TSC carries Taste of the Wild if you decide you want to try it.
Well, the little one’s eating Wellness small breed. The younger, slightly larger one is eating a high-variety diet: rubber flip-flops, stuffing from his toys, various plastic remnants he digs out of the recycling bin, suede flats, newspaper, toilet paper, nylons, my Hibiscus plant, cat feces…oh, and occasionally Costco brand puppy food.
Old small terrier; http://naturesrecipe.com/dog_senior.aspx
Young large GSP; http://www.kibblesnbits.com/varieties/original
Plus fresh warm rabbits.
Lab with stomach issues is now on this (with added green beans for fiber to keep her full): http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dogformulas/LambDog.html
She was on Gastro vet forumula but they changed from lamb to chicken and it made her super sick! 
Both of my dogs (Chihuahua and Mini Schnauzer) are eating Taste of The Wild. Our cat is as well. They all seem to like it and are doing well on it.
Add me to the Taste of the Wild wagon! I switched my dog over to it 8 weeks ago, and he’s doing great. I feed the lamb version. My lab loves it!
Wellness CORE reduced fat.
I feed raw, but I’m lazy so I feed the pre-packaged stuff like Stella and Chewy’s and Nature’s Variety. My dog has acid reflux issues with anything other than raw.
I feed a combination of ziwipeak and evo to my two little dogs (hopefully soon switching the evo to orijen). The big dogs are on natural balance sweet potato and fish because they have really bad food allergies (brother and sister).
We would like to eventually transition everyone to raw, but we haven’t yet (due to various reasons- mainly the time to get everything set up to get started).
My two Shelties are on TOTW - Prairie (I think it has buffalo or something in it) formula. My female Sheltie is allergic to a LOT of stuff (sensitive tummy; can’t eat beef) and she gets hot spots, but she’s fine on this. I used to feed Wellness Core, but both dogs turned up their noses at it and the female would actually leave most of it untouched after a while. I feed them very little - about 1/4 cup morning and night. For their dinner feed, I also mix in a couple of tablespoons of this: http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Grandma-Lucys-Grain-Free-Freeze-Dried-Dog-Food/427024.aspx, hydrated of course (with hot water, it only takes about 3 minutes to hydrate and I mix up the cat food while I wait), which allows me to hide her joint supp and the boy Sheltie’s thyroid med. This stuff smells AWESOME - it has a very herby fragrance and I’ve been tempted to eat it myself. Oh, and they get a spoon of plain flavored lowfat yogurt mixed in to help with tummy issues. I guess they like their meals Mediterranean style.
One of our girls is very sensitive to a preservative in most commercial dog foods. We’ve had no problems on our food.
[QUOTE=wendy;5589873]
… dry pellets and pretend it’s food.[/QUOTE]
This is real food ProSeries Maintenance.
or if you don’t want the wheat/corn/etc.Proseries Holistic
I believe TOTW has a very similar break-down as well.
Raw is not perfect either, you have to be very careful to ensure your dogs is getting quality foods (no excessive pesticides or hormones) and buying bulk in the discount bin at the grocery store won’t do that. You also have to make sure they get a varied and nutritionally complete diet.
Yes, I hear preaching from a lot of raw-ies… but I won’t switch.
My terrier mutt is on Blue Buffalo small breed chicken. Its the only one we tried that seemed to agree with his sensitive tummy.
Of course, he turns his nose up at it and hounds me for fruit and veggies most of the time, because he thinks dog food is beneath him.
We recently (Feb) switched to Nature’s Domain Salmon and Sweet Potato. Its a grain-free available at Costco, looks to be a step up from the regular Kirkland stuff. Dogs love it, my Beagle practically sparkles she is so shiny.
Raw is not perfect either, you have to be very careful to ensure your dogs is getting quality foods (no excessive pesticides or hormones) and buying bulk in the discount bin at the grocery store won’t do that. You also have to make sure they get a varied and nutritionally complete diet
agree- many people feeding home-made raw do it totally wrong, especially the ones who refuse to feed carbs or supplements or don’t follow a balanced recipe and just hope for the best. I buy pre-made raw (Natures variety) and feed that in the am, and in the pm I feed a balanced home-made diet of mostly beef and sweet potatoes, carefully following a recipe I got from a nutritionist, which includes a number of pills one must add to ensure its balanced.
I keep some Nature’s variety Instinct rabbit kibble around in case we run out or the freezer dies.
I feed Canidae since when I tried California Natural my flat coated retriever starts to itch again. It is the only thing she seems to be able to eat.
We tried to feed Origen Large Breed puppy to my lab since that is what the breeder recommended. It did not sit well with him. He was on CA Natural puppy until he was about 16 month old then we switched him to the Canidae that the flat coat and the Eskimo Spitz were on.
[QUOTE=SonnysMom;5593769]
I feed Canidae …[/QUOTE]
I was trying to remember the name! My husband’s family dog has a terrible itching problem and they have to give her steroids every summer. Since they switched over to the gluten-free Canidae she’s doing MUCH better!
My 10-year-old JRT is on home cooked. I’m a little wary of raw diet for the pathogen issues, but he does get 2x weekly raw meaty bones and because of that his teeth are whiter than white (I tell him only half jokingly that he’s outed for keeping Whitestrips hidden in his “room.” )
I love the home cooking routine. I can say without a doubt my older dog now gone to the big doghouse in the sky would not have lived as long had he still been on a commercial diet.
As far as the use of grain in a home cooked diet, I use “ancient grains” such as quinoa and amaranth, the quinoa has high calcium so it really helps the calcium levels. I used to add a high quality probiotic but had some adverse effects so don’t use that any more. I use a vegetable-based multi vitamin, high end stuff from my holistic/nutrition-oriented vet. The meats are organic to the extent I can find organic meats (I’m vegetarian so the only meat bought is for the dog) and was thrilled recently to find that Costco (big box membership stores in the PNW) now carries organic poultry and beef. If I can’t get organic at least humane raised and local. I use lamb (we have a lot of sheep farmers here in the Willamette Valley so lamb is abundant), organic beef, organic chicken livers, wild-caught salmon where I can get it, it’s scarce and so much of the salmon started life in a hatchery eating GMO grains, that probably will stop soon, bison, and either organic chicken or organic turkey. We are blessed in the WV with many small farmers growing organic and in the spring, summer and fall there are farmers markets everywhere so buying organic veggies is super easy and affordable too. A side note on the people side of this, it’s amazing that you seem to need to eat less when what you are eating tastes wonderful and if you can obtain the heirloom organic varieties you will be astounded at this. Veggies and fruits for homecooked dog food include: blueberries, bananas, cranberries (it’s getting really tough to find organic crans - and this is Oregon, second only to Wisconsin in cranberry production so go figure), sometimes little apple chunks, kale, summer squash, sweet potato, winter squash, peas 'n carrots, green and yellow string beans - he likes the latter frozen ones as a treat. He loves the little golden beets with chopped beet greens from the farmers market (and so do I, actually). I say he is ten and of course JRTs have so much energy anyway but he really is very active - not hyper, just energetic - for his age and his coat is beautiful, he’s a ‘smooth coat’ Russell.
The nice thing about home cooked is that first you know every single thing your dog is eating and can control it, there are no surprises. The other nice thing is that you can customize endlessly for any health issues that emerge. So I’m sold on it and save the prepared foods for either road travel or emergencies in our “leave town the tsunami is about to overtop the Coast Range” kit. (Just kidding but the PNW IS a subduction zone…)
