Gun Dog Forum

After reading a couple books on dog food diets etc. and another few books on dogs health. One happened to be written by Dr. Foster & Smith.

The subject is confusing but this is what I ended up going with.

Dr. Foster & Smith signature series dog food.

I used to feed Iams or Science diet. They kept bumping up the prices on those feeds locally so I switched to Black Gold in the black bag. The dogs always have tons of energy.

Any issues/comments on Premium Edge or Nutra Nuggets. Both are made by the same company that makes Diamond. They are supposed to be a better grade of dog food but I don't think Premium Edge offers a High Performance label.

Coveyrise64

Did not get to vote but we have started feeding Nutri source, dogs seem to like it and it has done some good for their coats. Had fed Purina Pro plan for quite some time just did not like the coats . sdgord

Addict wrote:I switched to Black Gold in the black bag. The dogs always have tons of energy.

I swithed to Black Gold close to the end of last year and I love it, the dogs seem to love it and they look really good on it. Another guy and I are now dealers of it so we get it at wholesale price, can't beat that for the number of dogs we are feeding between the two of us. We go get a pallet load at a time and we split it 1/3 2/3 and we're both happy. We switch off who drives this time vs. who drove last time and whoever doesn't drive that trip gets to buy lunch. Works out well for both of us.

With three dogs I might have to become a dealer! It goes fast.

Went back to Eukunuba.

Addict wrote:With three dogs I might have to become a dealer! It goes fast.

Where are you located?

I'm in northern Utah. There is a dealer that started advertising Black Gold here last month. He has his whole van done up as a moving billboard.

It's a good feed, I think Tak use to use it too but the price got too high for him I think. We kinda stumbled into it when we went to a place about 50 miles away to look for a dog box that we thought he might have, we got to chatting with the guy and left with 10 bags to try out (we did buy them of course) then later bought a pallet load of it, then another a few months later, then another later and so on.
This fall/winter will be our first full huntign season with the stuff, we store it in our hunting clubhouse and we are hoping our regulars will pick up a few bags and then et it through us alot, if not we are still getting a high quality dog food at a great price. if we sell a fulll pallet load over the winter we'll recover our fuel cost of going to get it, but if we don't we are still coming out ahead.

i went back to Euk also. keeps weight on, and although I am not a show person, I do like the richness of the coats on Euk. i will support as long as they get out of that HSUS arrangement.

about two years ago I took my youngest son to one of the Euk sponsored agility shows, because he loves dogs so much. the agility dogs were really something, and my son had alot of fun, but both of us were turned off by the big HSUS display. They had a trailer the size of a large camper, with big screens, and were displaying their shots of mistreated animals. it was pretty disgusting, and put a damper on the whole show as far as i was concerned.

Guess I'm stuck in my ways but since 1959 I've fed Purina and fresh, clean water to gun dogs. I add some venison when I have it. Has worked well.

RedPaw Dog Food

I feed Black Gold in the black bag which is a 26/18 mix. During hunting season I switch to the red bag 30/20.

Addict

Well, I have to change my vote, of course, since I voted diamond. I planned to switch to nutro high energy, but after an hour drive to the nearest store that sells it, they were out, so I bought "Pro Pac." (30/20)
Wondered if anybody else feeds this? The dogs seem to be doing very well on it.

Mountaindogs - Wells Pet Food Co. makes Pro Pac and Sportmix brands. I feed my GSP's Sportmix 24/20 (after switching from Diamond) and the dogs are also doing very well on it.

Am I doing something wrong here? It seems like I am the only one who feeds my dog Science Diet-Puppy Blend?

Is there something wrong with this food that I should be aware of?

Innova

Here's the first six ingredients for Science Diet:

Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Liver Flavor

Here's the first seven for Canidae:

Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Lamb Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Herring Meal

Here's the first six for Pro Plan:

Chicken, brewers rice, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole grain wheat, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E)

"Meal" means that the ingrediant is already dried and ground before it is weighed. Because ingredients are listed in the order of the most weight, be sure that you can spot the ones that were weighed in the wet form versus the dry form, and know that water is processed out of the food.

