# Good Kibble Recommendations?



## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

The SPCA that I adopted my dog from fed their dogs Hill's Science Diet, which I know isn't all that great. I'm interested in finding a puppy kibble that is fairly respectable, that isn't too expensive, so no more than $25 I'd prefer. Well actually it's my parents buying the food, but it's my dog, so I'm trying to keep the cost as low as possible.

Any suggestions? She's currently 10 months old, a pit bull terrier mix so a medium size dog.


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## Dog Person (Sep 14, 2012)

At 10 months she doesn't need puppy food anymore.

If you live in the US and live around a Tractor Supply you can try their 4Health brand, both the grain free and regular is around $25 for a 15 or 18 lb. bag.

Petsmart has Authority grain free in a 15 lb. bag for $19.

Some Walmarts sell Rachael Ray Nutrish Zero Grain that is supposed to be pretty good, not sure how much it is.

If you're looking at 5 lb. bags for that price, the list goes up a lot but I am assuming with a medium size dog you are looking for about 15 lbs. of food.


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## briteday (Feb 10, 2007)

Costco Signature brand


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## Zilla (May 11, 2013)

Walmart also carries Pure Balance kibble which is a 3.5 rating on dog food advisor. Their cans are a full 5 star rating so defiantly a decent food if your trying to save money. 


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

I feed my foster dogs Fromm Classic. It isn't grain free, but they've all done well on it. It is about $30-35 for a 33 lbs bag. That lasts about 6 weeks for the medium sized dogs (40-55 lbs pit bull types). 

Adding a little fish oil to the food is great for the skin and coat since it seems fairly common for the pit bulls to have sensitive skin. You can just buy the generic people soft-gel capsules and squeeze one per day onto her food. About $3-4 for 100 count at the grocery store. (Make sure there aren't any ingredients other than fish oil and maybe vitamin E and the capsule coating itself)


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## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! Another person I asked brought up a good point - my dog won't have to eat as much kibble from a good brand that has no filler - as opposed to having to eat 3 1/2 cups of Iams everyday, she can have 1 1/2 to 2 cups of a brand that has no fillers and proper nutrition. That's opened up a whole new list. The foods I can get from stores locally are:

Blue Buffalo (Basics, Freedom, & Wilderness)
Nature's Recipe
Authority
Simply Nourish
Iams Healthy Naturals
Wellness Core


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Out of those, I'd say Wellness Core or Blue Buffalo Wilderness are the "best" (the best food is whatever an individual dog does best on, but there are generally better formulas than others). 

You do tend to feed less of the better foods and I think most dog food bags overestimate how much to feed, but total calories by cup still matter so it may not be dropping to just half the amount from Iams to a better food. I do find that better quality foods mean about 2/3rds the volume of the cheap foods which doesn't quite balance out dollar for dollar but when the dog's overall health is considered, the little extra money (and potential vet visit savings) works out. 

Taste of the Wild is another good option if available to you, many pet stores carry it.


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## amdeblaey (Jun 27, 2009)

I use to feed taste of the wild. Feed raw now because my dog was diagnosed with IBS


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## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

Just found how expensive Wellness CORE is, but I also found out a local PetValu carries Taste of the Wild for $28.99 for a 15lb bag  She'll finish off her Iams/Science Diet mix, but once that's gone, I'll be switching her to the adult diet of either TotW, Blue Buffalo, or Authority.


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## Zilla (May 11, 2013)

Melle said:


> Just found how expensive Wellness CORE is, but I also found out a local PetValu carries Taste of the Wild for $28.99 for a 15lb bag  She'll finish off her Iams/Science Diet mix, but once that's gone, I'll be switching her to the adult diet of either TotW, Blue Buffalo, or Authority.


Taste of the Wild would be my pick out of that. You can't beat its price per pound and quality. It's low carbohydrates too which the other two arnt low in. When it comes to TOTW more expensive is defiantly not better. 


