What Dry Dog Food Do You Recommend?

I too am in the Blue Buffalo group!

Now, I do have a friend that swears by the Costco's Kirkland brand. The one that is just fish and sweet potato, I think? Anyway, her 2 labs have a ton of food sensitivities and could spend a fortune on specialty or prescription food but found they tolerate and thrive on that Costco food.

If you have access to Costco, their Kirkland brand has a great ingredient list for the price. We have been very pleased with it. My border collie has not had allergy issues since we started using it several years ago. I recommend this food all the time. Their canned dog food is even gluten-free. We recently got a new puppy and have been feeding the puppy the Kirkland puppy food as well.

We give our dog Nutro Natural Choice. She has always been very healthy and active. And when you need to pick up the poop, it is solid so there are no poop remnants all over your yard. Sorry if that was TMI, but it's important, I think. :)

go with a grain free food - we feed Wellness CORE, but are in the process of switching to Nature's Domain - Costco recently bought Nature's Domain, and i can get 35lbs for $29, where the CORE is $60 for 26lbs - the two foods are rated the same - i wouldn't recommend feeding anything that you can find at a grocery store, and read up on grain free - the grains in dog food are generally just cheap fillers that result in more shedding, larger stools, etc.

Nutro Brand food is our choice.

Blue Buffalo, it is awesome, it is a bit pricey but is very good for the dog and his body actually uses what it ingests, which means little output, obviously he will still poop but not as often because he is "using" what he is eating.

When we had our German Shepherd trained they suggested BB as it is very good for him nutrient wise and he won't just he having horrible poops of yucky fillers, the cheaper foods are made with.

He was eating Purina, I think, when we got him from the farmer but when we took him to the vet and trainer, they suggested slowly changing his food. We did and noticed a huge change in his coat and also his bowel movements.

I say, buy the best food you can afford because in the long run it is better for them, keeps them healthy (less vet visits), less output, easier to clean up after and you actually serve them less meaning it actually ends up costing the same as the cheaper brands because with those you have to feed them bigger portions and more often.

We use Blue Buffalo. It is all natural and has no preservatives, artificial colors or flavors. It does cost more than others, but my dog is worth it!

Nutro Natural choice is a good brand. It's affordable and readily available, while being an excellent choice at the same time. You always want to look at the ingredients, they are listed in order of highest content to the least, so the first thing listed is what the majority of it is. You don't want corn meal, as it cause skin problems for most dogs. You also don't want meat by-products, its a hodge podge of stuff left over after the premium stuff is taken.

blue seal. i swear it dropped 4 years off our old dog!
khairete
S.

We love raw beef by Nature's Variety . . . sorry it's not a dry food. I haven't found one yet that my puppy (7 month old schnoodle) tolerates very well.

I even tried the Nature's Variety "Low Ingredient Diet" (LID) turkey kibble and she got very mucousy, loose stools.

On the raw she's got good, small relatively firm (but not hard) stools. Her coat is gorgeous and she looks very healthy.

I'd really love to find a good dry food that she can tolerate because raw food is a pain to travel with. But so far I haven't found it.

When I look at dry foods I try to avoid gluten and corn fillers.

Good luck.

PS: I agree with Cheryl about sticking with what he/she is currently eating, especially at first. It's h*** o* their systems to change foods (especially dry) rapidly.

California Natural - salmon, although it comes in a variety of grain free ingredients. We have noticed a 360 difference in our dog with severe skin allergies since she has been on this food and I can't even count the number of things we have tried with her, including a raw diet.

We rotate through a couple brands

- Merrick
- Avoderm
- Evo

We use Nature's Recipe Lamb & Rice Senior (we used regular till the dogs got to be about 6 or 7, then switched to senior). We love it--good quality ingredients, and less expensive than the other "high end' brands. We also like Premium Edge dog food (L&R Sr), but the chain near us that carried it was bought out so we no longer can find it easily locally. I did a lot of price comparison & ingredient comparison, and these 2 brands imo but still have good ingredients.

My brother feeds ProPlan L&R Sr to his Blue Heeler & likes it a lot, but our German Shepherd-cross is allergic to somethng in that mix, so we don't feed it. We did have to try a couple of brands of dog foods to find one that wasn't too pricey and that didn't aggravate the GS-cross's food allergies.

