Is Your Dog’s Food Safe? – IOTW Report

Is Your Dog’s Food Safe?

A company claims that less than 10% of the dog food available in the marketplace is acceptable.

By what standard?

ht/ sam s.

34 Comments on Is Your Dog’s Food Safe?

  1. The problem is finding a vendor that stocks decent food at an affordable price. I need large breed active food and senior small dog food. Those 2 criteria limit my choices substantially within a reasonable price range. Some places have more specialty food that is organic and whatnot, but it’s $5 to $10 per pound. Some of the “human-grade” freeze dried crap is $25/pound. I love dogs and all, but that’s more money than I spend on myself for food.

  2. All I know is; I don’t buy store brand generics. Every dog I’ve ever had hated/hates iams. And I just took my dogs off Nutro Naturals (chicken, whole brown rice, & oatmeal recipe) because if an allergy one of my dogs developed. Mucous build up, sneezing, itchy ass and feet. lol. Food allergies isn’t always about itchy skin, it can do internal damage, too. Plus, that particular food has been getting very bad reviews. So anyway, I am giving them Nature’s Variety Instinct raw boost. (along with Pet Alive sinu-rite [lowered doses now]) The mucous has been less, the sneezing (normal and reverse) has lessend. Is it working? We shall see.
    The food is expensive ($20 for a 4.1 lb bag) but what else am I supposed to do? It’s a lot cheaper than paying a vet $$$$ for meds and visits that do nothing.

  3. When I lived in CO and hunted/fished and was on good terms with my game processor, my dogs ate raw. He was the go to guy for the state whenever an animal was killed on the highway and I scored literally tons of buffalo and deer besides the game I stocked.

    People would stop me and ask what in the world I was doing that my dogs(long haired German Shepherds) coats were so beautiful.

    Unfortunately since I’ve moved to w Texas, the only hunting is on leased land and it’s ridiculously expensive. So now they eat cooked meat/organs of some kind from the grocery mixed with Blue Buffalo kibbles. Sometimes I’ll mix pink salmon instead which they love. Blue Buffalo is rated one of the best and they look good. It’s the best I can do for now.

  4. As for treats, make and bake them yourself. Make up a batch of whatevers and toss em in the oven while you’re baking your own food. lol.

    And for those of you who give your pets peanutbutter: Check the label. Some dumbasses have decided they’re going to add xylitol to lower the sugar content and make it healthier. Xylitol is death to an animal.

    As if peanut butter is the same thing as eating buttercreme frosting. *rolls eyes*

    These fuckers have been throwing every chemical at us because 20% of the earth’s population can’t control what they put in their mouths. And guess what? It’s a control issue, not a food issue, ya assholes. People are still fuckin fat.

  5. I am the person that dog owners hate. I cooked for my dog, and yes – it was expensive. It wouldn’t have been so bad but prices for all meat have risen so in the past four or five years. I had a reason – my Dobe would become allergic to a food after being on it for awhile – even the very high end human grade foods.

    But that wasn’t the actual reason I switched him to home cookin’. That came about because one day I heard a weird thumping noise, and his tags rattling loudly – I walked into to the living room to see Zeus lying on the floor, legs out rigid and paddling the air, his body convulsing. I was instantly more panicked than I have ever felt in my life. Like a wuss I ran from the room to hide from the sight – I thought he was choking to death – and tried to text my son to come and help. My hands couldn’t work the phone because they were shaking so badly, I felt just overwhelmed with fear and grief. After a few minutes of listening to the thumps while trying to explain to my son via text – the noises stopped. I sat there and wept, one room away. Another few minutes went by and I heard his tags jingle – normal walking around jingle, and there he was! We had him at the vets office 20 minutes later. Grand Mal seizure. He had many more in the next few days, and I got fairly good at holding him through those to keep him calm. AND I decided to rule out everything I could, including food, which is why I first started to cook for him. Within two days, the seizures stopped.

    A few weeks later I found a recall notice online – quite by accident – which listed the food he had been on, and the lot numbers on his bags. $65.00 for 20lbs for that damn food. Well, I never looked back. Even though it was expensive, I cooked for him anyway. Heck, he was 12 by then, and I knew I wouldn’t have to do it for very long. I cooked for him for 1yr. 7months, and he never seized again. He stopped farting too. Dobe owners will know what I mean by THAT! 🙂
    I miss that dog.

