# Where is your dogs food made?



## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

Where is your dogs food made? Is this important to you? When shopping which factors are the highest on your list? Price? Nutrition? Where it is made? With the many recalls on dog food, I have been reading more and more info on dog food. It is hard to weed through fact and fiction and at the end of the day I am left wondering which really is which. 

Someone posted the link to Petfooddirect on another thread and I was looking at it noticing that some foods are made in the USA and others not listed as such. Many brands have the dry made in the USA and not the canned. This got me thinking, is this an important factor to you? I noticed that many of the recalls were because ingredients were purchased from other countries. Is this something that should be more concerning?

This is not a thread about this country is better then that country. I do have concerns about buying dog foods made in other countries though since it seems that the regulations are not as strict as they are in the US. 

What are your thoughts? Is this a factor in your choices for your dogs?


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## Lindbert (Dec 12, 2010)

My current food, Horizon Legacy (which the pups are doing fabulous on, by the way!) is made in Canada from Canadian sourced ingredients. After all of the problems with ingredients sourced from China, I am more careful about selecting a food that tells you where the ingredients come from and that they use quality ingredients not from China. 

The first thing I look for in a food is ingredients and nutritional analysis. I want high protein, moderate fat, low carb. I want named meats or meat meals, named oil/fat source, and preferably a single starch binder, but I can be flexible with that. I prefer grain free foods but if a single grain acts as the only starch ingredient in the food and it meets all of my other preferences, I will give it a try and see how the pups do on it. I want chelated minerals and probiotics. Glucosamine and chondroiten and additional sources of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids are bonuses, however I still supplement these items in my dogs' diets. My second concern is price. My third concern is the reputation of the company where the food is made. 

The bottom line will be how well the dog does on the food. There are fabulous foods that meet all of my requirements and look great on paper that just don't agree with my dogs. Orijen is a perfect example. Taste of the Wild is a food that my dogs do extremely well on however I am not a fan of Diamond and their response to recalls they have been involved with in the past. I will keep it in the rotation until I have plenty of other alternatives to feed, however right now the list of foods my dogs do wonderfully on is not all that long.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

When I began to switch my dogs food my biggest concern was that there were no imported ingredients due to the recalls that killed all those poor dogs so many years back and so many recent recalls.

I especially looked into where they got the grains from. I had been feeding a one star rated food and wanted better nutrition for my animals... also wondering where the ingredients really were coming from.

I also am very concerned with some of the red flag items such as beet pulp and garlic even in small amounts, flax seed, that is whole and not ground, tomatoes and tomato pumace ... any red flag item that appears in dog food analysis.

I want more meats that are antibiotic free and disease free. I want fish that is free from mercury in my dogs food. I also do not want any preservatives or added chemicals in the food. I do want probiotics and cheleated kibble. I also want good sources of fiber and like pea fiber over potato fiber. I do want fruits and green veggies in their diet. I want no corn, wheat, or soy added. I also want grain-free or minimal grains in the food at all costs.

It is really difficult with so many choices out there. 

Yes ... I take into consideration many of these things .... as I am now on a rotation diet for them to avoid further allergies.

For now my rotation diet will consist of 4Health dry dog food, TOTW Pacific Stream and my newest dry food Chicken Soup For The Dog Lover's Soul, which I just added to my rotation yesterday for the first time. 

Yes, I trust these three foods. 

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I really do not want any imported grains in my dogs food if at all possible. It is just so hard to find a perfect food out there!!!


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## PatchworkRobot (Aug 24, 2010)

Dreizehn's current dry food, Fromm Gold, comes from ingredients from the USA and is made there also. When I was picking out a food I looked at ingredients first and then price. I avoided foods from China but did consider foods from other countries if I liked the qualities and reviews I heard. I also add in a bunch of different wet foods (all one at a time) and they're made in the US and Canada.


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

I too rotate my foods and have for about 30 years. People always thought I was nuts and said "dogs should eat the same thing every day, forever" I didn't believe that at all and thought it would actually cause sensitive stomach. I currently do Taste of the Wild and Fromm 4 star nutritional which is actually a 5 star food with a 4 star name. ha ha I have fed Evo, Orijen, Wellness, Blue Buffalo and Canidae. I love the Canidae food as it reads and I love that it is made in the US but... one of my dogs didn't do well on it. I might start them back on some of the canned Canidae though as I suspect part of his issue was not food related at all.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

I know even if I were a dog I really wouldn't want to eat the same thing year after year and day after day .... heck everybody needs a little spice in their life!  

I am finding that my one dog, Blu Boy has finally had his allergy related skin issues resolved. I am hoping it is actually the rotation of the foods and not flea related! ( fingers crossed )

Being I am feeding four dogs now ( one of them not my own even ... due to me being so nice! ) I still need to watch the pocket book too.  These three foods still fit into my budget and are much better than one star foods.


