New sheltie owner

Oreo said:
Wow thanks for the kind words. Speaking of poop, does it mean there's more nutrition in the food if the poop is smaller? i know the old owner had Oreo on ol'Roy and without knowing much about dog food i have him on Kibbles n' bits, he seems to poop less now. Dunno if that means anything
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I'm not sure if it's doing the same as RAW food would be doing. From MY understanding - the more nutrition that is going into your dog, the smaller the poop. Of course - every dog is different and will react differently. But think about it...kibble has a lot of filler in it, which means that it's going into their system, but what it's mostly doing is making them feel full. With RAW, all the high nutrients are being absorbed through the dogs system, therefore leaving very little to eliminate...GeeRome knows A LOT about raw and the information that goes a long with it. She has a website that can answer a lot of your questions...you should check them out. But, Caliber has been on RAW for almost a week now, and haven't seen anything negative about it. In fact, it's very well known to help with healthy weight loss. Hopefully it keeps Caliber at a healthy weigh-in...at 7 months he's already 20lbs!! :eek2: But come summer that SHOULD change. It's been too cold to go out for hikes. It's worth a look tho...goodluck!
 
Iams and Beneful are no good either. Junk food :(
You want to look for something without corn, that lists real MEAT as a first ingredient. Not a by product, not a grain.
Good foods are going to cost more, in general. Cheap foods are generally junk food.
You will probably also want to look for a low cal variety.
Think Wellness, Innova, Evo. Not Pedigree, Purina, Kibbles N Bits, Pet Pride, Beneful, Iams, Alpo, or Ol' Roy.
As a general rule of thumb, any of the foods you can buy at a grocery store are not going to be a high quality food. Grocery stores only sell the crap in a bag.
 
Diamond foods puts out dog food for Kirkland Brands (at Costco). The ingredients are human grade and meat is the #1 ingredient and includes vegetables and fruit. I have seen it on other websites compared favorably with Wellness and if you get it at Costco it will be fairly inexpensive. Good luck with whatever you choose.
 
Even with meat listed as the first ingredient, it still may not be. There are many deceptive ways to list ingredients.

Go to the website listed earlier and check out all the 5- and 6-star foods. Click on "About" in the upper right corner and read what they have to say. Here it is again:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php

Iams and Kibbles N Bits, Royal Canine, Science Diet are all garbage. Notice the vast number of pages of 1-, 2-, and 3-star foods. That's where most of them fall. Even Nutro is no good, the best being Nutro Ultra, which I think was a 3-star; the others are lower. You can do better than that.

A high protein diet should help him lose weight. I personally think Orijen is the best out there, and it's the only food my dog will eat in one sitting (like, 30 seconds). The others he just munched here and there. One week into the 5- and 6-star foods gave him a totally different coat, very soft and shiny. He also has NO dog smell anymore, not even when wet!

If you can't find the good foods locally, you can order some of them at this site:

http://www.heartypet.com/categories.php?cat=20

I've ordered from there and they ship pretty quickly.

Great of you to take this little guy in! This is a fantastic board to help get you off to the right start. I learn so much every time I stop in.
 
diinin said:
Even with meat listed as the first ingredient, it still may not be. There are many deceptive ways to list ingredients.

Go to the website listed earlier and check out all the 5- and 6-star foods. Click on "About" in the upper right corner and read what they have to say. Here it is again:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php

Iams and Kibbles N Bits, Royal Canine, Science Diet are all garbage. Notice the vast number of pages of 1-, 2-, and 3-star foods. That's where most of them fall. Even Nutro is no good, the best being Nutro Ultra, which I think was a 3-star; the others are lower. You can do better than that.

A high protein diet should help him lose weight. I personally think Orijen is the best out there, and it's the only food my dog will eat in one sitting (like, 30 seconds). The others he just munched here and there. One week into the 5- and 6-star foods gave him a totally different coat, very soft and shiny. He also has NO dog smell anymore, not even when wet!

If you can't find the good foods locally, you can order some of them at this site:

http://www.heartypet.com/categories.php?cat=20

I've ordered from there and they ship pretty quickly.

Great of you to take this little guy in! This is a fantastic board to help get you off to the right start. I learn so much every time I stop in.
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Wow great information thank you, have you heard of "Blue" dog food? apparently pets mart has it, its rated very high, i think i'll try that next..too bad i bought the 40lb bag of K&B before hand...:sadsmile:
 
TaraLynn said:
I'm not sure if it's doing the same as RAW food would be doing. From MY understanding - the more nutrition that is going into your dog, the smaller the poop. Of course - every dog is different and will react differently. But think about it...kibble has a lot of filler in it, which means that it's going into their system, but what it's mostly doing is making them feel full. With RAW, all the high nutrients are being absorbed through the dogs system, therefore leaving very little to eliminate...GeeRome knows A LOT about raw and the information that goes a long with it. She has a website that can answer a lot of your questions...you should check them out. But, Caliber has been on RAW for almost a week now, and haven't seen anything negative about it. In fact, it's very well known to help with healthy weight loss. Hopefully it keeps Caliber at a healthy weigh-in...at 7 months he's already 20lbs!! :eek2: But come summer that SHOULD change. It's been too cold to go out for hikes. It's worth a look tho...goodluck!
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Wow only 20lbs...i wish i could say that of poor Oreo.. 52lbs..:eek2:
 
Oreo said:
Wow great information thank you, have you heard of "Blue" dog food? apparently pets mart has it, its rated very high, i think i'll try that next..too bad i bought the 40lb bag of K&B before hand...:sadsmile:
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You could always donate it to a shelter...they always need help...and I know it seems like such a waste, 'cause I had to do that with the rest of Calibers food, but at least you know you're helping other dogs in need, while knowing your dog is getting the proper nutrition it needs!! :smile2:

Oreo said:
Wow only 20lbs...i wish i could say that of poor Oreo.. 52lbs..:eek2:
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Just keep at it, and you'll get there!! Feed twice a day, in smaller amounts, with a couple brisk walks a day and Oreo will be getting better results in no time!!
 
TaraLynn said:
You could always donate it to a shelter...they always need help...and I know it seems like such a waste, 'cause I had to do that with the rest of Calibers food, but at least you know you're helping other dogs in need, while knowing your dog is getting the proper nutrition it needs!! :smile2:



Just keep at it, and you'll get there!! Feed twice a day, in smaller amounts, with a couple brisk walks a day and Oreo will be getting better results in no time!!
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:biggrin2::biggrin2:
 
Oreo said:
Wow great information thank you, have you heard of "Blue" dog food? apparently pets mart has it, its rated very high, i think i'll try that next..too bad i bought the 40lb bag of K&B before hand...:sadsmile:
Click to expand...


Blue Buffalo WILDERNESS (in the blue metallic bag with a wolf on it) is a good food. I have that here too. I think it's the only really decent kibble that Petsmart carries. That was the food that initiated the coat change in our pup and eliminated his doggie odor. There are other Blue brands that aren't as good, so make sure you get the right one.

We could have stayed with that, but I really wanted to try Orijen. I do prefer Orijen, but there's something to be said for being able to buy it locally, and rewarding Petsmart for actually carrying a quality brand is good too.

I'd just toss the K&B. I've thrown out a ridiculous amount of Science Diet and Nutro both, after learning that they were junk.
 
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