posted
Ha, I wonder if she smelled it through all the packaging?
I'm glad she likes the taste of it! I don't know much about the positive effects of human-grade food on a big fluffy dog like Smokey, but on a bristly little stink-bomb like our Boxer, the change was amazing. Like with the gas. Did I mention the gas? Yeah, the gas was bad. Now it's not. End of story. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Oh, and her stools! I just have to mention how awesome her stools are. Nice and plump, very firm... heck, she's certainly got the finest stools I've ever had the pleasure of picking up. Boy howdy.
Though today they were green and looked a lot like mulch. I guess that's what happens when you feed them treats based primarily on chlorophyll. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
You would be so proud of me. Today I found the shop closest to me that carries Felidae and bought a small bag. We'll have to see what the kitties think of it. Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wooo, Felidae!! I don't know a whole lot about cat food, but I have a friend who swears by it! Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
We currently feed our cat Nutro. Flint river is only slightly more expensive, but is it that much better? I read the ingredients and they seem comparable. Does anyone have any experience with either cat food?
I suppose Flint River's advantage is that its food is supposedly "human grade". But what does that mean exactly? Is it really FDA approved for human consumption?
quote: Nutro: $15.99 8.5 lbs
Chicken meal, ground rice, corn gluten meal, poultry fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a source of natural vitamin E), dried beet pulp, natural flavors, rice flour, rice protein concentrate, lamb meal (source of lamb flavor), sunflower oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols, a source of natural vitamin E), dehydrated alfalfa meal, oat fiber, yeast culture, potassium chloride, menhaden fish oil, choline chloride, dried egg product, taurine, dl-methionine, vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, inositol, dried bacillus licheniformis fermentation extract, dried bacillus subtilis fermentation extract, ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), dried chicory root, cranberry powder, niacin, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, biotin, riboflavin supplement (source of vitamin B2), calcium iodate, vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), vitamin D3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K activity), folic acid.
posted
vwiggin, I'm afraid I don't know much about cat food. I'd be nervous about seeing that much corn in a dog food, but maybe cats are okay with it?
How are the Hatrack pets who've been switched to human-grade foods doing? Do they like it? Does it like them? Can we talk about poo some more? Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Smokey has only had the sample pack, but the big bag 'o food has been ordered. She loved the samples. When Bob mixed it with the old food she picked out the new stuff and ate it first.
She also, while we're eating dinner, will take a huge mouthful of food, bring it over to the table, set it down, and eat off the floor next to us. What's up with that?
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ha, I don't know why exactly they do it, but I know a lot of them do. Some dogs prefer to be fed on cookie sheets or other flat surfaces, rather than in bowls. They'll let you know this by tipping their bowl over and eating it all off the floor. Libbey will occasionally grab a mouthful of food, dash over to her rug in the living room, and eat it there. She ate an entire meal that way last night when she knocked a bunch of water onto the floor near her bowls and didn't want to step in it. (Hey, after two months of mopping up pee off the floor, I can live with a little spilled water for a while!) Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote: She also, while we're eating dinner, will take a huge mouthful of food, bring it over to the table, set it down, and eat off the floor next to us. What's up with that?
She wants to eat with her pack, of course. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Okay, vwiggin, I looked around on the web for info about cat food. Seems like it's basically the same as with dog food... you don't want to be feeding them "meat", "meat by-products" or cancer-causing "BHA/BHT" preservatives. As with dogs, corn is mostly a non-digestible filler for cats. So it seems like the Flint River cat food isn't really a good choice. However, there are lots of premium cat foods out there that look pretty good.
Felidae (We feed our dog the dog version of this, and it's fantastic. We have a friend who gives his cats Felidae, and they seem to do well on it.)
