Told by petfood store owner that eukenuba is garbage?

[JulieM]

Susan, just curious what kind of quality kibble you found in BC? I know often posts on this forum take a USA slant, and it would be great to have a resource for the Canadians

Also, you can try adding canned pumpkin (not the pie mix) or green beans (no salt added) to his kibble if he gets a bit....chunky. Remove 1/4 cup of kibble and replace it with 1/2 cup of the veggies. This worked very well for us when we were feeding kibble. (And works by extension still, as to drop weight now we increase the % of veggies fed and decrease the % of RMBs.)

 

[Spotty's people]

excellent, excellent

Thanks once again, Julie.

Spot loves green beans, but they have to be cooked!!! :rolleyes:
I was going to do some stuff with pumpkin this year.... maybe I should can some & then make biscuits using some of that! Now you've given me some other great ideas.... Geez. I'd better get off the computer & get some things done!

As to feeding more veggies, I would love to, as my hubby really likes to give Spotty a bit of our supper. But, he wants his veggies cooked. I've tried raw everything.... and unless the carrots have dip on them, no go! He does not get dip!

We are doing a large bag test of "Pets 1st" Naturals, Chicken & Rice formulation. We should know in a month wether we like the results or not. As you will have realized by now, Julie, I am pretty pessimistic about "product claims", so I have to test it out for myself. If I like the results, or even if not, you will hear about it! I hadn't mentioned the name before, because I haven't finished testing it out yet, & I'm not a distributor, & I don't want to push any product I don't believe in....

They do have a webpage (pets1st.com), but I don't find it very informative. I preferred to just compare the lables (this is where API's site was useful). It is made in the Vancouver area of BC, & they are moving into the US, I think. They guarantee delivery of the product within 2-6 weeks of being produced. They don't warehouse their product, making the likelihood of freshness greater. This was a selling point for me. Also, I have them deliver to my door, and they keep track of when I will need more feed (according to how much they anticipate my dog consuming), another selling point.

I could get Canidae (in Penticton) & Innova (Kelowna) here, but the local dealer couldn't give me a price on a 20# bag, had none at all in stock & "might" get some in in two weeks. Hmmm. If I were running out of feed (I usually forget to go shopping for us & him!) I'd be in big doo doo.

My friendly neighbour distributor also will deliver all of the Darford products & other neat things (toys included!) if we want them. I hate shopping, & so I will pay a premium for mail-order & home delivery.

Think I've gone on enough. Over to the rest of you....

 

[alaska]

Yes they were bought by proctor and gamble, I don't know if this applies to eukanuba yet, but it does to iams, which eukanuba is a product of iams, and they were bought by the same company.
which means that they only need to have the food checked once or twice a year, to see if the ingredient label is what is in the bag, So to make a long story short, they don't have to put everything in the bag that is on the package, exept those couple times a year that they are checked. and that is why vets don't like it anymore because it is no longer a food that is monitored for quality consistantly. now you are paying for a label not a good quality food.
It's all about making a profit on a false name.

 

[Jan]

Julie
You can get the same foods here as in the U.S. At least all the major brands anyway. There is no problem finding Innova, Canidae, California Natural, etc. at least not in the Vancouver area. It is probably more difficult in the outlying areas.

 

[JulieM]

Thanks - please let us know how you like the food! And thanks to you and Jan for letting me know that many of the WDJ foods are available in Canada - I just know I often don't pay attention to where people are, but don't want to be geocentric

 

[Spotty's people]

Geocentricity!

Well, that is a good thing to hear!!!! I am encouraged! :D
Obviously, if you kinda knew where Kelowna was, you've done more homework than most!
Susan

 

[MickeyFan]

Just an observation

After reading this thread and checking out some of the informational links that people provided, I really began to give some serious thought to the quality of the food I was giving my dogs.

Nutro Natural Choice was what I had been feeding - no doubt considered a premium food, and my dogs were not doing to badly on it. I had noticed however that they were occaisionally skipping meals, occaisionally vomitting up meals, and LOTS of poop.

I switched to Flint River Ranch, made with human grade chicken meal and baked instead of steam extruded (presumably aiding in digestion of grains). In transitioning the dogs to the new food, I am mixing half and half old and new food. Interestingly enough, they now eat well and carefully flick all of the old food out of the bowl to get at the Flint River Ranch. That makes me feel good about the switch, in addition to the fact that their systems don't have to work so hard to digest it.

 

[Spotty's people]

Update on Spot's food change

Going slowly over to Pet's 1st, Chicken & Brown Rice Naturals.

Don't have to "bribe" him (soft food mixed in) to eat kibble with this stuff. Also, the bag I had delivered to my door was made & delivered within ONE WEEK. How fresh is that???? The dog will even eat it instead of a biscuit at bedtime!

Gotta get through the entire bag to see results, though.

 

[Moonshadow]

Looking for the REAL word!

I think others will be with me on this.

I would like to know what some of you, in particular feed your own dogs.

We now know that Dan feeds Innova - thanks Dan.

Julie M, when you aren't feeding all natural and you have to (if you do) use a kibble, what do you use?

Matthew, your input would also be requested.

Debbie Camino, though you are far away from Bryan, Texas, I would like to hear from you, also.

Olly, do you have any input?

Anyone else who has done all the research, I would love to hear what you found. (I have been reading too much lately about terrorists and victims and don't want to go into more reasearch unless I have to.)

This has been a helpful and interesting thread!

Thanks.

 

[JulieM]

Julie M, when you aren't feeding all natural and you have to (if you do) use a kibble, what do you use?

I don't. I can't think of any reason I'd have to. I rarely board my dogs, but when I do the facility will feed them the raw diet. My show boy usually stays local, if he goes to away shows with me (staying in a hotel), I have a cooler that will work for a weekend. (Frozen chicken backs take days in the fridge to thaw...and I can always go to the grocery store for chicken wings or whatever if need be.) He did go on one extended trip with a handler and I just ground his RMBs and mixed them with the veggies, froze solid in individual meal sizes and away he went. The handler has an RV, of course, with a fridge/freezer.

If I truly got in a situation where the dogs would be in a place for days without grocery stores or refrigeration, I'd probably get Steve's freeze-dried. (Mega-expensive, though!) If it were only a couple of days, I'd try Homemade4Life as from what I understand the way it is packaged it stays frozen/chilled even without a fridge.

I will feed them my dinner if I have to. Worst case scenario, I have a fast day. Certainly not ideal if the dog is going to be showing the next day, but it's unlikely that would be the situation. I'd see that happening more on the way home from a show, if it took longer than expected or something, and they'd just be sleeping during the travelling anyway.