Gun Dog Forum

anyone use it? like it? pros? cons? questions? comments on the food?

This is probably there best...and it is very good...32% protein 25% fat...



http://www.diamondpet.com/products/diam ... e_athlete/

dudleysmith wrote:This is probably there best...and it is very good...32% protein 25% fat...



http://www.diamondpet.com/products/diam ... e_athlete/

+1

Keep an eye on the dog when/if you feed it...you will probably have to adjust the ration down a bit. Dogs here picked up weight quickly on same ration as other feed...we are feeding 25-30 percent less to maintain the dogs. Good feed from what I can tell.....

Probably the best feed you can buy at a reasonable price. It ith out a doubt is one of the better ones and they have a rather large selection.

Ezzy

birddog1968 wrote:

dudleysmith wrote:This is probably there best...and it is very good...32% protein 25% fat...



http://www.diamondpet.com/products/diam ... e_athlete/

+1

Keep an eye on the dog when/if you feed it...you will probably have to adjust the ration down a bit. Dogs here picked up weight quickly on same ration as other feed...we are feeding 25-30 percent less to maintain the dogs. Good feed from what I can tell.....

I have had several people tell me that, but it was the opposite for my dogs. I fed it for about 3 months 2 years ago and for the amount I was having to feed (alot more) and the price.......... I went back to Red Flannel Prime

i was just wondering cause i found some at scheels for $25 for 50 pound bags and thats the best pprice i have ever seen on dog food

Depending on the formula, that's about right for Diamond's four basic foods (Maintenance, Premium, High Energy, Original) and little high for a couple of them. It's an okay food. I use Premium for most of my dogs. The ones in conditioning or the hard keepers eat Pro Plan Performance.

Birddog3412 wrote:

birddog1968 wrote:

dudleysmith wrote:This is probably there best...and it is very good...32% protein 25% fat...



http://www.diamondpet.com/products/diam ... e_athlete/

+1

Keep an eye on the dog when/if you feed it...you will probably have to adjust the ration down a bit. Dogs here picked up weight quickly on same ration as other feed...we are feeding 25-30 percent less to maintain the dogs. Good feed from what I can tell.....

I have had several people tell me that, but it was the opposite for my dogs. I fed it for about 3 months 2 years ago and for the amount I was having to feed (alot more) and the price.......... I went back to Red Flannel Prime

and you were feeding extreme athlete? 32-25?

Have been feeding the Hi-Energy for over a year now with no problems. Very good feed for the price. Comparable to Black Gold Black and Enhance Hunter's edge at a cheaper price. The local Tractor Supply is under $20 per 50lb bag. During the season, I mix two bags of Hi-Energy with a bag of Extreme Athlete. Dogs do well with the mix, and I had to do the same thing with the other feeds I have used.

Birddog1968 Yes Diamond extreme athlete 32/25. For the price difference I just wasnt getting my moneys worth. I was not meaning it was a bad food.

Hollywood, $25 for a 50# bag of diamond extreme athlete is great, i was paying.....i would have to look at my records but it was around $31 for a 38# bag.

I did feed the diamond high energy for a while also, but I got aggrivated because of the inconsistancy of color, shape, and smell of the food.

We have been feeding Diamond for many years to all our dogs. Never any problems.

We use the High Energy all year round. During hunting or times of hard work we mix in the Extreme Athlete with the High Energy half/half. We found that the dogs put on weight too fast with EA only. I have also used the Maintenance for overweight dogs but find that it just doesn't keep our working dogs in the condition I like. And all our pups are started on the Naturals Large Breed Puppy.

Don't know if it makes any difference to you but we also free feed all our dogs with only one dog that has had a problem with overeating. She was a spayed Lab/Heeler mix. Non hunting pet.

Tractor Supply will give you a discount if you buy 20bags or more at one time.

Plan on that price going up with the price of corn going way up. I have tried diamond but had waay to much stool to clean up on a daily basis. I switched to black/gold just for that reason and still a reasonable price. My dogs pardon the language, Crap once a day and thats it on black gold.

