro Plan - Usually the one for Salmon one sensitve tums but have fed the whole range. No problems at all. Super glossy coats (especially on the Salmon). Dogs love it. Great for weight, too good in fact.

Eagle Pack - holistic range. No change in poos. Slightly less glossy coat.

Great Barko - Slightly bigger poos. Slight change in coat condition. Too hard for old dog to chew. Dogs loved it. For the cost saving would still use even though I think it is not as good as the premium foods.

Have used Advance as well on and off. No really comments for or against as I haven't used it over a long enough time. ie used a 3kg bag inbetween other stuff.

My dogs have done best on the Pro Plan range. My favs have been the Sensitive, Performance and the new Natural Selections.

[Got Spots]

Royal Canin (Medium breed) - Lucy won't eat it, even when mixed with mince, she licks the mince off

Supercoat - hates this even more

Euk - wasn't fussed but not enthusiasic about it, she got fat

Orijen - scoffed the lot and looked for more, no smellies, and good poopes

Can't decide what now - grrrrrrrrrr

[The Spotted Devil]

I'll precede this by saying that I am restricted by the Dalmatian's protein requirements (i.e. chicken, relatively low protein, no organ meat) and, fortunately, I have a dog that eats anything!

Advance Large Breed Puppy (plus a chicken wing for supper) - Zig looked lovely on this, although his faeces were soft at times.

Eagle Pack Light - mainly for the lower protein content, but it was too low in protein/fat and I had great trouble keeping the weight on.

Eagle Pack Holistic (plus a chicken frame every 2nd night) - Ziggy's coat looks great but his faeces are soft the next day. When he has a chicken frame instead, his faeces firm up.

Now thinking of trying Dick Van Patten's organic range - it ticks all the boxes for ingredients and I'm hoping it will be easier to keep weight on feeding this. If it wasn't for the Dally protein requirements I'd probably feed a 'working dog' formula as Zig looses a kilo just getting up in the morning

[Garden Girl]

I feed pro plan - various flavours - puppy line - although once I accidentally bought the small dog one and another time the adult one - they were fine. I currently feed half adult and half puppy. Both love it - healthy, good coats and small firm poo all the time.

[J...]

Tried quite a few and have come to the conclusion that my dog doesn't do well on dry food.

I have in the past used Innova Evo as my backup if I don't have her raw defrosted or on nights where I'm home late. Was fine with the first bag but am not real happy with this one (probably 6 to 8 months later). I can literally see and hear her temperature/respiration increase like I've just taken her for a big run.

I gave her a small amount last night for her birthday dinner and she woke me at 4.15 am absolutely desperate to go to the toilet with a bellyache, which she's never done before. I think the rest will be going in the bin.

[KitKat]

Nutro - Lovely coats, small poos, bright eyes...just had to feed a riduclous amount to keep weight on the dogs and that was the performance version. Cats wouldn't touch the stuff. However i still would say is't a great food...but i don't think you can get it in Aus anymore anyway...lol.

Supercoat - crap, crap, crap...there was crap everywhere, huge gross poos, dry coat etc

Royal Canin - Have used the GSD, GSD Junior, Maxi, Maxi Junior, 4400 - excellent foods, never an issue with any and dogs looked great on it, small poos etc - just had a few dips financial wise and just haven't gone back to it.

Proplan - Same as above.

Hills - only had problems with the light version which went straight through the dogs.

Barf by the book - great except for having to feed stupidly huge amounts of the food in an an effort to keep weight on the dogs.

Euk - not an issue at all, but for the price i'd chose proplan/RC over it.

Iams - same as above.

Advance - Dogs just didn't really like it.

Uncle Albers - great food, dogs love it, look great on it - in fact look as good as when on RC/Proplan etc, feed less of it then even the RC/PP/Euk etc.

(used to get free kibble which should explain the variety, lol - however i also like to try different foods on the dogs as if i'm selling it (even if only casually) then i want to have tried it...lol)

[Gayle.]

Eagle Pack Holistic.

Dogs looked good, outflow was minimal and well formed, somewhat expensive but the dogs liked it.

Nutrience.

Dogs loved it, condition didn't change, outflow was same as above.

Pro Plan.

Dogs were so-so about it but ate it. Dusty put on weight, no change in outflow.

Pro Plan Selects.

Dogs would walk over hot coals for it. Outflow is minimal. Dusty still gets fat but now I feed her less. They look fabulous. Hard to come by though as not many places stock it.

I have fed the following as training treats only: Good-o's, Optimum, Beneful. Optimum is the only one of those I would consider as a larger part of their diet, but they like the variety of the others and don't get enugh to make a difference.

My number one choice would be Pro Plan Selects, followed by Eagle Pack Holistic.

[poocow]

Hills Science Diet (puppy) - Darcy hated it - grudgingly ate it.

Eukanuba - Darcy hated it - real effort to make him eat

Eagle Pack Holistic Chicken - wasn't that fussed, still vomitted a lot (seperate issue)

Eagle Pack Duck & Oatmeal - better for his stomach, still wasn't that fussed with it.

Orijen - gobbled it down like it was the best thing on this planet. Got him up to his highest weight (11kg).

** Only Darcy used as an example as Toppy eats anything and looks good on anything**

- when I had fosters I fed them Supercoat as it was cheap and if Darcy ate some it didn't matter (he can't have a lot of things) - what I noticed was that the poos were HUGE!

