my dog poops a ton!

[NewHerp293]

I did a bunch of research on food when i just bought my little husky puppy and eventually decided on Natural Choice: wholesome essentials made by Nutro. It was a better quality then the generics but not quite the price of something like Blue Buffalo.

[NewHerp293]

This was a very helpful site though. Lists all the pros and cons of pretty much any food: Dog Food Reviews and Ratings | Dog Food Advisor

[Little Wise Owl]

Originally Posted by Kuamata

All of these are amazing brands if you can afford them. Farmina and Acana really struck my interest when I was searching, it's just really expensive when you have big dogs. I literally went through all 5 star listings on the dog food advisor to see if, one, there was a cheap 5 star that would be good for my dogs. Merrick's was a wonderful match and only $4 more than Rachel Ray's. Two, to see if they also produced cat food, because I also wanted them to have the benefit of high quality. Dr Tim's, Farmina, Fromm's, Acana, Orijen(same producer as Acana), and a few others made my list. Then I sorted through reviews and Acana was ultimately my top pick. My cats don't eat nearly as much as my dogs and a $50 bag lasts 5 - 6 weeks with them.

It's hard for me to recommend affordable brands to someone in another country so I just throw out the "best" according to me haha

Fromm Classics and Fromm Gold are apparently quite affordable in the US. The Classics line doesn't carry a large breed puppy food though.

[Little Wise Owl]

Originally Posted by NewHerp293

This was a very helpful site though. Lists all the pros and cons of pretty much any food: Dog Food Reviews and Ratings | Dog Food Advisor

This is a helpful place for finding ingredient lists but I would take their star ratings with a grain of salt. There are many foods on there that don't get the ratings they deserve and they demonize certain ingredients for silly reasons. I use it to get basic ingredient list and nothing more.

[SSSSnakes]

Feed a natural, grain free food, as grains are fillers. Feed according to the feeding chart on the bag. Switch over by adding 25% new food to the old food for 3 days, then add 50%/ 50% for 3 days, 75% new food to 25% old food for 3 days and finally 100% new food. To much food and fillers = poop in yard.

[Little Wise Owl]

Many grain free foods have just as much "filler" if not more than grain inclusive. They're still high carb/starch due to potatoes, peas and beans. Feed a food that works best for your individual dog. Even if it includes grain.

[Kuamata]

Originally Posted by NewHerp293

I did a bunch of research on food when i just bought my little husky puppy and eventually decided on Natural Choice: wholesome essentials made by Nutro. It was a better quality then the generics but not quite the price of something like Blue Buffalo.

Blue Buffalo was bought out and the formula was changed. Originally the only problem with it was that the high protein content wasn't suitable for all dogs. It caused kidney stones in small dogs or relatively inactive dogs that lazed around all day. The high protein was really more agreeable with larger dogs or really active dogs.

Now that the formula has been changed there have been a lot of reports of seizures and a few cases of death.

It's really a shame, because people don't know this unless they go looking for it, or are already having problems with their dog on that brand. Because they have such a good reputation as a high quality brand, a lot of people don't question it until a health concern pops up in their dog, and that's really unfortunate. Just another case of greedy people cutting corners for more profit... and we pay the price.

[Little Wise Owl]

People focus so much on ingredients and don't question quality. Blue Buffalo has some really sketchy quality which is why I don't trust them or many other companies.

[SSSSnakes]

If you want no fillers, go with a good Limited Ingredient, natural, grain free food. Although there is no such thing as the perfect food, as each dogs needs are different.