Wellness Super5Mix (I have to say, I love pet foods that list ingredients like "Cranberries, Blueberries, Flaxseed, Eggs, Peas, Taurine, Garlic, Alfalfa Leaf, Spirulina, Norwegian Kelp, Whole Apples, Zucchini, Sweet Potatoes, and Yucca Schidigera")
How easy these are to find depends on where you live. I can easily get any of these in our small town, the top three at a local pet store, and the fourth at our local hippie grocery store. Sometimes you can find good stuff at farm supply stores, or at boutique pet shops... you're definitely not going to find any of this at big-box pet stores or supermarkets. However, these four aren't the only good cat foods out there... I think a good rule of thumb would be to look for anything that has several sources of good, named protein like Chicken and Turkey in the top 6 ingredients, no unnamed meat or by-products, no corn or soy fillers, and no BHA/BHT. I'm also a little nervous about foods whose ingredients are more than half weird-sounding chemicals I've never heard of.
Good luck!
Edit: Oh, and regarding the difference between "Meat" and "Meal", as in "Chicken Meat" vs. "Chicken Meal"... "meal" is simply meat that's had all of the water pressed out of it. It's actually better to see "X meal" high on the ingredient list than "X meat", because the ingredients are listed by weight, and a lot of the "X meat" is going to be water weight. So if you're looking at one food that lists "Chicken Meat, Corn Gluten Meal, Fish Meat" as the top 3 ingredients, it's entirely possible that there's way more Corn Gluten Meal in the food than there is actual Chicken protein. "Chicken (or turkey, beef, lamb, etc) Meat" isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if everything after it is also a good ingredient, but be aware that it's often a trick to make you think you're feeding more animal protein than you actually are. "Meal" is not a bad thing at all.
posted
You know, that article does bring up an interesting question of what animal pounds do with their animals once they euthanize them. I had always assumed that they cremated them after killing them through some kind of lethal injection.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Honestly, SS, it probably makes some sense to at least "use" the poor things after we kill them. Unfortunately, they're not a particularly healthy source of food for our pets. Cremation would seem to be a much better alternative to disposing of the corpses, but I do sympathize with the prohibitive cost of building animal crematoriums.
Again, the real solution is to prevent pet over-population in the first place by spaying and neutering our pets.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't know if making a profit off of it is really encouraging the local government to look into alternatives....
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't think they're making a profit off of it... the guy they interviewed in that article I posted said that he was surprised that people were angry at his rendering factory for processing the animals, because he thought he was doing the community a favor by processing them for free. I think that, if anything, the local governments lose a lot of money on the whole pet euthanasia system.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:So it seems like the Flint River cat food isn't really a good choice. However, there are lots of premium cat foods out there that look pretty good.
posted
They’re dogs. They eat dirt on their own. They eat dead rotting things on their own. I think they’ll be fine.
Posts: 2845 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I found the information in it to be fascinating. Are there any updates from the people using the human-grade pet foods? I have a working dog, so I try to feed him the best I can afford. So far that has been Iams, but I can pay a bit more if the quality is really so much better.
And speaking of brainwashing by large pet food corporations, not too long ago I went to a goat seminar that was partly hosted by Purina. Apparently they now make goat feed, and they claim it's wonderful. Personally, I didn't like the looks of it and decided to stick with my local brand of goat feed plus hay, but I bet they got a lot of new customers that day. The seminar was packed.
posted
I read out to my sister (11) what was in the Science Diet stuff and she went, "Eeew! I'm not eating their food ever again!"
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
So far I've looked at two of the brands recommended: Canidae and Flint River. Unfortunately, Flint River is more than twice the cost of Iams, so it is right out. Canidae is only a few dollars more per 40-lb bag, and there are several feed stores here that carry it.
The Halo Pets website kept breaking my internet connection, so I never actually was able to look at their products. Perhaps I'll try again later.
I'll probably try the Canidae, unless there are any other suggestions.
posted
I've been very pleased with the Felidae we've been using for our cats.
