dog food goods and bads?

Question

do you think that happy tails is good? i am thinking of buying it.
what about..
pedigree?
beneful?
purina one?
and what dog foods do you think are good /bad?

by the way....
i know that iams is good but i do not but it because it cruely stores and tests animals

Answer 1

I agree with the people that say all the foods you have listed their are junk foods. I believe my dogs deserve the best food I can afford for them and this does not include supermarket foods. I feed my pups Innova EVO or Timberwolf, the high quality foods may cost more innitially, but in the long run they will save you money. Your dog eats less of a high quality food (usally about half of what they would eat of a cheap brand) and they will be healthier meaning less trips to the vet.

Here is a great article that will help you grade your dogs food and hopefully help you choose a food that is good for him too.
How to grade your dog's food:
Start with a grade of 100:

1) For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points

2) For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or
fat) reference, subtract 10 points

3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points

4) For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source,subtract 5 points

5) If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five
ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer’s rice", "rice flour" are
all the same grain), subtract 5 points

6) If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2 meats
in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points

7) If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points

8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3points

9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 morepoints

10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil,subtract 2
points

11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic
to other protein sources), subtract 2 points

12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points

13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to
wheat), subtract 2 points

14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to
beef), subtract 1 point

15) If it contains salt, subtract 1 point

Extra Credit:

1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points

2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or
nutritionist, add 5 points

3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points

4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points

5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points

6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points

7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points

8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points

9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points

10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point

11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point

12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than
the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein
source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point

13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point

14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are
pesticide-free, add 1 point

94-100+ = A
86-93 = B
78-85 = C
70-77 = D

69 = F

Here are some foods that have already been scored.
Dog Food scores:

Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+

Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F

Canidae / Score 112 A+

Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+

Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F

Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 B

Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A

Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+

Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+

Foundations / Score 106 A+

Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 B

Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D

Innova Dog / Score 114 A+

Innova Evo / Score 114 A+

Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+

Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B

Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B

Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 F

ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley / Score 103 A+

Purina Benful / Score 17 F

Purina Dog / Score 62 F

Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F

Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+

Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+

Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A

Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F

Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+

Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A

Answer 2

Pretty much you get what you pay for. The more expensive dog foods usually cost more because their ingredients are better and more expensive. The best include Nutro, Science Diet, Eukenuba and there are many others.

But we can't always afford the best, so spend as much as you can afford. The cheap dog foods will usually give your dog diarrhea. In the long term, your dog may not be as healthy and will need to go to the vets more often, which isn't cheap. Also, your dog will need to eat more to feel full which means that you will be buying more bags of food which means you aren't saving money.

When I used to run a shelter, at one point we didn't have money. After trying cheap dog food and learning the hard way, we went back to the good stuff and added bread. Believe me it was the better alternative.

So how do you know if it's decent or not? The most important thing is the amount and source of protein. Read the label. The main ingredient is listed first, the second main ingredient is listed second, etc. See how far down meat is in the listing. Meat by products and meat/ bone meal are less good than meat. On the other hand, see if the food anywhere has fish, fish oil or eggs. These are usually good brands. Cheap food will usually start with corn and other grains, and some where down the list you will find meat byproduct. This means your dog won't really get the protein s/he needs. If you find food that's like 40lbs for $20, I would stay away from it.

If you want to save money and still give your dog adequate food, go for Alpo, Pedigree or the Purina Line: Dog Chow / Kibbles 'n Bits / One.

Good nutrition is imporant for every dog, especially if s/he's living a lot of the time out doors.

Good luck to you and your dog...

Answer 3

IAMS is a really good food you can buy at grosery stores. But I dont use it due to the fact they do horrible testing on dogs and cats.
I would go with a food from a vats office or a pet store. These are more exspensive, but worth it. If you wanna go with a grocery store food, go with Pedigree or Purina. I used Pedigree and it worked fine.

A food that has meat as the first ingrediant is great. Not meat by-product, not rice, not corn. Corn and rice are fillers, have hardly, if any, nurtitional componants.

