# Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover's soul - Anyone???



## AdrianVall (Sep 24, 2009)

Hey guys,

I just recently visited my local pet store in the mall, and they had a food called Chicken Soup For the Puppy Lovers Soul Large Breed Formula and regular puppy formula. I read the ingredients and was incredibly impressed with it! I currently feed HealthWise Chicken and Rice puppy formula, which is a pretty good food but Bailey (the puppy pitbull) has recently began to have a VERY wet/loose stool, almost diarreah. She does sometimes have a solid stool. Buddy (boxer/pit) is doing FABULOUS on it with very solid stools. Both there coats just SHINE like amazing well. But I had read somewhere about this food and now I'm very curious to try it.

Watcha guys think? I could really use some help here. Should I give it a shot, or stick to the HealthWise food that I'm currently feeding? Does anyone here feed this food??

A few ingredients all in ORDER: Chicken, Turkey, Chicken meal, cracked pearled barley, white rice, oatmeal, whole grain brown rice, millet, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols) potatoes, duck, salmon, egg product, flax seed, natural chicken flavor, fish meal, kelp, salmon oil, carrots, peas, tomatoes, blue berries, spinach, dried skim milk, cranberry powder, ect ect...


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

This is a very good puppy food especially for the price. It's got quite a lot of meat and it's really cheap compared with other food around the same quality.

I highly recommend it.


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## AdrianVall (Sep 24, 2009)

Michiyo-Fir said:


> This is a very good puppy food especially for the price. It's got quite a lot of meat and it's really cheap compared with other food around the same quality.
> 
> I highly recommend it.


Would you say its a better food then the HealthWise food that I'm currently feeding?


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## Questdriven (Nov 25, 2009)

Chicken Soup appears to be the better food here (more meat and more variety in meat), though I'm not completely certain.
Cookie gets Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul as part of her rotation diet.


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## robgold (Oct 31, 2009)

Dogfoodanalysis.com gives Chicken Soup a 4-star rating, and Healthwise a 3-star rating, so that website seems to indicate that Chicken Soup is better.


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

Well for the price I'd probably feed chicken soup. How expensive is healthwise? chicken soup is about $1/lb. If I remember right, Natura products are quite expensive?

In terms of quality they're probably not hugely different. Chicken soup may have more meat in it.


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## amdeblaey (Jun 27, 2009)

I feed my dogs Chicken soup-my puppy obviously gets the puppy version, and then my other lab gets the adult stuff-they have both done very well on it-I use to feed Iams, and when I switched them I noticed a big difference-nice and thicker coat, no more ear infections (in my adult) things like that-I would highly recommend it!!


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## AdrianVall (Sep 24, 2009)

Wow! Lotta good reviews on it. I think I may just give this food a try! Its abotu a $1-2 more then Healthwise, but I can get this food in the 35lb bag as opposed to the 17 lb. bag that I'm only able to get with the other food.

Now, one more question..

I have a pitbull and a boxer/pitbull mix. Should I get the Large breed formula, or just the regular puppy formula?

Watcha guys think?


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## AdrianVall (Sep 24, 2009)

Well, I went ahead and bought the food.

Just wanted to give an update. The pups seem to be doing VERY well on this food. Very solid stools, and they even smell less! Didn't think that was possible. LOL.

I went ahead and got the large breed, but I should have gotten the regular puppy formula. I don't know why I did that. Oh well.


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## Questdriven (Nov 25, 2009)

My GSD had firmer stools after I put her on the food, as well.


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## Dog_Shrink (Sep 29, 2009)

Personally I wouldn't touch chicken soup... it was on the petfood recalls which means they import some of their products. Won't touch ANYTHING that was on the recalls of 2007 no matter how good it is.


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## TuckerBoo (Aug 26, 2009)

My friend fed her puppy Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover's Soul and she did so well on it that they transitioned her onto Chicken Soup for the Adult Dog Lover's Soul when it was time. She really likes the ingredients and the price --- I think it's a great brand.