Hunter wrote:Plan on that price going up with the price of corn going way up. I have tried diamond but had waay to much stool to clean up on a daily basis. I switched to black/gold just for that reason and still a reasonable price. My dogs pardon the language, Crap once a day and thats it on black gold.

Diamond EA is Grain free....Stools have been fine on it....Ive not ever used the regular diamond line.

Hunter wrote:Plan on that price going up with the price of corn going way up. I have tried diamond but had waay to much stool to clean up on a daily basis. I switched to black/gold just for that reason and still a reasonable price. My dogs pardon the language, Crap once a day and thats it on black gold.

How much corn is there in a ton of Diamond? We have to know that before we can estimate how much it will go up. Petro just went up 30 cents a gallon. Would be my guess that the price of fuel still has a lot more influence on the price of our dog food than the change in the price of corn. It appears that the price of all feeds is going up but I don't think that will influence which feed to feed your dogs.

Ezzy

Ditto the stool thing>
My dogs had been on the eagle pack extreme athelete 30-20. Did well but expensive and always they would forget to order for me.
So tried the extreme athelete (32-25) blending in till full extreme, and for two full months. There stools were loose, stinky and bad gas in the house. Since gone to the Purina Pro Plan 30-20 performance then down to the Pro plans lamb 26 ( I forget. ) they are doing well and like it. It is less than the Proplan performance and is in stock more places. I go through one bag of the lamb 35# I beleive in two weeks with 5 hunters and one 30# yapper. Just got some on sale for $30.99 stools are good and no gas. Me too.

ezzy333 wrote:

Hunter wrote:Plan on that price going up with the price of corn going way up. I have tried diamond but had waay to much stool to clean up on a daily basis. I switched to black/gold just for that reason and still a reasonable price. My dogs pardon the language, Crap once a day and thats it on black gold.

How much corn is there in a ton of Diamond? We have to know that before we can estimate how much it will go up. Petro just went up 30 cents a gallon. Would be my guess that the price of fuel still has a lot more influence on the price of our dog food than the change in the price of corn. It appears that the price of all feeds is going up but I don't think that will influence which feed to feed your dogs.

Ezzy

First three ingredients are 75% of the ration.

In a large bag, the minerals are a half cup of volume.

You can do educated guesstimate from there. Might be off several percentage points, but should get you in the ballpark.

First three ingredients are 75% of the ration.

In a large bag, the minerals are a half cup of volume.

You can do educated guesstimate from there. Might be off several percentage points, but should get you in the ballpark.

That is a generalization for many of the cheaper feeds but is no where near accurate for many others that tend to be the more expensive feeds on the market. As an example of how things can differ if you use meat and bone meal as a source of animal protein then you will need only about half the volume of other mineral supplements or if you use a by-product meal compared to just a straight meat meal the mineral content will change considerable also. Plus there are a thousand other things that affect the amount of any one ingredient that gets used in a feed. I would strongly suggest that people buy a feed that is readily available, that you can afford, and one your dog likes and does well on and leave the formulation to the professional and trained nutritionist kind of like hopefully we let the health issues to the trained veterinarian.

We all would be better off including our dogs.

Ezzy

I have been feeding the Diamond Hi Energy for about two years and EVERY dog that I have has loose stools and ALOT of it. Nothing worse than diamond gas either, whoooooo wheeeee that is some rank stuff! I am in the process of switching feeds because of this.

Try Pro Pac. It is made by Midwestern Pet Foods and positioned between SportMix and Earthborn. You can view my Pro Pac thread. I never would have bought the food on my own but I found myself with a 33lb bag and frankly it is a good product.

I also tried Hi-Energy and had a stool problem. I switched to Premium Adult and have no problems with stools and the dogs do well

topher40 wrote:I have been feeding the Diamond Hi Energy for about two years and EVERY dog that I have has loose stools and ALOT of it. Nothing worse than diamond gas either, whoooooo wheeeee that is some rank stuff! I am in the process of switching feeds because of this.

