Natural Pet Foods

[QueenOfThePride]

I think we should make a sticky for natural pet foods. This will be a great resource for everyone. Let's list all the natural pet food websites we can find, including natural commercial foods and recipes for raw and homemade diets. The dangers of mainstream pet food additives and inferior ingredients are also welcome. Also, personal reviews and opinions of specific products would be great!

: :

[QueenOfThePride]

www.wysong.net A great place to start for information on natural nutrition and wellness for both humans and animals. Lots of supplements. Pure canned meat. Natural prescription diets.

www.naturapet.com Innova EVO - high protein, low carb, and grain free. Also California Natural, Healthwise, and Karma Organic.

http://www.karmaorganic.com/ Karma Organic. Over 95% organic ingredients.

http://www.omhpet.com/ or www.oldmotherhubbard.com Old Mother Hubbard and Wellness brand.

http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/ Solid Gold brand. Natural pet foods, supplements, and skin and coat care products.

http://www.frommfamily.com/ Fromm Family brand. Many unique food formulas. Great to try for pets with food allergies. Pre-packaged raw diets.

http://www.bluebuff.com/ Blue Buffalo. Human grade ingredients. Cold-formed kibble. Probiotics, chelated minerals, antioxidants. Glucosamine and chondroitin in dog foods.

Flint River Ranch brand pet foods are sold by independent distributors. You'll have to do your own search for distributors, as the company doesn't seem to have an official page.

http://www.merrickpetcare.com/ Merrick brand. Natural food, treats, and cat litter.

http://www.felinefuture.com/ and http://www.knowbetterdogfood.com/ Nutritional supplements for dogs and cats to mix with a raw diet.

www.premiumedgepetfood.com Premium Edge brand.


http://www.petpromiseinc.com/ Pet Promise brand. Focus on healthy farming and antibiotic-free meat from healthy livestock. Cat and dog food, treats, pro-biotics, and natural pet shampoos. Pet Promise supports organic farming education.

http://www.breeders-choice.com/

http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/

http://www.eaglepack.com/index.html

http://www.threedog.com/

http://www.petguard.com/

http://www.canidae.com/

[PuppyFluffer]

I'm happy to make a sticky of this info.

Does anyone want to comment on what they like about certain diets and where they can get them locally - for instance, private local pet store, large chain pet store, online, directly from the manufacturer....

[momsgotmilk4two]

We feed our cat Pet Promise. It's free of all animal by products. I was hoping to get some info on the Trader Joes cat food and see if it was any good. The only place I can find the Pet Promise is at a store I rarely go to, so I make a special trip, getting it from TJ's would be so much more convienent.

[Amydoula]

Thank you for doing this! We use Premium Edge (no by-products, preservatives, colors, etc.) www.premiumedgepetfood.com for our dry cat food and Wellness for our canned cat food, but you already have the link to that

Amy

[NewMomNicole]

We feed this - http://www.animalworldnetwork.com/wesuladrydog.html and our dog is so much healthier than before. He's trimmed up and so much more active - even other people notice. It's like he's aged backwards a bit

[QueenOfThePride]

Raw food supplements:

http://www.felinefuture.com/ and http://www.knowbetterdogfood.com/ Nutritional supplements for dogs and cats to mix with a raw diet.

http://www.sojos.com/

[shannon0218]

Kari, if you can post the primary (at least the first 8) ingredients along with the protein, fat, carb content, there are a couple of us here who could give you a rough idea. We don't have TJ's in Canada so I don't know the food you're talking about personally, but I was a partner in a health food store for pets for a few years and may recognize the recipe if it stands out.

[shannon0218]

As for the BTDT testimonials, I'm a big fan of Natura products. Havoc was raised on Innova and it is the only food I've fed a working dog where I didn't feel the need to supplement. Currently I am feeding the Merrick brand, Wilderness blend in an effort to get some weight off Havoc. Bedlam was doing fine on Innova and continues to do fine on Wilderness blend, but honestly I think she's one of those dogs who would be fine on whatever (ever had one of those??) where Havoc is a dog that I can tell if I've made a diet change by his coat within a matter of a couple of weeks.
I need dog food right now and I think I will be trying the Innova EVO blend next. I'm hoping that by limiting carbs with Havoc that I will be able to get some weight off him. It's not a horrible issue, at his prime he was 97 lbs, he's 110 now, but with less muscle more fat but he was a working dog and has had some major stress on his body over the years along with a neck injury as a pup and blown disc in his back at 9, so I have a definite desire to see him trim (after all, he needs to live to be like 25, so he's really still a pup at 11 )
There's a number of foods some of you have listed that I haven't even heard of yet, this is excellent news to me, as little as 10 yrs ago it was almost impossible to find a chemical free, human grade food without using homemade. It's a great statement on the picture of the pet food industry that we have SO many choices now.

