Canidae's New Formula

[mitchhurt]

I'm real happy with results I am getting feeding the new formula. Coat wise my dogs look better than they did eating the old formula. I just wrapped up my Montana guiding season and had no problems with the dogs endurance in the field. My hunting string for Montana is made up of 2 Labs and 10 Pointers. We hunted 5-6 days per week from September 1 through November 16. I fed Pro Plan Performance for the previous 8 years and did not have to bump up the amount to feed to maintain their weight. The dogs are real happy and clean up their bowls right away. Puppies did real well on it too. Total, I am feeding 24 adult dogs and 6 puppies. I've been feeding Canidae for 11 months now.

[High Brass]

Could you tell me exactly what Canadae formula are you feeding.
Thanks
Bob

[mitchhurt]

I'm feeding the All Life Stages.

[MikeB]

Glad to know it working for you Mitch. I fed it for 12 years until I heard they changed the formula and many dog I know did do well on the new formula until I think they got used to it. I am going back to it and see if my GSD will stop scratching so offten. She never scratched until I stopped feed Canidae. Changed food 3 time now and nothing has helped. I will find out soon when I change back to CANIDAE and see what happens. I hope I can buy it in the 44# bag size.

[Greg Jennings]

I noticed going through the supply store that a bag that looked to be sub 40 lbs was $47.

[MikeB]

I'm sure that was a 35# bag if it was the All Life Stage formula. All the other Canidae formulas are 30#.

Here is So. California I called my local pet store today and a 44# bag of CANIDAE was $39.99.

[Greg Jennings]

It's a good food. I fed it to the older dog for quite some time. I just wonder why the price is out of touch at my local store.

[MikeB]

I would ask your store why so much compared to others in it's class. Canidae is so popular in this area that most stores keep their prices very competitive.

Gas prices just dropped below $2.00 last week too but I don't expect it to last very long.

[Reech]

I fed Canidae till they changed formulas and the dogs got sick from it. I went to Pro plan and the oldest dog developed an allergy. I have switched to Native and the dogs are doing extremely well on it. The bag says No corn No wheat No soy. The coats on the dogs look better then they ever did. a 40# bag is 32.99. I hope this one is a winner!

http://www.nativedogfood.com/index.html

Reech

[Adam Dahlstrom]

I know this thread is a little old but I am new to the form and thought I would throw in my two cents. I have three dogs one 6 year old boxer, one 2 year old wirehair and a pup wirehair. I have been feeding my boxer Canidae's ALS for about 4 years now. He really does good on it. Before switching him over I would have to take him to the vet quit often for skin problems. After the switch I have not had to take him in for any skin problems. My older wire was on it to begin with but I switched him to Pro plan proformance. I like that it has more protein (its also cheaper). I think his coat was better on canidae but after switching to the proformance blend I think he has more stamina. My pup is on the pro plan and loves it.

[MikeB]

I have been a 12 + yr. user of CANIDAE on all my dogs ever since it hit the pet/feed stores. When my last dog passed at 14.5 yrs, I didn't own a dog for over 6 months. Finally in April 2007 I rescued a 20 month old F, solid black, German Shepherd that had been bounced from home to home, I am her 4th. Don't know what food she was raised on but the 3rd that I got her from was feeding Canidae old formula. I've tested a couple of other foods on her over the last year of so when Canidae was changing it's formula and her coat was never as good as when she was on Canidae. Her shedding was profuse. Changed her back to Canidae new formula on Nov. 1, 08 and her skin and coat is back to super shiney and much less shedding. Never had any stool issues changing to the new formula, they actually got smaller. No reason to ever change food again at least with this dog. With just one dog I can afford the $40 for 44#.

