Natural Dog Food...............

Does anyone feed their dogs a natural dog food? What brands? I have a 4 year old golden with allergy problems and I am considering putting him on a natural food--right now I am in the process of doing some research. If you do feed a natural food now, but used to feed a "commercial" food--what differences have you noticed? Thanks for any information you can share. Jill

Jill.I have a 10 year o;d basset hound who since he was a puppy ,he has allergies.I would check with your vet first,my vet sells are natural dog food,they know what is best for your dog.Hope that it works it did not on my dog ,he gets 1 or 2 shots a year to help him stop scrathing.hope your dog feels better,bob

I have a 7 year old Dalmatian with skin/food allergies. There are several foods that he does great on. The absolute best is Flint River Ranch. It is not sold in stores but if you search online you will find it. They ship it to your door. It is made with only human grade ingerdients and is oven baked. It is a bit expensive (averages a bit more than $1 per pound). But it is well worth the money. Chance's coat was beautiful. It was so shiny it glowed. I have 3 other dogs now so I have had to switch to a more affordable food. We are using Nutro Natural Choice Chicken and Oatmeal for sensitive systems. It is very good and available at most petstores. We get ours at Petsmart. It is my second choice. Chance's coat is still beautiful but is doesn't seem to shine as much as it did with the FRR. But he used to have big red patches everywhere before we realized it was the food causing the problems. You can get a 40# bag for $30. I am having starting to have trouble with one of my Shar-pei having food allergies and was told to try Wellness. It is only available at smaller pet stores (no petco or petsmart) It is also baked like FRR. Infact they are VERY similar. They have a new formula for dogs with sking allergies it is called Simple Food Solutions. It has only one meat protein source and 1 carb source. If it works well I will probably be switching my whole group to that. I'm not sure of the price though. Here is a link to it http://www.omhpet.com/dogs/simple_food_overview.html Good luck with your dog. I know the itchies can be so frustrating. Crissy

Thank you both for your replies. After doing a ton of research, I decided to go with Canidae brand food. I am making the slow switch with Cooper, and so far he seems to like it. I won't know for a while if it is going to help his skin problem, because I just started him on methylprednisone because he was having a terrible rash. I have a friend that uses the wellness brand with her golden and she highly recommended it as well. Thanks again for your input, I really appreciate it. Jill & Cooper

We feed our 10 month old American Bulldog Pup Wellness Venison. Great food! Other foods to look at would be Solid Gold and Wysong. If you are looking to stay with a great local food Wellness is made by Old Mother Hubbard located in Lowell, MA. Nutro and Natures Recipie all great foods. Stay away from Eukanuba, Iams, Science Diet and the commerical brands.

Weighing in kind of late, but I have both my dogs on a combo of wet and dry from Wellness. It is one of the top foods out there. They have several types and flavors of dry and wet food. We usually get the dry chicken and all of the wet (turkey, whitefish, chicken, lamb, venison and duck). We also use Mrs. Hubbard's treats. Good luck!

I am late, too. I use Innova and that is all I will use. NO CORN. The dogs have beautiful coats. My sister has a very allergic Rhodesian she feeds Wellness Venison. What anyone ends up buying may be dependent upon what is available locally. Flint River is not available here, nor Eagle pack, Canidae isn't either. The dogs preferred Innova to California Natural, so I switched to that. They are made by the same company in CA. I also supplement with raw beef bones. Just found out about this board. Glad to find it--- Now if I could just solve the dog arguments! Lois Rockbridge Co., VA

Have you considered going totally raw?? My dogs do so well on a raw diet, no allergies, no doggy smell, and a lot less waste! If you are going raw, you might want to check some web sites...just type in raw diet dogs, or B.A.R.F. (bones and raw foods) Joan Divide, CO

I have fed Flint River Ranch natural dog food for years with excellent results. Check the websites, I think you will be pleased. One good thing is that it is delivered to your door and is always fresh. Dixie

Cats are a natural dog food...right?