[kittywitty]

Originally Posted by Amydoula

Thank you for doing this! We use Premium Edge (no by-products, preservatives, colors, etc.) www.premiumedge.com for our dry cat food and Wellness for our canned cat food, but you already have the link to that

Amy

I clicked on this and it led to one of those phishing sites.

[QueenOfThePride]

.

[QueenOfThePride]

The dangers of mainstream pet food:

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/jesse.htm

http://www.belfield.com/article3.html

http://www.wholisticanimal.com/commercialfood.html

http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/petfood1.html

http://www.y2khealthanddetox.com/annmartin.html

[QueenOfThePride]

Make your own pet food! ~recipes~

http://www.simplypets.com/pet-recipes/

http://www.recipegoldmine.com/pets/pets.html

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/category/pet-recipes.html

http://www.ability.org.uk/pet_food_cooking_recipes.html

http://recipes.epicurean.com/combo_r...cultural_type=

About raw foods:

http://www.rawfed.com/

www.felineinstincts.com

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/barf.html

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

http://www.workingdogs.com/vcbarf.htm

http://cats.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/rawfooddiet.htm

http://members.shaw.ca/naturalpaws/rawdiet-cats.htm

http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/atkins-cats.html

http://www.catnutrition.org/

[shannon0218]

Emily, humans don't have the same digestive enzymes as dogs and cats do. This is why dogs and cats can safely eat raw meat. Keep in mind that nobody cooks the deer for the coyote pack, and since wild dogs, wolves and coyotes are actually scavengers first and killers as a last resort, they often eat meat that's been dead for a bit. Their stomachs come complete with enzymes to combat the common bacteria found in raw meat.
On the chicken bones. Chicken bones should NEVER be fed cooked. Raw chicken bones however don't splinter and this is why it's actually very safe to feed raw chicken bones to pets. I have yet to hear of a dog or cat choking on a raw chicken bone. You also should not feed cooked beef bones, even though the risk of splinter is less, it still exists.

[QueenOfThePride]

I totally respect the different opinions on raw food. I'm sure it's still a lot better than what's in mainstream commercial pet food! Do animals have to build up a resistance to raw meat contaminants? Like if a dog has been on dry food it's whole life, how gradually would you have to change to raw to avoid making him sick? Do wild animals ever get sick from eating rotten meat?

[shannon0218]

I always suggest people wean to raw, but to be honest I've not heard problems going cold turkey. The other thing to keep in mind is that animals can better use the nutrition in raw meat, we need meat cooked to break down some of the protein so we can use it better, but dogs and cats have the enzymes to use uncooked meat. It's like when companies like Hills put soy protein in animal food and use it towards the protein count--that's just great, but dogs and cats can't use the protein in soy--so it's useless to them.
I'm sure wild animals occaisionally get sick from eating rotten meat, but, most will not eat meat that is too far gone.

[HelloKitty]

We were making our own for awhile but recently switched to Wellness:

http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/dogs..._overview.html

[QueenOfThePride]

Puppyfluffer, Karen, can we keep this as an open sticky that we can still post on? I'm sure new natural pet foods will keep coming out.

[QueenOfThePride]

http://www.wysong.net/PDFs/archetype.pdf

Does this qualify as a raw diet? They don't cook it, they dehydrate it.

[hippiemom]

My pup came from the breeder eating Science Diet, which, after reading the bag, I threw away! We got her on Solid Gold puppy dry food, but she did not like it too much. After a week or so she sort of warmed up to it though, and it is soooo pure! BUT then I went to buy more when we were out and they did not have it. I got "Nutro Natural Puppy" lamb and rice, and WOW, that puppy loves it! I know it is not as holistic as the SG, but it is a close second IMO, and she just eats it with that happy gusto that she never had before. In my area, the Nutro is also easier to find, which is a factor too