[mountaindogs]

For those of you who switched away and then returned - feeling you didn't have as good results with the other foods, I am curious as to what other foods you tried. Not trying to single anything out as bad, but I just wanted to know what types of foods did not work as well for you.
Thanks

[MikeB]

I stopped feeding Canidae before the new formula came out, primarily due to cost at that time. I fed 2 40's of Diamond Natural Chicken/Rice and then 2 40's of Costco Kirkland Chicken/Rice. Both were excellent foods, stools were fine but a little more volume, I did notice a lot of shedding but that may have been just the weather too. If on a budget both Diamond Natural $28 and Kirkland $23 were almost identical in ingredients and both manufactured by Diamond. I did notice on both that my dog did not dive into the bowl of dry food unless I used the supplement she is so used to and with water added. With the Canidae she will eat it dry or wet, supplement or not and maybe that is due to the multiple meat meals they use. Chicken, Turkey, Lamb & Fish. She may just like that better who knows.

[Rob Mcdonell]

Stay away from Canidae I have two GSP's. Last night I had to take my male Lance to the emergencie vet he is only 1 1/2 years old he bloody stole for three days and last night he had seizures. They did xrays and blood work on him and every thing looked fine. However today my wife did a search on google for canidae and found on consumer affairs that alot of people were posting the same problems my dog was having. So I just wanted to spraed the word for any one thats using the new formula you may be damaging your dog.

[MikeB]

Rob,
So sorry to hear about your dog being ill. Glad to hear the test came back negetive. If your other dog is fine how do you think its the food and not something he may have eaten that messed up his digestive system? Could your dog have eaten Pig ears, Rawhide, other type chew bone maybe? Just curious.

I sure can't see anything in the food that would cause this kind of problem. I know so many people in my area that find the new formula just a good if not better than the old formula. I am one of them that sees a marked improvement in my dogs condition since I started her back on the new formula in Nov. '08.

Hope all is well soon.

[Rob Mcdonell]

Well my wife did a search on canidae and found this site with dogs having the same symptoms as mine. Here's the link.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/canidae.html

[ezzy333]

Rob,

I read the post you put up and it appears to me the company answered your concerns. There are just too many factors involved that says the dog food is fine. For instance out of the thousands upon thousands of dogs that are eating the food why did only a few get sick and not one of those were traced back to the food. Even in your own case you fed two dogs the same food and only one developed a problem. That in itself almost eliminates any possibility it was the feed. I am also sure the company has tested the batches of feed involved in any illness brought to their attention as well as the FDA and state testing labs. And todate to the best of my knowledge their has never been anything found. Canidae did put out the statement that is in your post that due to very dense type ingredients that dog owners should reduce the amount of feed when switching, but that is exactly what should always be done when switching any feed. Make the switch gradual and reduce the consumption till the dog adjusts and then slowly increase the amount as needed is just common procedure that is used on all animals including ourselves.

I am truely sorry you had problems with one of the dogs and understand your concern. Posting the info was a good thing to do but I don't see where there is any evidence that the feed was to blame. I think you need to look for other possibilities for your dogs sakes as this could reoccur if you can't find the cause beyond any doubt.

Hope your dogs are doing OK now.

Ezzy

[GsPJustin]

Well,

As some of you may know. One of my dogs had a pretty bad stool problem. I put him on Canidae Grain Free ALS, and it has solved the problem completely. He eats less but more. By that I mean he used to be a picky eater. Would only eat when he wanted to, or after he worked hard... Now he cleans the bowl up no matter what. But he only needs 3 1/4 cups a day to stay at ideal weight compared to 4 1/2 on some and 5 on others. He is a 68 lb dog. Its about $55/30#bag here where I live. I get a buy 3 get 1 free which averages it out to be about $41/30#bag. Although almost substantially more expensive than my last feed. The dogs like it a lot more, and their coats have improved.

Justin

Oh on the side without causing problems, a JMO, FWIW, don't get mad and try to prove me wrong thing. I have switched around foods quite a bit on my dog. I eat taco bell one day and chicken the next. That hasn't really ever been a problem as far as him not handling the food switch. At first I always adjusted his food slowly. Twice i did it over 2 weeks because I thought that was the cause(I have checked with my vet to try and rule it out aswell). I don't think that they are so stuck on eating one type of food that they could really get sick over switching feed. JMO FWIW DONT FIGHT I also know quite a few people with all different breeds of dogs, that do the same because there dogs just wont eat the same thing over and over... FWIW What about table scraps?