Long anecdote that is a little gross: Our tiniest kitten (that we got last December) seems to have a sensitive system and is susceptible to diahrea (and what we call poopy bum syndrome - she gets a dirty bum and then ends up making it all sore by cleaning it too much, so she ends up with a little bald red bum). Earlier this summer, we ran out of food. The closest store we can buy it at is about 35 miles from our house, but is close to one of the customers I visit frequently, so I'm the one that buys the food. There was some miscommunication between my husband (who feeds the kitties) and myself and the kitties ran out of food. So, hubby picked up a bag of normal stuff at the grocery store. Our poor little kitten's poopy bum syndrome got worse during this time. As soon as we got her back on Felidae, it cleared right up and she has been much better since. Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I work at a pet store, and we sell Eukanuba, Science Diet, Nutro (both Max and Natural Choice), and Wellness. Our biggest seller is Science Diet, followed by Nutro. I convert people all the time to feeding Wellness simply by pointing out the difference in the ingredients. Science Diet is just a crappy food, period. Wellness uses all human-grade ingredients, and doesn't put in anything that shouldn't be there. My dog has skin allergies so I have him on the fish and sweet potato diet, and his coat is healthier than it has ever been.
Posts: 1225 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
Smokey is totally loving the Flint River stuff. She gets it exclusively and self-regulates her intake. I order about 10 lbs every 7 or 8 weeks, if I'm tracking correctly. They've been doing free shipping and it just doesn't seem to be that big an expense to me over the "premium" brands I used to buy.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm actually trying Canidae for the first time. It was used to put weight on one of the puppies in my litter with good sucess and my own is a bit on the thin side, so I'm trying her on it. I feed Costco, which is basically relabelled Nutro at the moment, and Ciara is on Iams weight control, because she needs the filler for volume to make her feel full without getting fat.
posted
Bob, I should mention that my dog is very, very large. He's an Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees cross that's a little over a year old. He'll be well over 100 lbs when he's full grown. When he was a bit younger he would go through a 40-lb bag of Iams in about a month. Now that his growth has slowed down his appetite has dropped a bit, so I'm guessing that the 40 lbs will now last about a month and a half or so.
Even if I figure that he will eat a little bit less of the super premium dog food, Flint River is still out of our price range for him. It's too bad, it looks like good stuff.
posted
We've still got our (now over a year old) pup on human-grade food, though not the Canidae anymore, because like many Boxers, she's got some food allergies. Lamb doesn't seem to cause any problems, so we tried California Natural Lamb and Rice for a couple of months, but that gave her consistently runny stools (yay poo!). So the great folks at our local pet food store recommended Solid Gold Lamb and Rice, with less oil and more fiber, and she's been on it for probably 8 or 9 months now.
She's a very healthy dog, no signs of food-related problems (very little gas, wonderful little stools, very few "eye-boogers", and her coat is gorgeous), and she's incredibly strong, energetic, and muscular. I don't think she has any fat on her. That's one thing I've noticed about these human-grade foods she's been on... there's no "junk food" in them, like the sprayed-on grease that big food manufacturers add for "palatability", so she doesn't go crazy for it. We fill her bowl whenever it's empty, and she eats when she's hungry, but it's nothing exciting for her. But her food is for nutrition, not fun, she gets lots of BBQ lamb jerky and vanilla yogurt drops when it's time for treats, so she seems pretty happy with the arrangement.
She's a 50lb dog, and a 33 pound bag of her food costs about $40 and lasts a month and a half to two months, so we're pretty happy about the cost. I don't think it'd be much cheaper to feed her a lower-quality food, and the peace of mind is a nice bonus. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I got the Flint River sample pack... two actually and my cats HATE it! *sigh* I was so excited about it being all good for them and my one cat just wouldn't eat! She followed me all over the house and cried and cried. I even tried mixing it with her old food and she wouldn't eat any of it, she didn't even pick out the old food she just cried so I dumped it out today and gave her old food back and she ate and ate. It's too bad, seems like a great company and good food.
Posts: 37 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Zeugma, I read through your first post on this thread and kind of quickly scanned through the rest. I plan to go back and read it all later, but for now I just want to say that the first thing that crossed my mind was, “Hey, that sounds an awful lot like what I’ve heard that they put in hot dogs.”
At any rate, your point is well taken, it’s all quite yukky to contemplate. (Although . . . when my dog was alive, considering some of the stuff I saw him eat and the garbage cans he raided when he got the chance, I doubt he was too worried about what they put in his dog food.)
Dang, I guess now I’ll have to stop serving my buddies kibble snacks when they come over to watch football. Posts: 631 | Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Evil Laugh]](graemlins/evillaugh.gif)
