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Anonymous
Lets have a pet food thread. What do you feed your dogs and/or cats, and why?
>> Anonymous
I feed my dogs cats because I'm a redneck.
>> Anonymous
Just dogs and cats?
Rabbits: Oat hay all they can eat
Oxbow Timothy Pellets 1/2 cup
Oxbow Alfalfa a handful for the young one
Assorted veggies 2 cups
Water
>> Anonymous
I buy my cat the most expensive food available.

he's used to it and one time I tried to change to a cheaper brand he developed cystitis and couldn't piss so it ended costing me a lot more in vet bills.

sometimes I hate that little fucker.
>> Anonymous
Dog: Pedigree dry... He loves it and I can afford it

Cat: Off-brand chicken-flavored dry... same as above

Snake: 2 live adult mice every 1 or 2 weeks... rats bite him too much and I don't want to knock them out
>> Anonymous
Blue Buffalo brand pet food for both... simply because it's the best nutrition you can find.
>> Anonymous
>>306196
what brand, if you don't mind?
>> Anonymous
>>306187
why oat hay? What's the advantage over timothy or orchard grass?
>> Anonymous
>>306197
there are a LOT better brands that are more affordable... when you think about it, higher quality foods mean less intake needed for nutritional satisfaction, and better general health, meaning fewer vet visits and medical expenses.
>> Anonymous
nothing pisses me off more than people who think they're feeding their pets good food when they buy it at the fucking grocery store, and its the most disgusting, shittiest food possible. pedigree, purina, beneful, iams, eukanuba....thats all such junk. the ingredients are like fucking bone meal, meat by-products, etc...GROSS.
>> Anonymous
>>306222

my cat eats raw meat
>> Anonymous
Dogs and cats: A rotating selection of superpremium pet foods, brands like Wellness, Innova, Timberwolf, by Nature, Blue Buffalo, Prairie, and others.
>> Anonymous
>>306224
nothing wrong with a raw diet, if it's done properly. Raw meat alone, however, isn't providing proper nutrition unless you are feeding whole prey, including bones and organ meat.
>> Anonymous
>>306210

hill's
>> Anonymous
>>306231
really? Hill's Science Diet? What makes you think it's better than the brands you find at the grocery store? It really isn't. Hill'sScience Diet contains byproducts (meat waste products unfit for human consumption ( i.e. chicken byproduct meal means beaks, feathers, feet, bones, decayed or diseased carcases, etc.), and useless fillers and potential allergens like corn, wheat, soy, gluten, and beet pulp.
>> Anonymous
>>306232
yup, first ten ingredients of Science Diet Original Adult Dog Food:

Chicken, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Ground Whole Grain Wheat, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Brewers Rice, Chicken Liver Flavor

Pretty horrifying, when you know what it all means.
>> Anonymous
I see a lot of condescending and not much recommending. What is this low-priced super-food you speak of?
>> Anonymous
>>306232

I dunno, it's what the vet gave me the first time and like I said when I tried to change to a cheaper brand I ended up paying it big time with vet bills so I refuse to change now
>> Anonymous
>>306238
There are very vew decent foods available for under $1 a pound. One exception to that is Costco's Kirkland brand of dog and cat foods. Generally around $20 for 37 lbs. Too carbohydrate heavy to be considered really GOOD, but Kirkland is better than Science Diet, Purina, Pedigree, Eukanuba, Iams, and others.
>> Anonymous
I feed my cats Nutro indoor complete. It's not the BEST but it's pretty affordable and doesn't have any byproducts or corn. Before I worked at a pet store I had no idea how much shit was in most pet foods so I had them on some random off brand shit from the grocery store. When I switched to an actually good food about 2 years ago, I noticed a huge improvement in almost everything: their coat, their energy level, how bad their shit smelled, and plus they lost a little extra weight.

Seriously, consider switching to a better quality pet food. It's a little extra money, but it's worth it. Plus, with Nutro they have cards where you buy 10 bags and get the 11th free.

Chicken Soup for the Soul brand is pretty good stuff, and it's relatively cheap too.
>> Anonymous
>>306240
well, Hills Science Diet is certainly better than Friskies or Whiskas, but not nearly as good as scores of other brands, and really not worthy of the reputation that it has.
>> Anonymous
>>306242
Might want to rethink that Nutro. The company was recently bought by a candy company, and the formulas are changing. Many formulas already have corn and/or wheat in them. Unfortunately, as has happened with many other brands, corporate buyouts destroy quality.
>> Anonymous
>>306245

Is that what happened? Yeah, the company's been acting real weird to our store lately, and there's a bunch of formulas we haven't been able to get in for weeks. My manager actually convinced me to switch a few days ago just because of how gay they were acting towards us. I'm just waiting 2 more bags so I can get my free one :)
>> Anonymous
so what are the really premium brands? i want to feed my cat the best possible food
>> Anonymous
>>306250
well, lets do a list, in no particular order:

