I have a 4 year old Lab mix. He is in great health and we are not worried about him. He is very happy and energetic.
My question is about his food. Now, I will admit that he does enjoy table scraps on occasion, but he has been eating Kibbles n Bits as part of his normal diet since the beginning. He is a awesome dog and I want the best for him. Are the High End dog foods really worth the extra cost?

Blue Buffalo?
Eukanuba?
Other?

Was hoping for some real honest answers, not commercial mumbo jumbo.....

Thanks in Advance
Trey Moore

Well, it's been 60 days... about time for this thread again.

my bad........ I should have done a search.

Why change what works?

Especially for something that is all marketing and no research (blue buffalo).

Purina pro plan is what we use. Dogs love it. Been very happy. Avoid blue. That's what we used to use, but it's had some issues in recent years. Don't go grain-free unless your vet says you need it for some reason.

AgEng98 said:

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Well, it's been 60 days... about time for this thread again.

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I see you basically had the same response in the 2/27 thread. I hope someone asks this same question in August, so you can keep your streak alive.

Mooreags said:

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AgEng98 said:

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Well, it's been 60 days... about time for this thread again.

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I see you basically had the same response in the 2/27 thread. I hope someone asks this same question in August, so you can keep your streak alive.

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Do it and..

Pets really bring out the crazy in folks, and there are few things in the pet realm that triggers crazy folks more than pet food talk.

Our long lived, healthy happy dogs do great on basic Purina Dog Chow. All outside dogs, poop volume not a concern.

After what we went through for two years and final death of our 8 year old Lab.....most Vets seem to recommend Science Diet. ......that is what we feed now. Never again Taste of the Wild.....only imho. You can google about that yourself.
Seems like Purina is a good food as well. Ask your Aggie Vet.

We are really happy with Victor.

Honestly, any pet food you feed that is sold commercially will at least meet your pets' nutritional needs. Some are much better than others. If you're feeding Ol' Roy, it's going to support your dog's life just as well as Pro Plan or Orijen. But the flip side is, you can live off of twinkies and a few multivitamins as well. Some foods are simply better than others (in terms of ingredients, quality control, etc.)
You brought up Blue. Blue is a marketing company that got into premium pet foods to make some more money - they did a fantastic job at it. When they started sourcing ingredients from overseas (China) they started having recalls because the food was killing pets. My advice is to stick with one of the big five (Iams, Eukanuba, Purina, Royal Canin, or Science Diet.) That being said, I've fed Nutrisource and Fromm for a while and enjoyed the smaller waste. Currently feeding a raw diet from Raw Bistro because the chihuahua doesn't want to chew on anything despite the very saying there's no dental issues.

Fromm's. Lab loves it and poopers been great for 7 years.

I've never seen a dog run into a grain field and start chowing down.

DayAg! said:

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I've never seen a dog run into a grain field and start chowing down.

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Have you lived next to a corn field? My heelers love fresh corn if you let them have it.

DayAg! said:

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I've never seen a dog run into a grain field and start chowing down.

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yeah, but I've seen every dog ever chow down on fresh cow ***** Using your logic, that's what all dog's should be fed.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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DayAg! said:

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I've never seen a dog run into a grain field and start chowing down.

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Have you lived next to a corn field? My heelers love fresh corn if you let them have it.

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My labs eat corn, oats, range cubes, carrots, bell peppers, horse ****, rabbit turds, mice, .... labs have the motto "go ahead and eat it now, if it's bad I'll just throw it up latter"

DayAg! said:

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I've never seen a dog run into a grain field and start chowing down.

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Do you run into the hot dog processing plant and start chowing down on offal?

Victor or Pro Plan are as high end as I'd go. The ultra premium brands are built on marketing.

My dumb cat likes purina. Not a cat person and my attitude is "if she dies, she dies." Assume dogs work the same way.

FreshPet Vital.
We only consider foods without peas, potatoes, and legumes.

My Wiems eat Nulo they are a Texas owned Company and they make a great product

[

Ol Roy or gtfo.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

With that said, we had a lab on vet prescribed hypoallerginic food for 5 years and she still had the runs 60% of the time.

Finally tried Acana Singles - very limited ingredients. Bam! No more issues whatsoever for 2 years and counting.

Given the other thread running right now.... of he's like my lab, his favorite treat is anything he can make fit in his mouth... I wouldn't worry to much about super high dollar dog food

I think the rule of thumb is look for a food that the first two ingredients are animal based.
(I'm probably wrong).

Victor EOT

We feed Nutro (purina) to our dogs and they love it.

Have done pro plan, grain free, etc. and landed here.

For those saying grain free isn't an issue. It might not be, but read this first

https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/outbreaks-and-advisories/fda-investigation-potential-link-between-certain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy

I feel like we need a sticky that just says "Stop feeding Blue Buffalo. It will kill your dog."

We're all in on Victor although I used Muenster for a long time

Victor ships from Amazon and my wife wanted to curtail my Saturday morning trips to the feed store


My judge of dog food is how much hits the ground from the back end and Victor seems to be highly digestible from what I've seen

Primal is very good as well.

https://primalpetfoods.com/

I buy my Victor at Lyssey and Eckels, either in Llano or Hondo depending where I am... (plus, it goes on the ranch account so I'm not too worried.) Buy 4-6 bags at a time. 3 dogs (Sm, M, Lg)

Neighbor had a "silver"...uh, I mean light colored chocolate lab that was a diabetic fatty. Vet told him to start feeding him venison. Leaned up quite well. Also supplemented liver as it's full of so many micro-nutrients. He's still going strong and quite a bit better.

Not sure any vets here can speak to all protein diets for animals as they'd still need minerals and nutrients from organ meat, fats, etc.