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## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

The Iams we've been gradually mixing in with her Science Diet, even at only 1/5 of her diet, seems to have suddenly given her extreme gas and very sloppy stool (Im assuming its the Iams because otherwise nothing has changed) so I convinced my mom to make the price jump for the sake of quality (and not having a pup make wet bowel movements on my bedroom carpet) and we bought a 4lb bag of Blue Freedom Puppy kibble to mix with her Scienxe Diet instead. Hoping she does well on it. I would have gotten Wilderness but they didnt have any puppy bags in the size we needed, plus I read a lot of reviews about it giving some people's dogs bad upset stomach and diarrhea, and apparently those people did better on Freedom.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

The Blue Freedom Puppy is good, but at her age she doesn't need puppy food so that gives you a wider range of options.

TOTW is really affordable for the large bags, she'll probably eat enough that there's no reason to buy a 15 lbs bag once you know a food type agrees with her.


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## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

She doesn't? Every where else so far, inudin the vet at the shelter, told us to start switching to adult kibble at 11 mos.

And I'm all for getting the large quantities, I keep telling my mom that, but my parents are really testy about spending larger sums of money all at once. They're actually ticked at me right now for all the food-switching I've talked about and engaged in in just 5 days. Now we have a whole bag of Iams we can't use and my mom didnt get her paycheck this week. Although it'll take Nina a while to finish off these bags I think, so I'll see about putting her on Blue or TotW when it's gone.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Many pet stores will take back opened but basically full bags of food if it doesn't agree with your dog. 

An "All Life Stages" food is suitable, she's nearly full grown. I put the dogs on regular adult food at 5-6 months. If you carefully read the ingredients and analysis between two foods of the same brand and formula where one is puppy and one is adult, there is very little different. Some small difference in calcium and phosphorus generally and minor differences in calories per cup, but for a medium sized dog that is probably not growing much but just filling out and muscling up a little over the near few months, the adult dog foods are good.


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## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

Oh okay, that makes sense! I'll be getting her the adult diet next time then.


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## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

One last question:

I've heard about Blue Buffalo Wilderness being too high in protein/too rich for dogs that aren't too active. My Nina is just an average-activity dog. She gets a half hour walk in the morning, some playing in the yard or tug of war inside, and then another half hour walk after her dinner in the evening. Right now she's eating two cups, has a good figure, and is pretty happy with the mix of moderate exercise and lounging she gets - especially if she can get her "zoomies" in  Is her activity level be suited to Blue Buffalo Wilderness or TotW if she's not a working/sporting dog?


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## SaffronTea (Jun 4, 2013)

I have a list of foods that dogfoodadvisor.com says are 5 star. I went through the entire list and looked for prices that were affordable. I was looking into Taste of The Wild first, but a few of these are cheaper...

Innova Prime Grain Free Dog Food 5 star. $2.15 per pound http://tinyurl.com/mm4bsgy 
Canidae Grain Free Pure = 5 Star. $2.00 per pound. http://tinyurl.com/m8u4wqe 
Victor Dog Food Grain-Free Joint Health Beef Meal and Sweet Potato 5 star. $1.83 per Pound http://tinyurl.com/mvrnut6 
Canidae Single Grain Protein Plus = 5 star. $1.75 per pound http://tinyurl.com/ny2o7uh 
Merrick Classic Dog Food = 5 Star. $1.73 per pound http://tinyurl.com/l8jom55 
Grain & Potato Free Pioneer Naturals = 5 stars. $1.66 per pound. http://tinyurl.com/mgod9tn 
Hi-Tek Naturals Grain Free = 5 star. $1.58 per pound http://tinyurl.com/kylqppz 
Earthborn Holistic Grain Free 5 Star. $1.55 per pound http://tinyurl.com/lcxe24j 
Premium Edge Healthy Weight I Weight Reduction Formula Adult Dry Dog Food $1.34 per pound http://tinyurl.com/kxtwgu9 
Castor and Pollux Natural Ultramix Grain-Free = 4 Star. $1.53 per pound http://tinyurl.com/l967h57


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## GLiO (Aug 12, 2013)

Taste of the Wild is a popular choice, and we're feeding it to our pup right now.