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## Lada_Argos (Oct 27, 2009)

I wanted to have my puppy on Chicken Soup as well as the ingredients are top notch for its relatively low price. The only thing that deterred me was the fact that their fish meal has been linked to the use of ethoxyquin, which seems to be a considerably substantial ingredient in the food. Ethoxyquin is carcinogenic for those that do not know. There is debate on whether or not cooking the fish meal will cause the ethoxyquin to become inactive but I didn't want to take any chances so I chose Innova Puppy food instead. If this ever gets cleared up though I want the good prices of Chicken Soup!


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## AdrianVall (Sep 24, 2009)

Lada_Argos said:


> I wanted to have my puppy on Chicken Soup as well as the ingredients are top notch for its relatively low price. The only thing that deterred me was the fact that their fish meal has been linked to the use of ethoxyquin, which seems to be a considerably substantial ingredient in the food. Ethoxyquin is carcinogenic for those that do not know. There is debate on whether or not cooking the fish meal will cause the ethoxyquin to become inactive but I didn't want to take any chances so I chose Innova Puppy food instead. If this ever gets cleared up though I want the good prices of Chicken Soup!


Yup. Its been cleared. Here's a link. 

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=912&cat=all


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## Lada_Argos (Oct 27, 2009)

I read that part but you have to notice the *date* . It is from 2006. Susan Thaxton has done research on this in 2009 and the company has stated it is using ethoxyquin to her. 
Here is what she says:

As of the writing of this article (9/5/09), the following are the companies that have responded. 

Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul Pet Foods
Per Diamond Pet Food (manufacturer) “all fish meal, ocean fish meal, and salmon meal ingredients are preserved with ethoxyquin.”

http://www.dogster.com/forums/Shiba_inu/thread/637421


Another person's research :

"After reading a review from 'dogfoodanalysis' stating the use of fish meal with ethoxyquin was no longer used by Diamond Pet Foods. I started using the Chicken Soup for Pet Lovers Soul brand. The review was from 2006. But after reading the report about ethoxyquin on TAPF , I contacted them myself and sure enough they told me the fish meal does have ethoxyquin, but supposedly at 2ppm or less. She also stated that at least they are being honest and that there are not any sources of natually preserved fish meal available in the United States. So basically she's saying the other companies are lying.
They make many brands of pet food, so watch your labels! "
http://truthaboutpetfood.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chicken-soupethoxyquin-dog


*The companies that are not consistent can not be trusted to produce safe products.*


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## AdrianVall (Sep 24, 2009)

Damn..........................

Looks like I'm switching foods... AGAIN. Blah! Any my dogs were doing so well on it too. 

Hm, now what food do I feed? Gotta be around the same price.. any suggestions?



Lada_Argos said:


> I read that part but you have to notice the *date* . It is from 2006. Susan Thaxton has done research on this in 2009 and the company has stated it is using ethoxyquin to her.
> Here is what she says:
> 
> As of the writing of this article (9/5/09), the following are the companies that have responded.
> ...


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## Questdriven (Nov 25, 2009)

I did meet someone at the health store yesterday whose Great Dane got bloat/stomach flipped while on Chicken Soup. (I was so happy to meet someone else in my area who agrees with my position on dog food. Seems that most don't have any idea that there are other opinions on foods besides Purina or Ol' Roy out there--and those who have openly disagreed with me in my area so far (other than the vet, of course) are people who either haven't researched canine nutrition or don't care to.) Not sure if it was diet-related, though.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Questdriven said:


> I did meet someone at the health store yesterday whose Great Dane got bloat/stomach flipped while on Chicken Soup. ..... Not sure if it was diet-related, though.


Well, Danes are somewhat prone to bloat/torsion, no matter what they eat. So I wouldn't necessarily chalk that up to the brand of food. 

I feed my pets mostly Chicken Soup products. So far it works for them.


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## shimmermama (Nov 5, 2009)

After reading that article I think I'll be switching foods too. Ethoxyquin is not something I want to be messing with. I have been feeding Chicken Soup Adult Dog for about 6 months. Any suggestions for switching in a similar price range?


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## AdrianVall (Sep 24, 2009)

shimmermama said:


> After reading that article I think I'll be switching foods too. Ethoxyquin is not something I want to be messing with. I have been feeding Chicken Soup Adult Dog for about 6 months. Any suggestions for switching in a similar price range?


I think I'll be switching as well. Not to be messing around with indeed.

Any other suggestions for a similar food in that price range?


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