I have a lot of dogs, first off. And almost 10 years experience making my own stupid decisions.

We got our first dog when I was 6, a pair of rescue coonhounds and we fed them pedigree. We didn’t know any better at the time. Once our neighbors who breed shelties turned us off that, and onto NutroMax (before Mars Co. bought it out) and they THRIVED, wonderful coat, lively, happy, then a few years later we noticed a not-so gradual change in them. Especially Hope. As she was almost 10, we assumed it was mostly age. Then we found out once Mars bought it out, the ingredient list changed to almost as bad as Iams. The quality difference was that noticable, that in two hounds, completely unrealated and in different age groups, we noticed such drastic changes almost immediately. They were sluggish, lethargic, and had dull bristly coats and didnt want to eat anymore.

We swithed to Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul, and boy did it turn things around. It was like they were 3 years younger, glossy coats, happy springy and lively. That is the difference a GOOD dog food makes compared to a bad one. They were downright miserable on the bad stuff.

Also, my new dog Auggie (a mutt) has quite a sensitive tummy. We put him on the same food as our hounds and it didnt agree with him. But we kept feeding it thinking it was just the fast change in food. Nope, so I fed him Verus, another good dog food, and it still made him sick. 20 lbs of dog food later and it just didnt work. He still had diarrhea. So on a whim, we borrowed Purina Pro-Plan from a friend so we didnt waste any more money, and he was throwing up, had diarrhea and had terrible gas. So we put him on boiled chicken breast and rice, hoping to stop the stomach upset before switching to a new food. We next tried a frozen raw diet supplemented with rice and chicken breast to keep his belly calm and he did wonderfully on it for about a month and a half, so I decided we would now try to gradually switch him to this food only orderable online, Life’s Abundance. And it has been his only food since.

I notice his poops are small, solid and dont smell much at all. Whereas on everything else they were loose (if not diarrhea) and as for the Purina, quite large for his size (40 lbs). This tells me he wasn’t absorbing the nutrients in the other food (If there were much at all to absorb in that food) and now his body is keeping most of them. Also his new food has a good amount of fruits and vegetables and good grain, with a healthy portion of chicken meal (#1 ingredient) and chicken fat, as well as some catfish meal. I deduce that he just needs a lot more vitamins and nutrients from fruits and veggies and less from meat and overwhelming grains. I also give him plenty of snacks of melon, apple, broccoli, carrots, and other assorted fruits and veggies weekly to be sure he is getting enought of those for his system.

This goes to show that not all dogs will be able to thrive on petstore bought foods, and especially not the crap brands listed above. For Auggie I had to look far and wide and try to find foods that werent too similiar so as not to repeat the last experience with him. I dont get him an expensive food only found online because I claim to feed “the best dog food” but it IS the best… for MY DOG. Maybe not yours. All dogs have slightly different nutritional needs and the foods I tried, except purina, were very good quality. But they werent healthy for Auggie. Just because you buy your food online, and it is expensive, does not mean you do it only to brag. I do because Auggie cant eat much else.

Also, just because corn is healthy to humans, does not mean it is good for dogs. It is a major cause of allergies in many, many dogs, and because of owners who do not know any better because of the lack of publicity good dog food gets, many helpless dogs suffer in pain and lick and bite their paws until they bleed or can barely walk on them.

I wish more dog owners were able to easily get information like what this website offers, so more pets would get the healthy nutrition they deserve. And as a last note, I am glad I care about my dog enough to know EXACTLY what animal and what part of it he is eating. So that I can be assured his dinner tonight does not contain decayed roadkill or the scraps that weren’t good enough to make it onto my plate. Because, frankly, if I wouldnt eat it, why should I feed it to my dog?

Remember, this article is simply someone’s opinion based on ingredients. If I told you I had a recipe for something that contained currants, parsley, and nuts wrapped in a vine leaf, you probably wouldn’t think it’s so great. But you go to an expensive restaurant and it’s a fantastic appetizer. It’s all in the quality of the ingredients and the ways in that they are prepared.

There is no such thing as “fillers” in food. Sawdust would be filler. Insoluble fibre (something we look for in our own breakfast cereals) has nutritional value as well. People think corn is a filler. Then why pay $3.00 for a dozen ears at the stand every summer and eat it yourself? Corn is a great source of hypoallergenic energy. Just because your dog or cat is sensitive to a food, doesn’t mean it’s the corn (or the wheat or the gluten or…) Before we knew better, people thought cholera was spread by SMELL. Now we know it’s a bacteria. What will we learn about pet nutrition in the next 10 years?

Think for yourself – don’t take someone else’s word for anything. It’s a waste of a brain.

Tom