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!
MpJJJ-You know, I've heard plenty of great things about raw. Our neighbors have a dog that is prone to some health problems and they really have seen a difference since switching her to a raw diet. That said, we are a veg house. My DH is a vegetarian, and the kids and I eat *some* fish on occasion, but that's it. I think we may have just a general first bad idea of feeding raw to them on that level. Is there something similar that mimics raw in can or dry form? I know that is probably a dumb question...
I don't know if these are proven facts, but a holistic vet told me the following:
-any brand of wet food is (on the whole) better than even the best brand of dry cat food due to the hydration issue
-if you use dry cat food, stay away from the grain-free varieties as they are too hard on cats' systems
I used to use Innova EVO but based on that advice, switched to Eagle Pack dry. I also feed my cats at least some wet food daily. Around here, there is not much of a price difference per ounce (like a cent) between the lg. cans of Eagle Pack and something like 9Lives.
Thanks, Miz. This is interesting b/c your doc said stay away from anything grain-free and others here on this thread have mentioned that cats don't do well with grain in their food (wet or dry). Currently I'm leaving a little dish of Iams out for them throughout the day and for breakfast and dinner I give them a little bit each of the Fancy Feast or Iams (bought this today). I will look into other brands (the one you mentioned and others) after they go thru this.
Typically, their education on pet nutrition is comprised entirely of advertising by Science Diet, and occasionally a couple other brands such as Nutro's.
The vets themselves admitted they knew NOTHING about pet nutrition outside of what will keep the animal fed.
I'd take just about anyone's opinion (who have done their own research) over a vet's opinion on the subject of pet nutrition any day.
Abismom-I agree with this. I think consumers, mothers, pet owners, etc., are in general, much more knowledgeable on the subject of nutrition than the "experts". I think the same can be said for MDs as well as VMDs. I know in med school there is not a huge amount of time spent on nutritional education unless of course, that is your focus. That's why I'm here.
Abismom-I agree with this. I think consumers, mothers, pet owners, etc., are in general, much more knowledgeable on the subject of nutrition than the "experts". I think the same can be said for MDs as well as VMDs. I know in med school there is not a huge amount of time spent on nutritional education unless of course, that is your focus. That's why I'm here.
There IS an issue with the grain-free cat foods if your cat doesn't up his or her water intake to compensate for the very low moisture in the grain-free foods. So for cats that have existing kidney issues or who are typically very low drinkers, I would be careful with EVO or similar kibbles. When we put our cat on Wellness CORE (similar to EVO), I noticed that his chin was CONSTANTLY wet, and his water bowl went down very fast. I am convinced that it is a healther food, so I'll deal with the wet chin, but if you have a cat who doesn't "feel" the dryness and drink more I think the dehydrated kibbles can be an issue.
Originally Posted by Abi's Mom
I'd take just about anyone's opinion (who have done their own research) over a vet's opinion on the subject of pet nutrition any day.
I just wanted to post my experience with pet food. I have a cat (5 yrs old) and a Maltese (4 yrs old) and when I first got them I put them on Science Diet. I 'thought' it was the best food out there, and frankly it is better than what you buy at Target, but not the best. I then switched to Solid Gold this past March. Neither of my pets have EVER been sick. And my cat has the most gorgeous coat and clear eyes. Both of my pets are lean and healthy! My cat eats the only cat food Solid Gold offers, and my dog eats the 'Just a Wee Bit' for small dogs. I can buy it at Petco for $9 for a small bag, each of which last each pet a little less than a month. Totally worth it!
Hi Mamas,
I've learned a lot from this thread. However, can someone break it down for me--like what are the top 3-5 things to look for in cat food, in particular? Regardless of brand of good stuff you choose. I know grains are out for cats (or at least should be a minor part of the ingredients) and I know that they are carnivores, of course. So fish meal shouldn't always be used. I've also heard that the food should be well-balanced, Ph-wise? Can anyone parse this out a bit for me? I am almost through the Iams I bought for the kitties, and so far they have liked every food I've put in front of them, so changing brands/type will not be a big deal. I shop at a local PetSmart and they have wide range of choices for cats. Anyone? TIA
Also, for those of you with cats, do you only feed dry, or do you also feed wet? For our old cat, she got a couple of scoopfuls of dry thoughout the day, but we also gave her a heaping spoonful of wet food for breakfast and dinner. Any opinions on this?
Just wanted to add another food recommendation. We fed raw for a decade, back when it was impossible to find a holistic vet and we were poisoning our dogs. My GSD lived in good health until we discovered 6 weeks before his death he had degenerative myleopathy and leukemia, he was in great shape all things considering until 24 hours before he died, when he was 12. So he definitely wasn't poisoned. Anyhow, after his death, we wanted to move to something simpler, and came across Orijen. Grain free, all ingredients come from Canada, made in Canada, protein levels good for our dog, same philosophy as us, except way easier packaging and a firm committment to quality pet food.
The only problem is, they can't keep up with the demand and I have to fight to buy dog food.
