Want To Move To Premium Kibble

[StevenJC]

Hello

Im currently feeding dry food for breakfast with a dinner of RAW to my 2 kids, one is a 4yo mini-foxie, the other a 3yo Rotty/Dobe Cross.

Ive gone through the Royal Canin range after reading many posts on DOL giving it a good rap, but which product do i choose given i have two different breeds which are also two different sizes?

My current dry food is Supercoat

[Rysup]

It is all trial and error I am afraid. What works for me, may not work for you.

I have recently moved to Artemis and am very happy with it thus far. I tried Eagle Pack Hollistic, but that was not working.

[Miss Helena]

I'm currently using Advance (small breed turkey and rice). It's "okay" but have just ordered some Artemis to try out (small breed one). I think this brand has won awards - it's meant to be very good.

I've also tried Eagle Pack Salmon - that was pretty good too.

I was under the impression that Royal Canin had heaps of "fillers" in it and wasn't actually that brilliant

Edited January 21, 2010 by Miss Helena

[StevenJC]

Will it be ok to just have one kibble for the pair of them, despite one being 7kg and one being 30kg?

[poodlefan]

I chose based on the ingredients and DOLer recommendations. The proof was in my dog's condition.

I'm happy with Artemis. It has no gluten which matches what I think is best in a dog's diet.

ETA: I feed two different varieties. I have older dogs and a younger one.

Edited January 21, 2010 by poodlefan

[Aidan]

Some dogs are particularly sensitive to a diet low in the amino acid l-tryptophan. Foods that list Corn (or "Maize") in their top ingredients should be avoided if you have one of these dogs. If your dog is reactive, has difficulty relaxing, or suffers from any form of anxiety then these are possible signs that you should avoid corn-based foods.

[Zug Zug]

I feed a standard sized Science Diet mature to my two smaller dogs - they do a bit more chewing but they seem to cope very well. So I can't see any reason why a 7kg dog couldn't eat a standard size kibble same as your bigger dog - but depends if your little one can get their jaws around it well enough and you'll know that pretty quickly.

We tried another brand recently and one of the dogs got quite ill (diarrhoea), so changed straight back.

You have to try things yourself. I'd suggest you make the first pack a small one, change kibble gradually over several days, and watch your dogs closely to see how they are responding.

In the end, I think you have to make your own decision based on observing your own dogs.

Edited January 21, 2010 by Zug Zug

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

We have fed Nutro for 9 1/2 years and find it suits our dogs best of many of the dried products. We also have been pleased with Ziwipeak.

During the "transitional" period here when the US made Nutro was pulled from the market, we tried Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance, Orijen and Artemis but they did not agree with ours dogs. Nutro is now made here.

We now feed our dogs a 2/3rds diet of a chicken mince mixture which we make up and 1/3rd Nutro or Ziwipeak.

As Aidan has mentioned avoid foods that have corn/maize as their first ingredient and be aware that many dogs cannot tolerate wheat either.

[becks]

it really depends on your dogs, I have mini and giant schnauzers, my minis can eat reasonably large kibble for them, so I've fed the medium RC if I only wanted the one bag of food.

If you have a large dog who just swallows the food, then the small kibble may cause him to choke, equally if the foxie isn't much of a chewer, he will struggle with larger kibble sizes. What size is the kibble you feed now?

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

Yes, it depends on your dogs. I have three (greyhound, staffy, mini foxie) and all three were raw fed until recently. Due to a variety of reasons/causes, all are currently on a dry food diet. Greyhound is on Purina One (dry, supermarket brand) and is doing okay on it; she does very well on the Royal Canin Sensible Medium but I can't justify the expense and you'll see why when I tell you about the other two!

The staffy has a number of health problems which has meant she's had a really restricted diet for nearly a year. She's now on Pro Plan Sensitive Skin and Stomach, which she's doing well on. Before this she could only tolerate fish, sweet potato, roo mince, turkey and the occasional piece of dried liver. So the Pro Plan is a really good food for her at the moment and it's expensive but I can justify that price given the situation.

The mini foxie loved being on raw but it resulted in her toileting inside overnight nearly every night. We had to stop that somehow. So when we were moving interstate, I tried her on the Royal Canin Indoor Mini Dog. She has done so well on it that I'm reluctant to put her back onto raw. But again, it's an expensive food (but for a dog of that size, its' manageable).

There is no chance that all three dogs could do well on the same food. So if your dogs aren't the same breed, and sometimes even if they are, you may find that one does well on one food but the other doesn't.

BTW- I would love to get them all back on raw...we just can't at the moment.

[Bonzawani]

It's all trial & error with each dog. But here's a site to check out:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

Good Luck.

Bonz

[*Lolapalooza*]

The site Bonzawani just posted is a great site to help you.....very eye opening.