[Rob Mcdonell]

Ezzy, my male got the worst of it true, however when I started them on it in November gradualy icreasing the amounts when I was away deer hunting two weeks later my female became very sick puking and diaria the next day my male was sick the same thing. My wife took them to the vet and he give us antibodics to give to them. And they both look like they lost weight. Now you tell me they explain it all on the consumeraffairs website. Thousands of people may feed their dogs without incident, But I know if you scroll down the page theres well over a hundred complaints about the food and to many simalarities between what their dogs went thru and what our dogs went thru a few of them even had to put their dogs down. And theres more complaints showing up on there every day. So basicly what I get out Canidaes apology is that don't feed your pet to much of our food because its toxic. And I would be willing to bet that out of the thousands of people that feed their dog canidae their are hundreds of people with sick dogs and they don't know why. Ezzy I am not snapping at you your a good guy I have read alot of your posts you are very knowledgeable. I am just stateing what happened to my dogs on this b.s. dog food, because I don't want any one elese to have to go thru the same thing we did. So after doing alot of reseach we are going to try out evo dog food. I did not see any thing on them in consumeraffairs.

[gsp-fan]

We also had issues with Canidae's new food. I had been feeding Canidae food to 4 dogs for years before the change and all 4 got sick on the new stuff. I had enough old forumla in stock to make my switch over a 2 month timeframe. Towards the end of the switch over there stools were very loose and they started to get bloody. I still had 1 bag of the old formula left and went back to that and had no issues. There was something in the new food that was making my all 4 of my dogs sick. Nothing else changed in my household except that food. It is a shame because Canidae was a great product - I use to recommend to everyone till the change. When I contacted Canidae they did not care - no customer service at all. I also know quite a few people that had the same issue with the new food. I think you don't hear as much about issues with the new food because people just switch to a different brand of food and tell there friends not to buy it instead of getting on forums and complaining about it. I think Canidae lost alot of business when they made the switch and because of their customer service. I know at the feed store where I buy my food they said Canidae is not selling like it use to. I switched the dogs to Innova and I use Evo red meat great product kinda expensive but cheaper than vet bills for 4 dogs.

[CANIDAESarah]

Hello,
My name is Sarah and I am a proud employee of CANIDAE Pet Foods. It is part of my job to read forums and blogs on the internet to help keep people informed about our products and to answer any questions that are lingering around the internet. Most importantly, WE want you to receive good, truthful information.

Let's run down the changes that were made to the formula:

Diversified Carbohydrates- What does this mean? In our obvious economic situation many Premium pet food companies have chosen to seek out other ways of providing your pet with the best source of carbohydrates possible, while still keeping our products affordable. White rice is extremly expensive, and yes hard to come by. CANIDAE only purchase comodities that are grown locally, in the USA so purchasing millions of tons of rice from CHINA for a fraction of the cost is not an option for us. Instead, we along wth our vets have come to the conclusion that our beloved pets recieve beneficial carbohydrates from Peas and Potatoes.

More Protein- We have increased to amount of meat meal, again all grown raised and processed here in the USA.

Better Selection- Not only did we improve our original formula but we have also added an entire Grain Free line for pets with special dietary needs.

For Mr. McDonnell- I am truly sorry that your dogs had to go through what they went through. Let's look at the bigger picture, you went out on a hunting trip for a few weeks and came back to ill dogs. The first thing a person will do is blame the food, it is the easiest, coupled with the recent pet food recalls we are all a bit jumpy when it comes to our pets food. Like Ezzy said, every complaint that we recieved had a batch test done to test for toxicsity, all came out negative. If there was something wrong with our food, we would be the first to do something about it.
Also, you provided information about how they got sick, but what was your vet's treatment plan and did you ever get a diagnosis of the problem? In addition, dogs, like humans share germs and illnesses if one was ill for a day or 2 THEN the other got ill, points to bacterial infection possibly picked up from a carcass or feces in the field. Your dogs especially come into contact with many contributing factors that could easily point to their illness.

gspfan-I am sorry that you felt that our customer service was lacking, we are making adjustments in that department to better serve our customers.



