Grade For Dog Kibble

[Guest caiteag]

Dog food ratings:

 

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

 

This website, along with the rating system at the beginning of this thread are great resources.. however, never let them substitute your own good judgement for your dog(s). Just as an example.. Choo has dietary issues... we've never been able to establish if they are allergy based or something else.. however, whatever the cause, we have to be very careful what we feed her. She currently eats Natural Balance's LID Venison and Sweet Potato formula and is doing FABULOUS. The above website classifies it as a 3 star food. At one point we considered having her eat Taste of the Wild and tried their Venison formula. It is classified as a 5 star food on this site and it made her sicker than I have ever seen her. The moral of the story... feed what works for YOUR dog. Don't stress over what someone tells you is good or bad... just feed what works well for you.

[Guest savvytwh]

Dog food ratings:

 

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

 

I found this site easy to understand & will be using it to find a food for by grey with a tentative diagnosis of IDB.

 

Carol & Matlock

Edited November 16, 2010 by savvytwh

[Guest manawatugal]

One of my local petstores here refuses to stock Eukanuba and Iams because they 'test' on dogs. Apparently they are known to 'force feed' dogs the kibble. Other than that I don't know. Has anyone else heard this. Of course if you contact the companies they are bound to deny such practices.

[Guest ww_phaeton]

Has anyone tried the BJ's brand dog food? It's a wholesale store like Costco and that's where we get our food from. There was a food they sold years ago that was made by Mars that had some recall issues but this food is different and made by a different company (Global One Pet). These are the ingredients:

 

"Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Rice, Oats, Rice Bran, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Natural Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Herring Meal, Natural Flavors, Dried Egg Product, Dried Blueberries, Dried Spinach, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Fish Oil (Preserved with Natural Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Sodium Selenite, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Rosemary Extract"

 

And this was a response from BJ's to a customer's question that I found online regarding the meat they use:

 

"Thank you for your inquiry into the Berkley and Jensen’s Holistic Dog Food. We use human grade, hormone free chicken in our recipe that comes from a supplier of chicken for human consumption. We actually go the extra step of performing peroxide value testing on all of our meats to ensure that our meats have not begun to turn rancid even if they look and smell fine. Our standard for our chicken and chicken meal is 10 meq/kg fat, the same as human products. We hope this answers your questions."

 

It isn't on this list or on dogfoodanalysis but we've had really good luck with it feeding it to our cattle dog. I'm wondering if it will be good for our incoming greyhound as well? Won't know until we try I guess.

[Guest GreytMom333]

<!--quoteo(post=3281583:date=Mar 28 2008, 01:48 PM:name=Fudge)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fudge @ Mar 28 2008, 01:48 PM) 3281583[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+!!!

 

I'm surprised, is this the Costco brand?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

 

Yes it is.. and my dogs do really well on it. <img src="http://forum.greytalk.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

 

 

My dogs also do very well on this. I was pleasantly surprised at the ingredients when I compared it to other brands that are far more expensive. Oh course, I add some yummy stuff, i.e. pumpkin, brown rice, for a little variety.

[Guest maidmarcia]

I've had Licorice on Kirkland for one bag so far and it's going great!! His coat has improved SO much and he's put on at least three to five healthy and much needed pounds! A vote of confidence for Kirkland from me Also, I love how affordable it is!

[Guest BrianRke]

Im a HUGE fan of Diamond Naturals. Dogfoodadvisor.com rates it a 4 star food and I can get a 40lb bag at Tractor Supply for $28.99. All my dogs do well on it so I think its a keeper!

[Guest verthib]

Why are meat by-products such a major downgrade in this system? My understanding is that they are organs, blood, etc., not hair or hooves. Many by-products such as green tripe and chicken feet are highly sought after by raw feeders. As long as the by-products have a specific source listed -- chicken, beef, whatever -- why wouldn't they be okay? Are there some bad possibilities in the by-product mix?

 

The by-products are what's left....meaning eyes, skin, beaks, intestines, and any other organs left in the carcass. YUK!!

[Hubcitypam]

Here is the AAFCO wording on chicken by products --

 

<LI>Chicken By-Product Meal - consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.

 

Oddly enough there are people on GT that spend plenty of money to get chicken feet and turkey neck "by products" for their dogs. I've bought necks and backs for treats.

My Mexican neighbors pay pretty big money for tripe to go in Menudo (as well as whole cow and pork heads for tamales)

A friend buys pork intestines to make chitlins

I really do fried pork rinds which are a by product

My friend Maureen spent a year in India and ate lamb eyeballs.

