# help! need to switch dog food.



## carlena1236 (Jul 24, 2012)

Our puppy is currently on natures recipe puppy food. Vet said she should be off that. She recommended, a few different ones including blue buffalo, organic or make our own. With 4 
Kids with food allergies, and etc, I don't have tome to make our, nor the budget for organic. So. We gonna go with blue, but someone recommend taste of wild, my moms dog is on nutro, and other friends have recommend others like wellness. Help we want the best for her, but not break the bank on an already super tight budget. She is gonna be a large dog; springer/lab mix and at 15wreks she is 27lbs.


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## Kibblelady (Jul 13, 2012)

Hi Carlena, so let me focus your question.. you want to know of a good food for your puppy that you can purchase that is economically feasible for you and your family? You are confused by all the advice you are getting and would like some sold suggestions for you to look at? Can you tell me what you would prefer to pay for pet food per month? It's a direct question I know, but it will help me really answer your question accurately. You can private message me that number if you would rather do that and then I can make some suggestions (not a ton lol I will make it easy) for you to consider 

Welcome to the board!


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

Acana, Orijen, EVO, Horizon are all good brands. I don't love Blue Buffalo, Taste of the Wild or Nutro as companies. BB just seems really shady in their advertising and have had recalls where they have not been completely open, ToTW is manufactured by Diamond which have had numerous quality control problems and recalls, and Nutro has sub par ingredients as well as recalls.


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

Love Fromm Classics for the price. Great company, trustworthy, family owned, no recalls. Not a glamorous ingredient label like Champion....but for the price, a nice food. About $1/lb.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

I second what Caty said. Acana is really good.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

Navigating the commercial pet food market can be so frustrating.
Unfortunately, BB, TotW, and Nutro are all a little unreliable as far as the companies go. Nutro has a huge recall list, and TotW is made by Diamond, who has some serious quality control issues. BB is a great food on paper, unfortunately I see few dogs actually thrive on it, and they seem to have some skeletons in the closet. 

Diamond makes foods with a good ingredient list for the price, but then you have to ask yourself how they are able to do so. Considering their extensive recall history, it's pretty clear they are skimping out on quality control, but what else are they cutting corners on to get the cost so much lower than other comparable? I personally wouldn't feel comfortable recommending ANY of their foods to anyone. 

Have you considered Nutri Source? Their Grain Free formulas are pretty comparable in price to TotW, granted a little bit higher. We've had a real heightened interest in their formulas in my boutique, and people have had really great feedback on them.


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## carlena1236 (Jul 24, 2012)

Thank you guys so much. As you can tell I'm extremely overwhelmed. Its as big of job figuring this all out, similar when my household had to go gluten, casein, egg, peanut and junk free. At most that we can spend is 50-60/ month ideally. But I'm wondering if [email protected] even possible? Especially if she is going to be a big dog. That's why my husband liked natures recipe because it was so affordable. The vet doesn't like it, because of th3 GMO canola oil. She said there are so much better foods out there for our Molly. I just want cry I'm so overwhelming


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

Fromm! Thanks Kevin, I always forget about them.. not popular in my area. Agree with Linsey, Nutrisource is good as well. 

People have been having good results with the Acana formulas more than any other IMO, the new singles line as well as the traditional ones (grasslands, pacifica, etc).


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## carlena1236 (Jul 24, 2012)

Thank you it is verovwrwhelming. We are looking tspend about 50-60 [email protected] a month preferable ...but not I'm wondering if that's possible? That's the top of our budget for dog food.


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## carlena1236 (Jul 24, 2012)

Woohoo! Link to respond on my phone finally worked. Lol. Thank you so much for responding. As you can tell I'm very overwhelmed....almost as much as when our household first went gluten, casein, egg, peanut, dyes and overall junk free in our foods. So I want to do what's best for our Molly, but how do you know?! Ugh. Honestly 50-60 dollars a month preferably is at the to0 of our monthly food budget for our dog. But with how large est. For to be...starting to wonder.

Our vet said the main reason she doesn't like Natures Recipe is due to th3 GMO canola oil.


