Quality Dog Food

I like Instinct. It is expensive, comes in dry and canned. There are no grains in it which is generally good with cancer as carbs can feed some types of cancer. It is a lot higher calorie than some other foods so adjust portions accordingly.

We use and LOVE Nutro ... my older dog has digestive issues and once we made the switch all of that as over and done with ... the bonus is they make snacks/treats as well.

Science Diet or Iams. But now our senior dog is craving more variety....sigh.

Just checked the site rec'd by Jen C and neither Iams OR Science Diet is on the list!

http://www.dogfoodscoop.com/best-dog-foods-ranked.html

This site lists the best and worst and everything in between to help you make the best choice for both your animals health and your pocket book. But rest assured, wellness is on the top 10 list, and is also what I feed mine.

It is important to remember that just because you vet sells it or recommends it does not make it good. Vets get money from the sells of dog food and products. Science diet pays a lot to vets to sell their food, but as you can see in the link was ranked as one of the worst 10 foods you can buy for your dog.

I'm so sorry about your loss.

Honestly, I don't think it makes a difference with dog food. Our dog growing up was on Purina Dog Chow and lived to about 11 years and died after having seizures. The dog we had as a family when we bought our house in 2001 lived about the same number of years and was on pricey Nutro dog food. He died in 2006 of cancer throughout his body (had to put him to sleep).

My vet always recommends Science Diet. :) But has agreed that IAMs make a good product also. Which is what I feed all my dogs. There are several types of Science Diet, if your Vet cannot recommend a food that would best for your pets, you might want to get a second opinion.

I am slowly switching my cats over from Iams to Science Diet based on age, illness, and dietary needs. I used to feed everybody Purina, and noticed as my animals aged a higher precedence of urinary tract infections - which turned out to be related to the food.

My understanding in the difference between pet foods is the amount of crude proteins - some foods are easier to digest and have less filler. It is the fillers that can lead to, or acerbate, illnesses in animals.

Just like people, diet can affect our pets health.

I am so sorry for the loss of your pet. We are battling liver disease in one of our pets right now- it is so hard when they are sick.

Good Luck
God Bless

I was shipping in Candidae dog food for years for one of mine. The 2 I have now eat Azmira. Blue Buffalo is also a good product.

Hi! We feed our dogs Flint River Ranch dog food and it is what I recommend too all of my pet sitting clients. FRR is oven baked, not flash fried, and they ship it to your home for free. FRR is baked and shipped the same day so you get it fresh - it's not sitting on a shelf for weeks or months! Here is the website if you want to read more about the different 'flavors' - I'm in McKinney and would be happy to get you some samples also: frrco.com/123013

Wellness is a very good dog food and I would stay with it. They are used to it.

Remember just because your vet sells a certain brand doesn't make it better, they are usually given incentives to sell a brand.

On a dog food rating that is unbiased. Brands like Science Diet and Iam are rated low. You are paying for their marketing.

For anyone who's looking for a good dog food but more on the affordable list, I would recommend. Costco's Kirkland brand. It's not rated at the top of the list but it's still rated well.

We buy Eukanuba lamb and rice. makes his poops smell bad but his coat is nice and shiny and his teeth are good too

Our Vet only sells and recommends Science Diet.

One thing to think about doing is asking the people at your pet supply store what they feed their dogs and why. Those who sell are usually up on what gets good reports and what doesn't, and they have reasons for feeding their pets whatever they use.

Cancer strikes dogs and cats at about the same percentage as it strikes people, so you can't be sure of preventing cancer with this or that food. But it's certainly a good idea to do your best!

Look to see what the first three ingredients are in the dog food. If any of them are corn, they are not worth your time or money. Believe it or not, most of the "big brands" (Science Diet, Purina, Iams, etc.) have corn listed as top 3. We use one which has 3 real proteins (i.e. chicken, lamb, etc.) as top three and pay less for it than the big brands because they don't stress about advertising their product. Next time you get dog food, read what the ingredients are.

P.S. I didn't explain the "no corn" thing well. My vet and the people we rescued our dog from, both say that corn isn't digested well by dogs (just like humans don't digest it well either). So in reality, you are feeding them a product that isn't that great for them, and they actually get hungrier, faster because they need the protein, not the corn. Hope this helps!

Definitely. You want a product that they will eat, that has "human grade" ingredients, that does not have animal by-products or artificial this or that. You won't find it in a grocery store.

So, two brands I like are Canidae and Solid Gold. Check out the 'dog treats' by Solid Gold! They smell exactly like beef jerky and basically are beef jerky.

Both companies have their respective web sites. I also would buy my grooming supplies from Solid Gold.

I am not too familiar with Wellness, but the brand does sound familiar to me, but I haven't checked the ingredients or company out.

I have two adult Golden Retrievers (almost 3 and 11) on Purina Pro line.

Interesting your vet doesn't have a recommendation, my vet's office tends to try to sell me everything, including the food they sell.

Need something I can get at the regular grocery store, though, fairly priced good quality. Whether the dogs LIKE it is not an issue for us, they will eat ANYTHING!

:)

If you can handle it give Raw a try. We love it and saw some great results not only with our sickly mastiff but our overweight cranky "old" basset. The basset who just turned 8 isn't overweight, isn't cranky and acts like a puppy now. The benefits are truly wonderful.
Our oldest son use to have to pick yup poop in our yard at least every other day. He hasn't had to do that in over 2 yrs now. The reason being is the amount of poop is way less and it also pretty much disappears after about 2 days.
Our sickly mastiff within a week of being on Raw was doing great...gaining weight and eating wonderfully.
I could go on and on about it. If you want to read up on it here are couple sites that will help you. And before you ask the cost is not as bad as many would think.
http://www.rawfed.com/
http://www.saddogsushi.com/feeding_calculator.html
http://www.rawfed.com/myths/
http://www.dogforums.com/dog-food-forum/15085-feeding-raw...

We use California Natural for our furry kids. Its organic, corn free, etc.
http://www.californianaturalpet.com/

Other really good options are listed here. http://www.greenpetdallas.com/products.php
I even know some people who make their own raw food, but that is way too much work for me!

I am a BIG fan of Old Mother Hubbard by Wellness. I feed this to our dogs and the Wellness version of cat food to our cats. They carry wet and dry and my pets love it. I switched to it because one of my cats has a sensitive stomach and my vet was also no help in finding a solution and kept wanting to run all sorts of tests on him to figure it out (which meant $300 every time we went in, but that's a whole different post!). So I reasearched it myself and started with Royal Canin. Also a good brand but my pets didn't care for it as a personal thing I guess.

Oh, if I read your post through completely I wouldhave seen that you are giving them Wellness. You have my vote that it is a good food!