# Need Lamb and Rice (single protein)...what are my options??



## hobberz18 (Apr 6, 2009)

Ever since Canidae changed there formula Harper and I have been hunting for another dog food.

We have tried Taste of the Wild and Artemis. None of these made his coat pop like the canidae and he has become a picky eater and is very slender for a 2 year old boxer (64 lbs).

I don't want to mess with Canidae but want to try him back on a Lamb and Rice formula

From my research my top 3 are

Solid Gold- Hund-N-Flocken
Cal Natural- Lamb and Rice
Wellness Super5Mix- Lamb and Rice

Which should I go with?? or is there another better option. I am tired of wasting my money. Thanks ahead of time for the responses.


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## Doc (Jan 17, 2009)

Natural balance Lamb and Rice. One protein, one grain.


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble This sight has great dog food reviews!

I have used both the california natural lamb and rice and the wellness superfive mix lamb and rice. Now My dogs taste went to the wellness , but the california natural is a really good product and I had my overweight dog on their wieght control and the dog loved it. So I think those two are great products. I have no experience with solid gold I have never bought this product. The others were very good! With the wellness brand you can join their email club and you get coupons!

The Healthiest Pet Foods in the World – Natural & Organic Pet Food – Natura Pet Products

WELLNESS® - Healthy Dog and Cat Food


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## hobberz18 (Apr 6, 2009)

*Went to the store here is what I found....any ideas*

Okay so I went to some stores and here is what I can get....

AvoDerm Lamb and Rice 
Natural Balance Lamb and Rice
Wellness Super5Mix Lamb and Barley
Solid Gold Hund N Flocken
Cal Natural Lamb and Rice
Eagle Pack Holistic Select Lamb and Rice
Blue Buffalo Puppy Lamb and Rice 

I could only get samples of Natural Balance, Cal Natural, and Blue Baffalo. 

Gave Harper a taste test and here are the results.

Didn't care for the natual balance and completely bypassed it..>Not even a nibble. First bit went to the Cal Natural (I assume because it was the largest...big bitz) and caught his eye...ate one then moved on. Blue buffalo was gone in a flash and ate every last bit. Assume its his favorite. 

I only had 3 samples and I don't want to make a move without your advice here. 

Now my problem: He is 2 years old and this is a puppy formula. Is the adult formula that much different that he won't like it??....Is it even that good a formula??

He is pretty picky about his taste. Good Tasting is defiantly a must with this brat!!

I prefer personal reviews as opposed to websites.


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## antisocialist (Apr 6, 2009)

Hi - I'll give you a bit of advice from personal experience...if you're going to try Avoderm Lamb and Rice, get a SMALL bag first. I did a ton of research - breeder used Eukanuba, which my baby lab wouldn't eat. So - we were at a hunting show, and they were giving away free samples of Loyall puppy food. I tried that, and she LOVED it, but I can't get it locally so I decided to try something that I could get. Tried Nature's Recipe Venison, which she liked, but once I read the label ("animal digest"??? yuck!!!) I was off on another search. The last stuff I bought - besides an ill-considered bag of Beneful, which I plan to use to encourage septic tank health - was Eukanuba Naturally Wild Turkey and Rice. She'd eat it, if I left it down there long enough, but I'm a bit leery of Eukanuba's products after reading this forum. SO...I went out and purchased a bag of Avoderm Lamb and Rice, the only stuff that I can get locally that y'all have recommended. Weeeeeellllllllllll...Lakota doesn't like it. Sniffs of it, drops a few pieces on the floor, and then leaves the kitchen. I'm going to keep trying it for a few days, but I've got a bad feeling about this. Anyway, whatever you end up trying, don't buy the 17 lb. bag. That's a whole lot of dog food to get rid of.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

hobberz18 said:


> Now my problem: He is 2 years old and this is a puppy formula. Is the adult formula that much different that he won't like it??....Is it even that good a formula??


There is so little difference between puppy and adult and senior dog foods as to be negligible . Those words are a marketing gimmick only.



> He is pretty picky about his taste. Good Tasting is defiantly a must with this brat!!