Coiencidence-a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance. We litterally feed thousands and thousands of pets everyday, the chance that a few hundred have a bug, eat something they shouldn't or just don't feel 'normal' is part of every pet owner's life. Remeber, not all foods work for all dogs, educate yourself for the health of your pet and make a decision that works best for you and your pet.
If you have a question directly related to our products, we encourage you to call us directly at (800) 398-1600
Sincerely,
Sarah @ Team CANIDAE
http://www.canidae.com

[ezzy333]

Sarah,

How do you get a job like that? Glad you posted. It's very hard to keep people on course when it seems that the dogfood is always the first thing everyone wants to blame for everything that happens in a dogs life.

Ezzy

[gsp-fan]

When nothing else has changed in your dogs life but the formula of the dog food has changed then it must be the dog food. Like I said in my above post (which I notice the Canidae rep did not address) - I was feeding 4 dogs which are 4 different breeds and they all became sick on the new Canidae dog food. My dogs were not out hunting and eating anything they should not have. I was the biggest supporter of this company before the change and the customer service went way down after the change (maybe the person I got that day was tried of answering questions). If Canidae went back to the old formula I would consider going back. Another big plus is that they are a USA made food.

[CANIDAESarah]

Ezzy- All I can say it that I am very fortunate! I love my job. I will do my best to keep the facts on the board, that is my goal. I notice that you have had some very informative posts, I look forward to hearing your input in the future.

gsp-fan- I am sorry I did not take more time to discuss your experience with our product. In your case, were your dogs sick or simply adjusting to a change in diet? Loose stool is not the exact indicator of illness for example, dogs can get loose stool from stress. I am not saying that your dogs loose stool was from stress, what I am saying is that because the stool was loose does not mean the dog is sick. Perhaps your dogs will never be able to tolerate that particular formulation, we understand that. As I stated before not all dogs can eat the exact same food and have the exact same results. Our products are all 100% satisfaction guarenteed and we will gladly take back any product you are unhappy with. I sincerly hope that you have found a food that works great for your entire family.

Sarah @ Team CANIDAE

[rstbkt69]

Sarah, any research or trends being studied to see if the price my come down a bit. I know that the product you use for food production was on the last few months when the fuel cost were really high but what doe the future hold for us. I quit useing it because I can't afford the cost plain and simple and the smaller bags required me to spend more more often.
JIm

[CANIDAESarah]

Jim-
Unfortunatly I don't have an answer for you. Many people assumed that the fuel costs were the only reason we, along with most premium pet food companies had a price increase. Premium pet food companies have much higher overhead when it comes to ingredients and manufacturing. Due to the fact that we ONLY purchase from local growers and ranchers we have to pay a premium price for all of our ingredients. This is one of the reasons we chose to diversify our carbs, white rice in America is a very expensive comodity right now and that cost in the end trickles down to you, the consumer.
You can rest assured that though you may be spending a little more to feed your pet, you are getting the highest quality product with only the best ingredients.
Sarah @ Team CANIDAE

[claybuster_aa]

Hey Sarah,
Welcome, and I take it you are fairly busy girl these days keeping up with all the Canidae postings across the net. I moderate over at a Yahoo group and we hear it all the time about folks discussing the most recent change of ingredients with Canidae. I think when dogs are so use to being on one diet for many years and then a sudden switch of ingredients turns up, it plays a factor. I am hearing mostly negatives about the switch in all honesty, but I still read a few posts from those who say all still good after the switch.

Charlie

[gwgdog66]

I've been feeding the ALS for a while now. Since the formula change I haven't noticed any ill effects, with the dogs. My wallet however don't like paying $5 more for a bag that has 5lbs less in it.