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## meggels (May 30, 2010)

For a budget friendly food, from a great company, I would suggest Fromm, Nutrisource or Precise 

Fromm:

Gold Adult Formula:

Fromm Gold Holistic Adult Dry Dog Food | PetFoodDirect

Fromm Classics Adult Formula:

Fromm Classics Adult Dry Dog Food | PetFoodDirect


Nutrisource:

Chicken & Rice formula:

NutriSource Adult Dog Chicken & Rice Formula | PetFoodDirect

Their grain free chicken formula:

NutriSource Grain Free Chicken Formula Dry Dog Food | PetFoodDirect

30lbs for $40, is pretty damn good for a grain free lol



Precise:

Foundation Chicken Meal & Rice Formula:

Precise Chicken Meal And Rice Foundation Formula Dry Dog Food | PetFoodDirect


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## DaViking (Sep 27, 2011)

carlena1236 said:


> Woohoo! Link to respond on my phone finally worked. Lol. Thank you so much for responding. As you can tell I'm very overwhelmed....almost as much as when our household first went gluten, casein, egg, peanut, dyes and overall junk free in our foods. So I want to do what's best for our Molly, but how do you know?! Ugh. Honestly 50-60 dollars a month preferably is at the to0 of our monthly food budget for our dog. But with how large est. For to be...starting to wonder.
> 
> Our vet said the main reason she doesn't like Natures Recipe is due to th3 GMO canola oil.


Hi and welcome btw. Finding the "perfect" food isn't an easy task. It also means different things to different people and parents/owners/handlers often see different results simply because activities and other external factors can vary greatly.

At around $60 average monthly feeding cost for your springer/lab mix you have many good choices. Wouldn't even bother looking at BB or TotW. Here's some I'd recommend taking a closer peek at. Dr. Tim's Kinesis or Pursuit $1.45/lb, Native Level 3 Puppy $1.25/lb, Horizon Legacy Puppy $2.1/lb or Complete Puppy $1.6/lb, Earthborn Vantage Puppy $1.6/lb or Coastal Catch $1.8/lb Plus you have gotten many other good suggestions already. If you'r from Canada I'd thrown in a cpl more. Don't buy into the grain free hype. There is no way potatoes is superior to traditional grains, legumes is interesting but still got things to prove. Not that there is anything wrong with grain free foods per say but you should instead pay attention to the overall amount of carbohydrates. Then you can look at what kind of carbohydrates. If you can't find a brand locally you can always buy from petflow.com, petfooddirect.com, amazon.com or similar sites and have them ship it to your door. Many will even ship for free these days.


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

Also, many of the more expensive per pound grain frees are very calorie dense, meaning you won't need to feed as much.. EVO being an example. So while it may be higher in cost per pound, it's not expensive as fed. One small bag (maybe six pounds) lasted my two kitties for more than a month and they loved it!


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## Kibblelady (Jul 13, 2012)

carlena1236 said:


> Woohoo! Link to respond on my phone finally worked. Lol. Thank you so much for responding. As you can tell I'm very overwhelmed....almost as much as when our household first went gluten, casein, egg, peanut, dyes and overall junk free in our foods. So I want to do what's best for our Molly, but how do you know?! Ugh. Honestly 50-60 dollars a month preferably is at the to0 of our monthly food budget for our dog. But with how large est. For to be...starting to wonder.
> 
> Our vet said the main reason she doesn't like Natures Recipe is due to th3 GMO canola oil.


carlena, I just looked at all the Nature's Recipe foods and I didn't see canola oil in any of them? Maybe your vet is confusing it with another food?


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## lovemydogsalways (Mar 4, 2012)

I am a fan of Nutrisource and Earthborn.


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

meggels said:


> For a budget friendly food, from a great company, I would suggest Fromm, Nutrisource or Precise
> 
> Fromm:
> 
> ...




Seeing more and more comments endorsing Nutrisource. I'd love to hear more from you guys feeding it. The lady who wrote the Dog Food Project is pretty neutral on them overall(not horrible, not great) and after reading her comments, I just never really looked into them. 

Their prices are definitely good.


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## meggels (May 30, 2010)

kevin bradley said:


> Seeing more and more comments endorsing Nutrisource. I'd love to hear more from you guys feeding it. The lady who wrote the Dog Food Project is pretty neutral on them overall(not horrible, not great) and after reading her comments, I just never really looked into them.
> 
> Their prices are definitely good.



I've heard a lot of good reviews from people that have used the food, and from what I know, they are a small family owned company out of Texas.


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## kevin bradley (Aug 9, 2009)

But you are right, family owned company. They look pretty good, especially for value.