Blue Buffalo
Wellness
Solid Gold
Castor & Pollux
Pinnacle
by Nature
Nature's Logic
Nature's Variety
Prairie
TimberWolf
Chicken Soup
Innova
California Natural
Natural Balance
Fromms
and many, many more

Key to finding a great food is reading ingredients. Read the first ten ingredients, and avoid any foods that contain byproduct, corn, wheat, soy, or gluten. Also, look for at least two good, species-specific meat proteins within the first five ingredients. These basic guidelines will allow you to choose a superior food.
>> Anonymous
>>306250

Wellness (esp. Wellness Core), Innova, Chicken Soup, Natural Balance, Evolve, Nature's Variety, Royal Canin

just to name a few.

Also forgot to mention that I feed my cats half a can of fancy feast every day. Not premium or anything, but it's what the vet recommended for my cat's bladder. You're supposed to give cats some form of wet food every day, apparently. FF doesn't have anything too horrible in it, it's cheap and they like it.
>> Anonymous
>>306254
scratch Royal Canin from the list... they were bought by the same candy company that now owns Royal Canin. Corn and wheat going into most of their formulas now, and yet they remain the most expensive of the common pet store brands.
>> Anonymous
>>306258
sorry, should read "... by the same company that now owns Nutro"
>> Anonymous
Jesus! What the hell kind of candy company is this?
>> Anonymous
>>306262
Mars Foods, manufacturers of Mars Bars, Snickers, and M&Ms.

They also make Cesar, Sheba, Whiskas, Pedigree, and other pet foods. Quality, no?
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>306245

Holy crap you are right!

When I started my mastiff on nutro large breed 3 years ago I worked at Petco and spnt hours pouring over the best brand for the money, and nutro won easily...everyone that worked there always ended up feeding it after they did the research...but I swear it used to be chicken, chicken meal, rice...now that I look at it again it is shit

Chicken Meal, Ground Rice, Rice Flour, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour, Rice Bran, Poultry Fat

Thats like fucking 80% rice! And I swear it didn't have corn in it either...that explains why my lab (which has also eaten all this time) is now getting fatter dispite living outside more now that we ave a backyard instead of being inside all day. My mastiff is a healthy 180 though and has been since she stopped growing. Hmmm also my dogs shit has never been white until recently, still not very much for a large and extra large dog though. When we feed our other dogs shit back in the day their crap always turned white.

Science Diet sucked ass back then too, still does.

All that said we raised 40 or so dogs on Ol' Roy when I was younger and they all lived long healthy lives and never went to the vet unless they broke something.

I feed my fish Omega One, PE Mysis, Spectrum, Formula 1 and 2, Nori, and Cyclop-Ez, my corals get fish poop and detritus and Zeo Method.

Snakes get prekilled thawed mice or rats
>> Anonymous
>>306262
also, that's only a fraction of it...

Science Diet is owned by Colgate-Palmolive, manufacturers of toothpaste and dishsoap.

Eukanuba and Iams are owned by Proctor & Gamble, manufacturer of makeup, tampons, toilet paper, and diapers.

Purina foods are now made by Nestle. Yes, Nestle.

Ridiculous, ain't it?
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
>>306262
hello kitty, want some candy?
>> Anonymous
>>306271
of course I am... I've been specializing in dog and cat nutrition for years now, and extensively study all the brands. Nutro has beengradually slipping for a few years now, but the Mars Foods buyout expedited the process drastically.
>> Anonymous
>>306275

Not 306271, but I work at a chain pet store and have a question for you.

What's the best dog food available at a similar price of Nutro? ($25-$30 for a 35/40 pound of MAX, $35-$40 for Natural Choice)
>> Anonymous
>>306281
Better than Nutro Max OR Nutro Natural Choice but in the same price range would be Nature's Recipe. It's not great, but better than gluten-infused Max and carb-heavy Natural Choice. For Petco availability, I like Blue Buffalo first, then Solid Gold, Wellness, Castor & Pollux, Natural Balance, and Pinnacle. At PetSmart, there are only two really GOOD brands... Blue Buffalo and by Nature.
>> Anonymous
I wish I could sticky this thread. Lots of good information here.
>> Anonymous
>>306291

I work at a PetSmart, and we carry Blue Buffalo, but only carry by Nature's cat food. We're a really small store. One thing I hate is that PetCo keeps getting all the good exclusive brands- Halo, Cesar Milan's food, etc.

Also, same question as before, cat food this time.
>> Anonymous
>>306302
for the two major stores (Petco and PetSmart) the brands remain the same, pretty much, for premium cat food as they do for dogs. Lone exception would be Pinnacle. No Pinnacle cat food at Petco.