I also use Orijen for my cats if I don't have the raw made or am going away or something. It does have a few too many vegetables in it for my liking, but for a once in a while treat it's fine.
The raw recipe I use is from catnutrition.org, the 'inferior' one that doesn't use real bones. I don't have a grinder yet and can't find a butcher that will grind whole chickens for me, so it will have to do until that changes. I triple the recipe, so I end up making cat food about once every 3-4 weeks and freeze it in one day serving size containers. I also cook it a bit to kill surface bacteria since I use store bought meat that isn't organic, and I buy the meat in bulk. The cooking actually cuts down on the prep time because it melts all the supplements so I don't have to break them open and add them
I add a capsule of taurine every week or so to their bowl, since heating and freezing break it down.
I'm going to check out this Feline Futures website and compare the cost for the supplements. Great info in this thread - thanks ladies! I look forward to the day I'm not cooking and am grinding!
I've never used a grinder to feed my cats raw. They eat the bones as they are. At first, I cut up the meat into small chunks so their atrophied jaw muscles could get back into practice, and over time increased the size of the chunks. Now I can put a whole small animals down for them. Also, bacteria can be handled with vinegar and/or hydrogen peroxide.
Finally getting around to reading other areas in mdc and started on this thread tonight!
Couple of questions:
Why is it that even some of the really good foods have fish oil or menhaden in them??? I have an older kitty who is prone to UTC especially when her *brother* harrasses her a lot and stresses her out. Even when we were in NC there was an AMAZING pet supplies store that carried all of the best brands but they ALL had fish urghhhhh.
Now we're in Savannah, GA which doesn't have too much other than Petsmart and a new store that I have to check out. They do have the Blue Buff brand though and I tried the Blue Wilderness but it has some fish in that too! And it's a high protein low carb - should I be careful of that with miss UTC? She does eat wet food too but my boy doesn't eat too much wet.
doggies are getting Blue as well.
Oh and anyone tried World's Best Cat Litter??? I liked it and it was clumping but I don't think it had silica in it. I decided to try some other one this time
:that said it doesn't have silica and I fell for the marketing hype that says it *needs* to be dusty to coat the poop and dry it out and keep the germs down. Some vet's name brand. anyway, any comments???
I had a lot of trouble finding good brands of dog/cat food so I wanted to recommend this store www.globalpetfoods.com. They only have Canadian locations, but they carry most of the brands mentioned in this thread and also carry frozen raw diets. They don't carry things like Iams, Purina, and Science Diet.
we feed our dog eagle pack ,now he is on strike ,,,he woun't eat . he has been on this for 18 months .when we got him as a puppy I put this food in the bowl and he'd eat it .well he is my counter sufer and loves table food ,but he is not allowed it as I never feed any pet table food every one say's just switch it .I wanted him to be on a holistic diet and that is what eagles pack is but I don't no what other food is right for him he is 20 months he is a GSD and weights 82 lbs .any suggestions ..
Orijen- all varieties
Artemis Dog food- Maximal dog
Canine Caviar-Venison & Split Pea Adult dinner
Diamond Pet foods--Taste of the Wild
Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance--Potato & Duck-Sweet potato & fish and Sweet potato & Venison (technically this is a hypoallergenic traditional kibble, not a raw-based one)
Natura Pet foods--EVO and EVO Red meat
Solid Gold--Barking at the Moon
Natures variety--Instinct
Petcurean pet nutrition--Go Natural
The Honest Kitchen--Force-Embark
Wellness--CORE
Merrick--Before Grain
Please keep in mind that grain-free kibbles are appropriate for ADULT dogs and cats, not kittens or puppies, and are for dogs and cats that are good drinkers. If you don't keep water going through, these kibbles can be very dehyrating. Use caution when feeding a dog or cat who has known kidney or urinary issues.
Raw food is appropriate for all ages and health stages.
i have a ? re: pet promise dry cat food. sorry if it has been discussed, i am too lazy to read through the entire thread!
: i was buying this for my cats, but then i noticed that corn was like the third ingredient or something like that. now i am no expert but i don't think cats eat corn.......i don't know.
i switched to another brand that didn't use corn. what do you all think???? seems like a cheap filler maybe???
I've bookmarked several of the links posted in this thread, and will read through them hopefully today (our puppy is a surprise for the kids, so I have to be sneaky about looking up dog stuff
)
I would love to feed raw, but feel like we (as a family) need to get used to having a dog before we try it. Once my kids understand that they must leave the dog alone while he is eating, etc. and I don't have to worry about the kids touching raw meat then I would be more than willing to go the raw route.
In the meantime, I need a good dogfood recommendation. Like I said, I'm going to go through the links posted in this thread, but I'm in Canada and don't know if the brands suggested are available here. I'm thinking a better way to go is to just read the ingredients on the bag, so what ingredients am I looking for, and which ones do I specifically need to avoid (grain, but what else)?
I'm sure these questions have been asked a million times before, but I didn't see them in this thread, and since it's a sticky I thought maybe it would be okay to post this here...
TIA!
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