# What is the very best kibble available?



## TracieLS (Dec 24, 2012)

Hi!

I was wondering what you all think is the very best kibble available? I've been on the Dog Food Advisor site & all, I'm just curious what the public opinion is? 

Thanks!
Tracie


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## Gally (Jan 11, 2012)

I don't think there is one best kibble. Each dog does best on a different kibble. You may need to try a few of the "top" brands before you find one that is optimal for your dog.


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## PatchworkRobot (Aug 24, 2010)

Whichever works best for your dog. 
I'm a big fan of Nature's Variety Instinct, personally.


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## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

It depends on the dog and your budget. Anything that rates a 5 is "the best", but some dogs do great on one and others do better on another. 

I personally rotate between Wellness Core (the fish one to cut out chicken for a while), Taste of the Wild, Acana and Canidae. Blue Wilderness, for example, rates highly, but Kabota will not eat the little vitamin bits unless I hand feed them, so that's out. Other dogs love it.

Some people swear by Orijen, but (a) it's incredibly expensive, (b) it seems to be too rich for a lot of dogs, and (c) I question their naming skills*.

So try some and see what your dog likes and does well on.



*Orijen was a 3rd or 4th century Catholic philosopher who removed his own testicles to better serve god. I have no idea why you'd name a dog food after him.


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

For me, I feel the best food is meat based, from a company that has not had a recall.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Amaryllis said:


> *Orijen was a 3rd or 4th century Catholic philosopher who removed his own testicles to better serve god. I have no idea why you'd name a dog food after him.


Obviously, it's for neutered dogs! LOL


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## PackMomma (Sep 26, 2011)

Same as others have said, the very best kibble is the one you're dog does best on, so you might have to experiment between a few to find out what works best. I do personally recommend rotating between a few that work though, its important to keep variety in the diet whatever you feed, IMO. When I fed kibble, I rotated and had the best results with Acana grain-free All Life Stages formulas, Nature's Variety Instinct, Fromm's and Timberwolf Organics grain-free formula.


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## georgiapeach (Mar 17, 2012)

As others have said, every dog is different. I have an allergy dog (Maddie, a westie mix), who's allergic to nearly everything, so she must have an LID (limited ingredient diet) kibble. California Natural Salmon and Peas and Evo Herring and Salmon are the only two kibbles that I've found that don't drive her insane with itching.

My boxer needs a grain free, low pea kibble (peas make him have loose poo), as well as a lower protein (under 30 %). He does best on Taste of the Wild (TOTW) Pacific Stream.

My poodle can eat almost anything that's grain free (grains make his eyes run). At least I have one easy dog - lol!

Unfortunately, finding the "best" kibble is trial and error. I would look at 4-5 star kibbles on http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/dry/ to get you started.


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## GrinningDog (Mar 26, 2010)

> *Orijen was a 3rd or 4th century Catholic philosopher who removed his own testicles to better serve god. I have no idea why you'd name a dog food after him.


No way! Hahaha!

For my dog, I find a meat-based kibble without filler grains (no corn, wheat, soy) and by-products. We rotate brands and formulas; currently she's on Taste of the Wild, Pacific Stream formula, and seems to do best on that.


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## CptJack (Jun 3, 2012)

Really, really depends on your dog. For us, it's Wellness Core. We rotate a tiny bit amongst the Grain Free brands we can get our hands on easily and locally, but grain free is the only real requirement we have.


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## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

Amaryllis said:


> It depends on the dog and your budget. Anything that rates a 5 is "the best", but some dogs do great on one and others do better on another.
> 
> I personally rotate between Wellness Core (the fish one to cut out chicken for a while), Taste of the Wild, Acana and Canidae. Blue Wilderness, for example, rates highly, but Kabota will not eat the little vitamin bits unless I hand feed them, so that's out. Other dogs love it.
> 
> ...