I think they are out of Minnesota though(don't mean to split hairs).


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## meggels (May 30, 2010)

Ohhhh, Precise might be the one outta Texas.


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## riddick4811 (Nov 2, 2011)

kevin bradley said:


> Seeing more and more comments endorsing Nutrisource. I'd love to hear more from you guys feeding it. The lady who wrote the Dog Food Project is pretty neutral on them overall(not horrible, not great) and after reading her comments, I just never really looked into them.
> 
> Their prices are definitely good.


I tried a bag of Nutrisource Performance and wasn't really happy with it. Dogs did much better on Native- ate less, better coats and better poop on Native Level 3. But I just tried a bag of the Nutrisource grain free Lamb and was pleased with it. Dogs all love the taste and it worked well on my dogs of all ages, sizes, breeds. Dogs did better on it than Earthborn which is my fall back food.


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## meggels (May 30, 2010)

I see people happy with Native but can't find it anywhere local.


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## riddick4811 (Nov 2, 2011)

meggels said:


> I see people happy with Native but can't find it anywhere local.


Me either. I had to order it online. I fed the Level 3 Puppy to my Greyhound puppy and he did better on it than anything else we tried. I also fed the Level 1 to my other dogs and they all did very well. I got mine from Petflow.com and wag.com


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## starturtle (Jul 12, 2012)

riddick4811 said:


> I tried a bag of Nutrisource Performance and wasn't really happy with it. Dogs did much better on Native- ate less, better coats and better poop on Native Level 3. But I just tried a bag of the Nutrisource grain free Lamb and was pleased with it. Dogs all love the taste and it worked well on my dogs of all ages, sizes, breeds. Dogs did better on it than Earthborn which is my fall back food.


I know I am resurrecting a really old thread but I found this researching and seemed silly to start a new thread. 

I have been feeding Fromm Gold now for about 6 months now. I go through a 33 lb bag for 3 dogs about every 3 weeks. The store I buy from has a promotion by 12 get the 13th free. I am almost there and when I am done I plan on switching. I am looking at Nutrisource and have been debating between their Lamb formula, grain inclusive and grain fee lines. They are in my price point and I am not overly concerned about grains, the food could be either or. I would like to switch back and forth between grain free and grain inclusive and protein sources but it is not a requirement. Fromm is working well and I know it seems silly to change, but I would like them to have some variety whether they know it or not. Plus if one stops working it would be nice to have options that I know will work.

My problem is this, I fed Earthborn Great Plains Feast before Fromm an I couldn't keep weight on my guys. I am concerned it was all the Pea Protein. That is partly why I switched to a grain inclusive food for the added carbs. The Nurtisource grain free has a lot of Pea Protein as well. I was wondering for those that have fed one or both what opinions you may have?

I know I have other options but for right now this is the direction I think I want to go. Dr. Tim,s sounds good as well, I am just not sure if I want to rely only on online ordering. I also would prefer to stay around the $50 30-33lb bag price point. Mr. Chewy's prices are pretty much what I pay here locally so I have been using them as a price guide.

Thanks for the help.


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## rivrfox (Apr 5, 2013)

*hi*

My pup likes TOTW kibble for that price range over a lot of other things. That being said he does best on a thoughtful prey model raw diet (PMR). If you're thrifty, get or already own a used deep freezer. It can be quite beneficial. 

I put ads in our shopper and on facebook looking for peoples non processed/chemical freezer meats they might throw out or fish, whatever. 

I've got on the roadkill list...you can sometimes get a whole dear. I buy beaver local for $5 a carcass. I helped my friends farm cull about 90 chickens when he took over another farms chix population. My neighbor has rabbits. I trade & all sorts of stuff. It's more effort but totally worth it. 

Outside of that, TOTW works quite well rotating different flavors. There's probably better/safer food out there but my pup likes that and it doesn't disagree with him. 

Hope this helps <3


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## Georgiapeach (Jan 24, 2011)

Another vote for TOTW. My boxer does best on the Pacific Stream. Lamb makes him itch, and the other two formulas are too rich for him and cause him loose poo. Every dog is different, and you're right, sometimes it's overwhelming to find the right kibble. I went through almost 10 kibbles with my west/bichon mix allergy dog before I found one that she could eat. Luckily, my poodle can eat almost anything, as long as it's grain free, so he got all the rejects - lol. Every dog is different, hence all the different kibbles on the market... 