[dee lee]

I was using Royal Canin Golden Retriever for my dog but I wasnt happy with her weight on it (she is too active for it i suspect) so decided to try Artemis after reading so many great recommendations.

So far so good, but one thing I have noticed is that her breath is a LOT less smelly now!!

Before it was pretty bad (yes, her teeth have been checked), but now I barely notice it. It has to be the Artemis, its the only thing that is different.

Aside from that I have only been using it for a week so I cant really say if its better or not yet.

[Staff'n'Toller]

You could try feeding them both RC medium dog, the neutered biscuits would be easier for your little dog to manage.

Otherwise you'd have to buy large breed adult and mini adult and just feed them separated, I assume they would have different bowls already?

I have three dogs and one is on a Turkey based food and the other two eat RC, it's just how it has to be when you have dogs of vastly different sizes or ages, or food allergies.

[Rysup]

I feed the one variety of Artemis to a variety of different dogs. Lhasa Apsos 5 & 10 years, Keeshonds 6 months, 2 years and 5 years. I have always fed the same way, regardless of brand. I also dont believe puppies need a special puppy food after about 12 weeks of age. Mine are all moved to adult food, and I have not had a problem with that.

[Koemi]

i feed Eagle Pack for my girl (mostly dry but a bit of wet so i can mix her powders and pills into it) and Nutro for my boy. He HATED the imported Nutro (painful, because i bought a massive bag of it), but our rep gave me some samples of the Aussie made when i couldn't afford food for them one week (that was beyond awful, thank god i'm working decent hours now) and he's danced for it ever since.

i used to feed Royal Canin and they both enjoyed it, but Bam has a big problem with reflux and EP is the only food i've tried that doesn't make her throw up. They both HATED Science Diet and refused to eat it for 3 days. In the end i cracked (it was a free bag that was almost at expiry from my old job) and went back to RC. If the money isn't an issue (it was for me at the time, but now i get a staff discount on all the food), definitely give Nutro and EP a try.

Is Artemis still imported? Weren't there massive problems with that food for a while? Or have they started making it in Australia now? If we ever start stocking it, i'd love to try it.

[Sagittarian]

Is Artemis still imported? Weren't there massive problems with that food for a while? Or have they started making it in Australia now? If we ever start stocking it, i'd love to try it.

Hopefully Artemis Australia will respond to this, but in the interim:

It is imported. There have NEVER been problems with this food. I use it with my old girl and she thrives on it.

Making a product in Australia is no guarantee of quality. While your experience of Nutro (USA) may not have been good, overall that product was excellent. I'm personally not thrilled with some of the changes that Masterfoods have made to some of the Australian formulas.

At the end of the day, some dogs will do well on some foods, some better on others, and if it works well for the dog, then that is what matters.

Sags

[k9katz]

Is Artemis still imported? Weren't there massive problems with that food for a while? Or have they started making it in Australia now? If we ever start stocking it, i'd love to try it.

I wonder if you are thinking of Orijen? Artemis is imported from the USA and has never had any recalls whatsoever. You can be assured that the quality of the ingredients in the entire range of Artemis Pet Foods are exceedingly high, all proteins are human grade and every batch is subjected to the most stringent quality control parameters. Most importantly, with regards to Australia, NONE of the products are subjected to Gamma Irradiation or treatment of any kind.

Judith Strachan.

Artemis Pet Food Australia.

[Cazwah]

This has been such a helpful topic! That dog food analysis site is great, thanks for linking it!

[labsrule]

It really is trial and error to find a premium kibble that your dogs do well on. Over the years I have tried a variety of premium/super premium kibble with my black labs with mixed results and with them being black it is very easy to see the results. By far the best they have done well on is Nutro with their coats beautiful and glossy and I was most annoyed when they pulled the imported Nutro from the market awhile back as had to start again with the trial and error with disastrous results on their coats on the various super premiums I tried them on.

The one kibble that I had hoped they would do well on was Artemis and I perservered with this food for quite a while and tried the various ranges Maximal (grain free), Fresh Mix and the Weight Management, but unfortunately my 3 lab boys didn't do well on Artemis at all resulting in their coats becoming dull and flaky and itchy skin. When I was advised that Nutro was being manufactured in Australia, I was very excited, but that excitement was tempered when it became known that the recipe was different to the US version, but a few months ago I decided to bite the bullet and give the Australian version a go and put my two older boys onto Nutro Lite and wow the different in their coats is amazing I am now in the process of swapping my puppy over from Advance Puppy to Nutro Adult range and I love the size of this kibble, nice and big size , which is ideal for my little piggy Lab pup who scoffs down his food in typical lab fashion. :D The dry component of my boys diet varies between 30-50% with the other 50-70% being a variety of RMB.

Good luck finding a kibble that suits your dogs and you will find a lot of differences in opinions on the kibble debate but the main thing is to find one that your dogs do well on.