Dog Food Analysis Website ...

[donna723]

Since we've been talking about dogs a lot lately, this is a really interesting site to check out. It lists, analyzes and rates just about every brand of dog food there is!

www.dogfoodanalysis.com

The results might really surprise you! Some of the more popular (and expensive!) foods that are widely advertised as being so healthy and nutritous AREN'T and are not much more than fillers and artificial flavors! And the brands that you can buy at the vets office are maybe a little bit better but still not very good - the vets get a commission from the pet food companies for selling these foods from their offices.

I've never heard of a few of the "Six Star" highest rated brands listed on this site. They may be regional brands only available in certain areas. But some other really good ones are listed here. It's very interesting reading, especially when you really look at the ingredients! And some of the "ingredients" in the "One Star" foods are downright scary! I wouldn't swear to this, but I think even ground up feathers and chicken feet can be listed as "chicken byproducts"!

 

[flutterbee]

It has Alpo canned listed as one star. I don't use it, by my grandparents shepherd/husky mix (Athena) lived to the ripe old age of 18 on a diet of Alpo and miniature reese cups.

I haven't heard of a lot of the 5 star foods. I wonder where you get them.

 

[Fran]

I have never heard of the 6 star or 5 star.
I use Hill's sensitive stomach. Doesn't look like it's a very good choice. Makes me want to make my own.

 

[donna723]

There's a lot of these that you would probably never be able to find, they're kind of obscure brands. A lot of them though are available in the smaller independent pet supply stores - the bigger stores like Petsmart don't have them. Wellness and the Merrick varieties are super-good foods with many different formulas, and Canidae is a great food but there's nowhere to buy it here. Innova and Natures Variety are really good foods too. Mine are on the Merrick Wilderness Blend and really do well on it. If you Google the different brands and find their websites, they usually have the locations of stores that sell it. I have to drive to the next county to buy Merrick but I buy the big bags and only go once a month.

 

[Fran]

Thanks Donna, I'm going to search for them on the amazon.com site. Often there is no shipping charge. I usually buy bulk items that way.
I'll try your suggestions. Thanks.
Cowboy has a sensitive stomach and both are pukers when they are anxious.

 

[donna723]

Fran, sometimes you have to experiment to find just the right food. My smallest one, Ragan, has lots of allergies. Mine were on the Wellness chicken-based formula and did really well for a while. When the store had trouble getting the Wellness, I switched them to the Merrick chicken based formula ... called "Grammys Pot Pie! Don't ya just love that! They did really good for a while and then Ragans skin problems started getting worse. I think she was building up an intolerence for chicken. THEN ... I switched them to the Wilderness Blend which is made of buffalo, salmon and venison plus oatmeal and other grains and fruits and veggies. No way could she be allergic to buffalo! But sometimes you just have to experiment to find one they do well on.

 

[hearts and roses]

This is why I feed my dogs a fresh raw meat/bone/veggie diet only. No processed stuff, ever. There is another site I happened upon while doing my research of the BARF (Bones And Raw Food) diet for my dogs and they went into very great details as to exactly what parts of the animals end up in the processed so-called 'healthy' manufactured dog foods out there. Scary stuff.

 

[susiestar]

Great resource. I would like to find a similar one for cat food.

I recently saw Taste of the West dog and cat food. I emailed the company and they sent samples for each of my furbabies. they were extremely nice.

The Taste of hte West dog foods are 6 star rated. I know my kitties love the cat food. I am going to go to the grain mill to get the food for htem. The ingredients are very good. Anyone feeding dry food should look for this one, in my opinion. The company web site lists places that sell it, and they also will sell by email (I think).