Kibble: Any that is easy to get and safe?

[Bluesy]

Well, I do not own a dog, but plan to someday :). The reason I am actually posting is I just bought two beautiful Birman cats who were on Royal Canin, (they also make dog food.)

Long story short: I went into a pet store on a whim, and the lady just about talked my ear off and said how RC is a science diet and not top notch. She definitely sold me on Acana…(my kitties are or were, I should say, on RC kitten, so they need to be switched off that food anyways)

Anyways, her points that won me over were as follows:

It is a high quality food
They are a local (to me) company
They are socially responsible - they know exactly where their food products come from
They do not freeze their food products.
They are cheaper than Rotal Canin
The cats (and dogs) do not eat as much of it because it is a higher quality

So Acana all the way!

[LauraKY]

Not to completely hijack the thread…and perhaps I should start a new one.

I just adopted a 14 year old cocker with a history of bladder stones. Calcium oxalate, unfortunately. She had bladder surgery to remove stones in December and she’s currently on Hills U/D.

It’s a long story, but her owner had Alzheimer’s. The owner kept complaining that she was having accidents in the house…owner’s daughter and vet believe that she was restricting water (even though she was on food to increase water consumption). She’s also obese (we think the owner was forgetting she had fed her and would feed her again, and again). She was also obviously hand fed in the kitchen. I’m sure that all contributed to the stone development.

Since she’s been here (2 weeks), she’s lost 2 lbs…10 more to go. She’s had a couple of “accidents” but I believe it’s more behavioral than anything. She’s learning to ask to go out. I’m going to have her urine checked for crystals next week.

So, once I get her weight where it should be…what can you feed a dog that is prone to calcium oxalate stones other than prescription diet? I don’t want to screw this up, because this type of stone won’t dissolve and can only be removed by surgery.

[IFG]

[QUOTE=LauraKY;6249602]
Not to completely hijack the thread…and perhaps I should start a new one.

I just adopted a 14 year old cocker with a history of bladder stones. Calcium oxalate, unfortunately. She had bladder surgery to remove stones in December and she’s currently on Hills U/D.

It’s a long story, but her owner had Alzheimer’s. The owner kept complaining that she was having accidents in the house…owner’s daughter and vet believe that she was restricting water (even though she was on food to increase water consumption). She’s also obese (we think the owner was forgetting she had fed her and would feed her again, and again). She was also obviously hand fed in the kitchen. I’m sure that all contributed to the stone development.

Since she’s been here (2 weeks), she’s lost 2 lbs…10 more to go. She’s had a couple of “accidents” but I believe it’s more behavioral than anything. She’s learning to ask to go out. I’m going to have her urine checked for crystals next week.

So, once I get her weight where it should be…what can you feed a dog that is prone to calcium oxalate stones other than prescription diet? I don’t want to screw this up, because this type of stone won’t dissolve and can only be removed by surgery.[/QUOTE]

Be VERY VERY careful with what you feed this dog. I had a Standard Poodle who had two surgeries for calcium oxalate stones. We cooked for him after the first surgery, and he reoccurred. It may have been that there were remaining stones from the first surgery, but he may also have managed to form stones on what was a VERY low oxalate diet. He then had a surgery called a urethrostomy that opened a hole that would let stones pass through without obstructing his ureter. After that we always kept him on the U/D. He actually did well on it, though it killed me to feed it to him.

We now have two young Standard Poodles. Given our prior experience, I looked for a food that was low in oxalate. The Acana Ranchlands does not have sweet potato, spinach, or other foods typically high in oxalate, but if one of our current dogs were to get stones, I think that I would either feed the U/D or maybe go raw (and even with raw, you have to be careful because certain meats are high in oxalate).

[PoohLP]

I feed Nutura Innova. Went on an extensive search a few years ago and that food worked best for my dogs, (pointer:boxer, chow/aussie) which included a foster with a very sensitive tummy. Also had pretty low feeding requirements. Although it has some grains in it, they are high quality (oatmeal) instead of corn or rice and several ingredients down on the list. My guys got runny poo on all the grainless products i tried. I also only need to feed about 1.5 cups a day for a 55lb dog, which significantly makes up for its slightly higher price point. If you want grainless, Natura also makes Evo.

[LauraKY]

Thanks, IFG. I think I’ll just stay with the U/D (and it kills me). My old cocker had struvite crystal problems, but we could manage that quite well without a prescription diet.

[PoohLP]

To be fair to vets who sell sd and hills, most of their education on pet nutrition - both in school and in continuin eduction - comes from sd and hills. They sponsor the seminars and write the text books. So I can forgive a vet who sells the stuff. I just don’t buy it.

[IFG]

[QUOTE=LauraKY;6249768]
Thanks, IFG. I think I’ll just stay with the U/D (and it kills me). My old cocker had struvite crystal problems, but we could manage that quite well without a prescription diet.[/QUOTE]

Forgot to mention. Royal Canine also makes a diet for dogs with CO crystals. My vet at the time did not carry it, but my current vet does. I think that the ingredients may be less loathsome than the ones in U/D. I do medical research and read a lot of the literature when my dog was ill. I was impressed with the papers written by the Royal Canine group. To be fair, the U of MN group funded by Hills also did nice work.

Good for you to give this girl a good life!

[Emryss]

I feed California Natural. I’ve been very happy with my results, so far.

[Simkie]

A couple points to note:

California Natural, Innova, EVO and Karma are all now Proctor and Gamble. P&G bought out Natura Pet perhaps 2 years ago now. I fed EVO, Innova or CalNat for perhaps 15 years to various dogs and cats but switched away over a year ago, as I felt the food has changed. P&G denies that there have been any changes.

Royal Canin has had at least one recall due to waaay too much vitamin D in one of their prescription cat foods. I know this because my cat was on their food and ended up dying. Royal Canin was terrible through the whole thing. While I loathe feeding the Hills RX diets, they have their place and I believe they have better quality control. I wouldn’t touch Royal Canin again with a 10 foot pole.

Another top quality food that I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned here is Pinnacle Peak: http://www.pinnaclepet.com/Canine/dog_food_peak.htm The rest of the Pinnacle line up is reasonably good, too, but much lower in protein and calories. I fed Pinnacle Peak for some time after switching away from EVO, and now use Orijen 6 Fish, as we needed a trial of a novel protein source.

[danceronice]

[QUOTE=JB;6240108]

Tractor Supply has a 4Health food now that is very similar in ingredients to ToTW. And Southern States has a new “naturals” food (name is escaping me atm) that also looks quite good - it’s on sale right now so we’ll be getting a bag to try.[/QUOTE]

I’ve got both cats and dogs on 4Health, and while it’s hard to tell with the dogs (they eat excrement if I turn my back for five minutes, after all) Tucker HAS lost a little weight, and as far as the cats go I have a substantially reduced problem with vomiting, except for the hair-eating one (he goes around eating hair off the floor, but then he’s weird) and the one who’s had UTI problems does great on it. More expensive than I’d prefer to buy, land I certainly wouldn’t buy it for barn cats, (and canned is “whatever’s on sale” for the dogs and “Friskies or Nine Lives” for the cats) but easy to get as I buy birdseed every few weeks at TSC and there are two I’m near on a regular basis.