Storebought Food

nappertandy

New Member
Hi, I have a question about store-bought food. Is it unhealthy for them? We use PurinaOne Adult Dog Healthy Weight Formula. Also, I'm wondering about jello. The piggly wiggly's deli makes jello and we buy it, our dog eats it willingly, is it bad for him? We have a 6 year old border collie /black lab mix. Thank you! (I'm new to this forum)
 

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
Some is bad, and some is not. There are soooo many dog foods out there that it can be overwhelming. So how do you know what's good and what's not?

Good things:
NAMED meat sources: Chicken(often labelled Deboned Chicken, etc.), Lamb, Salmon, etc.
Mixed Tocopherols
Other NATURAL ingredients that you can pronounce(blueberries, potatoes, etc)
1st 2-5 ingredients are MEATS. If your first ingredient is a grain, in my opinion, you should automatically say NO.

Bad things:
Meats listed as "poultry," or other generic terms that really tell you nothing about what's actually in it.
Corn, corn gluten meal
Wheat
By-products

Don't be fooled by advertising and rumors!!! For instance---SCIENCE DIET. Take a look at the ingredient lists of these foods.....Corn is one of the first, if not THE first ingredient on at least 95% of them!

Check out this website for an easy way to look at lists of foods and their ratings. Each food is rated, and then they explain why it was rated that way. Notice Science Diet is very low. WholeDogJournal is very helpful as well. Lots of useful information on both of these websites.

Personally, right now I am feeding Blue Buffalo Wilderness Salmon(6 star rating according to Dogfoodanalysis.com). I really was skeptical about feeding a Petsmart food, as most of their foods are mediocre to lower end premium. I did a lot of research before choosing to feed such a high protein food--I was genuinely concerned about feeding it. But I did a lot of research before making the switch, and the general consensus seemed to be that high protein is okay, so long as the protein sources are easily digestible. My dogs are also very active, so I chose to switch and have been very happy with it. It is a high-calorie food, and it lasts soooo long for my three dogs.

With higher end foods, you are going to have less crap ingredients that have no nutritional value; and more healthy ingredients--meaning, you feed less. The initial price of most of them seems like it's soo much more expensive, but when you realize how little you are feeding, often you are saving money. If you're feeding less, they're relieving themselves less--so less clean up. You will also notice a change in their skin and coat.

Chicken Soup for the Soul is a good food that isn't incredibly expensive. There are really quite a few good foods out there, and the link I gave you is a really easy way to find them.

Here is your dog's food ingredients. The red are ingredients I know are not good, or at least not good in that order. The rest I honestly don't know enough to classify as "bad" or "good." I'm no expert, but I've tried to learn enough to know a good food.
Turkey, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, corn bran, whole grain corn, whole grain wheat, oat meal, natural flavors, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), dicalcium phosphate, salt, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, choline chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3), zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, riboflavin supplement, niacin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, folic acid, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite.
Here's a link to Dogfoodanalysis.com's analysis of your food.

Hope this helps!!
 

jackienmutts

Honored Member
Hi Nappertandy, welcome to DTA. Good post, Tx, as usual. Just a quick comment about the jello - I'm assuming it has lots of sugar in it, so it probably does taste really good and has a fun consistency for your dog. If he's having a bite or two once in a while, it's probably ok, but if he's eating it a lot, do be careful - sugar just isn't good for dogs.
 

snowblind

New Member
But if your dog likes jello you can make some just for him- boil some bones or anything he might find yummi for the taste and add gelatine (can´t remeber the amount per liter right now) to the warm liquid (if you have time to boil pigs feet for hours then you really don´t need to but I have never done it myself- with meat in the jello it is a classic wedding and holiday dish around here) and then cool and refigerate until ready. THROW AWAY ALL BOILED BONES! NEVER GIVE THESE TO DOGS! You can put bits of jummy stuff in also for your dog to find but no salt or sugar.
 
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