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## MariJoy (Nov 10, 2011)

Natural Choice Small Breed Puppy food - in the good 'ole USA !! (and, yes, I know about Nutro's past mfg. probs., I choose to think they are past all that now.)


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

Yup, there are only a lucky few that do not have to take cost into consideration. I wish I were one of them. If I were, I would be making home made food for my dogs or rather, I would have a chef making home made foods. ha ha Until then, I will do the best that I can. I will support the USA made foods also since I feel it is safer. There is no such thing as 100% safe regardless of where the food is made or what ingredients are in it but we have to try, right?

I think I am going to take the boys shopping today and do a bit of comparison shopping. See what is on sale too.


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

The Fromm plant is in Mequon WI which isn't far from my house. I wonder if they give tours? Ha Ha I do buy a lot of their food because it just feels better that it is a company that is so close. I see that some of their canned food is not listed as made in the USA though. Might be an over site of maybe some of the recipes are made somewhere else or have ingredients from somewhere else?


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## StellaLucyDesi (Jun 19, 2008)

I am feeding Fromm 4 Star dry and canned to my dogs, atm. It is made in the USA....btw, I'm not sure where you read that their canned food is made somewhere else but it IS made in the USA...NOW. It used to be made in China!! But they have since started making their canned food in America. Something tells me the plant is in Montana? But not sure. I also like Nature's Variety and Rotations and the Petcurean brands. Also, I would not be opposed to Earthborn.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

I think the majority of pet foods (especially canned foods) are made in the country they're sold in, just because of the expense of shipping heavy stuff very far. The source of the ingredients might be a problem, though. And I guess I'm not sure where to find that information. Does anyone have a link?


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## flipgirl (Oct 5, 2007)

I prefer foods that are made in Canada, not because I believe food is made better here but it's really my possibly naive belief that since I live here, the food didn't have to travel much and go through country borders. However, I am lucky that the food I feed my dog is made by two local women in Burlington, the city in which I live. I feed Canine Life muffins. I make them myself from a premix and add my own meat, fruits and veggies but when I am lazy (a little too often it seems), I order them customized - and they are made to my preferences. 

In terms of not sourcing ingredients from China, that is a difficult thing to do. Taurine, for example, can only be sourced in China (at least according to what I have read). I don't know much about which foods are made where and what company actually manufactures the food but from the little I have read, both on this forum and from books, I think I try to subconsciously ignore it. The human food industry is, how can I say it, wrought with questionable practices to be mild, so I can't imagine how the pet food industry works. There is a thread on a cat forum I am on which is discussing the pet food industry and whether we can have any faith in it and the people on this thread are way more educated than me on the subject. It is obvious to me that many people have varying levels of faith in regulatory bodies such as the AAFCO. It goes from "it's not great but it's all that we have" to "we can and must do better". I am also reading "Feed Your Pet Right" and have even less faith in the AAFCO. Then there are other organizations whose responsibility is to regulate what goes on the labels of pet foods. 

The one company I may have some faith in is Wellpet who makes Wellness as well as Eagle Pack. I was speaking to a guy who works at Simmons which was formerly Menu foods. They make Wellness foods and he told me that they are required to thoroughly clean out the factory before making any Wellness products. That made me feel better. 

My one cat eats Go! Naturals kibble. It's made in CAnada but the reason I chose it was that the company claims the food is minimally processed. I don't know, it's all marketing. My cat loves it more than his wet food. Isn't it all just BS? I mean, just because we as a society are moving toward a more healthier, cleaner lifestyle, should our pets do the same? That is what the pet food companies are counting on so they print words such as 'holistic' and 'natural' which really don't have any meaning or more specifically, any regulation placed on the companies who use these words. 

In my case, I think my dog eats better than me. Organic ingredients, freshly cooked - I only get that if I eat at my brother's house. The food I buy for myself are from far away, for example, from Mexico (zucchini) or California (greens). So apparently, location is only important for my dog. Sigh...


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

I dont really take into account where my dogs food is made honestly, I look at ingredients, protien etc.. levels(what I want there depends on the dog its for) and then I look at price... I also tend to take into account how I have seen OTHER dogs do on a food..I work in a kennel so I see a lot of dogs on various foods, I see their coats I see their energy, I see their teeth and ears, I see their poops, I see how much they need to eat etc.. and once I choose a food based on these, I then see how MY dogs do on it.


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## StellaLucyDesi (Jun 19, 2008)

So..Miss Bugs, what are the foods you have chosen for your dogs from your criteria? Just wondering.


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

StellaLucyDesi said:


> I am feeding Fromm 4 Star dry and canned to my dogs, atm. It is made in the USA....btw, I'm not sure where you read that their canned food is made somewhere else but it IS made in the USA...NOW. It used to be made in China!! But they have since started making their canned food in America. Something tells me the plant is in Montana? But not sure. I also like Nature's Variety and Rotations and the Petcurean brands. Also, I would not be opposed to Earthborn.


Fromm Family Foods
PO Box 365
Mequon WI, 53092 

Fromm is made in Mequon. Not all that far from where I live. 

