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SpudNYC posted:We've been feeding our two kittens SmallBatch beef. it's on the expensive side at about $3/day total but the cats are in perfect shape and they both go nuts for the stuff. Is there an AAFCO label on the bag? I'm not finding a mention on the website.
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# ? Sep 16, 2013 16:04 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:53 |
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Enelrahc posted:Is there an AAFCO label on the bag? I'm not finding a mention on the website. No, I don't see one on the bag of Orijen I have either. Maybe compliance doesn't require a label on the bag?
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# ? Sep 16, 2013 16:26 |
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I don't have a good base weight settled on the dog yet, what do you guys think of her body atm? I can feel the last 3-4 ribs now, but not hips. Ranging up almost 2 cups rarely to 1 cup+ a day. On the recommended feed, its 1 3/4 cup for 30lb dog.. shes ranging from 24-30lb but I think 26-28 is what I should aim for. I haven't weighed her today though. Another issue is that her poop is not settling at all. Its been about a month since Ive had her, did a cold turkey switch from her previous food from natural balance to merricks and it went south into liqui-town. After 2 weeks, I switched over to merricks grain free - again without transitioning since I figured the formulas were similar enough. Been using immodium as suggested here which does help but today it was pretty much liquid consistency too. It *might* have to do with me just feeding a bit kibble earlier in the day but evening having a long training session with lots of treats. The plan so far is feeding more kibble meals, using it as treats, adding some canned pumpkin in to help and if it doesn't settle more within a week..start suspecting something else? giardia???
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# ? Sep 18, 2013 07:09 |
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Does anyone order their cat food off amazon? If so, are you happy with doing it that way? Our closest local pet food shop stopped selling Solid Gold Indigo Moon last week (which we switched from because they stopped selling Orijen a few months ago), and I'm getting frustrated. I could drive 40 mins each way to get the food, but that seems excessive to me... I'll certainly do it if that's the best option I have, but I thought I'd explore other avenues first. Edit: the place we used to get it said they're unwilling to special order it, as well. Niemat fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Sep 18, 2013 |
# ? Sep 18, 2013 13:49 |
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HelloSailorSign posted:Don't give them the high value food (prepped by you) and just give them the kibble. Most dogs that are "too finicky" are usually overweight, or wouldn't be hurt by a small amount of weightloss anyway, so holding out on them until they stop being princesses isn't a bad thing. This seems like pretty good advice and we've been following it. Truth is, out dogs basically are our kids so we tend to spoil them quite a bit. The one boston with the chix allergies is still taking his time to eat, but we set a timer for ten minutes once we put the bowl down and once that times up, we pick all the food up. Haven't had a real issue yet. He doesn't eat the second we put down the bowls like the other dogs but a few minutes in he will start eating. Yesterday he walked away from the bowl with a few minutes left and food still in the bowl, so we had to pick the bowl up last night. Questions: We give him an antihistamine each meal for his allergies. He won't take it by itself and we used to wrap it in the prepared meat and he'd eat it that way. He's an absolute problem if you try and force it in his mouth, then keep his mouth closed and make him swallow. Any ideas? We've tried the greenies pill pockets before and it's like he smells the pill and just wont eat it. Second question is after dinner we brush their teeth and give them a dental chew. If he doesn't finish his food, should he still get a treat? I would say yes because the treat is a reward for his teeth being brushed, but I'm willing to listen.
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# ? Sep 18, 2013 14:00 |
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nwin posted:This seems like pretty good advice and we've been following it. Truth is, out dogs basically are our kids so we tend to spoil them quite a bit. The one boston with the chix allergies is still taking his time to eat, but we set a timer for ten minutes once we put the bowl down and once that times up, we pick all the food up. Haven't had a real issue yet. He doesn't eat the second we put down the bowls like the other dogs but a few minutes in he will start eating. Yesterday he walked away from the bowl with a few minutes left and food still in the bowl, so we had to pick the bowl up last night. Have you tried skim milk based cheese to wrap the pills?
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# ? Sep 18, 2013 15:16 |
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wtftastic posted:Have you tried skim milk based cheese to wrap the pills? No, something like Kraft singles?
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# ? Sep 18, 2013 15:30 |
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nwin posted:No, something like Kraft singles? Or like any cheap store brand cheese (that you can get pre-packed and sliced). You can usually warm that with your fingers and kind of hide a pill in it. If you can get stinky cheese (like maybe a stronger cheddar or swiss) that might also help hide the smell of the pill. Or something like liverwurst or pate (which would be much more expensive. If you have to pill the dog, get creative!
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# ? Sep 18, 2013 16:05 |
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Malalol posted:I don't have a good base weight settled on the dog yet, what do you guys think of her body atm? Body condition looks fine to me in those pictures. They're a little dark so the top down looks a bit excessively thin. What was her stool like on the original food? You've been using primarily higher protein foods, so you may have to try something a little lower on the "premium" scale to see if that's the issue. It's certainly possible you're dealing with a parasite of some kind, but it's also possible it is food related.
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# ? Sep 18, 2013 18:47 |
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Niemat posted:Does anyone order their cat food off amazon? If so, are you happy with doing it that way? I've always ordered all my cat food on Amazon and never had issues with the delivery service or cost. If anything, the slightly higher cost (and sometimes lower) is worth it just for the time savings of not having to drive to the busiest part of town to the only pet food store that carries decent brands.
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# ? Sep 18, 2013 19:54 |
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Niemat posted:Does anyone order their cat food off amazon? If so, are you happy with doing it that way? I would except for the fact that in Canada, the only thing you can get with Prime shipping are Hill's products and Tiki Cat (not to knock that, of course, it seems like a fine food, but I work long enough hours I can't feed exclusively wet). Amazon is certainly the place to get litter though, as someone with no car. Actually, how is Hill's Ideal Balance for cats? It's actually listed quite well for dogs in the OP, but I wouldn't use that to gauge a generally dodgy foodmaker. I don't know that I'd sitch from Orijen to it unless it was the best drat cat food ever but it's nice to know where one's options are.
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# ? Sep 18, 2013 20:05 |
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HelloSailorSign posted:Body condition looks fine to me in those pictures. They're a little dark so the top down looks a bit excessively thin. It was kinda soft yellowish, but pickable. Looking at the protein %, theirs was 21..to 23. then to 38 which is a big jump. I actually will be settling on a food thats back to 23- i just happened to have the grain free bags from a sale. Today was all firm though!
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# ? Sep 18, 2013 22:26 |
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Would someone here who's better informed about pet nutrition be willing to explain all the things wrong with this:quote:homemade vegan dog food Because right off the bat, the corn and brown rice scream "WRONG" in my head but I want to know exactly how harmful this would be for a dog. It seems pretty low on calcium and vitamin B12 to me. Nuns with Guns fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Sep 21, 2013 |
# ? Sep 21, 2013 14:31 |
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Nuns with Guns posted:Would someone here who's better informed about pet nutrition be willing to explain all the things wrong with this: I definitely agree with the calcium and B12, then there's unbalanced amino acids (I don't know off the top of my head), probably plain 'ol protein in general since we're dealing with unprocessed veggies... I mean, probably most things are deficient beyond several of the vitamins, fiber, and carb level. There is a snowball's chance in hell that stuff is anywhere near balanced. Many of the micronutrients (choline, biotin) probably also are deficient, but I can't prove that and don't know if things like lentils and sweet potatoes have those things in sufficient amounts. Basically, this food as a base, and adding some meat plus a vitamin/mineral premix would make this a lovely meal. Dogs are omnivores, so they'd handle the veggies fine, they just should be eating SOME meat with it.
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# ? Sep 21, 2013 16:20 |
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I've been looking into getting a dog next year and been talking to a breeder about it. When we got to the food portion, she mentioned that she feeds her dogs Nature's Select, specifically this one http://naturalpetfooddelivery.com/chicken-and-rice-with-glucosamine . She highly recommends it but I do not see it on the list in the OP. I asked her about her opinion on Blue Buffalo, she said that she has tried it but it resulted in looser stools for her dogs. I would like to know what PI thinks of this Nature's Select.
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# ? Sep 24, 2013 23:07 |
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I've been trying to get my cats to eat the premium foods listed in the OP but they just don't care for them at all. They kind of lick the gravy for a little bit but most of the food just gets left alone. I've tried Innova, Wellness, Wellness Core and Blue Buffalo so far and I'm running out of options at the pet store. They don't really mind pouches or canned food. I've got them on Friskies Savory Shreds and Meaty Bits for now because they like that stuff. I think the problem is that they don't like the texture of most canned foods. They seem to prefer chunks or shreds of meat in gravy and they hate the paté style canned foods. I guess they're just not that into meat-paste, but I do want to switch them to a healthier diet. Are there any premium, or at least half-decent foods, could anyone with more knowledge on the subject suggest brands of cat foods that are different from the stuff I already bought?
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# ? Sep 25, 2013 01:53 |
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What about soulistic? Photos of it seems pretty wet and shreddy. I believe a lot of those brands have a more homestyle version of their regular food. Wellness has the signature selects. http://www.shescribes.com/2013/07/new-wellness-signature-selects-cat-food.html Blues got stuff like this http://bluebuffalo.com/cat-food/healthy-gourmet-flaked-turkey?pf=1&type=wet&animal=cat natures variety pride http://mehimandthecats.com/pride-by-instinct/ If it really is the texture, you can look up reviews of food and can probably find a photo of what it looks like inside.
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# ? Sep 25, 2013 02:13 |
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Both Tiki Cat (shreds in 2.8 oz and 6oz cans) and Fussie Cat (shreds in aspic only in 3oz cans) are premium shredded cat foods. You could also try Evanger's Signature Series Stews (5.5oz cans) that are very liquid-y.
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# ? Sep 25, 2013 02:16 |
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Are these the same, nutritionally, as these? My cat likes the Spa Selects way more than the Healthy Gourmet flavors.
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# ? Sep 26, 2013 04:33 |
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I have a cat and I feed her dry food for the most part. My boyfriend has a Manchester Terrier who started coming over for visits and inviting himself to the cat food. Is that ok to let him do? I mean there is nothing inherently different about dry cat food that is going to kill a dog right? Or do I need to hide it when he comes over?
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# ? Sep 26, 2013 15:49 |
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Red Red Red posted:I have a cat and I feed her dry food for the most part. My boyfriend has a Manchester Terrier who started coming over for visits and inviting himself to the cat food. Is that ok to let him do? I mean there is nothing inherently different about dry cat food that is going to kill a dog right? Or do I need to hide it when he comes over? Cat food is much higher in protein than dog food, and while a little won't hurt him, he might have digestive issues if he eats a lot. I'd say put it away when he comes over.
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# ? Sep 26, 2013 17:25 |
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Irkenfox posted:I think the problem is that they don't like the texture of most canned foods. They seem to prefer chunks or shreds of meat in gravy and they hate the paté style canned foods. I guess they're just not that into meat-paste, but I do want to switch them to a healthier diet. Are there any premium, or at least half-decent foods, could anyone with more knowledge on the subject suggest brands of cat foods that are different from the stuff I already bought? Both of my cats are weird about wet food texture and they like Earthborn as it has flaky bits in some gravy (good picture at http://www.earthbornholisticpetfood.com/us/cat_formulas/monterey_medley/). We tried out basically every other premium wet food we could find in cans before finding this brand.
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# ? Sep 27, 2013 02:24 |
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I've been noticing grain free dry food brands popping up around here and wondering if I should switch. Is there any nutritional difference between "grain free" cat foods and cat foods that have grains as filler if it looks like they have the same percentage protein/fat/everything else? Is it healthier for cats to be eating processed pumpkin compared to processed corn? I was under the impression that as carnivores they're pretty much not going to be processing anything other than the protein/fat/essential vitamin stuff. Speaking of which, does cat food in the US have the little percentages on the side of the packet? I had assumed they didn't since I've never been able to find any info online about what percentage what any of the foods referred to in the thread are, but I noticed someone mentioning percentages earlier in the thread so now I'm wondering. If they do have them, could someone post a few of the breakdowns for the more popular foods mentioned in this thread? Basically it'd be really helpful if I had a better idea of how the brands mentioned here compared to the brands that are available in Australia so I know how I'm doing in terms of feeding the little monsters.
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# ? Sep 29, 2013 03:06 |
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Organza Quiz posted:I've been noticing grain free dry food brands popping up around here and wondering if I should switch. Is there any nutritional difference between "grain free" cat foods and cat foods that have grains as filler if it looks like they have the same percentage protein/fat/everything else? Is it healthier for cats to be eating processed pumpkin compared to processed corn? I was under the impression that as carnivores they're pretty much not going to be processing anything other than the protein/fat/essential vitamin stuff. Pet foods have the breakdown for protein, fat, moisture, fiber, and sometimes ash/minerals or specific vitamins listed on the labels. To get percentage of carbohydrates, you add the rest and subtract from 100. If the nutrient breakdowns are similar, there shouldn't be much of a nutritional difference between grain-free formulas and formulas with grains. Some of the grain-free formulas will have more protein and fat, but you are correct that some of them just replace the grains with other starches, and that substitution is of no benefit except in the case of a grain allergy.
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# ? Sep 29, 2013 05:40 |
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Dr. Chaco posted:Pet foods have the breakdown for protein, fat, moisture, fiber, and sometimes ash/minerals or specific vitamins listed on the labels. To get percentage of carbohydrates, you add the rest and subtract from 100. Thanks for the info on grain-free. I wasn't very clear about what I meant about the breakdowns so I'll rephrase: I'm in Australia and spend a lot of time looking at the percentage breakdowns when I'm trying to work out what food to buy because that seems like the best way to work it out since I've never seen specific recommendations for food that's available in Australia as opposed to the USA. I'd never seen people in the USA refer to the percentages, so I'd assumed that they weren't available on cat food in the USA. Since it seems like they are, I'd be grateful if someone would let me know what they look like on the "better" food brands, so I can compare it to what's available here and have a better idea of how well I'm doing at finding decent food for my cats to eat. It would just give some context to all the discussions about Blue Buffalo and Wellness or whatever.
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# ? Sep 29, 2013 07:27 |
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Irkenfox posted:I've been trying to get my cats to eat the premium foods listed in the OP but they just don't care for them at all. They kind of lick the gravy for a little bit but most of the food just gets left alone. I've tried Innova, Wellness, Wellness Core and Blue Buffalo so far and I'm running out of options at the pet store. They don't really mind pouches or canned food. I've got them on Friskies Savory Shreds and Meaty Bits for now because they like that stuff. Wellness also has their minced/cubed/sliced variety. My cat hates paté food too and that's all I can feed her besides Whiskas and Fancy Feast since we don't have much cat premium canned food in Australia.
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# ? Sep 29, 2013 11:04 |
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Organza Quiz posted:Thanks for the info on grain-free. I wasn't very clear about what I meant about the breakdowns so I'll rephrase: I'm in Australia and spend a lot of time looking at the percentage breakdowns when I'm trying to work out what food to buy because that seems like the best way to work it out since I've never seen specific recommendations for food that's available in Australia as opposed to the USA. I'd never seen people in the USA refer to the percentages, so I'd assumed that they weren't available on cat food in the USA. Since it seems like they are, I'd be grateful if someone would let me know what they look like on the "better" food brands, so I can compare it to what's available here and have a better idea of how well I'm doing at finding decent food for my cats to eat. It would just give some context to all the discussions about Blue Buffalo and Wellness or whatever. I personally wouldn't feed a cat anything less than 40% protein (on a dry matter basis), and protein is definitely the most important number to look at. You shouldn't compare label percentages if they have different amounts of moisture without converting them to dry matter. Protein% listed on the label divided by (100 - %moisture) = dry matter protein%.
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# ? Sep 29, 2013 15:12 |
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Crooked Booty posted:Have you tried using google? Virtually every pet food company has the numbers you're looking for on their website. I seriously have spent a lot of time looking up cat foods online and only ever managed to find lists of ingredients rather than percentage breakdowns. That's where I got the impression that US foods didn't have the breakdowns on them, in fact. But I'll look again, maybe I just managed to totally miss it every time somehow. EDIT: I think I was only looking at sites that sell the food rather than the actual brands' homepages before . Organza Quiz fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Sep 29, 2013 |
# ? Sep 29, 2013 16:09 |
I was feeding my cats EVO wet food only, but I went to the store to get more yesterday and found there was none. Apparently they are having distribution issues due to the whole recall thing, despite this being wet food vs dry food. There isn't anywhere else in town that carries this food, and the guy behind the counter mentioned that natura was having some pretty serious issues due to getting dropped by the major chains and might fold. So now I'm looking for a new food for the cats. I'm a poor student at the moment, I feed wet only because my cats are worth it, but the ~$50 dollars a month on the EVO food was pretty much the most I can afford. They love dry food, but it makes the litter box an absolute nightmare, and I'd like to avoid it if at all possible. What wet food brands would you guys recommend as comparable to the EVO chicken/turkey without breaking the bank? If I could get natures instinct for that price, I'd probably move to that, but it's more than twice as expensive at the local store. Nothing else that I saw was a 95% formula. It looks like the instinct cans only come in 5.5 oz, I was getting the 13.2 oz EVO cans. Wellness comes in similar sized cans, 12.5 oz, but doesn't appear to be a 95% food. Would I be doing them a huge disservice by switching to that, money allowing? Olothreutes fucked around with this message at 16:49 on Sep 30, 2013 |
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# ? Sep 30, 2013 16:40 |
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Olothreutes posted:I was feeding my cats EVO wet food only, but I went to the store to get more yesterday and found there was none. Apparently they are having distribution issues due to the whole recall thing, despite this being wet food vs dry food. There isn't anywhere else in town that carries this food, and the guy behind the counter mentioned that natura was having some pretty serious issues due to getting dropped by the major chains and might fold. So now I'm looking for a new food for the cats. I'm a poor student at the moment, I feed wet only because my cats are worth it, but the ~$50 dollars a month on the EVO food was pretty much the most I can afford. They love dry food, but it makes the litter box an absolute nightmare, and I'd like to avoid it if at all possible. How many cans do you go through a month? I've been feeding Wellness canned food and it seems to be pretty similar? I buy the cases of 12oz cans on Amazon, and you can even do Subscribe & Save with them which knocks the price down to like $23 after the 15% discount. It's pretty hard to find the big cans of cat food in any store here... I've asked before and they just say "nobody needs that much cat food" edit: oops just saw you have already considered it! oishii fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Sep 30, 2013 |
# ? Sep 30, 2013 16:53 |
oishii posted:How many cans do you go through a month? I've been feeding Wellness canned food and it seems to be pretty similar? I buy the cases of 12oz cans on Amazon, and you can even do Subscribe & Save with them which knocks the price down to like $23 after the 15% discount. It's pretty hard to find the big cans of cat food in any store here... I've asked before and they just say "nobody needs that much cat food" They eat about 26 cans (just over 2 cases) every month, for the 13.2 oz cans. When I couldn't get the EVO I picked up a case of 5.5 oz cans of the Instinct stuff, and they love it. It disappears much faster than the EVO did, which is a problem since it's more than twice as expensive. The big issue is that I can't get food with fish ingredients, it screws them up pretty bad. I'm having a really hard time figuring out a cost effective solution to this, I'm coming to appreciate just how good that food was for the dollar.
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# ? Sep 30, 2013 20:36 |
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Olothreutes posted:They eat about 26 cans (just over 2 cases) every month, for the 13.2 oz cans. When I couldn't get the EVO I picked up a case of 5.5 oz cans of the Instinct stuff, and they love it. It disappears much faster than the EVO did, which is a problem since it's more than twice as expensive. The big issue is that I can't get food with fish ingredients, it screws them up pretty bad. I'm having a really hard time figuring out a cost effective solution to this, I'm coming to appreciate just how good that food was for the dollar. Petflow.com has EVO for 28.99/case of the big cans. I use them for my EVO order each month (1 case of the small cans) and have never had a problem with them being unable to get it. Free shipping doesn't hurt either.
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# ? Sep 30, 2013 21:00 |
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Irkenfox posted:Are there any premium, or at least half-decent foods, could anyone with more knowledge on the subject suggest brands of cat foods that are different from the stuff I already bought? If you have a Whole Foods near you, they just came out with a new line of canned food called Whole Paws for 99c per can. The ingredients list looks decent to me (keep in mind though all I know about pet nutrition is what I've read in these threads), and my cat treats it like it's crack. It's shreds in gravy texture, with shreds that are way bigger than in most other brands I've seen.
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# ? Oct 1, 2013 03:17 |
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I just got my first dog of my adult life (a papillon mix of some type) from a shelter. They had her science diet puppy chow which has to go. That means I'll have to pick a kibble that's preferably high in protein and healthy fats and low in carbs and hopefully available at Petsmart. We had our first breakfast this morning and I thought I would transition her off of the garbage slowly, so I gave her 1/4 cup of kibble instead of 1/2, then an egg to go with it. The egg got eaten, the kibble is still in the bowl.
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# ? Oct 3, 2013 14:18 |
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Sounds like she's settling in. Dogs won't starve themselves so give her another day or two and she should start eating regularly. Don't let her free feed. Just take up the bowl after 10-15 minutes. She's also probably on a different feeding schedule at the shelter. Also you just found a good treat. Egg>kibble for training purposes.
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# ? Oct 3, 2013 14:30 |
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However, egg is not balanced for a puppy and even if you don't like Science Diet Puppy, it is leagues better than just egg. Until you have chosen a food to feed her, avoid major caloric contributions with human food. A single egg, for a Papillon type, is a gigantic caloric contribution. Once you have found the new diet, then you can transition off, but using human food to do that is unnecessary.
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# ? Oct 3, 2013 16:32 |
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HelloSailorSign posted:Until you have chosen a food to feed her, avoid major caloric contributions with human food. A single egg, for a Papillon type, is a gigantic caloric contribution. Once you have found the new diet, then you can transition off, but using human food to do that is unnecessary. I gave her half of her normal "breakfast" amount and supplemented the other half with the egg, which is a great protein and fat source for basically any carnivore or omnivore. The egg is infinitely better for her than the science diet. And not to be rude, but calling an egg a "human" food is hilarious. There are a lot of species that have to back off our egg monopoly I guess. Mr. Belding fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Oct 3, 2013 |
# ? Oct 3, 2013 16:55 |
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Mr. Belding posted:The egg is infinitely better for her than the science diet. You know what's worse than feeding crappy puppy food? Diluting that already low nutrient content with random unbalanced food. An egg is better than doritos obviously, but you're missing the point. P.S. have you heard of a calcium phosphorus ratio? It's this thing that you really should not gently caress with in a growing puppy.
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# ? Oct 3, 2013 17:55 |
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Mr. Belding posted:I gave her half of her normal "breakfast" amount and supplemented the other half with the egg, which is a great protein and fat source for basically any carnivore or omnivore. The egg is infinitely better for her than the science diet. AAFCO minimum standards aren't great, but they do make pet food companies provide the nutrients that your pup needs. Eggs aren't going to cover that.
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# ? Oct 3, 2013 18:08 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 03:53 |
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Crooked Booty posted:Sorry but no Eh, I'm was planning on easing into a raw food type of diet instead of doggie TV dinners. Maybe this thread just isn't for me. I'll look for a place where people are talking about that kind of stuff I guess. Balanced food is hilarious, too. May 80s nutrition never die. Mr. Belding fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Oct 3, 2013 |
# ? Oct 3, 2013 18:25 |