He is a picky eater because you allow him to be. He is playing you and you are pandering to his tastes. This will only get worse over time.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

antisocialist said:


> Hi - I'll give you a bit of advice from personal experience...if you're going to try Avoderm Lamb and Rice, get a SMALL bag first. I did a ton of research - breeder used Eukanuba, which my baby lab wouldn't eat. So - we were at a hunting show, and they were giving away free samples of Loyall puppy food. I tried that, and she LOVED it, but I can't get it locally so I decided to try something that I could get. Tried Nature's Recipe Venison, which she liked, but once I read the label ("animal digest"??? yuck!!!) I was off on another search. The last stuff I bought - besides an ill-considered bag of Beneful, which I plan to use to encourage septic tank health - was Eukanuba Naturally Wild Turkey and Rice. She'd eat it, if I left it down there long enough, but I'm a bit leery of Eukanuba's products after reading this forum. SO...I went out and purchased a bag of Avoderm Lamb and Rice, the only stuff that I can get locally that y'all have recommended. Weeeeeellllllllllll...Lakota doesn't like it. Sniffs of it, drops a few pieces on the floor, and then leaves the kitchen. I'm going to keep trying it for a few days, but I've got a bad feeling about this. Anyway, whatever you end up trying, don't buy the 17 lb. bag. That's a whole lot of dog food to get rid of.


You should start keeping your receipts and returning the food or call the 800 number on the bag to get a refund. And I'm a little relieved your dog doesn't like Avoderm since I've read numerous articles that say avocados are toxic to dogs.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

hobberz18 said:


> Didn't care for the natual balance and completely bypassed it..>Not even a nibble. First bit went to the Cal Natural (I assume because it was the largest...big bitz) and caught his eye...ate one then moved on. Blue buffalo was gone in a flash and ate every last bit. Assume its his favorite.
> 
> I only had 3 samples and I don't want to make a move without your advice here.
> 
> Now my problem: He is 2 years old and this is a puppy formula. Is the adult formula that much different that he won't like it??....Is it even that good a formula??


Blue Buffalo is actually a pretty good food _for being a dog food_ and their lamb and rice formulas is one of my favorite of theirs because it has a little more meat in it than their others (except Wilderness, of course). 

There isn't much of a difference between the puppy and adult formulas aside from a couple of percentages between the nutritional content. My guess is that if he likes the puppy formula, he'll like the adult. 

I've heard of many people who have switched to this brand and this formula in particular and did amazingly well on it. My mom's dogs are on the brand and alternate between the chicken and lamb formulas and they're doing well on it too.


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## birddog1 (Jan 26, 2009)

Just curious, did you have any problems with the Canidae after the formula change? I ask because I just put my German Shorthair on the ALS formula and she is doing very well on it. I read all the horror stories about it but I still had to try it for myself.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

Any particular reason why it has to be a Lamb and rice food? Lamb is not particularly anti-allergenic since most dogs have been exposed to it in everything. There are a lot of other single protein foods you could try if you wanted to branch out into different meats and that way give your pup a variety of nutrients. Duck, Venison, Trout, Salmon, Elk, Buffalo, Rabbit etc etc . I've even seen kangaroo.


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

There are also alot of companies that sell all life stages. Merrick does and I am sure others do. This way you don't need specific puppy or adult. At 2 they are considered adult. Look at your feeding guidleines to see how much to feed. If you have the breeders # handy call and ask what they are feeding their dogs also!
Puppy food is higher in protien than adult like in the california natural.
If you look at the california natural analysis~ adult lamb and rice is 22% and the puppylamb and rice is 26% protien levels.


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## Doc (Jan 17, 2009)

Just check out Natural Balance's Limited Ingrediants Diets. All of them are one protein, one carb.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

Yeah, they're mostly just one carb though


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## hobberz18 (Apr 6, 2009)

*Wellness Super5Mix*

Lamb and Rice because that seems to be is favorite single protein. I have tried others and he doesn't mind them but the more protein sources it seems like the more I am picking up soup instead of turds...i know pretty gross. 

YES i had him on canidae's new formula lamb and rice and that was when the problems started. Didn't know what was wrong so i went on some forums and people told me that they changed there forumla. That was the only change so I left Canidae.

I decided to go with the Wellness Super5Mix lamb and rice after talking with others who made the same switch. If you look at the formulas they are almost the exact same ingredients. The Top ingredients are exactly the same. So I will run a bag of it to see how it goes.

Like the inclusion of Coat Conditioners


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## k9mom (Dec 11, 2010)

hobberz18 said:


> Okay so I went to some stores and here is what I can get....
> 
> AvoDerm Lamb and Rice
> Natural Balance Lamb and Rice
> ...