One more word of advice: buy a small bag to start with in case it doesn't work. If a kibble doesn't work, please don't throw it away - a rescue would probably be glad to have it (if you have a Petsmart near you, take it there - rescues tend to set up shop on Saturdays).


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## Sneakers13 (Jul 13, 2013)

I feed Orijen, but it's pricey. Acana is another good choice for a little less money. I also only use online ordering because nowhere local sells my food. I find it very reliable and most places have free shipping if the order is over $50... I make sure to throw in a few treats


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## NutroGeoff (May 15, 2013)

Really all of the foods you have there are good foods. You have named most of the more popular lines out there. Personally I feed my dogs Nutro. I have for about 5 years now and my dogs have all been extremely healthy. As far as the quality of the foods and ingredients go, I can assure you that Nutro does make very high quality foods. All of the research for Nutro dog food is done by vets at the Waltham Centre in England, which is the top research center worldwide. Nutro also makes all of their own foods in their own facilities in America (Victorville, California and Lebanon, Tennessee to be more specific). Since Nutro does make their own food they can set the quality control. There are actually over 600 quality checks done on the foods each day. Nutro's plants are also the only plants that are certified by the American Feed Industry Association to be a "Assured & Approved Pet Food Manufacturing Facility." The AFIA is a third party group that checks the facilities for everything from cleanliness to the knowledge of each individual associate. 

WALTHAM Science Research Pet Dog Cat Health Nutrition Well Being

NUTRO® Pet Food Safety : Why Choose NUTRO® Natural Pet Foods - The Nutro Company

Safe Feed/Safe Food :: Pet Food


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## starturtle (Jul 12, 2012)

Thanks for the responses. PMR is off the table, it is just not for me. I have actually fed all of those suggestions at one point or another. I fed Pedigree for years until one of my dogs was diagnosed with arthritis and hip dysplasia. The vet told me to look for a food with higher Glucosamine levels so that started the now never ending food hunt. There was a Nutro rep at the store and she suggest the Nutro Natural Choice Sensitive Skin and Stomach because of the Glucosamine levels. They were on that for a while but then I read about the Menadione in it (this was about 3 years ago, I have no idea if it is still used and haven't actually looked). So I switched to Orijen and other than some occasionally bad gas my dogs did good on it but I was having some financial troubles and couldn't afford it so I switched to Acana Grasslands and the dogs did not do well on it. I also had adopted my foster dog at the time so I was adding a third mouth who ate twice as much as the two I had.

Then I switched to TOTW and the dogs did good on it but when the recalls came out I switched to Earthborn. My original 2 did great on it but I just hated feeding 6 cups a day to a 70lb dog and he still looked like a walking skeleton. So that is when I decided on Fromm. I may possibly have to suck it up and just buy different foods for different dogs. Not that they aren't doing well on Fromm I just want some variety for them.


I am going to look into TOTW and Nutro again and see what the have to offer. If I am not mistaken where I live we were not actually affected by the TOTW recalls even though the stores still pulled them.

Georgia Peach - I volunteer and foster with a local rescue. We actually had a good food donation few weeks ago and my foster's are eating Nature's Variety, at first I thought it was the Instinct, and I felt bad because my fosters were eating better food than my dogs. But it is the Prairie and I felt a little better about it. Usually the donations are Dog Chow, Pedigree and Beneful. I always have to remind myself that crap food won't kill them for a little while. Depending on how many I have I try to buy them something a little better like Fromm Classic. But when I am feeding 3 of my own dogs and have 3 fosters, 2 of which are young Danes sometimes I have to rely on what is donated. 

Thanks again for the suggestions.


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## lovemydogsalways (Mar 4, 2012)

I feed Fromm and Annamaet is on its way.


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## jaclynw (Jun 27, 2013)

I have a five month old lab with a sensitive stomach. We were on Fromm which she liked but her stomach didn't. Looking back at it, I don't think she ever liked it as much as the nutro she is on now. Our vet thought the multiple protein sources were too much for her and caused her diarrhea. After a lot of research into single protein foods at a reasonable price, we went with nutro natural choice wholesome essentials for puppies. She LOVES it and her poops have been good and her coat shiny. I'm very happy with the switch. 

