Nature's Variety (or TOTW)

[xKayleighx]

I would agree on the website http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com!! It's a fantastic resource. I would definitely say that the SD rep was just skewing "facts" to make the food look decent so the vet will hock it for them. Sad but true... and I'm in sales! haha

Dogfoodanalysis is a TERRIBLE resource based in hype and heresay. Their ratings are meaningless. Half of their 6 star foods happen to be formulas of my LEAST favorite food... Innova EVO. I have seen more dogs do poorly on this food than on Iams...

But what it does show you is the ingredients of many, many dog foods on the market all in one centralized website. This in and of itself can be a great resource. Just knowing the ingredients of dog foods can help you decide whether or not you would be interested in giving it a try.
I don't really pay much attention to their ratings but do use them when I've looked into other types of kibble.

[Absoulte]

I am going to go through and read all the posts on the food! I haven't had any free time but I had him at the vet and his protein:creatinine ratio test came back as a .1 and they say they like to see it below .5 so he is perfect!

I am going to read through the rest of the posts later today, hopefully, if I find the time! Thanks for all of your input!

[Stormi]

If it hasn't been mentioned already, the Whole Dog Journal puts out a yearly report on dog foods that's very helpful in explaining the details of ingredients and nutritional information. For what it's worth, my guy is on TOTW Pacific Stream and I quite like it.

[tiva]

Over the past 5 years, I've fed my dogs canidae, diamond naturals, wellness Super5, kirkland super premium (briefly) when wellness raised its prices by 25%, and now TOTW for 2 years. The dogs all seem to do the best on TOTW, it's cheaper by far here than wellness, and the dogs aren't so prone to gain weight as they are on wellness. We rotate protein types, which is a fancy way of saying I buy whatever variety of TOTW happens to be on special at our local feed store. I supplement with random veggies, fish oil, and whatever else looks good. Tiva is 16 and still zooming around, so it works for her.

[BrokenAquarian]

Dogs eat guts, hair and all the other things on an animal that we consider non-food items. These things are GOOD for dogs. They don't survive on muscle meat alone. Lots of good vitamins/nutrients in (animal)byproducts. Well, I don't know how well they hold up in the super processing that goes into kibble making - but in natural form, it's an essential part of the canine diet.

About the corn being ok because it's ground up.
I don't agree. If your body isn't made for digesting something, I don't think you should be processing it so that it's digestable. An every day dose of something you didn't evolve to eat, isn't something you should be doing for a lifetime. Look at all the health problems people have from eating wheat products

My dogs LOVE fresh corn, and I endulge them once in awhile - but their diet is not based on it. If it's not good to feed them a single animal source all of the time, how can it be good for them to always eat something they were never meant to sustain themselves on, like corn?

[Misskiwi67]

My dogs LOVE fresh corn, and I endulge them once in awhile - but their diet is not based on it. If it's not good to feed them a single animal source all of the time, how can it be good for them to always eat something they were never meant to sustain themselves on, like corn?

You are absolutely right, Corn should NOT be the main ingredient in any dog food. But it doesn't make a dog food bad if there's corn in it.

I'd have no problems feeding my dog a venison and corn diet instead of a venison and potato diet. He's not allergic to corn, and corn is MORE nutritious than potato. It just needs to be in the correct proportion, and it should be whole, high quality ingredient, not fractions.

Sadly, due to the "No Corn, Wheat or Soy" movement, the only foods that use corn anymore are foods that I wouldn't feed for other reasons...

For the OP... I feed taste of the wild. Due to my job, once upon a time I was a chronic food switcher. Then I found taste of the wild, and I won't switch again unless there is a change to the formula, or if they hike their prices out of control with no change to the formula (like Natural Balance did).

[CuriousMoves]

I have nothing against taste of the wild, but my dog did absolutely terrible on it. He had an instant reaction to both the kibble AND the canned food on two separate occassions. I *know* it wasn't that the bag in particular was bad, as my friend tried some from the same bag on her dog and she was fine. I gave that bag to her and she had no issues. It just didn't agree with Riley.

I have fed Nature's Variety kibble in the past with great success. I am also using their Instinct cans as topper for Riley's kibble, and Phineas is on their raw food almost exclusively now and he's doing great. He has always been an itchy dog and I'd say since starting on JUST raw a couple weeks ago, that his itching has stopped by nearly 80%. I'm really happy with the results and hope he continues to improve.

I would recommend Nature's Variety products to anyone. Personally, I believe it's best to rotate between good quality kibble anyway, as I believe no food has it down 100%. I don't think it would hurt to give it a try.. might hurt your wallet tho! Nature's variety is anywhere between $59.99-79.99+tax here. The raw food is on average $5-6/lb.