You be the judge.

NOthing wrong with a meal but when the protien source is a by-product there is somthing wrong.

A meal is actually better than a straight ingredient because it means that there is more of that ingredient in the final product. I steer clear of "by-product" ingredients as well, but I believe that they are actually not bad from a nutritional standpoint.

"By-product" to us means innards and other things that are processed out of meats designed for the table. When you find a fresh kill in the wild though, notice that the innards are the first thing that is eaten by the predator. They're packed with nutrition.

It really depends on a compnay about by products even the FDA tells you By products are what people discard which generally has more protein sources...By products in quality foods are not the feathers becks and that kind of junk they are the cleaned innerards of animals
Now what really should be of concern is when a food does NOT label what kind of meat...you can be getting any striated muscle that was thrown in to a vat..which some companys back in 2001 showed the same chemicals which they euthansize dogs and cats with...these labels say Meat this is often confused as beef if it was only beef it could and would be labeled as such

now corn though yes as a ground corn though is a filler when processed can and does have some nutritional value ...you have to look at the food also about the ground corn many of your low budget dog foods do not ground down and process they grind down to sand size and this here is not digestable
..Whole ground corn this is literally the whole cob ground down this has roughage but no nutritional value at all

Next you need to look at the Kcal per cup value your food has protien and fat are also important but it is the caloric value where you will find how much your dog needs and burns for energy

here is a link to a comparison http://www.kninebirddog.com/Information ... mparew.pdf

Also when a bag says Real Chicken or what ever meat source they are using...FYI for instance Chicken ...it takes 5 pounds of chicken to make 1 pound of chicken meal

also some companies have gone as far as labeling their By Products such as cartiledge saying it is a natural source of glucosamine thing its yes alot of your By Products are sources of Natural Glucosamime but they do not equate in to the amount worth beable to measure it is just a fancy way to get away with making people think they are getting more for their money

Black Gold- black bag

Keep in mind that you can find out how many calories that food has even if they don't say total calories.

Protien has 4cal/gram
Carbs have 4cal/gram
fats have 9cal/gram

FYI

Alcohol has 7cal/gram.

RabbitBeagle
Here is a link that you can compare dog food and you can click onto each ingredient to inform you the reason that ingredient goes into they're dog food.

http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=comp-wiz

Well, I found NUTRO and switched the dogs to it (hi-energy 30,20), and ended up feeding 2 scoops to the dogs that were doing well on 1 scoop of pro-pac (30,20). So I switched back to pro-pack and am really liking it. The dogs look good on it, and I don't have to feed much at all. Only problem is finding it. Have to drive about an hour to buy it (but then have to drive the same to buy NUTRO, Pro-plan, or any other higher quality food ).

So I switch my vote to "OTHER" and so far reccomend pro-pac. Haven't tried sportmix, as there is no comparable high protein fat mix. (26/15 or 24/20) One is a little lower fat and one is below 26% protein which I try to keep all the adult working dogs above.

I was on Iams until I found a dealer of Black Gold near me. I can buy three 40 lb bags for the price of 1.5 bags of Iams. Guinness' coat hasn't been this shiny since he was a pup, and he is full of good fun energy. I buy the black bag. I give 3-4 high protein puppy treats throughout the day. He also has a lot less waste! Less waste means more of the nutrition is being absorbed into his body. Waste is a sure sign of how your dogs body is taking in the nutrients...

I have been feeding Enhance Endurance lately.

I feed Black gold switched from diamond when the recall came out. Let me also say this my father worked for purina for 23 years in the feed mill actually mixing it and we never fed it, nor will I, unless it's the only thing available.

lvrgsp

I have been using Science Diet, any takers? or should I be feeding him something else?

lvrgsp wrote:I feed Black gold switched from diamond when the recall came out. Let me also say this my father worked for purina for 23 years in the feed mill actually mixing it and we never fed it, nor will I, unless it's the only thing available.

lvrgsp

???? OK you can't post this and not explain!