I was very overwhelmed with the choices and the encouragement to go raw or get the best of the best. I'm happy with our switch so far


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## NutroGeoff (May 15, 2013)

jaclynw said:


> I have a five month old lab with a sensitive stomach. We were on Fromm which she liked but her stomach didn't. Looking back at it, I don't think she ever liked it as much as the nutro she is on now. Our vet thought the multiple protein sources were too much for her and caused her diarrhea. After a lot of research into single protein foods at a reasonable price, we went with nutro natural choice wholesome essentials for puppies. She LOVES it and her poops have been good and her coat shiny. I'm very happy with the switch.
> 
> I was very overwhelmed with the choices and the encouragement to go raw or get the best of the best. I'm happy with our switch so far


I am very happy to hear the the Natural Choice line is working great for your pup! I hope she continues to feel better on it!


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## doggiedad (Jan 23, 2011)

don't be overwhelmed with making a food choice. having a lot of food to choose
from is on your side. you may have to switch foods several times before finding
a food that works for your dog and a food that your dog likes. switch food if that
doesn't work switch again. you have $50.00 to $60.00 dollars a month to spend.
you can find something. i've never fed puppy food to my dogs and i normally add 
something to my dog's kibble.


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## Kikki (Jul 27, 2013)

starturtle said:


> Thanks for the responses. PMR is off the table, it is just not for me. I have actually fed all of those suggestions at one point or another. I fed Pedigree for years until one of my dogs was diagnosed with arthritis and hip dysplasia. The vet told me to look for a food with higher Glucosamine levels so that started the now never ending food hunt. There was a Nutro rep at the store and she suggest the Nutro Natural Choice Sensitive Skin and Stomach because of the Glucosamine levels. They were on that for a while but then I read about the Menadione in it (this was about 3 years ago, I have no idea if it is still used and haven't actually looked). So I switched to Orijen and other than some occasionally bad gas my dogs did good on it but I was having some financial troubles and couldn't afford it so I switched to Acana Grasslands and the dogs did not do well on it. I also had adopted my foster dog at the time so I was adding a third mouth who ate twice as much as the two I had.
> 
> Then I switched to TOTW and the dogs did good on it but when the recalls came out I switched to Earthborn. My original 2 did great on it but I just hated feeding 6 cups a day to a 70lb dog and he still looked like a walking skeleton. So that is when I decided on Fromm. I may possibly have to suck it up and just buy different foods for different dogs. Not that they aren't doing well on Fromm I just want some variety for them.
> 
> ...


Do you live on the west coast? I live in CA and personally wouldn't have an issue feeding TOTW since the food sold here most probably aren't from the NC plant. I also think buying different foods for different dogs are okey. Our oldest (slightly overweight) girl just started on Wellness Core Reduced Fat a few days ago and will be strictly on that while the 2 other dogs will get to rotate on everything else I have (TOTW Wetland, Earthborn Primitive Natural and Great Plains Feast).

Dr. Tim's and NutriSource are the 2 brands I'm going to try when we run out of food. It's great for the dogs to change it up and rotate foods. Since you go through so much food, you can keep an eye out for when websites has good sales offers and stockpile. Dog.com often has 15-20% off, most recently I ordered 2 big bags of food through Wag.com with 30% off.


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## starturtle (Jul 12, 2012)

Kikki said:


> Do you live on the west coast? I live in CA and personally wouldn't have an issue feeding TOTW since the food sold here most probably aren't from the NC plant. I also think buying different foods for different dogs are okey. Our oldest (slightly overweight) girl just started on Wellness Core Reduced Fat a few days ago and will be strictly on that while the 2 other dogs will get to rotate on everything else I have (TOTW Wetland, Earthborn Primitive Natural and Great Plains Feast).
> 
> Dr. Tim's and NutriSource are the 2 brands I'm going to try when we run out of food. It's great for the dogs to change it up and rotate foods. Since you go through so much food, you can keep an eye out for when websites has good sales offers and stockpile. Dog.com often has 15-20% off, most recently I ordered 2 big bags of food through Wag.com with 30% off.


I live in Alabama and surprisingly we weren't on the list.

I am going to go with Nurtisource grain free. If my big guy starts to drop weight again I will rotate him to their grain inclusive. I don't have a problem ordering online but most of the places I buy food from locally aren't chain stores and I prefer to support the local business when I can. I would like to try Dr. Tim's and Anamaet someday and then I will have to order online.


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## Jan Fred (Jul 23, 2013)

Thanks a lot for asking the question and for all the people who have answered.


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