Help! Need to switch food asap

[Shelsi]

Our dog has been on Natural Balance Potato & Duck with wonderful results for the past 2 yrs. Prior to that she was on Iams and had a lot of diarrhea accidents in her kennel over night, her skin was flaky and itchy, and she didn't have as much energy. We went grain free both for her health and because my dd has a lot of allergies and there's nothing dd is allergic to in Chipper's natural balance dog food (not that I let her just eat the dog food, but she's 2 yrs old, sometimes she gets into mischief).

We just moved across the country to a very small town and no one here sells it. No one within a 2 hr drive sells it. There are no pet stores here, just a Walmart and the commissary that I'll have access to for another year.

I thought I could just order it online but it's just too expensive once you add in shipping.

I know sometimes we'll be driving to Amarillo and we could always stock up then but Chipper only has a few more days of food left and I can't go to Amarillo right now.

So WWYD? They have Nutro at the commissary. I really don't like the idea of putting her back on a food with grain again though. She did not do well on the other food and I don't want to wake up to the smell of doggy diarrhea at 2 a.m. again.

Oh and I 100% definitely want to stay with a kibble. So no raw suggestions please

[blessedwithboys]

are there feed stores nearby? i bought "taste of the wild" at a feed store where i live, though it didnt agree with my dog.

raw works very well for us, but if you are worried about germies, maybe you could cook your own dog food?

[Ola_]

I have to say I wouldn't feed Nutro - I had my dogs on it once and all of a sudden we had all these vomitting issues. After googling it turns out that this is a common problem with the food. I went shopping and got a different food asap!

Wellness has a duck and rice formula, I'm trying to think who else has duck and potato. What food was she eating before that had a bad effect on her? I suppose you tried the store locator on the Natural Balance site right? I've found some little pet stores with those searches in the past that I didn't even know were there.

[Catubodua]

check for Feed & Supply stores in your area rather than pet / pet food stores. many Feed stores have much better options.

also - this site is pretty good with listing ingredients -

http://forums.dogfoodproject.com/pos...&Board=dogfood


so, i would go to the stores that carry dog food and make a list of the brands & types (chicken, duck, etc) that they carry and come home and research them.

for an interim while you get it figured out you can feed chicken &rice for a few days.


also, if you are interested in doing some reading, i love this article too. it teaches you how to read dog food labels (not as easy as it would seem) -

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index....e=labelinfo101

[Shelsi]

Yep, did the locator thing on their website. They do sell wellness at the one and only HFS here but it's insanely over priced like the rest of their stuff (for example their rice milk is $5/box and only $1.79 at Walmart down the road!).

There are lots of feed stores here, I'll have to check a few out tomorrow morning.

Maybe I'll just do chicken and rice until I can get to Amarillo and stock up on the Natural Balance. It'll either be this weekend or next. If I decide to do that should I do some chicken and rice and some kibble to sort of stretch out the kibble and keep her somewhat on her regular diet?

[Ola_]

Definitely check out the feed stores! I've heard of folks getting really good dog food from some of them. Good luck!

[greenmagick]

As others have mentioned check you feed stores...they often have TOTW and Canidae...and wiil often special order food for you as well.

[Shelsi]

I've called around a bit and I found 2 feed stores who carry TOTW. I'm worried about the egg in it though since that is one of dd's worst allergens. I mean luckily she's not anaphylactic to anything but she still has some super nasty GI and skin reactions. And while she hasn't gone near the dog food at all lately I still worry. And my dog is a grazer. We feed her in the morning and then she eats throughout the day.

[Shelsi]

Oh! Even better. Dh got paid today for some travel expenses! I can just use that and go to Amarillo sooner than I thought we could and I'll just stock up on the Natural Balance. With all our moving and stuff (we just moved here 6 weeks ago and now we're about to move again) it'd be best to keep her on the same food.