I am looking for the best natural pet food, regardless of price. I’ve been looking into Canidae and Wellness. Has anyone had experiences with any of these 2 brands? Is there other good brands out there? I have an almost 3-month old Lab puppy. Right now he’s on Science Diet, but after doing some research, I found out that is not the best food for my dog, so I want to switch him ASAP.
What is the best natural pet food?
Previous post: Can Healthy Cat Food Contain Preservatives?
Next post: How We Care for our Pets
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Hills Prescription Diet,it’s vet recommended and is quite simply the best you can feed them.
beneful
the best……………….? Tripe! but it smells and looks foul, to me anyway, its the best thing your dog can eat though, its what kenneled dogs were fed before convenient complete dry food came by, and many breeders still feed tripe.
i feed my dogs RoyalCanin, but its expensive, even for my little dogs
Both Canidae and Wellness are excellent, you couldn’t go wrong with either one but Canidae is a bit more affordable.
There are other many great brands of equally good quality that you could look into such as Innova, Orijen, Artemis, Merrick, Taste of the Wild, Timberwolf, Fromm, Nature’s Variety, Go Natural, Solid Gold and many others.
Here is a good site to read up on. http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
We feed our four Dachshunds Canidae and we LOVE it!!! Two of my dogs have sensitive stomachs and they are doing so much better on Canidae. Their coats are shiny and soft, their teeth are plaque free and healthy and they have tons of energy. You want to stay away from any food with a bunch of corn or fillers. Another great brand is Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul. I have a lot of friends who feed it and they love it. Innova and Innova Evo are also great foods.
Science Diet is NOT good for your dogs. Vets recommend it because they are paid to do so. Most vets are not trained in nutrition, so they do not know better. The nutrition training they do get usually comes from a food company (like Hills’). If they knew more about it they wouldn’t recommend it.
Anything sold in Wal-Mart, grocery stores and most stuff sold at PetCo are HORRIBLE!! Most feed-stores and places on-line will have quality food.
Good luck!! You will not regret switching food, I promise.
The BEST food you could ever possibly feed your dogs is a raw prey model diet. Here are some quick facts: No: your dog won’t get salmonella or e. coli, dogs are designed to digest raw meat and are immune to the bacteria that commonly go with a raw meat diet. No: It’s not as expensive as you may think (luckily price isn’t an option for you anyway). No: Dogs are not omnivores, they’re carnivores. All omnivores have flat molars for grinding plant matter, dogs possess no such grinding surfaces, they have teeth like shears designed to cut through meat and bone (even bears, except for the polar bear who is 100% carnivorous and has dentition more like our dogs).
Okay that out of the way. Canidae and Wellness are some pretty good dog kibbles, arguably the best. But all dog kibbles are cooked, which destroys ALL the enzymes dogs would find beneficial and a lot of the essential amino acids (which amino acids depend on the temperature which it’s cooked and for how long). The only animal on Earth that is designed to eat cooked meat (by their own doing) are human beings. Every other carnivore and omnivore is designed to eat all their foods raw. I’m a working line German Shepherd breeder, I have a 20 run kennel and several house dogs. I switched to raw 8 years ago and the difference in my dogs health and working performance is phenominal. Cleaner teeth, no bad breath, no gum disease and tarter build up, no allergies, no diabetes, no hot spots, and none of the other diseases and illnesses that we’ve come to think are NORMAL because the normal dog is fed food for which he is not designed to ingest! If you have absolutely any questions regarding diet or training feel free to e-mail me, I’d be happy to “tutor” or “mentor” you through switching to a raw prey modeled diet.
RAW
http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html
http://www.rawfeddogs.net/Links
http://www.mypetcarnivore.com/
http://www.mypetcarnivore.com/rawfeeding_basics.htm
You can also join rawfeeding and rawchat on yahoogroups. You can switch immediately, no transition, just toss that nasty kibble in the garbage, or donate it to your local shelter and be done!
Feel free to e me for assistance if you need.
Canidae, Royal Canine, Wellness are the ones that my dog loves!
Wellness uses human grade ingredients in their food, not animal grade. You will not have the same problems with imported wheat gluten or the cheapest and worst meat or poultry or lamb meal as in other brands. I’ve been making my dogs food for five or so years now, with a Vet’s advise and books. If I could not make her food for any reason I would resort to Wellness.
Have fun with your new puppy, I love the smell of puppies they are so wonderful, I especially love it when they wiggle as my twelve year old dog still does.
I have fed Canidae before and had good results with it. As far as dry kibble goes, I think its top notch. I switched to raw about two months ago and have been very pleased. If money is not a problem, I would encourage you to research raw feeding (sometimes called the BARF diet). It can get pricy, but the results are phenomenal. You WILL see a difference in your dog.
Here is a good website that answers common questions about the BARF diet: http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htm
I’m not going to go into too much detail because others already have but Science Diet is garbage with a good name. Corn and by-products, not what you want!!
Wellness is a great food (what I feed my cat and what I will feed my dog whenever I get one!) They use human grade meat so I feel good giving it to my animals.
I just looked up Canidae and it looks like a good food as well.
Good job on trying to do the best for your pet – if only we could get every one to realize what they are feeding their animals!!!
We give our Jack Russell Terrier Nutro Max and Nutro Natural Choice. It’s eliminated the loose or smelly stools she got when we tried other (pricy) brands. Tried several brands when she was a puppy that didn’t agree with her until we tried this brand. She started her on the dry puppy food when she was about 5 months old and she’s now 6 and we’ve never had any problems.
fish or meat