Please beware of Eagle Pack lamb & rice natural formula. My GS was on this food over 2yrs and did great until now. It had eradicated his digestive issues until I purchased this last bag which I opened Dec.8. He immediately started vomiting and today had a seizure. I rushed him to the vet and incurred $200.00 worth of tests to rule out possiblepoisoning & other ailments. Nothing was found to cause this type of reaction except the new bag of food.This leads us to believe that the formula was changed or it was contaminated at the factory. I've lost all confidence in this dog food and am searching for a SAFE food to feed my beloved GS.Please be aware of the possible danger in the changes in formula or contaminations in this food since the co. is now under the new ownership of P&G.


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## stajbs (Jun 5, 2010)

Is this the Holistic Select Lamb and Rice or Eagle Pack's Lamb and Rice formula because Holistic Select is now owned by Wellpet. Am very sorry to hear about what you and your baby have gone through. The reason I ask is the last bag of Holistic Select Duck formula I bought may be the culprit in a situation which just started last month with my one sibe. My two sibes love this formula with some canned Merrick BG or a meat topper and my boy started having intestinal issues right before Thanksgiving. Now he is 12/13 and I have included this duck formula in our rotation for over two years because the dogs love it, but Blaze started having sort of mush, but formed poop. We also had coyotes around and one morning Blaze flew out as usual and before I even saw it he had his nose in a load of diarrhea from something(coyote, loose dog, who knows) . I got him away from it but this situation with Blaze developed concurrently with that load of diarrhea and the switch to holistic duck. I ran a course of metronidazole, took a stool sample to the vet which was clear of parasites at the time and the stool started to improve a bit. Not for long however, and we were back at the vet again this week, with another parasite negative fecal and formed mush poop for lack of a better description, lol 
The vet knew better than to suggest Science Diet to me and asked if we would be willing to start cooking for the dogs again and I said yup, so he is on a bland diet and an antibiotic/anti-inflammatory med and now the process begins to figure out the culprit. In the past two days his stool has firmed up, but I won't delude myself into thinking this is over. 
He is on a lengthy course of this medication in order to hopefully eliminate a bacterial problem in the intestinal tract if that is the problem, and at some point we will be seeing if he has suddenly developed a sensitivity to duck instead. Of course I know it could be other problems as well, but hopefully not. He looks awesome per our vet he looks 5/6 years old, she palpated his abdomen and poked and prodded very thoroughly and all seemed well. However as we go along I suspect we will draw blood too, he had recent blood work in June so we would have something to compare it to if something else is going on. Taking it one step at a time at this point though, and plotting his diet with the vet on a weekly basis for the next 6 weeks or so.

I am thinking it would be wise to call Holistic Select though, although I wonder if that would be a waste of time. Would they tell me if they were sourcing anything differently or making subtle changes to the formula? In some ways I am hopeful this is bacterial but with both my guys being seniors I have to be aware other problems could be devloping. 

Finding that SAFE food is becoming more challenging for sure. Our guys do well on Acana, and some other grain and grain free foods as we use about 4 different kibbles in their rotational diet. They also get the canned Merrick BG, Evangers and the occasional tripe or meat topper. If this is food related I may just say the heck with it and go back to full time cooking for the dogs. 

Hope your beloved GS continues to improve and pull through this incident and wish you the best in your serch for the safest foods possible. I know most folks here feel good about Champion's Orijen and Acana. Our guys do okay on the Acana, but the Orijen seened to be a bit too rich/nutirent dense(?) for them. Our guys have also done well on Honest Kitchen and being stupidly squeamish about raw I am thinking the future for my sibes wil inlude cooking their food, Honest Kitchen, and I want to look more closely at Grandma Lucy's, Addiction formulas, and a few others.

Best of luck to you and your dog, and if you get a chance I would really appreciate knowing if this was a Holistic Select formula that you fed your dog.
Thanks!!


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## buddy97 (Mar 29, 2010)

have you ever tried the canidae grain free foods? it doesnt sound llike he has any food allergies that really require lamb and rice. i notice so many of the lamb and rice formulas dont seem to have much meat in them...or calories....same problem with most all of the limited ingredient diets..

id agree with RFD...if you allow him to decide what he is going to eat, the next 10 years will get problematic.


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## Jack Monzon (Jul 25, 2010)

My dog really seems to prefer lamb too.


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