I've been using it for several months now and have no problems with any of the dogs. I was surprised as I expected a looser stool so I cut the amount a little from what they were eating before and when the stools stayed dark and firm I increased them back up and it never changed. Loose stools I have found are about caused by too much fat and protein and if you cut the volume of the feed a little it and the gas will normally be fine. Think we all have a tendency to over feed the higher potency feeds

Ezzy

I switched my dog to Diamond Extreme Athlete from Loyall Performance. After a half-bag, I can see that I'll need to reduce the daily amount as the dog is putting on weight. No trouble with gas, although that could be due to my dog's impeccable manners, sophisticated demeanor, and civilized upbringing . I had previous dogs on Diamond Performance and they were indeed very gassy. Stools are a little softer but I'm hoping that gets better with time. I'm feeding a 50-pound pointer two and a half cups per day. I'm paying $35 for 40 pounds, but since I'm only feeding one dog it doesn't hurt too badly. (The Blue Buffalo feeds I've seen are about twice that price.....)

Been feeding the Extreme Athlete for a couple of years. Have to start feeding it slow, if they get to much at first, they have a very loose stool. During cold weather, I run my dogs about 4 times a week. I feed them half in the morning and half at night. If I give them it all in one feeding, they get loose. Very good feed

Dwells wrote:Been feeding the Extreme Athlete for a couple of years. Have to start feeding it slow, if they get to much at first, they have a very loose stool. During cold weather, I run my dogs about 4 times a week. I feed them half in the morning and half at night. If I give them it all in one feeding, they get loose. Very good feed

This is what I/we've experienced....

Took the kennel manager a couple weeks to realize dogs were gettin fat quick....Dogs during season that were on 5 cups are now on 3 max and look great......few days after 12 dogs were cut back they tightened right up.

My personal 4 all doing well on it and they are on about 2 1/2 to 3 cups depending on activity and appearance. I do sometimes
cut in a little Purina One that my lab mostly eats, just for a little boredom control.

Thats 16 dogs doin pretty well on it....Labs , Pointers, Setters.

I recently read keeping older dogs on high energy feed may keep them healthier, longer than switching them to a lower calorie diet.

I was just told Diamonds price is going up a couple $$ a bag early next year, so buy early and buy often.

I fed the Diamond Extreme Athlete to my English Setter during her trial/hunting season. I did not notice a difference in her preformance vs when she is being fed Diamond Performance. So I went back to feeding Diamond Performance. Right now my dogs are on Pro Plan Performance (PPP) because my English Setter won a trial last month so I got a large bag of PPP as part of the winnings. I do like PPP, but it is so much more expensive compared to Diamond Performance and my dogs do well on Diamond Performance.

Hunter wrote:.... I have tried diamond but had waay to much stool to clean up on a daily basis. I switched to black/gold just for that reason and still a reasonable price. My dogs pardon the language, Crap once a day and thats it on black gold.

Same with our dogs.

I just switched from Loyall to Diamond Naturals. So far, so good.

A/C Guy wrote:

Hunter wrote:.... I have tried diamond but had waay to much stool to clean up on a daily basis. I switched to black/gold just for that reason and still a reasonable price. My dogs pardon the language, Crap once a day and thats it on black gold.

Same with our dogs.

results may vary ppp gave my dog liquid swamp butt

I just recently switched from proplan shredded blend to native level 2.
Now,i realized diamond naturals chicken n rice is the same as the native and 10 bucks a bag cheaper.same ingriedients i belive but cheaper.so im switching to diamond naturals chixandrice and i can get it just about everywhere i can get dogfood from.which is not so with native.

We started with Orijen but it got a bit spendy at around $70/bag after tax so we switched to Taste of the Wild and are now feeding Diamond Extreme Athlete. Our dog has had increased gas and more output on Diamond. No loose stools just more. Her coat also doesn't seem to be as nice on Diamond. Not sure if its just because of the time of year or the feed. I must say though she's had increased energy on Diamond, especially compared to Orijen and TOFTW. On Orijen and TOFTW she seemed a bit sluggish and would run out of energy must faster. Not sure if it was due to the lack of a grain in the Orijen and TOFTW or what. Would the cracked pearled barley and brewers rice in Diamond Extreme Athlete make that big of difference? All and all I think Diamond Extreme Athlete is a good food for the money.