I watched and listened to my father mix the feed in the mill with all of the ingredients going in. I was always told how purinas standards and quality were above everyones. I would not call it quality control, sure everything was documented, and my father did that as well. Not saying that they are any worse than other feed mills, but I am also not going to pay for what they call quality ingredients and quality control. Just my thoughts.

LVRGSP

Lvrgsp,

You just posted a post that says nothing. You were very evasive before and were asked to clarify what you meant and again you posted and didn't say a thing that would give anyone a clue what was wrong with the feed. If there isn't anything then I hate to see a company disparraged for nothing.

Ezzy

Ezzy,
You are absolutely correct I was very vague in my explanation. I do not intend to disparrage anyone.

Tak I am sorry I will not go into further detail about there food processing . Also I hope anyone who feeds Purina products likes them and experiences good things from them.

Purina does have probably the greatest animal research center in the world. It is also a controlled environment.

As of now I feed Black Gold and like it.

LVRGSP

And I'll quarantee you that Black Gold is processed just like Purina and every other dog food.

Ezzy

Ezzy,
I agree with you 100%. In my previous post I stated that they are not any worse than any other feed mill, and also added that I'm not going to pay the high prices that Purina is asking for as their quality of ingredients and processing is any better. Just my honest opinion.

LVRGSP

I agree. They are all pretty much alike as everyone is limited to the same ingredients that are available.

See ya,

Ezzy

Ezzy, by gosh I believe you are right this time. When you compare feeds, I think it is more important to compare formulations within the brands assuming you are talking about the better brands.

Switched from Iams to Exceed. Until Iams totally washes their hands, I will not buy any more of their product.

Besides, the dog loves the Exceed.

Pro Plan C&R. Nice firm small poops. And Jazz says the poop even tastes great. *barf*

Blackgold - Blue Bag!

Arkat Enhanced Endurance

I used to use Pro Plan..But Nutro has a food for Highly Active Dogs!
Ergo...A GSP!

I have just switched to Black Gold. I have fed Diamond for years, but I did some research, talked to the distributer and tried it. It looks better, smells better and my dogs never missed a beat and love it.

does anyone know anything about Kasco dog food?? is it a good choice or just another rip off?? what would one expect to pay on average for a 40 pound bag of the better quality food??

I used to feed Kasco and it was a good food. I think they have changed it some since then but I'm sure it is still a good food.

You can pay anything you want for dog food. What you pay or whether the food is called a premium food has little to do with the quality of the food. There are different formulas that use different ingredients and consequently ther cost is different. Though it happens quite rarely a dog can have problems with a certain ingredient so the different formulas normally allow you to find something that will work for most any dog.

Find a food that is near 26% protien and fairly low fiber and you are probably going to be ok for a working dog. Fat content should also be fairly high. When the dog is just laying around home it doesn't need that quality of food but most people find it easier to just cut back on the amount they feed rather than change feed.

The true test of a good food is if it is readily available, you can afford it, and the pup likes it and is doing well on it. The rest is mostly marketing hype.

Ezzy

I have fed Purina Pro-Plan for years and have never had trouble.

I feed Innova, Innova Evo and Canidae Chicken & Rice, depending on how hard the dogs are working/being conditioned at the time.

I have been feeding two different purina foods. Hi-Pro and Pro-Plan. We used to feed Diamond until one of our females developed an allergy to the food, and she would clear a room with her gas. Switched the 3 inside dogs to Pro-Plan and they are doing really well on it, and the gas is gone also.

New GSP pup will start on PMI Exclusive Large Breed Puppy (Purina Mills) - current house queen (Rottie) is on Diamond Lamb and Rice.