Ha! I was just going to ask why on the naming skills LOL, because last time i checked they didnt name their foods cutesy dorky names (I was thinking "regional red" doesnt seem weird) LMBO


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## Calmingapple (Jan 8, 2013)

I am really happy with Kirkland/Costco brand Natures Domain Salmon & Sweet Potato grain free kibble. I hear that their turkey version is a favorite of many dogs. So after our 40 lb bag of the salmon one is done, we will try the turkey.

For me, it is a cost effective food (due to Costco buying from them in bulk and no real need for advertising) with ingredients I am happy with. Dogfoodadvisor gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

I would LOVE to be able to buy Orijen for my dog on a regular basis, but I just cannot justify the cost when things like Natures Domain offer similar, if not identical quality ingredients.


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## Candydb (Jul 16, 2011)

Amaryllis said:


> Some people swear by Orijen, but (a) it's incredibly expensive, (b) it seems to be too rich for a lot of dogs, and (c) I question their naming skills*.
> 
> *Orijen was a 3rd or 4th century Catholic philosopher who removed his own testicles to better serve god. I have no idea why you'd name a dog food after him.


Wow thats intense, I had no idea!


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## TracieLS (Dec 24, 2012)

i ordered some Orijen, but that was before i read this post. I'll give it a try anyway.


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## melaka (Mar 31, 2010)

I always thought that Orijen and Acana seemed like good foods, but never got around to letting my dog try them. Personally I feed my dog Annamaet because I like that it's made in a small factory that seems to have good quality control and I also like its ingredients/sources. It's also somewhat local to me (as opposed to Champion foods being in Canada and me in the U.S.).

And I always feel the need to mention it since not many people on this forum seem to feed it, though I know some have tried it for their dogs.


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## cmoorewv (May 27, 2012)

I have been feeding Earthborn Primitive for a couple of bags now, but I think I am going to give HiTek Naturals Grain Free Chicken and Sweet Potato a try. I bought a 5 lb bag of it and tested it on my picky smaller dogs. They seem to like it, so I am going to go back to the feed store and price a 30 lb bag of it. My giant dogs are not nearly as picky, so I figure they will eat it too. HiTek got a 5 star rating as well, and a 5 lb bag of it is $9.99 vs a 6 lb bag of Earthborn Primitive which costs 15.99. The 24 lb bag of Earthborn is $52.99, so I'm hoping the HiTek will be somewhat cheaper. I kind of have a tight budget, so I'd like to stick with a high quality food and cut my costs a bit if I can. I tried Taste of the Wild, but my picky dogs didn't care for it. It sort of had a burnt smell to it, but I can't remember which flavor it was. The HiTek chicken and sweet potato is one of the few CoCo and Sheba will eat any of straight out of the bag. I still mix it with rolled food or a bit of meat, though. Picky butts won't eat canned! They're spoiled.

I don't think Annamet is freely available in WV.


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

like others said, depends on the dog! Gem does best on Orijen 6 fish mixed with raw...better then she does on all raw. her sister doesn't do well with any kibble that includes a anything fish related, my other dogs cant handle orijen at all but did great on Horizon..exept for Rusty who only seemed to do well on it..many of his issues however (seizures, collapsing, exersize intolerance) vanished when we switched him back to all raw...not things I would have equated to diet. Baby dog does best on presidents choice grain free etc... we have a dog at work that looks incredible on pedigree then there is my friends dog that cant hold weight on anything but Orijen. .she was emaciated on 8 cups of pedigree a day. .she's a 40lbs dog. I have seen lots of dogs look awful on wysong and lots look wonderful on nutro lol the best food is the one that works best for your dog!


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## Daenerys (Jul 30, 2011)

Amaryllis said:


> *Orijen was a 3rd or 4th century Catholic philosopher who removed his own testicles to better serve god. I have no idea why you'd name a dog food after him.


I always thought it was just a "fancy" spelling of the word "origin".


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## Dog Person (Sep 14, 2012)

Daenerys said:


> I always thought it was just a "fancy" spelling of the word "origin".



