How Many Did You Try? - Update Post 21

[sarabz]

How many different kibbles did you try before you found one that worked? And how long do you let each go before giving up and moving on?

Currently on our 4th....

Edited September 12, 2016 by sarabz

[Hubcitypam]

With Rex about a decade ago I tried Nutro, Canadae,Blue Buffalo, California Naturals,Chicken Soup, Natural Balance, Solid Gold, Wellness and probably a couple more before I got so fed up I just tossed that infamous green bag of Iams that fixed him in the cart. I tried to give them a month or two but some results were so disastrous I punted early.

[DocsDoctor]

Three or four I think, with Doc. Then we settled on one that he liked and did well on and I fed it to him for the rest of his life - so around nine years. It continued to suit him though I would always add in some extras for variety. A bit of extra protein in particular was necessary as he got old and skinny.

 

I tried Ken on the same one when he first came here last year but it didn't suit him. Then on a couple of others before finding one which he does well on. So long as this continues to be the case I won't change it. Again he gets various extras for variety, though he is actually a much greedier dog than Doc and I have never known him leave anything in his bowl!

 

With both dogs I would buy a big bag of the dry food (10-15kg), do a gradual changeover from the old one over about a week, and continue on till the bag was finished - usually 4-6 weeks. That felt like a fair trial.

 

I will add that it really is a question of finding something that suits your dog's digestion. Neither of our preferred options is a posh food, both are made by a British manufacturer: http://www.dodsonandhorrellpetfood.co.uk/ Dodson and Horrell's 'Autarky' is the one which usually gets recommended in dog food reviews, but it didn't suit either of my chaps. Doc liked 'Gusto', which is their economy range, and Ken prefers 'Pet Greyhound' - which is not much more expensive, and £1 from each bag I purchase goes to support the Retired Greyhound Trust.

[GreyTzu]

Our dog get free-range cats when we let them off the tow-chains in the backyard. Nothing works better than a fresh cat once a week.

 

We have never had an issue with Purina One Lamb and Rice. Yes, I have fed Wellness and another high dollar food in the past, all with no issues in a multiple dog home.

 

Purina One works for all our dogs. If they start to have an issue with it, I will sell them to the highest bidder.

Yeah. I'm not kidding...

[rascalsmom]

The only change I have made with Phoebe (and we've had her for three years now) is to go from the large breed formulation that her foster home had her on to the regular formulation. She has been on pro plan since she was in her foster home. She likes it, output is good, and I figure why fix it if it isn't broken?

[robinw]

Some of them I gave up to a year. I know I found the right food when they coats looked really shiny and they filled out a bit after they were on their current food for about three weeks.

 

Now I feed them Acana Cobb Chicken and Greens kibble. Crazy expensive, but it's worth it because they look great. For the first time Iker doesn't look like I'm starving him and their coats are soft and shiny.

 

I've had dogs where the high end foods weren't successful and we did best with mid range food.

Edited September 8, 2016 by robinw

[macoduck]

Like Wendie, except for the cat part, we tried the higher end foods. Our dogs might have been getting better nutrition going in but the output was nasty.

 

Iams green bag worked for many years until our new girl, Mazy, couldn't adjust to it. We switched to Purina One Lamb and Rice and were able to get happy endings.

 

To answer your question though, we gave it a month or one large bag before deciding if we were going to continue with a new food. This included the transition period with the old food mixed in.

[GeorgeofNE]

One.

 

Sorry....got lucky with the second dog.

 

First dog had every possible "new dog" problem, I think, including pudding poo for months.

[cleptogrey]

oh, and what's the worst is when you find one that works and they change the friggen recipe! i know what you are feeling. way too many. post your list of kibbles tried and i am sure we will all add our comments....

 

over the years

fromm(couldn't get it for a while)

canidade- changed the recipe

prarie venison ....price tripled

merrick- went right thru them

hollistic select- bought out by a group of and price skyrocketed. but in a pinch it's still a good food. i never need to transition to holistic select.

nutro- changed recipe, but started making a low fat lamb and rice. using that and the hard to get----blue seal.

blue seal- hasn't changed yet, just a PITA to get. I buy 80#s or more at a clip since it's a haul(a good hour) to purchase it, but there is a really GREAT Vietnamese resturant 10 min from there and remarkable home made ice pops as well as DIA beacon.

 

and this doesn't include the variety of brands that just didn't work, luckily for me Pet Goods takes back any food that doesn't agree with your dog. so, i've tried a good 1/2 dozen in-between the list posted above.

