Free: Contests & Raffles.
Quote from: dvolmer on September 27, 2012, 09:17:59 AMI was at one time a lab breeder. In the early and mid 2000's I raised well over 200 pups. There is a lot of hype when it comes to dog food. Vets are pushed into selling and promoting this high end, high priced food. they package it all fancy and sell it for 3 to 5 times what it should be. People love their dogs so much that they go into the "If it cost more it must be better" mode and the dog food companies make out like bandits. They literally use guilt to get you to buy it and the vets get a cut of the profits. When you bring your dog into them with problems it will allways be diagnosed with some problem that the food that they sell and promote will help with. When I had puppies that need supplemental feeding i would go and buy puppy formula that was very expensive. I was than told by a friend that was a vet to go and buy powdered goat starter formula in the big tub for 1/10Th of the cost and it was the exact same stuff and i could buy it in bulk. the only thing I had to do is supply the water (boy was that tough). with that said I used Wal Mart brand puppy food soaked in hot water with a half cup of powdered goat starter when they where real young and buy the time they left at the desired 49 days to their new owners they where eating it straight and recommended that the new owners switch them to Atta-Boy High Protein (get at COSTCO for a very reasonable price) at around 12 weeks and they ate that the rest of there lives with no problems I ever witnessed with my 8 labs that I had. Save that money for your kids college and your summer vacations and don't let your ignorance (that we all have quite a lot of) fill the pockets of your vets and dog food companies.I am not trying to be a jerk here, but this ranks right up there with the worst advice I have ever seen on this site. Can a dog grow up and live on cheap Walmart food? Sure. I'm sure my kid would grow up on party pizzas and pop if that's all I fed him. But it sure as hell is not what is best for either one. I have seen coats on dogs look much better and energy levels go up when people have switched to better foods. A dog is like any other living thing, the better it eats the better off it will be. I'm not saying you have to break the bank buying the most expensive food. Several people on this thread have recommended some reasonably priced decent foods. And if you choose to feed the cheapest garbage out there that's right, and your dog will live. But don't try to convince people asking honest questions that it is just as good as feeding better foods. There is enough science out there to prove this completely false.
I was at one time a lab breeder. In the early and mid 2000's I raised well over 200 pups. There is a lot of hype when it comes to dog food. Vets are pushed into selling and promoting this high end, high priced food. they package it all fancy and sell it for 3 to 5 times what it should be. People love their dogs so much that they go into the "If it cost more it must be better" mode and the dog food companies make out like bandits. They literally use guilt to get you to buy it and the vets get a cut of the profits. When you bring your dog into them with problems it will allways be diagnosed with some problem that the food that they sell and promote will help with. When I had puppies that need supplemental feeding i would go and buy puppy formula that was very expensive. I was than told by a friend that was a vet to go and buy powdered goat starter formula in the big tub for 1/10Th of the cost and it was the exact same stuff and i could buy it in bulk. the only thing I had to do is supply the water (boy was that tough). with that said I used Wal Mart brand puppy food soaked in hot water with a half cup of powdered goat starter when they where real young and buy the time they left at the desired 49 days to their new owners they where eating it straight and recommended that the new owners switch them to Atta-Boy High Protein (get at COSTCO for a very reasonable price) at around 12 weeks and they ate that the rest of there lives with no problems I ever witnessed with my 8 labs that I had. Save that money for your kids college and your summer vacations and don't let your ignorance (that we all have quite a lot of) fill the pockets of your vets and dog food companies.
my , raw. i do not believe a dogs digestive system has been changed by being domesticated. not an issue, 115lb dog, 1 pile a day, same size as a 35lb coyote pile, dries or washes away with the weather. pile amounts to about 20% of what they eat daily,, .50 cents a pound average
I started a thread in the bird dog section several months ago about an issue I was having with Kirkland puppy food. Happy and DoubleJ helped out there a bunch as well. Long story short I swore off using anything made by Diamond and switched to Blue Buffalo. Well I had a change of heart and switched to Natures Domain (salmon) at the 9 month mark with my lab. I just couldn't resist giving it a shot at the price. He is doing great on it. I still believe though its not a bad idea to feed a large breed puppy food through the first 8 or 9 months when they grow the fastest. But others here have had great results on other foods as well.