Me too! Like getting back to the Orijen of what canines eat.

I did feed Zoey Orijen puppy for a few months as I felt it was one of the best foods around. The Vet wanted her off of high protein food and she was very gassy with her poop stinking so switching her off was something I was about to do. She is on Pinnacle Grain Free now ... 27% protein vs the much higher Orijen. The fact that it's so rich and you need to feed less has me wondering if it is not really worth it though. In a similar thread it was said that feeding my 30 lb dog 2 cups was too much but I have to question if feeding too little substance and having a dog hungry because it's stomach isn't full is all that good; not talking nutrition but talking physical.

As far as cost - I used to pay $36 for Nutro Natural Choice for my last dog, I was paying $38 for Orijen but they have buy so many and get 1 for free (I think buy 12 get 1 free) so the cost is reasonable. I pay $33 for the Pinnacle and it is a 12 lb bag vs the 15 lb of the other two.


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## VanLeeRet (Feb 23, 2013)

melaka said:


> I always thought that Orijen and Acana seemed like good foods, but never got around to letting my dog try them. Personally I feed my dog Annamaet because I like that it's made in a small factory that seems to have good quality control and I also like its ingredients/sources. It's also somewhat local to me (as opposed to Champion foods being in Canada and me in the U.S.).
> 
> And I always feel the need to mention it since not many people on this forum seem to feed it, though I know some have tried it for their dogs.


I use Annamaet Ultra and have for over 15 years, so now you have company!! There are some other good ones but most foods are fads. I always recommend Annamaet because there are very few companies with Annamaet's level of expertise.


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## saitenyo (Sep 9, 2011)

I agree with the others that it depends on your situation and your dog. For example, I know Orijen works great for a lot of dogs, but like others mentioned, my dog didn't do well on it. Really high protein foods seem to give Tyrion gas and soft stool.

The kibble that seems to work best for him is Acana (Same company as Orijen but a lower protein formula). We rotate between Ranchlands and Grasslands. I avoid chicken with him because he doesn't seem to like it and I suspect it upsets his stomach.


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## luv mi pets (Feb 5, 2012)

Just tried TOTW pacific stream and I was disappointed. My dogs did not go crazy about it. They left most of it in the dish. Back to Earthborn ocean fusion we go.


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## alexlucas (Feb 4, 2013)

InkedMarie said:


> For me, I feel the best food is meat based, from a company that has not had a recall.


Totally agree! Best answer LOL


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## InfernoOrangeSS (Apr 1, 2012)

We feed our two dogs Orijen. Our one year old chihuahua/yorkie mix has been on regional red for about 6 months and loves it. She is incredibly healthy and lost all skin irritations she had when she was on BB Wilderness. When we received our second puppy, a yorkie/Maltese mix, we thought BB wilderness puppy food would be ok for her. She also started to have skin irritations, so we have switched her to Orijen puppy formula. She loves this food and it seems to keep her very healthy as well. My wife and I are fortunate that we don't have to worry about prices. I strongly recommend Orijen to all my friends as the absolute best food we have ever tried.


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## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

Heads up all, BB has been Mekong dogs sick & the company is being a **** about it I wish I could find the article but its hard for me to paste links on the phone.


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## Smitty (Mar 21, 2012)

I fed my mini dal what I thought was good dry food, your popular brands. But he also got beggin stuff when we ate. He ended up with pancreatitis and diabetes. We had to put him down because of kidney stones. With our new dog cooper a Bichon, I said he will be different. Absolutely no people food, none! We feed him the best we can find regardless of cost. He's small so he doesn't cost us much anyway. The breeder recommended a brand I didn't want to use and gave me a small can of Ceasers whatever. I still have it, he won't get it either. He's eating a 50/50 of Orijen red and Acana duck and bartlett pear. He eats that or he doesn't eat at all. I can just about tell you when he needs to poop, he's very regular.


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