I’ve heard at various places that the Costco brand, Kirkland, is good dog food and cat food. Is that right. It appears to be made by Diamond as is Canidae, though I could be wrong. What do you think of these foods, canned and dry for dogs and cats?
I used to feed the Costco brand dog food to my dog, and I liked it. Now, I don’t live near a Costco, so I’ve switched her over to a different brand.
Only thing I didn’t like was that they only carried the salmon version at the Costco I went to, and sometimes it made my dog’s breath a little fishy haha.
they are reasonably ok foods, average to slightly above average (varies by flavor).
As to whether they are cost-effective, I’m not sure. You can get a 40-pound bag for $35 or so, but they tend to be very low in calories per cup- many of the formulas are under 350 kcal/cup despite not being labeled as “diet” foods. So you might pay less per bag than an above-average food, but you’ll be feeding a lot more per meal.
Also, as noted, they are made by Diamond, with its spotty history of quality control.
[QUOTE=wendy;7383389]
with its spotty history of quality control.[/QUOTE]
& Costco’s even spottier history of following pet product recalls 
our local Costco’s continued to sell a product off the shelf despite minor recalls (only a few lot #'s involved) & then a complete recall …
Thank you!
Our dog had a day of seizures(he has no health problems), a few years ago. After many hundreds of dollars of testing and searching, we could not find anything wrong with him. We started searching exterior factors that could have caused the seizures, and it came down to his food. After getting a few opinions from vets, I was told that no dog food is monitored, not even vet sold foods(most of them).
I was recommended to only buy food that is AAFCO approved(which actually does not give you a lot of options), as it is actually monitored and supposed to be safer.
This is just my best judgement. I’m not a vet so I don’t know how much of this to follow. This is just what I was recommended.
I feed it
My old man does best on Taste of the Wild fish & potato. I tried lots of foods and this works best. I feel a little guilty about still feeding a Diamond product but I tried so many foods and don’t want to put my elderly pooch through that again.
You know something? Kirkland salmon & potato is strikingly similar, 1 - 2% off here and there between their labels (I cut the label off the TOTW bag and brought it with me to Costco). They are manufactured in the same state under the same corporation.
So for the past six months, I’ve been feeding Costco dog food. My young man’s (hah 10yo this month!) breeder feeds Costco chicken.
Here is the dog food advisor rating. 4 stars with a note that they cannot find it on AAFCO.
AAFCO doesn’t “monitor” foods for safety- the FDA does that. All AAFCO does is provide a bare-bones minimum “complete and balanced” standard. This standard doesn’t prove much at all about how complete, balanced, safe,or healthy the food is, and also the AAFCO standards doesn’t mean it’s good or wonderful, either, but it’s such a basic, low standard that if the food doesn’t meet it, it’s of concern.
