what do you feed your babies? (kinda long)

Chrissybox · #1 23rd December 2007, 08:30 PM

I am curious to know what everyone feeds their boxers? My poor baby came with the walmart brand of puppy food. I slowly put her on the pedigree. She has had dirreah. I thought it was cuz she was wormed the day before I got her. My vet told me to add cottage cheese to her diet and she still has dirrehea. I called a different vet tonite and he had me go buy science diet lamb and rice puppy large breed, as petsmart was out of eukanuba lamb and rice puppy. The vet is supposed to order me some and then when she turns a year old I am supposed to put her on eukanuba boxer formula. Its not that I don't love her but I am curious if the outrageously expensive dog food is worth it. At this point if it gets her over her dirrehea I am happy but I was curious if this was going to be a lifetime thing. I am wondering also if it has anything to do with her not being taken care of properly before I got her ( see my other post-not sure what I am doing). Would like to know what everyone thinks and does!

**gmacleod** · #2 24th December 2007, 04:13 AM

A better quality food is certainly a good idea. The "you are what you eat" concept applies every bit as much to dogs as to people - and if you feed a food that's made with the rejects and floor sweepings of human food production and contains minimal or no actual meat to a carnivore, well, you can expect that to have wider effects on long term health. Much as eating McDonalds every day might do for you.

However, every one of the foods you mention is actually junk. I certainly wouldn't pay the massive premium for Science Diet - it's one of the worst quality foods yet invented (has even had whole article series in respected magazines devoted to how bad it is and how on earth they've managed to market such junk as "premium food"). Eukanuba is a little better - but only a little. You could get an idea of what's so wrong with these foods from this article: http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=359&more=1

There is some good information about how to choose a good quality food for your pup at http://www.boxerworld.com/forums/vie...y-dog-food.htm. No food can magically be any better than the ingredients that are used to make it, and that page tells you what to look for, what to avoid, and why.

For information on what foods are available, their ingredients, along with ratings and reviews, you may find this site rather useful for helping to choose a decent quality alternative: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

Chrissybox · #3 24th December 2007, 01:33 PM

ok-so what do i feed her? I didn't really see any suggestions on those sites. Is pedigree ok?

**gmacleod** · #4 24th December 2007, 04:19 PM

LOL - it doesn't look as though you read terribly far. No, Pedigree really isn't OK - it's junk. Here is its review (direct from the site linked earlier): http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...duct=3&cat=all

I would suggest reading one of the other links posted above, the one about HOW to choose a decent quality food, then using that information to select a better food. Or if you prefer, just browse through the foods rated 4-6 stars on http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...iews/index.php. Anything rated that highly is, IMO, a reasonable product, but I wouldn't bother much with those rated below 4*.

HurricaneBox · #5 25th December 2007, 06:34 AM

Just to put in my two cents.... Hurricane was on Purina Puppy when we brought him home at twelve weeks old, and we had the problem with diarreah too. After two rounds of antibiotics and then probiotics, I decided to switch to a better food. I can't afford to feed Timberwolf or Solid Gold, but I did get one of the better ones, Canidae, and Hurricane has done very very well on it.

Another plus is that even though it is quite pricey compared to the junk they sell at petsmart and walmart, because it is compeletely bioavailable (they can digest almost all of it, where as with food like pedigree and purina they can only digest and absorb a small amount of it, the rest just passes through) we actually feed him a LOT less food than we did of purina. For example, per our vet we were to feed him all the food he wanted, free feeding, until he was a year old. He was eating 6-8 cups of food per day and was still thin, we had a very hard time putting weight on him, and of course the diarreah issue. When we switched him to Canidae (I know you are supposed to switch gradually, but we tried and he would eat the Canidae and leave the Purina!) he eats 2 to 2.5 cups per day, and has maintained his weight gain beautifully and his coat is so soft!

So, if you do the math, he takes about twice as long to go through a bag of Canidae as he did a bag of Purina, so in the end we are paying about the same or even a little less on dog food and he is eating a much higher quality food! Now it may be slightly different for a younger puppy, Hurricane was already 5 or 6 months old when we switched so that first massive growth phase was already over and he didn't need to eat quite so much it seems.

Hope my two cents helps a little!

kayboxer · #6 25th December 2007, 09:15 AM

I feed my two boxers Taste of the Wild and homecooked. They have done really well on Taste of the Wild kibble. It is a grain free food, which helps if your dog has any allergies. You probably don't know yet since your pup is still little.

DiverDiva · #7 25th December 2007, 10:21 AM

When we adopted Mali, she was being fed Science Diet puppy food at the shelter because she was so underweight, 40 pounds at 11 months old. I switched her immediatly to Canidae and she had no problems, but each dog is different. She slowly put on weight, and is now 47 pounds, a good weight for her since she is so small. She is now getting Taste of the Wild, but that might not be a good choice for a puppy. There are a number of good foods in the 5 star category of dogfoodanalysis.com which would be good choices for your pup.

chrystel · #8 25th December 2007, 11:37 AM

Snatch had Nutro ... then we tried a couple of much better food!

canidae - he wouldn't eat it
blue buffalo fish - bad bad gas and loose stool
innova - bad gas

he is now on Eagle Pack lamb and rice and look like he's doing so much better (he's having it since yesterday mixed with Innova (transition), no gas yet!)

beausmommy · #9 25th December 2007, 08:59 PM

Beau has been on several different foods ranging from very bad (Pedigree) to very good (Innova Evo). He was extremely thin and vomited frequently while on the Innova. He actually did better on the Pedigree but since's it's so bad I have switched him to Canidae. Beau has always had gas but the Canidae has made the odor so bad that I've honestly thought I was going to be sick a few times. I've resorted to moving his evening feeding to the afternoon so the worst has passed (no pun intended) by the time we go to bed and he snuggles under the covers. Needless to say, I will be switching to something else when he's finished with this bag. A co-worker who shows her cocker spaniels has suggested Eagle Pack Holistic so that may be what I buy next. I make it a habit to look up every food on dogfoodanalysis.com before I even consider buying it.

Chrissybox · #10 25th December 2007, 09:50 PM

hmmm..thanks for the info guys! I didn't realize pedigree was so bad-been feeding to all my dogs for YEARS!! She seems to be doing ok on the science diet and for as much as I paid for it-she will at least finish this bag! lol..from there I will look into buying the better dog food for her. The only problem I run into is my 4 other dogs-trying to feed them too. The costlier dog food is gonna kill me! lol..but if it is better for them then that is what I need to do!

**gmacleod** · #11 26th December 2007, 03:35 AM

Weeelll - it's not necessarily going to be more expensive

Higher cost per bag is only half the equation. The other half is that with a higher quality food, you generally feed less of it. Each bag thus lasts longer - and the overall cost is not that much greater (sometimes it's not greater at all).

If you've several dogs, Canidae might be a good option to look into. It is a good quality food, usually very reasonably priced, and it's an all-life-stages food so may be suitable for all of your dogs. A link to that product here: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_f...ct=528&cat=all One thing you might note quickly is that it has more than 1.5x the energy content per cup as Pedigree, so it is very likely that you'll feed a great deal less actual food.