  6. For the last 5-6 years of Satch’s life we also made his dinner. He had allergies and bad hips, he was such a good dog we would have done anything for him. His favorite (other than steak or salmon) was a frozen chicken breast cooked with rice. They would both be done at the same time, throw in a raw egg and some liver flavored glucosamine and condroitin and he was a happy guy. I know the glucosamine and condroitin worked for him, and he wasn’t smart enough for the placebo effect to be a factor.

  7. My dog gets very expensive food as recommended by her vet.
    She has had bladder stones twice and I’m not taking any chances.
    Plus she gets a cranberry supplement every day.
    (So far, so good.)

    @MJA, they love the stuff, but dogs should not be given peanut butter. This was one of the things I discovered when my girl was diagnosed with the stones. It was a contributing factor.
    Here’s an article that breaks it down:
    http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/3-reasons-peanut-butter-isnt-safe-for-dogs-or-people/

  8. Thanks for this, MJA. I started feeding my pups Merrick but they refused to eat it. I switched to Nutro and have so far had no problems, but I don’t use the Nutro Naturals, just their regular small breed dry. I’ll save this in case any problems develop.

    BTW, I think the study at the link was WAY too broad. I would really like to see a scientific study.

  9. I am glad to hear that about the condroitin. We found that Zeus seemed to have less stiff joints after we took him off comm foods, and we considered adding condroitin, but didn’t know if it was hooey. We had been on the fence about home foods for a few years since he kept developing allergies to every food we had him on, the best lasted about three years for him. He would get dull, itchy, stinky gas – then his fur would get nibbled off in patches. Poor dogs!!

  10. Come on. My dogs have never seen a rabbit turd they didn’t gobble up like it was a sirloin tip and one used to stand behind the other when he dropped a steamer, just to get a hot meal. Want to talk about what’s bad for your dog?

  11. We used to get it from Drs. Foster and Smith. I really do believe it worked. Sometimes we would run out and then you wonder if you should re-order or not, so you wait and see. Sure enough, after a while Satch would start having a harder time getting up or climbing steps. So we would order more and see if things changed, and after two or three weeks it seemed things were easier for him. So from what I saw I’m going out on a limb and say it worked for him anyway. Maybe the placebo effect was working on me, who knows.

  12. I once had a German Shepherd that stole a a porterhouse steak of of a very hot grill! We were eating and wondered why there wasn’t enough meat. We found him in the yard gnawing the bone. At that point we didn’t even scold him.

  13. I just changed my dogs and cat onto Orijen. I got sick of the VET making me feel like I was poisoning my critters because I fed them Blue Buffalo. Never had an issue…in fact I always thought my Labrador’s coat was *glowing* because of that food. Anyone else here use Orijen? I almost bought Victor food… grain free… but so many online people were raving about Orijen. So, we’ll see what happens. Bottom line … I’d rather pay the Grocer than the Doctor.

  14. Damn mja! That’s what we feed our St Bernard!! And he’s sneezing all the time!! Dumb vet told us to give him 5 Benedryl twice a day! He gets 4 at bedtime. The Nutro is $50 for a 30lb bag.
    Guess it’s back to the drawing board!

  15. Save this list, because when Wall Street collapses this Fall (late September), you’ll want to be sure you’re eating the healthiest dog food you can barter.

    You’ll want to avoid MJA’s mucous build up, sneezing, itchy ass and feet.

    😉

  16. After 2 years, I don’t have any problems with the Diamond Naturals Lamb & Rice. The dogs are healthy and they love it. And it only costs $35 for 40 pounds. But … I have learned that dog foods can go rancid about two weeks after opening the bag, so it’s probably best to use it up before then.

    My dogs also get Greek yogurt, and fish oil caps, about once a week. I can’t take the large fish oil caps anymore so I give them to the dogs. Just as soon as the dogs hear me twist the lid on the jar, they are whimpering and jumping all over with anticipation.

    I stopped using Purina a couple years ago when it started making my dog sick. He wouldn’t even eat it after a while, that’s when I started researching and found a bunch of consumer complaints about dogs getting liver and kidney damage from that crap.

    My dogs have not been to the vet for a couple of years now. I buy the rabies vaccine at the feed store and give them the shots myself every two years. Try that in your state. Then move to Arkansas and try it. lol. Land of the free. 🙂

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