But, it's worth noting that Taste of the Wild is manufactured by Diamond Pet Products, which has a history of salmonella contamination and recalls. Just FYI.


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## quatro (Aug 14, 2013)

Canidae is a very good food also, my dogs do very well on it. Off course every dog is different and you will have to try out a few foods and determine which one works best for your dog.


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## Doglover65 (Aug 10, 2013)

Anything that has meat , veggies , fruits and low grain. Always read the ingredients. Acana, Orijen, blue are my personal favs. There are others out there but i like to stick to those 3


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## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

I'm going to be going with Blue, so would Wilderness be too high in protein for a dog of very average energy level?


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## Kayota (Aug 14, 2009)

Pure Balance is a great and cheap food. It's made by and sold at Wal*Mart but the canned food is 5 star and I imagine the grain free will be that or close when DFA reviews it.


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## Shell (Oct 19, 2009)

Melle said:


> I'm going to be going with Blue, so would Wilderness be too high in protein for a dog of very average energy level?


High protein is good. The adult Wilderness chicken formula is 34% protein which is solid, not high compared to the highest of the kibbles at about 40-42%. I aim for 34-36% protein usually.
The Freedom (grain free) adult chicken formula is only 24% which I'd consider too low. The different in calories per cup between the two is very small-- 410 kcal/cup for the Wilderness and 391 kcal/cup for the Freedom. Which means you'd be wanting to feed about the same quantity of either food but the dog would get more protein from the Wilderness out of the same total of calories.


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## Zilla (May 11, 2013)

If you have access to Taste of the Wild and trying to save money why not that?? Blue Wilderness is what ten dollars more than it? But in my opinion it's defiantly not better and it's also higher in carbohydrates than Taste of the Wild..... The higher protein ones are High Prairie or Wetlands in TOTW.... If you want something a little lower than there is always the other three Southwest Canyon, Pacific Stream, and Sierra Mountain..... All of Blues Wilderness formulas are chicken based too where TOTW is not.... 


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## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

It's just that she's been on three different foods in a very short time span, I'm worried about messing up her stomach by switching again when I know she already likes Blue.


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## Zilla (May 11, 2013)

Well some dogs don't have a issue with that.... Others do. So if she's doing ok. U can do what you want when she's done with the blue bag.... 

Some people rotate kibble brands all the time

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## GLiO (Aug 12, 2013)

Zilla said:


> Some people rotate kibble brands all the time


I rotate my pup to a new food every bag.


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## Doglover65 (Aug 10, 2013)

GLiO said:


> I rotate my pup to a new food every bag.


I do too, well 2 bags because i put the dog food in containers. I switch my dog food so they dont develop allergies.


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## Melle (Aug 9, 2013)

We just bought a small bag of TotW High Prairie from our local PetValu and were also given four sample bags of High Prairie, Wetlands, Sierra Mountain, and Pacific Stream. I'm going to feed her the samples first, before she starts the big bag, to see how each formula suits her. Hoping she does well on it!


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## Sstoudt (Apr 21, 2020)

Dog Person said:


> At 10 months she doesn't need puppy food anymore.
> 
> If you live in the US and live around a Tractor Supply you can try their 4Health brand, both the grain free and regular is around $25 for a 15 or 18 lb. bag.
> 
> ...


Only feed a food that follows WSAVA guidelines! Hills, Royal canin, Purina pro plan Or one, eukanuba, Iams. Most others have cases of DCM. Stick with the science backed brands!


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## LeoRose (Aug 20, 2015)

This thread is nearly seven years old. The OP hasn't posted since 2015, and the person you quoted hasn't posted since 2017. 

There have been several discussions about diet-related DCM that are more recent.


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## Sstoudt (Apr 21, 2020)

Doglover65 said:


> Anything that has meat , veggies , fruits and low grain. Always read the ingredients. Acana, Orijen, blue are my personal favs. There are others out there but i like to stick to those 3
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


All implicated in nutritional DCM


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