Will feeding my 1 year old dog Purina affect her in the future?

Answer 1

Purina is the McDonalds of dog food. Our trainer took my dogs off Pro Plan at our first meeting and suggested the following three brands:

Artemis
Wellness
Innova

We feed Artemis Fresh Mix Small Breed Adult to our girls and they are very healthy and happy.

I suggest you avoid anything you can buy at the grocery store or conglomerate pet store (ie: Petco, PetSmart) and find a store that sells top quality foods like those listed above.

BIG no-no's to look for on your dog food packaging:

Cornmeal - some dogs are highly alergic, most cannot digest it
Meat - if they don't say "beef" or "chicken" but rather "meat" it could be ANYTHING - even euthanized dogs or other horrible things that could poison your dog.
Meat by-products - beaks, feet, heads, leftovers of any imaginable "meat" you can imagine.

Just remember, as with humans, the quality of the fuel determines the quality of life. A lot of behavioral problems can be corrected with food.

Good luck!

Answer 2

My dogs are healthy eating Pedigree.
What really makes a difference to your dog's health is keeping her portions as small as she needs. Err on the side of less food, according to the directions on the package. Don't feed tons of cookies or table scraps on the side. Know the breed standard for your dog, and keep tabs on her weight by counting her ribs or feeling for hollows around her hips.
Her bottom two ribs should be clearly visible, but not most of the ribs in front of those, which should be covered with muscle. Her hips should be firm and muscular, with a few points of bone over the top. If she starts getting skinnier than this, give her a little more food. If the two bottom ribs don't stick out at all, she's overweight, and should get a little less.
Google "reduced calorie longevity research" or something along those lines, and you'll run into articles about prolonging the lives of lab rats and monkeys by feeding them less food. Feed your dog as little as you can get away with before she starts getting scrawny---keep her lean and healthy, not anorexic---and she'll have a great chance at a longer, healthier life than other dogs.

Answer 3

Yes. Purina dog foods are chaulk full of nasties. Poor ingredients, lots of fillers, cancer causing preservatives, dyes, etc. Not to mention the dental effects of kibble.
Here's how to find a high quality dog food:
Nothing you find at a grocery store is going to be a good food. High quality foods can be found at large pet store chains, or online. A couple of foods I like are Nutro Natural, Innova, and Cannidae.

There are other high quality dog foods. Here's how to spot them:

A high quality food will have little or no fillers such as corn, wheat or soy. These aren't very digestable for dogs, and are common food related allergens. Since you were seeing corn meal in the first few ingredients, those are not high quality foods. Foods list ingredients by content, with the ingredient it contains most of at the top.

A high quality food will not contain BHT, BHA or Ethoxyquin, these are all chemical preservatives that have been linked to cancer.

A high quality food will not contain by-products of any kind. Meat meals are ok as long as the source of the meat is listed, such as Chicken Meal.

A high quality diet should have meat as at least the first ingredient., and be made from human grade ingredients. Foods that don't use human grade ingredients often get their ingredients from less than desirable sources, such as meat from animals that were diseased, or euthanized.

There is another diet option other than dog food. Some people choose to feed a raw diet. This involves feeding the dog raw meaty bones and organ meat. However it is not as simple as throwing a couple chicken bones in a bowl everyday. If you wish to feed this type of diet, do lots and lots of research first. Switching to this diet without knowing what your doing can lead to nutritional problems for your dog. I'll give you some links as a starting point in research if you are interested in this type of diet.

http://www.willowglen.com/barf.htm

http://www.bestfrisbeedogs.com/diets.html

http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html

http://www.rawdogranch.com

What's Really In Pet Food
http://www.api4animals.org/facts?p=359&more=1cat=286

Answer 4

Yes, if a shiny coat, clean teeth, and overall healthy dog is what you want. It's a good brand, that's what I feed my dog. Other foods are good too, but I say Purina is the best.

Answer 5

Purina One is a decent food, however, I am not a big fan of Dog Chow.

Answer 6

What kind of Purina? Pro Plan and Pro Plan Selects are good, ONE is OK, i'd say avoid the others like the plague.

Answer 7

Not at all... Purina is a pretty good dog food!

Answer 8

not sure but my mom use to feed my dogs the expensive kind of dog food and when she stopped the vet noticed cause the dogs weren't as healthy