 

If those things are good enough for people to eat why are they bad in kibble?

 

[Guest emma]

Here is the AAFCO wording on chicken by products --

 

<LI>Chicken By-Product Meal - consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.

 

Oddly enough there are people on GT that spend plenty of money to get chicken feet and turkey neck "by products" for their dogs. I've bought necks and backs for treats.

My Mexican neighbors pay pretty big money for tripe to go in Menudo (as well as whole cow and pork heads for tamales)

A friend buys pork intestines to make chitlins

I really do fried pork rinds which are a by product

My friend Maureen spent a year in India and ate lamb eyeballs.

 

If those things are good enough for people to eat why are they bad in kibble?

 

 

Exactly! My grandparents always used pig intestines to stuff it with a ground meat to make great homemade salami for example

And some people eat chicken brains... (I'm sorry, no offense )

 

What I am more concerned about is HOW they process it to make a kibble out of it cause I read somewhere they use extremely high temperatures to process the meat and everything so I don't know if that is very good.

Also preservatives are really bad usually.

And I read somewhere this horrible thing that some companies actually use carcasses found by highways etc I don't know if this is true?

Plus I heard that many foods are actually one company under different name like eukanuba and iams? I'm not sure though. My thoughts are that how do you know if the food you are buying is not from the same company which makes some crap food? (if it does not say on the package)

[Guest Downing]

Thanks for all the usefulness!

[Guest AMELIAdetonated]

Simply Nourish Limited Ingredient Brown Rice & Turkey Recipe: 87 B

[schultzlc]

This is really helpful! Thank you for posting.

[Guest 2GreytsMom]

Wow! Interesting information... for the last 2 years I've been feeding my 2 Science Diet Adult 1-7 small bites because that's what they were feeding them at the foster's house. Billy was very sick when I first got him- between nervous stomach & the never ending worms it took quite a while before his poops were solid! They are doing well on it & I hate to "fix" something that's not broken but based on this list, it doesn't look all that healthy!! Now I'm thinking I should switch them...

[Guest jenniferk]

I calcluated Blue Buffalo Freedom Grain-Free Chicken as 108.

[Guest bernadette]

We LOVE ths Kirkland food. Vinnie was having a Big D issue and a friend told us about Kirkland- no corn, no wheat. We switched the cats and Vinnie to the Costco food and the cats especially I noticed- their coats became so much healthier! No more diarrhea for Vinnie. The ingredients I am very happy with and I'm always seeing good reviews for this food. And 40lb for about $24- even better.

Here is the ingredient list for the one we buy (Adult Chicken, Rice and Vegetable Formula):

 

Ingredients: Chicken, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, cracked pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and vitamin E), egg product, dried beet pulp, potatoes, fish meal, flaxseed, natural flavor, brewers dried yeast, millet, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, carrots, peas, kelp, apples, dried skim milk, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, dried chicory root, glucosamine hydrochloride, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, chondroitin sulfate, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

[Guest AMELIAdetonated]

Nature's Recipe Grain Free -Easy to Digest- Chicken, Sweet Potato, & Pumpkin Recipe: 101 A+

 

Woohoo! I'm hoping we stick with this one, but the price of the Kirkland's is so nice, but we'll see. I really like the pumpkin additive because it's good for their stomachs (or so I've read). Thanks for the scale!

[Walliered]

I am going to start mine on Honest Kitchen Preference.

[Guest bluefawn]

Penny, my senior grey (14 1/2+) got a bit thin about 3 months ago, and seemed to have lost her "spark" and actually looked a bit weak. I was feeding either IAMS green bag or Authority, and I figured maybe she was getting enough food (I have always free-fed my hounds) but that there was probably just not enough nourishment in the food. I started with Simply Nourish canned food (see info below the SN dry info), and she began eating again.

 

Then I bought the Simply Nourish dry, added a little BilJac Senior Select Formula (which I thought was great but from the ratings it doesn't look so good now), and I add 1/2 tsp. of Solid Gold Seameal 2X a day. In about 3 months time, she has all of her weight back on and not too much, and she is much more active again. And... she blew her coat again! (she usually only does this in the spring when it starts to warm up). Her new coat is very shiny and soft.

Simply Nourish dry rates 113 A+ using the dog food grading scale. It is more expensive, but I feed half of what I had fed with other dry foods. I cannot find on the web whether it is baked or extruded, so if it is baked (which I suspect is it), it would earn another 5 points.