Answer 4

If you want a good food feed Nutro (Natural Choice). It doesn't have by-products, no whole corn. Dogs can't digest corn just like use in whole out whole.) It causes theym to have a great coat and awesome if the dog has allegies. Beneful uses dyes in thier food and most does a allergic to dyes. Purina is suppose to use dead animals picked up off the road and dairy/beef farms, and pedigree is a toss up of the two, plus all three have corn and other such filler which means BIG sticky poop in the backyard. Less fillers means easy to digest less ot feed less poop.

Answer 5

Feeding a high quality food will improve the health of your dog. Canidae is a much higher quality food than IAMS as it does not include grain fragments, wheat, or corn (which many dogs have a hard time digesting). It is also much less likely to cause gas, large stinky stools, or allergies than IAMS. However, food is NOT the reason that a dog develops toned muscles. I've met plenty of fat dogs who were fed a quality diet and plenty of well-conditioned muscular dogs that ate crap. The only way to get toned muscles is to physically condition your dog with physical exercise. Consider looking into backpacking, biking, or draft work (such as weight pull or carting or driving) if you want a large muscular dog. Not only do these sports condition a dog physically, but they are also a great way to bond with your dog and will help mentally stimulate them which can lead to fewer behavioral problems.

Answer 6

Pedigree, Beneful, Purina One, Science Diet, Eukanuba, Alpo, Kibbles n Bits. They all suck.

To find out what pet food you think is good just look at the ingredients in it. Would you feed your dog; chicken by-products (which can be beaks, feet, feathers, diseased organs..ect.) Corn, Peanut Hulls, Ethoxyquin(Known cancer causing preservative in Eukanuba) Corn glucose, and all kinds of crap.

Dogs are naturally CARNIVORES, and carnivores do NOT eat corn!

The following foods are the best of the best (at a pretty good price) in my opinion:

Natural Balance
Nature's Variety
Canidae
Evolve
Innova (EVO)
California Natural
Primal
Wellness

Just look at some of the labels on the pet food bags, it is enough to make you sick.

Check out this API report on what is really in pet food: http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1

Answer 7

All the dog foods mentioned are filled with nothing but fillers and by-products, All the grocery store brand dogfoods are no good for your pet. They are filled with ingrediants that are no good for them such as cancer causing agents and toxins. Your walmart brand olroy and many others have the chemical in it that is used to euthanize animals. Your friends dog or cat can be in these dog foods. This is very true, not all dogs and cats go to land fills or are incenerated they are chopped up and put into dog food.http://pages.zdnet.com/vabutter8/books/id2.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0106-03.htm
what is in pet foods??? website below will let u know.
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04/Perhach/PetFood/CompanionAnimals.htm

I am not saying all pet foods are bad there is some really good ones on the market, but this does not include science diet your vet promotes
Innova evo i know is very good as i use this myself. Have heard solid gold is good. I am a raw diet feeder myself, and i feed innova when i cannot feed my dogs and my kids have to.
Please do not consider diamond maintenance.....
Diamond maintenance killed my dads sheltie. The dogffod was contaminated and not recalled until it had already caused kidney and liver failure in several peoples pets and my dads sheltie was one of these innocent dogs. So does the dog food companies test their food?? This one definately does not or they would not of let poison hit the shelves in the stores.

Answer 8

I have a 1 year old mini rat terrier and I feed him Beneful. He can't get enough of it. I have tried some of the others with other daigs, but they don't like it. I like Beneful because it doesn't look like it would tast bad. It actually smells like real food. I think it's the best. It might depend on your dog too. Just don't switch foods too often. It messes up there stomachs.

Answer 9

Well lets see . i mean i only buy happy tails as a last resort (when short on cash ) i buy purina puppy chow i think it's pretty darn good for my scooby and he loves it . Bet i dont know if there is a walmart where you are at they have the best prices on dog food better than sams or costco.

Answer 10

Iams, any dry dog food these days is great ! Table food is bad, they live longer on a dry dog food ( I mix 1/2 mighty dog, and 1/2 dinner rounds for my "Holly" ! Also don't feed them as much as it says on the can (They wanna sell dog food, don't they) ? Feed them about 1/2 of that amt. and give the dog "Milk Bones" in the morning, fresh water should ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE !