So the back story is, my parents (and sister) love their dogs and cats, but they are pretty clueless when it comes to nutrition. I think my sister understands it little better, and tried to buy food with the words natural on the label. But we all know that when it comes to pet food labeling, natural could meat absolutely nothing.
My parents have a dachshund that they adopted from my roommate (he was her foster dog) and they love him to bits. Indy has a bit of a sensitive stomach and he does really well on natures variety instinct, which I get time to time when I find it on sale, but its pretty expensive. I've tried him on taste of the wild and it gave him bad runs and impacted anal glands. Then I had him on canidae and healthwise, hoping to find something that was decent quality but inexpensive for my parents to buy. But it his coat got dull and dry on it (probably due to lack of meat protein). So I bought some Natures Logic Beef, my reasoning is that its not grain free, but its low glycemic and has decent protein levels- 31%
Here are the ingredients:
Beef Meal, Millet, Beef Fat, Brewer's Yeast, Flaxseed, Menhaden Fish Meal, Montmorillonite, Animal Plasma, Pumpkin Seed, Cottage Cheese, Kelp, Alfalfa Meal, Spray Dried Beef Liver, White Fish Meal, Almonds, Avocado Powder, Chicory Root, Tomato Powder, Apple Powder, Apricot Powder, Blueberry Powder, Carrot Powder, Pumpkin Powder, Cranberry Powder, Spinach Powder, Broccoli Powder, Parsley Powder, Natural Preservative, Artichoke Powder, Rosemary Powder, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Casei Fermentation Product, Dried Bifidobacterium Bifidium Fermentation Product, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Coagulans Fermentation Product, Dried Pineapple Extract, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Extract, Dried Trichoderma Longibrachtium Fermentation Extract, Mixed Tocopherols.
My main concerns is brewers yeast so high up on the list, he's been kind of itchy this winter, but I think it was due to having dry winter skin. So fingers crossed, it wont make him itch, if it doesent work out, it'll go to my sisters dog Juni, who's a garbage disposal and will eat anything.
But for Juni, I got some Rotations food, I found this online deal - $1 for $30 worth of food, so I got 3- 5 lb bags free, but paid $10 for shipping, which was still a nice deal.
It looks like decent enough of a food, no major red flags and comes in salmon, chicken and lamb protein sources.
Salmon (source of DHA), turkey meal (source of glucosamine), rice, whole barley, peas, chicken fat (preserved with citric acid and mixed tocopherols), brewer's yeast, tomato pomace, carrot, salmon meal, natural flavors, dicalcium phosphate, rye, calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, zinc sulfate, vitamin E supplement, choline chloride, ferrous sulfate, niacin supplement, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, calcium pantothenate, vitamin A supplement, manganous oxide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, sodium selenite, riboflavin supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, calcium iodate, folic acid, rosemary extract
Next on the list, the kitty cats. My parents have 2 cats- Chloe and Booger. Chloe is getting up there in years(shes 16) and I"m worried about her health. She still has a good appetite and moved around some, but she's been having some incontinence issue and her teeth arent great. I'm thinking of taking her to the vet but I need to figure out how much it will cost and ask my parents to chip in(I know sounds odd, but I'm also in charge of paying for most medical care stuff for their pets, its mostly been hw meds and flea stuff).
Booger is around 7 and she's a real weirdo, but I still love her. No real health issue aside from being little chunky, though she lost weight since my parents got Indy and he's been chasing her around the yard.
As far as their diet goes, I buy them taste of the wild dry and my mom buys trader joes canned which is the least expensive premium food I found that doesent contain byproducts and other junk. Dry food isnt ideal for cats due to lack of moisture, but they mix dry with canned to help stretch the food bill.
Anyways, at work I was able to special order some new food made by Diamond. While I'm not a huge fan of their reputation, their quality has gone up since the recalls in 2007 and considering that they also make canidae and taste of the wild, I feel mostly good about buying this food. It also only costs me $15 for 24 cans, which is a pretty darn good price.
Chicken, chicken broth, poultry liver, salmon, duck, brown rice flour, fish meal, dicalcium phosphate, lecithin, cranberry powder, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, taurine, carrageenan gum, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, niacin supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin B12 supplement, biotin, folic acid, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, and sodium selenite.
Its comparable to higher end brands without the cost, but these cats are pretty picky, so lets hope they eat it.
I also got them a big sample bag of Orijen which should last them few days.
Basically my goal is to keep my family's pets off the junk, My mom will probably compensate me with various delicious human food, so its all worth it ;)
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