 

http://www.dogfoodad...ly-nourish-dry/

 

The canned Simply Nourish is absolutely awesome! Penny is will soon be 15 and she has become a picky eater and was becoming too thin. She normally weighs 48 pounds, but she was down to 46 pounds (she is small for a greyhound). She was looking a little thin and even bony. I have always free-fed my hounds. I started with the canned SN, and it looks just like a can of meat & veggies that you would serve to your family! Now, I'm not gonna taste it (Larry did lol, and he said it tastes wonderful, just no seasoning).

http://reviews.petsm...ews/reviews.htm

 

I also feed SN dry to my whippet girls, who are 2 1/2 now. They absolutely love it!

Edited September 5, 2012 by bluefawn

[Hubcitypam]

Plus I heard that many foods are actually one company under different name like eukanuba and iams? I'm not sure though. My thoughts are that how do you know if the food you are buying is not from the same company which makes some crap food? (if it does not say on the package)

Most of the time you don't. However, In the case of Iams and Eukenuba the foods are not that markedly different.

 

The same can't be said for Merrick and Beef n' More. The same family owned plant puts out $2+ a can Cowboy Cookout under Merrick and .65 a can Beef n' More with very similar ingredients out of the same plant. I have a hard time believing that they process the high end food, then clean everything and bring in new lower grade beef and restart the machines for the cheap stuff. They also have an on site rendering plant for their dead stock removal companies, but swear that it is only for treats.

[Guest lbooras]

That Blue Buffalo is a really interesting line of foods. Love what's in there. If my "problem child" needs to change foods again, that's one I would look at very seriously. The Costco works wonderfully for my female grey and sheltie. Our chi ended up on Avoderm for some odd reason, and our male grey has been on AvoDerm, too.

 

None of the AvoDerm is rated here, though.

 

I tried to switch our pups to Blue, and it was horrible! They started smelling! and we all know greyhounds don't really smell. They're poo was absolutely awful and runny, farting was unbearable. I was also only 3/4 of the way transitioning them! Then I read that for some dogs this brand is too rich for them, there is actually too much stuff in it for their system to take. It's not the same with all greyz, but if yours have any kind of stomach sensitivity, i would not recommend this.

[Guest kess]

my grey is a fussy eater and will only eat kibble if it is mixed with something + he likes a bit of water thrown over it as well. He is the only fussy eater I have ever had. For his main meal at night he gets about 1.5 cups of dry food + approx 200 grm of mince or diced meat, roo, chicken, rabbit or beef, he loves roo but it does give him wind.

Edited September 29, 2012 by kess

[Guest Greyhoundpups]

Nature's Recipe Grain Free -Easy to Digest- Chicken, Sweet Potato, & Pumpkin Recipe: 101 A+

 

Woohoo! I'm hoping we stick with this one, but the price of the Kirkland's is so nice, but we'll see. I really like the pumpkin additive because it's good for their stomachs (or so I've read). Thanks for the scale!

I use this too! Both my greys love it! We also do some salmon dinners in place of it as as an extra special dinner.

[Guest mb_in_md]

Plus I heard that many foods are actually one company under different name like eukanuba and iams? I'm not sure though. My thoughts are that how do you know if the food you are buying is not from the same company which makes some crap food? (if it does not say on the package)

Most of the time you don't. However, In the case of Iams and Eukenuba the foods are not that markedly different.

 

The same can't be said for Merrick and Beef n' More. The same family owned plant puts out $2+ a can Cowboy Cookout under Merrick and .65 a can Beef n' More with very similar ingredients out of the same plant. I have a hard time believing that they process the high end food, then clean everything and bring in new lower grade beef and restart the machines for the cheap stuff. They also have an on site rendering plant for their dead stock removal companies, but swear that it is only for treats.

 

I've never seen Beef n' More here in the mid-Altantic area. Is there credible information online about Merrick? From what I understand, they acquired Castor & Pollux recently, too?

[Hubcitypam]

http://www.inewidea....b/73713678.html

...and from the Merrick website. Reference 1992. They did acquire Castor & Pollux this year.

http://www.merrickpe...story/timeline/

I've heard that Merrick is in the process of phasing out Beef n' More as it has become a bit of a public relations problem.

This letter probably didn't hit most people's radar as no one recognized Tejas Industries instead of Merrick.

http://www.fda.gov/I...s/ucm217086.htm

That still doesn't take away the dead stock removal services which they swear they only use for bully sticks, etc. Again, just google Tejas Industries. I believe Garth says they use "every part of the cow but the moo".

Edited October 29, 2012 by Hubcitypam