Edited September 8, 2016 by cleptogrey

[krissy]

All my dogs end up on J/D and so far so good. I guess I'm lucky.

[Guest k9soul]

I've really been pretty problem-free with feeding kibble + raw together. Apparently that's similar to what they eat at the track so maybe that's why. Currently the kibble they are on is Zignature. They've also had Taste of the Wild but I wanted to move away from a food with so much potato as it seemed to cause more gas. The Zignature seems to have agreed with them well. I get the turkey formula and it's a limited ingredient food so it doesn't have a lot of excess protein sources.

[winnie]

We're currently on our sixth dog (4 greyhounds, 2 galgos). We've never had any issues with kibble. I'm sure many on this thread want to hit me right now.

 

Our current pack is fed a mixture of BJ's Wholesale brand all natural chicken & brown rice and Taste of the Wild salmon (Newest galgo was on that brand. We mixed it to transition her, but all the dogs like it.).

Edited September 8, 2016 by winnie

[sarabz]

Laura - yes....

 

 

With Bella, we've had it great. Some gas issues here and there but basically she's been perfectly fine on whatever she's been on.

 

Kirby is a whole other beast.

 

First few weeks we attributed to new home stress, deworming, etc etc etc. Then vet gave us a small bag of Hills W/D for the extra fiber. That helped but the volume of food needed/poos produced was outrageous. Tried Kirkland weight management - somewhat better on both but not great. Kirkland weight management mixed with the Kirkland variety Bella is eating - softer poos. Just the Kirkland salmon that Bella is eating- very soft. Add olewo carrots - pretty good, but would rather find a food that works versus add-ins every day - save the add-ins for occasional tummy upsets. Kirkland turkey - no improvement, maybe even slightly worse but not sure how long to give it a chance (it's only been a week into the transition).

 

Will give that a few more days and then pick up a green bag. I don't really care what he eats as long as he's feeling good and pooping well. At least now he's not as incredibly skinny as he was - he is a big solid boy.

[XTRAWLD]

4-6 for Kasey when we were under a food trial. We tried each for a month, or a full large bag, whichever came first, but it was always a very gradual transition to the next kibble. 1/4 cup new or something for a couple days, than 1/2 cup, etc. Often the transition phase is where it's dicey. Eventually I just gave up and went raw. Good ever since. So I guess 7 overall to resolve all issues of soft stool as well as major allergic issues.

 

For kibble, Kasey responded best to Limited Ingredient Diet Natural Balance, Fish and Sweet Potato. No stinky gas, no huge skin breakouts, decent poops. But nothing beat raw.

Edited September 8, 2016 by XTRAWLD

[claudiav]

after months and months of explosive diarrhea, all it took was 24 hrs on raw to convert us for life... there is nothing else like it

[sarabz]

Unfortunately raw is not really an option for us as we have limited space to store the meat and no place to contain both hounds where they could eat and not matter if they made a mess.

[Fostr_Mom]

We went from Diamond Naturals Lamb & Rice that the kennel was feeding to Beef and Rice. Changed to 4Health (Tractor Supply) Beef and Potato. We are now feeding 4Health Pork & Potato.

[45MPHK9]

We've had four different dogs eating ProPlan Shredded Lamb and Rice over the course of 8 years. They've all had good poop with that kibble, so we've never switched.

[Guest Sportingfields]

Honestly I've never had poo problems from any food we've fed any of our 7 dog's. Now gas, that's another whole story.

[Guest k9soul]

My mom adopted a smooth collie years ago from a rescue and just nothing seemed to agree with him. He had awful digestive issues. Finally she found success on Honest Kitchen foods, dehydrated that you hydrate for 5 mins and then feed. She also home-cooked a chicken/rice mixture for some of his meals (nothing fancy, just boiled some chicken off the bone and mixed with rice). I don't know if anything like that might help.

Edited September 9, 2016 by k9soul

[sarabz]

So we flipped Kirby to the Iams green bag (proactive health) last night and wow, what an immediate difference, for the better. Not 100% perfect but much better. I typically do a gradual transition but figured he couldn't get much worse if I just switched - in part because my vet had us do that a few weeks back - so I did and he was better. Good this morning even on his 2nd poo.

 

Fingers crossed. This was our 5th food My goal was to get him on something that would firm him up without a lot of additives, and save olewo etc for when they have minor stomach bugs or occasional issues.

[Hubcitypam]

I rest my case.

[winnie]

Great news!

[sarabz]

I rest my case

 

 

[macoduck]

Yay for good Kirby poop!