I really doubt if you could see much difference in the short haul but I would guess the grain helps quite a lot with energy. If you can cut back on the feed just a little ans see if that doesn't help with the gas and extra stool.

Ezzy

I plan on feeding Diamond food when I get my Brittany pup later this winter, which one of the Diamond puppy foods would you feed?

I have always just fed the Premium dog food and it has worked really well. I am not crazy about the puppy foods as I think they are too potent once the pup starts eating any quanity. An that isn't just Diamond but any puppy food.

Ezzy

did have our brit on diamond and it was ok. but now feeding nutro-ultra a little more expensivebut she is doing really good on it and her coat is a lot better. has excellent products and vit and minerals. she is worth the best

pauly wrote:did have our brit on diamond and it was ok. but now feeding nutro-ultra a little more expensivebut she is doing really good on it and her coat is a lot better. has excellent products and vit and minerals. she is worth the best

I've never found a feed that was much better but a lot of them are about alike. The biggest difference in most is the marketing.

Ezzy

ezzy333 wrote:I have always just fed the Premium dog food and it has worked really well. I am not crazy about the puppy foods as I think they are too potent once the pup starts eating any quanity. An that isn't just Diamond but any puppy food.

Ezzy

Is this the old wives tale that puppies will grow like fish? The more room they have and the more they have to eat, the bigger and fster they grow? Puppy foods are just a rip-off that is all and if you have more than one dog you have to buy and store more types of food.

Restricting a puppy's food unless the puppy is clinically overweight is not smart.

What does "too potent" mean?

Onk wrote:I plan on feeding Diamond food when I get my Brittany pup later this winter, which one of the Diamond puppy foods would you feed?

I just raised my latests pointer puppy on Diamond EA.....she did great, still eats and likes it and had no issues with growing to fast.

mcbosco wrote:

ezzy333 wrote:I have always just fed the Premium dog food and it has worked really well. I am not crazy about the puppy foods as I think they are too potent once the pup starts eating any quanity. An that isn't just Diamond but any puppy food.

Ezzy

Is this the old wives tale that puppies will grow like fish? The more room they have and the more they have to eat, the bigger and fster they grow? Puppy foods are just a rip-off that is all and if you have more than one dog you have to buy and store more types of food.

Restricting a puppy's food unless the puppy is clinically overweight is not smart.

What does "too potent" mean?

When I fed Diamond, I fed the Premium, and it was good for any age. I liked it better than the HiE, and I simply did not see the necessity for a more expensive Diamond feed. I feed Loyall now and feel it's cost effective, and not as expensive as some anyway. By the way Mcbosco, is that stub-tail in your avatar on point, or is it trying to take a dump?

I have been feeding my 1 year old EP diamond HI Energy for about a month. Seems good so far. First stool of the day is pretty firm, the rest are kinda soft but I think that is just my dog. It has always been that way. The price of this stuff is great, I pay about $30 for a 50lb bag, which is pretty good considering I was paying about $1 per lb. for nutro. After reading all of these post on dog food I think you just have to find something that your dog does well on and feed it.

ezzy333 wrote:I really doubt if you could see much difference in the short haul but I would guess the grain helps quite a lot with energy. If you can cut back on the feed just a little ans see if that doesn't help with the gas and extra stool.

Ezzy

Yeah, maybe not, maybe just in my head. Not sure if four months is long enough to see a difference or not. Thanks for the advice on cutting back a bit, I'll see if that helps.

Pauley,

What formula of Diamond were you feeding before you changed to Nutra Ultra?

I am feeding DIAMOND NATURALS CHIC AND RICE to 6 dogs so far it is working well and for 22$ a 40# bag it will do for awhile.