I feel like a terrible dog mom.

FrauKlein · December 2009

*sigh*

All my life, we've fed our dogs Pedigree and it was fine. None of them had any health issues at all.

Now I have the two Doods and I thought I did the right thing by replacing the Pedigree with Iams L&R. I just got the 40lb bag of it last night.

And now you're all telling me that it's not any better. And frankly, I can't afford to run out and spend another $50 on dog food to replace the $40 worth of food I got yesterday.

Crap.

Amorlinda · December 2009

who said it's not any better? the vet?

FrauKlein · December 2009

Amor, check out the other responses in my post below.

weelass24 · December 2009

First of all, you are not a bad dog mom. He's better than he was before, right? That makes you a good mom. Swich after this bag. They are big dogs, so I assume you'll get through it pretty quickly, not that I know the first thing about dogs.

They will be FINE.

Amorlinda · December 2009

i just did.

Iams isn't the greatest out there, but if it works for them then there isn't an issue. It's going to be trial and error until you find the right food for him. My brother's dog is on Purina brand for his skin and it works great, but he had to go through a bunch of other brands. Even the Blue Buffalo brand (which is good) may not work for him. It just depends on the dog and the type of allergy he has.

In practice this was one of the most common things we saw. Owner's went through a series of foods in order to find the right one.

No worries, you're not a bad dog mom!

Amorlinda · December 2009

fredalina:
Aw, hon, don't feel bad! We all start somewhere . Iams is DEFINITELY better than Pedigree. No doubt. It's just not a *really* good food. Feed the Iams and then work on switching to maybe one of the really good foods if it doesn't give the results you want. If it does, then there's not a huge rush. Oh, and live and learn. When your dog has allergies, always buy a small bag of the new food .

Here's what you need to keep in mind with dog food:

1) Absolutely no animal by-products. This is the worst ingredient in pet food.
2) No corn. It's a huge allergen.
3) Meat should come from specific sources ("chicken" and "beef" are specific; "poultry" and "meat" are not).
4) Real (specific) meat or meat meal should be the number 1 ingredient, preferably 2 of the first 3 ingredients. Pet food manufacturers have to list ingredients in order of highest weight volume to lowest.
5) Beware of grain splitting and/or using the same grain multiple times. "Grain splitting" is technically taking a grain, say rice or corn, and spliiting it into components and listing them separately so that they appear further down in the ingredient lists. They will also list the same type of grain multiple times, like maybe use white rice and brown rice and rice meal, all separate ingredients. It makes it look like a food has more meat than it really has. Sometimes these foods are as much as 2/3 grain and less than 1/3 meat, but they still look like meat is the number 1 ingredient!
6) No BHA/BHT, or Ethoxyquin - these are artificial preservatives for fats and have been shown to cause cancer.

Looking at Iams L&R:

Lamb Meal (fine)Brewers Rice (okay)Corn Meal (bad)Ground Whole Grain Sorghum (meh, there for sweetness and not really useful)Ground Whole Grain Barley (fine)Chicken Meal (fine)Animal Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of vitamin E, and Citric Acid) - (not specific, so bad, but it's preserved naturally so that's good)Fish Meal (source of fish oil) (okay)Dried Egg Product (okay)Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed) (cheap filler but not really harmful)

Remaining Ingredients

Natural Chicken Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Salt (bad), Monosodium Phosphate, Choline Chloride, Dicalcium Phosphate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, DL-Methionine, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Rosemary Extract, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Folic Acid, Cobalt Carbonate
So, it's kind of a "meh" food, especially since it has corn in it despite being an "allergy" food. However, if you compare it to Pedigree, it's a bazillion steps up!

agreed!

FrauKlein · December 2009

*sigh*

Of course I end up with dogs that are not only allergic to other dogs and fleas... but also to their food. Too bad I love them so damn much that I'm going to end up beating myself up for awhile over this.

Amorlinda · December 2009

FrauKlein:
*sigh*

Of course I end up with dogs that are not only allergic to other dogs and fleas... but also to their food. Too bad I love them so damn much that I'm going to end up beating myself up for awhile over this.

aw, it'll be ok. You'll find the right food for them before you know it.

goodgalpal · December 2009

My dog has allergies and we've had good luck with Wellness brand (fish&sweetpotato).

I know how hard it is to find the one that works well, not to mention the one you can afford! Now that we know what works we buy the biggest bag because it is the best "bang for the buck".

You are soooooooooooo not a bad dog mom! Your fur kids love you!

mmk3742 · December 2009

You shouldn't feel bad. I am an animal science major and literally was taught in my animal nutrition class that the Pedigree type foods were equivalent to the higher end ones.

It wasn't until I got my first dog that I really started researching pet foods. (Well that and a massive MRSA infection that gave me more time than I knew what to do with.)

Fred summed up my thoughts on dog food really well. And now you know and can do research and decide what food is best for your dogs next time you have to buy food.

www.dogfoodanalysis.com and www.dogfoodchat.com are great resources as well if they haven't already been posted.

mmk3742 · December 2009

Oh and one other thing that I don't see listed on Fred's list is to find out what preservative a company's fish meal is preserved with. The company doesn't do the preserving and they are not required to list what it is preserved with since it is done by another company. Sneaky huh?

Most of the companies will have what the fish meal sources use to preserve the fish with on the website. If not, you can email them and they will get back with you. I emailed Blue Buffalo and they do not use ethoxyquin preserved fish sources.

kate930 · December 2009

Oh goodness - I really didn't mean to criticize your choice of dog foods! I have become a bit obsessed with dog food since the whole scandal of contaminated dog food a while back. I really just meant my post as more informative than a criticism of your "parenting" skills.

If you want to talk about bad dog mom - in poor years I fed my dogs kibble even though I knew it was bad for them. Being a grad student did not allow for pampered pets.

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