Tips--before you buy/adopt your dog, go to the pet store and read labels & look at prices. You want to find a dog food where the first ingredient, and preferably the first 2 ingredients, are meat and NOT meat by-products. Avoid dog foods where the first ingredient is any kind of grain. Buy the dog food that is suited to your dog's life stage (puppy, adult, or senior), and generally follow the recommendation for the feeding amount. When you take the dog to the vet for vaccinations/check-ups, ask what is the ideal weight for the dog, and then check the dog food bag's suggested feeding amount based on that.

Also, we buy 2 bags (35# each) at a time (our dogs eat a total of 12 oz each, daily, so we go through a lot of dog food fairly quickly). We have a neighbor who has cats, and she saved up the square plastic kitty litter containers for us and we use them for dog food storage. They have snapping lids, and we keep them in a closet with the door closed at all times (along with the dog treats, too). So it was a free way to store the food, rather than buy those pricey dog food storage bins from the pet store. We did of course clean them thoroughly 2x before using them (I scrubbed them with dish soap, rinse, set out in the sun to dry, then did that process again).

Wow, I am surprised to see all top quality choices here! The only one people recommended below I wouldn't suggest is Iams/Eukanuba.
We have two giant dogs and in 10 years have been through them all! The only reason we switched from Wellness is because they went from $45 to $60 over night and I thought that was a bit much for one increase. After spending about $6,000 on our girls allergies we are on California Naturals Lamb & Rice. nother great brand is Natural Balance. Try to buy whatever you get at a feed store, better prices. I buy two giant bags at a time so I just switched to petflow.com it is amazing that they can FedEx me 80lbs of food free shipping and no tax. I don't have to carry the bags or get to the store before they close either.
Costco has a great new brand just like these others too, Nature's Domain.
Good luck! Just noticed you are in MI, may not have a feed store close. :-)

We use Eukanuba Lamb and Rice.

If you are adopting a dog - you need to find out what food they are currently feeding him or her...it's REALLY rough on a dog's system to change foods.

We use Nature's Recipe. I've only found it at Petsmart.

Blue Buffalo, if you can swing it!! It's kind of pricey, but the best in my opinion. Look at the ingredients on whatever you choose and if the first ingredient isn't meat, consider another option. It's surprising how many list the first ingredient as corn - you don't want that.

Avo-derm is a another good one and has several flavors you can rotate without bothering your dog's tummy, and it keeps it interesting for him/her. My dog gets bored very easily with his food. It doesn't help that my son like to feed him his OWN dinner every night.

Solid Gold or Blue Buffalo brands.. Way more wholesome and natural than by-products grocery store brands.

I've always got my dogs Iams.

We feed our dogs the Natural Balance dog food (can only find online and at PetCo).

I had a previous dog who was allergic to corn, so I started him on that diet and will never feed a corn-based food to any of my dogs again. I finally figured out through this last diet change (went from grain-free to a Natural Balance product that wasn't grain free) that my dogs need grain-free.

I HIGHLY recommend Natural Balance - they have a huge selection of proteins and starches (we're switching back to the Bison and Sweet Potato formula) and they have dry, wet, treats, and food/treat rolls.

The trainers at PetCo recommend Natural Balance over any other high-quality food, including Blue Buffalo (though I've never tried that brand, myself).

We have a 2 year old miniature schnauzer and a 4 month old Siberian Husky. Both dogs are fed Nature's Recipe, but the husky gets the large breed formula for puppies.

My cats are fed Blue Buffalo.

There is a pet food rating out there, if you google dog food ratings you'll find it easily.

Foods that you can find in the supermarket generally have less "quality" ingredients, which is why you can find them anywhere.

If you are a person who tries to provide the best for your family why wouldn't you want to give the best to your four legged family too?

The cost of the high end foods is more, yes, but you'll find that your dog will eat less of it so it really does balance itself out. Since switching my cats from friskies to blue, they have less hairballs, more energy, and the bag of food lasts longer than the bag of friskies did.

Petsmart puts things on sale occasionally and we usually grab a few at a time when they do.