PetSmart, being a corporate entity, SHOULD be carrying the same product in all their stores. If yours isn't it may be a failing of your store manager or the DM.

Also, Halo foods are above average, but not GREAT. Halo uses vegetable protein in place of good meat. Read the ingredients, and Pea Protein is second or third on the list. And the Cesar Milan food is just Castor & Pollux Ultramix without the dehydrated veggies, and with the moron celebrity on the bag.
>> Anonymous
love, love, LOVE Blue Buffalo.
>> tigerfeather !CrwtTbFNxQ
>>306310
Well yes, because they are a corporation and already have the stock on hand, you think that they would stock the same at each store. The truth is that markets differ, and having all the same things in all your stores, regardless of size, is just going to make you lose out money in the end. Most corporate entities make sure to have local flex room in their stores.

Oh, I feed Solid Gold Indigo Moon dry to my cats. They have a filtered water fountain, so they drink significantly more water than cats who just get water out of dishes, so I don't feed any wet food. I just don't like how wet food sticks to their teeth, and since my cats only get their teeth brushed weekly, I don't want to have to deal with that.

Cats have incredibly short digestive tracts (that comes from being a carnivore), and they cannot process grains, especially whole grains. Although there is still a lot of starch in the Solid Gold, it is still 46% protein, and all of that comes from the chicken in it, instead of soy like in other foods. Indigo Moon is also completely grain-free.
>> Anonymous
>>306386
secret: wet food doesn't stick to their teeth any more than dry, and perhaps less so. Think about it this way:

Eat a handful of potato chips. Feel the bits and pieces stuck at the gumline and in the nooks and crannies in the molars and between teeth? This is analogous to dry food.

Now, eat some applesauce, or more appropriately pate. Significantly less stuck to and around your teeth, huh? That's the equivalent of wet food.

The theory of wet food rotting teeth is a complete and total myth based on poor studies and perpetuated for decades by illogic and the pet food industry.

Also, although cats ARE obligate carnivores and do best with a high protein, low carb diet, it's a fallacy to state that the length of their digestive tracts prohibit the digestion of carbs. That is a new myth of the pet food industry, created to get you to spend more money on grain-free diets. Cats can do just fine with grains, even whole grains, as long as they are in a proper proportion to other nutrient levels... unlike the vast majority of carb-rich foods out there. In fact, it's better to use whole grains than grain fragments (meal, flour, germ, etc) as the whole grain provides whole nutrition, including the full spectrum of carbs from simple to starch to dietary fiber, as well as all the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients found in whole grains.

Having said all that, corn, wheat, and other grains should be avoided, and you are completely correct about avoiding soy.

-11 years specialty in nutrition and natural/alternative medicine
>> Stabby
Innova fucking owns!
>> Anonymous
I'm kind of cheap, so I get whatever's on sale. Usually Purina kitten food(They're both under a year old). For wet food I go with fancy feast because I like the name and wet cat food is basically all the same price anyway.
For my bearded dragon, he eats a bunch of crickets and I'm supposed to feed him meal worms, but I forget. And he eats lettuce too.
>> Sho'nuff (The Last Dragon 1985) Anonymous
feed my cat and dog raw.

Fish/whole chicken/meaty bones/organs/
>> Anonymous
Has anyone used Foster & Smith Adult cat food? Looks like mostly good.
>> Anonymous
>>306725
certainly above average... nothing wrong with it except for the small bag size and the fact that it's mail order only. Likely there are foods as good or better in your local store.
>> Anonymous
I feed my Lab Purina because it's the only food that doesn't make her throw up.
>> Anonymous
>>306732
what other foods have you tried?
>> Yea Anonymous
I feed my dog people.
>> Anonymous
>>306771
Science diet, pedigree, eukanuba, alpo, iams, beneful, and kibbles n bits. It was weird, she went through this phase where EVERYTHING made her vomit, including her heartworm/flea medicine - we had to go through a bunch of different prescriptions of those too before we finally discovered that she could keep down Heartgard.
>> Anonymous
I steal whatever recently expired cat food from the vet I work at.

Yeah, I'm awesome.
>> Anonymous
>>306779
well, there you go, then. You've fed her garbage, undigestible food... that's why she's puked. If you actually purchased top quality food from a pet store rather than grocery store/wal mart brands, she'd stop puking AND be healthier. Purina is horrible stuff, nutritionally.
>> Anonymous
>>306781
... especially since most vets sell low to average quality food.

And especially since once the fats in food go rancid, they become liver toxins and carcinogens.
>> Anonymous
I feed my kitty Purina Senior Formula dry, because she's an old bat and it helps with her digestion. :3
>> Anonymous
SOLID GOLD, NATURAL BALANCE OR WELLNESS.
>> Anonymous
i have an airdale terrier and we give him a pancake breakfast once every 2-4 weeks as a treat. he loves pancakes like theyre crack.