[snr]

Must First say Mine are only 20 weeks old.

So Haven't had that much experience with trying different things yet.

Orijen: It took them 3 days to even try and taste it, When they did their poos were horrible green goo Yuk

Innova: Loved It Athough poo wasn't great Lovely Coat too

Optimum: Liked it Poos were nice and Firm although there was alot of it

Supercoat: I know this probably sounds Weird but out of the ones They have treid They love this one but not

only that they are doiing fantastic on it Great poos No Itching Shiny Coat.

But They are mainly Fed Raw meaty Bones so They don't get a whole lot of Kibble

[4 Paws]

Both GSD's came to me on a BARF diet.

Ist dog was always hard to keep weight on with BARF,ended up going onto a bag of Science Diet which I couldn't see any difference so went back to BARF.

2ND dog came along and we continued to feed BARF lathough 1st dog was always itchy for some reason.

Did try a few bags of Nutrience which was OK till we were put onto Nutro Lamb and Rice.Dog did rally well on it and dog no 1 stopped being itchy and her body smell dissapeared.

Once Nutro stopped in Aust we moved onto Orijen.Dogs did extremly well on it.

We are in the transistion to Artemis at the moment and all going well so far.

All kibble was fed with some bones of some kind,sardines,mince etc as well

[poochmad]

Well the information in this has been really good. Thank you for sharing.

So far at the top of my list to try is Pro Plan, Artemis and Eagle Pack Holistic.

[Anna H]

Ollie (7month GSP pup)

• Supercoat Puppy - Not very economical to feed and too much dry food IMO per day, massive amoutns of poo (probably fromt he sheer bulk/volume he needed to consume)
  
• Advance Large Breed Puppy - We've been pretty happy with this, poos could be a big firmer hence why we are about to try him on Royal Canin Maxi Junior as I've heard good thing about this food.
  

Chelsea (5 year GSP)

• Supercoat Adult/Adult Large Breed/Sensitive - All of these made for dinosaur sized poo, and she got quite a flaky dry coat
  
• Optimum - Not too bad, though still got skin flakies on it to some degree
  
• Woofbix / You'll Love Coles - Not too bad for the price, good when on a tight budget for a little while
  
• Advance Adult - Skin Flakies, Poos a bit soft
  
• Pro Plan Sensitive (with Salmon) - Brilliant! She has a lovely lovely coat/skin on this, small poos, only downside is she gains weight easily on this food! We've finally found a food that suits her.
  

ETA: Both dogs are fed dry food with meaty bones/eggs/yoghurt/wet cat food/sardines/leftovers etc as well

Edited December 2, 2008 by ChelseasMum

[oceanaussi]

This is a great idea!

When I got my pup, he was on Supercoat. Went fine until I changed it to Eagle Pack where he had huge runny poos and lots of them. Tried EP Holistic - no change. Actually it got that bad that I had to take him to the Vet and put him on a special prescribed diet.

Tried BARF and he liked it but huge runny poos again.

Afterwards I started Orijen and he did so well on that!

Tried Artemis and didn't really like it.

Tried Advance and it's ok, but poos are bigger and softer.

In the moment he's on All Vets Natural and I'm surprised how well he does on that!

My old girl tried a variety of food and did ok on most of them. She loved Orijen from the first to the last piece of kibble in the bag and that never happened before! her coat was shiny and no shedding for the first time in her life!

She refuses to eat Artemis after half a bag.

She's on All Vets Natural as well and is doing good but she's shedding again.

[schnauzer_luv]

Mazza (15 month old MS):

Came from breeders on eukanuba: persisted for 2 small bags, runny poos 4-6/day, and a battle to get him to eat, dull coat

Royal canin: heightened interest in eating for first week, better smelling and firmer poos but still atleast 4/day, dull coat

Eaglepack holistic puppy formula: Would eat if mixed with something else but was never crazy for it, poos same as RC but slightly better coat

Eagle pack holistic chicken and rice: Same response as puppy formula but occaisional runny poo

Orijen Adult: Gobbled every piece down like a starved animal, 2 dark firm poos/day, shiny slick coat

Lola (7 month old MS):

Came from breeders on supercoat puppy: gobbled it down, most disgusting wind ever and massive poops 6 times a day...didn't finish the bag

Orijen Puppy: Gobbled it down, no wind, 2-3 small black but firm poops a day, shiny coat, waggy tail :D

[Guest magnum]

We feed Advance Active with great results :D dogs coats are full, have great shine, dogs hold great condition & tone, no problems at all with poo's

Puppies are raised on Advance puppy with excellent results too ;)

[APBT]

has anyone tried calling any companys to send out a sample pack of dog food?

[ridgiemum]

Nutrience (large breed puppy) - had to feed twice as much as other foods & huge poos, ridgie hungry all the time.

Eagle Pack (Holistic large breed puppy) - fantastic, feed half the amount & ridgie looks great, coat shiny & smaller poos :D

[ellz]

Great Barko or Uncle Albers

You'll Love Coles Chicken & Rice

Woolworths Select

Woofbix

and more often than not a mixture of all of them.

My dogs do just fine on these foods. None break the bank. All are easily accessible. Whilst none are considered "premium" foods, my dogs do well on them, they suit my budget and I'm happy to keep on feeding them.

[4 Paws]

has anyone tried calling any companys to send out a sample pack of dog food?

I can supply a sample of Artemis if anyone is interested