[rstbkt69]

Maybe sarah can authorize a coupon code for us. LOL that would be a hoot,

[claybuster_aa]

Maybe sarah can authorize a coupon code for us. LOL that would be a hoot,

That would be a hoot, especially in these challenging economic times. We went through a round of layoff in OCT, the company was shooting for 700 employees. Our closest competitors across the river just announced pay cuts last week with most getting cut by 7% (beats getting laid off).

Some of Sarah's post would indicate Canidae is making their necessary adjustments as well in these difficult times. It would appear cost of the feed has gone up, along with some diversification of the ingredients.

Sarah: Diversified Carbohydrates- What does this mean? In our obvious economic situation many Premium pet food companies have chosen to seek out other ways of providing your pet with the best source of carbohydrates possible, while still keeping our products affordable. White rice is extremly expensive, and yes hard to come by. ...

Instead, we along wth our vets have come to the conclusion that our beloved pets recieve beneficial carbohydrates from Peas and Potatoes.

[CANIDAESarah]

The coupon code is: AE3F4.......

Actually, if you would like to request a coupon, all you have to do is contact us directly through our website or phone call. The economy is hitting all of us hard, my husband was one of the many to get laid off last week. All we can do is hang on and ride this thing out.

Diversified carbs- In order for us to keep our price below other brands and offer the same excellent USA grown ingredients, we had to seek other ways of providing mecessary carbohydrates for your pets. Rice is an obvious source, however much of the rice that we consume in America is imported. WE do not import any of our ingredients, therefore we sought other options. Veggies such as peas and potatoes are an excellent source of carbohydrates, with minimal allergens PLUS it is all grown right here!


Sarah @ Team CANIDAE

[GsPJustin]

The coupon code is: AE3F4.......

Awww, you had me all excited there for a second.

Actually, if you would like to request a coupon, all you have to do is contact us directly through our website or phone call.

What kinds are offered?

[CANIDAESarah]

Sorry Justin.....I think I might get into trouble for giving the real code out!

We have several different coupons, so depending on what you need, we try to be as flexible as possible. Are you also aware of our Frequent Buyer/Multiple Redemption program that gives you 1 FREE bag/case for every 12 you purchase You can either redeem them at your local retailer or through us directly.

Sarah @ Team CANIDAE

[GsPJustin]

Sorry Justin.....I think I might get into trouble for giving the real code out!

We have several different coupons, so depending on what you need, we try to be as flexible as possible. Are you also aware of our Frequent Buyer/Multiple Redemption program that gives you 1 FREE bag/case for every 12 you purchase You can either redeem them at your local retailer or through us directly.

Sarah @ Team CANIDAE

Well where do we get the real code!?!

My store has a buy 3 get 1 free, but I have no need to buy 4 bags at a time. I wasn't aware of your buy 12 get one free. Sign me up!

[splucinski]

After seeing some recommendations on Canidae dog food I wanted to give it a try. Yesterday I bought a small bag of the ALS formula. My GSP has been on Proplan Selects Salmon formula. She was a very picky eater and would vomit once in a while on other foods I fed her. With the Proplan, she would eat every time the food was put in front of her and has never gotten sick on it. The only reason I wanted to change is because of the cost. The PP select was $48 for 33 lbs.

Anyway, this morning I put 2 bowls of food out with small amounts one with the Proplan and one with the Canidae. Maggie immediately went to the Canidae andate all of it, she eventually went to the PP and ate it too. I'm happy that I may have found another option but some of the issues with sickness concern me. I'll see how it plays out and go from there.

[GsPJustin]

I don't think you will find much reprieve in cost. At least here in California that price is similar to Canidae.

[splucinski]

I emailed Canidae asking for a coupon. The sent me a coupon for a free 5lb bag of any variety. As another option, I bought a small bag of the Chicken Soup Adult Formula. It looks pretty similar to the Canidae in terms of ingredients and costs a whole lot less.