This site http://www.petfooddirect.com/search/Fromm/page2 shows many of the foods as MADE in the USA but some not. I suspect some ingredients are still from other countries?


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## InkedMarie (Mar 11, 2009)

I feed The Honest Kitchen, made in a human food factory, not a pet one. I like their ingredients, values, etc. Their website is a wealth of information. WWW.TheHonestKitchen.com. There is so much there, explaining everything you'd need to know (well, for those interested in the food). Where my dogs food is made, how they source etc is very important to me.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

I don't think it trust petfooddirect as a source for what foods are made where. Half of their ingredient lists are outdated (if you compare them to the brand's website). As I said, I'm pretty sure all (barring unusual brands like ZiwiPeak and others like that) pet foods sold in the U.S. are made in the U.S., just for transportation purposes.


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## lucidity (Nov 10, 2009)

I like foods made in the US, Canada, NZ, or Australia. I've fed many US-made brands.. the Canadian ones that I like are Orijen, Acana, and Horizon Legacy. Ziwipeak and Addiction are great foods from NZ. Ziwipeak I think might be my favourite (although it's so expensive!!). 

I might try some UK made foods in the future--they have one called "Fish4Dogs" and it's pretty popular around here. The ingredients are quite good as well--grain free and everything.

ETA: I'm less picky about treats. A lot of treats here are really expensive (if they were imported from the US/Canada), so sometimes I feed Taiwanese, Japanese, or locally made treats.


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## Miss Bugs (Jul 4, 2011)

> So..Miss Bugs, what are the foods you have chosen for your dogs from your criteria? Just wondering.


Electra-severe allergies to nearly everything, she eats Natural Balance Fish and Sweet potato..I actually tried very hard to avoid it because it does NOT meet most of my criteria, even the dogs I had seen on NB at work were in terrable shape etc.. however after everything else failed I bit the bullet and tried it..and for HER its awsome lol 

Gem-Go! Duck formula, large mix breed puppy, she was spayed very young at the shelter, she was chunky being free fed high fat puppy food, locked on a tiny cage(the size of a crate) etc.. we chose the duck formula becauseit fit the nutrient levels we wanted for getting her back on track, with good ingredients, and I have seen nothing but good results in dogs I have seen eating petcuren foods  

everyone else eats raw..Gem gets raw mixed into her food as well.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

I feed Earthborn Primitive Natural. They highlight on the bag that is it made in the USA, they are located in Indiana. I buy it for the ingredients, but also like that it is made somewhat locally AND they have a good commitment to other actions that preserve natural resources- like their UPCs for Trees program and using a lot of recycled materials in their bags/boxes/advertising materials. Chester does very well on a high protein (min 38% in this food), fairly high fat and grain free. I switched the foster dog to it right away and she has done so much better on it; the trainer said in just about 3 weeks, she could see how much her body condition had improved. 

I buy a lot of my own food in small Asian markets and I do try to avoid made in China stuff. They just have too bad of track record in food safety. Japanese or South Korean products are high quality though.


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## StellaLucyDesi (Jun 19, 2008)

I just went to Fromm's site to see what they had to say about their food and where it's from. Their dry food is obviously made in their own plant in Wisconsin. Their canned food is made in a plant in South Dakota. They say that both are USDA inspected. They also say that all their ingredients are sourced in the USA and their products made in the USA. However, I do know that some vitamins can only be bought "overseas", so not sure about that statement. I still say they are one of the few companies I trust anymore.

Oh, and Miss Bugs.....I hear ya' lol. I like Petcurean products, too.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

The canned food plant in SD is probably the Iams plant in North Sioux City. I didn't know they made other brands but it makes sense--there aren't a lot of canned food plants in the U.S.


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## StellaLucyDesi (Jun 19, 2008)

@Willowy....I believe their canned food manufacturer is Performance Pet. It is in Mitchell, South Dakota. Their own brand is Canine Cattle Company. I have actually fed that brand of canned food before and it's quite good.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Huh, I didn't know there's a canned food plant in Mitchell. Learn something new every day . I know a lot of people who work at the Iams plant, though. They give them 60 pounds of pet food a month for free, so a lot of the employees have Mastiffs or multiple dogs .

So in order to find out where ingredients are sourced, you have to call each company individually? What a pain. I don't think it means anything if the plant is "USDA inspected". The USDA is cutting back on inspectors, so actual inspections are pretty rare. And the USDA oversees all animal feed production, that doesn't mean it's of any particular quality.


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## Discodobe (Jan 5, 2012)

Elsie eats Orijen (http://orijen.co.nz/)
which is made in Canada, and K9 Naural (http://www.k9natural.com/) which is made in Christchurch, New Zealand (the city where we live!)


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## Aisell (Nov 28, 2011)

I don't know how much I had fed my dogs already but I think if I combined all the food I fed them than it could fill more than 50 refrigerators already. I spoiled my dogs with food luckily they don't have weight issues


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