I know i've had this conversation here in the past with @Ken Anderson, but we've had a lot of new people join the forum since then, so I thought I'd ask what everyone feeds their pets. I finally made the trip to Tractor Supply and picked up some of the 4-Health food that Ken had mentioned in the past. I'm hopeful that the cats will enjoy it and that it will improve their health. I purchased both dry and wet food, some regular, and some without grain, so I can see how each affects them.
That is the least expensive good quality pet food that I am aware of. While I feed Blue Buffalo kibble to my cats, I give them a large variety of premium canned foods as well, and the 4Health stuff is a part of that rotation. I try to remember to peel off the labels before I get home because if they found out it was cheap, they wouldn't eat it anymore. I look for... meat, poultry or fish as the first ingredient; and no corn, soy, wheat, byproducts, or gluten. That's the biggest part of it. Although the all meat idea makes sense for cats since they are obligate carnivores, my cats most often reject the grain-free cat foods that I have gotten them, so I look for brown rice rather than white rice, as well as potatoes and some veggies or even fruits, but never corn or soy. I avoid byproducts because, in pet food, byproducts can mean nasty stuff like beaks, feet, hooves, hair or even worse. I also avoid artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives. It is important to know that cheaper pet foods will use sugars in order to hook your pet just as the cereal people do our children, and both dogs and cats will learn to love junk food if you give them the chance.
I feed them corn chops, nut & Berry seed, sunflower seed, sugar water and floating fish food. Our pets are ducks, wild birds, and a lake full of fish.
Royal Canin low allergy from the vet. And two kitties split one small can of wilderness fish free chicken daily.
@Ken Anderson ....the royal canins ingredients don't look so great and yet that's what the owner of Pickle's mom recommmended. He does like it though, Ive tried a few others over the years and always go back to this one. It's expensive enough....what would you recommend?
Royal Canin is one of the brands that I use. Since my cats are old and need the hydration from wet food, I rotate dozens of brands, including Blue Buffalo, Royal Canin, Wellness, Natural Balance, Holistic Select, Newman's Own, Halo, Soulistic, Canidae, Drs. Foster and Smith, Solid Gold, Wysong, EVO, and others. For kibble, I stick with Blue Buffalo because they don't demand a variety in kibble and it's been working well.
These are the ingredients in the one for dachshunds... Brewers rice, chicken by-product meal, brown rice, wheat gluten, oat groats, chicken fat, natural flavors, dried plain beet pulp, fish oil, powdered cellulose, salt, vegetable oil, sodium silico aluminate, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, fructooligosaccharides, sodium tripolyphosphate, L-lysine, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), inositol, niacin supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), D-calcium pantothenate, biotin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), vitamin A acetate, folic acid, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement], taurine, choline chloride, marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.), glucosamine hydrochloride, trace minerals [zinc proteinate, zinc oxide, ferrous sulfate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, copper proteinate], tea, L-carnitine, chondroitin sulfate, rosemary extract, preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid. Chicken by product meal?? Good thing I give him real chicken. I guess he gets enough meat from my food. Yesterday when I was cooking the ground turkey I took some out before I added anything to it. The vitamins look good, maybe I should take the same...dachshunds have back problems and so do I.
I wouldn't choose one that had rice as the first ingredient, and particularly not brewer's rice, nor the by-products or wheat gluten. Those ingredients don't look much better than Purina and that's too bad because Royal Canin was one of the good ones when there were only a few companies producing premiums foods. Royal Canin didn't used to include byproducts, and it looks like they began doing that in 2013, according to a blog article. I haven't bought any in a while since the Petco in Bangor no longer carries it, but the last time I looked at their ingredients they were good. I'll have to start looking carefully at the ingredients in in foods that I had previously researched carefully. From their site, they claim that they are using "high-quality by-products" but, of course, the byproducts label does not require that "byproducts" be of high quality, so I'll be staying away from them.
I haven't looked at the ingredients in years...til now. He's so picky with dog food though. Not people food, that's all good according to Pickles. Next time I get a bag, I'll take a look. I don't have the bag, I pour his food into a container.
FWIW, PIGS whether kept as pets, or for other purposes, are one of the least-expected, most-effective processors of complete bodies of dead animals. As John Ross explained, if human bodies are to be clandestinely disposed of without a trace, pigs offer an ideal route. They will crunch up and dispose of all parts, including bones, except the skull, which presents it's own unique disposal problems, Walgreen's dumpsters offering one solution. Most importantly, like fire, pig disposal of human remains destroys all traceable DNA evidence! Only the pigs enjoy this fact. I found this information to be most surprising, not very useful, to be sure, unless one is a "Fargo" oriented fan, a disposer of corpses wishing anonymity, a murderer, or a scientific researcher. Put another way, pigs love Mammalian-based food. Is this Ghoulish, or what? Perhaps I project a heretofore unknown image with this. It is the truth, however, regardless of how gory. Frank
Pet researches always say to check the first ingredients of wet or dry food. When we had our Malamute/Siberian Husky mix in Colorado, we fed some wet Blue Buffalo mixed in with some ? dry. We spoiled her! When we get our Shih Tzu, we will be feeding her Zignature dog food. Top ingredients in both Blue Buffalo and Zignature. Some so-called "top brands" of dog food, aren't so "top". Actually, I have no idea what dog would eat Walmart's Ol' Roy dog food. But, then again, if a dog, like a person, gets hungry enough, they will eat almost anything.
When we're at my daughter's house, Pickles doesn't touch his dogfood for days. He's getting lots of tablescraps from 5 people sitting around the table instead of just me. He loves it there, lol. Lots of beef eaters there but we don't give him too much of that...he doesn't do well with steak for some reason, will usually throw it back up. Sometimes I think it could be that he's so excited to be eating filet mignon that he scarfs it done without chewing because it comes back in unchewed pieces. Sorry those with sensitive stomachs but most have pets and have see our share of throw up.
After we got Nikki (the Husky) in Colorado, we'd feed her some table scraps as well. Heck, after I'd finish making mashed potatoes, I'd let her lick the beaters. Unfortunately, we never gave it a thought that table scraps, except for steak bones, aren't necessarily good for a dogs digestive system and can also put to much weight on a dog. Ask any Vet or Certified Vet Asst. That's exactly what happened to Nikki......put on too much weight! When we first got her, she could jump up in the back of our Dodge RAM truck w/the tailgate down. A year later, I had to lift her up and put her in.