# Canidae Vrs 4health



## nachoqtpie (Aug 12, 2011)

Now, I KNOW that Canidae and 4health are completely different foods, one being a 5 star, and the other appearing to be a 4 star my question is this....

We are a one income military family. We live on a pretty tight budget most of the time. We have 3 rescued dogs, 2 retired Greyhounds and an American Eskimo. 

When we first got our Eskie, we would pretty much just feed her whatever because we didn't know any better. When we adopted our first Greyhound, he was on Canidae so we decided that we would switch our Eskie over to Canidae. We LOVE the Canidae! It keeps our dogs coats shiny and smooth with few issues (other than some gas which can be pretty bad sometimes). Then came our 2nd Grey. The cost got rather prohibitive. The husband decided he was going to switch them to some crappy food we got at Sams Club. We fed that for a few months, but, their coats lost that beautiful sheen and it seemed like the color of their coat actually was dull. We switched back to Canidae and the sheen and color have come back, but with 3 dogs we are buying a 35# bag every 3 weeks and at almost $50 a pop it is REALLY putting a dent into our budget. 

Do you think that 4health can hold it's own when we switch from Canidae? I don't want to go broke feeding my dogs, but I don't want to feed the the human equivilant of McDonalds cheeseburgers every day either!


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## HerdersForMe (Jul 26, 2011)

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/4health-dog-food-dry/
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/canidae-dog-food-grain-free-dry/

The one thing about the 4Health I don't like is the lack of veggies. That being said, it's a fine choice if that's what you would like to feed. There's nothing wrong with feeding your dog a four star food. I would probably prompt you to search through some more of the four star foods though, I think there are slightly better options. I usually advise feeding grain-free if you can. In my experience my dogs have always done better on grain-free foods. But if you can't find anything else in your price range it would be perfectly fine to feed the 4Health.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

As you know, Canidae is the better food. But there's nothing wrong with 4Health. I don't know if their coats will be as shiny but it is better than the Sam's Club food.


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## nachoqtpie (Aug 12, 2011)

Well, we do feed our poochies veggies and such as well. They LOVE carrots, potatoes, celery, peas, and sweet potatoes and have no problems at all even gobbling them out of our hands! We will also give them raw turkey and chicken necks on occasion. We're almost like raw feeding dabblers!  We also have supplemented fish oil capsules as well which seemed to help a lot when our last Grey joined the pack. She had come straight from the kennel and was in pretty rough shape coat wise. 

We currently feed the Canidae ALS, but were thinking of going to the 4health Lamb & Rice or Chicken & Rice. I did speak with CS at 4health and they told me that all of the ingredients are local source except for the chicory (Russia if I remember right), potato (Germany) and some (she didn't say how much) of the lamb (New Zeland). The puppy formula does contain pro/prebiotics, but the adult formula for L&R and C&R does not, which is kind of strange. 

Canidae does have the "micro-organisms" which 4health seems to not, but the 4health has glucosamine and chondroitin which would be good for my large Greys. Also, the canned, which we sometimes add, is rated at 4 1/2 stars (only because of the caramel coloring in some varieties). It's a pretty big decision for us, because our dogs are just like our children and we want to be able to provide the best we can for them without taking away from our human children!


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## kathylcsw (Jul 4, 2011)

I switched my 7 year old Corgi mix from bad dog food to 4Health a little over a month ago. I started her with Chicken and Rice and she loved it. I see a difference in how soft her coat is since the switch. Last week I switched to the puppy 4Health because I also have a 10 week old JRT and I want to feed them the same food. So far I have no complaints with this food at all and the price is good.


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## katielou (Apr 29, 2010)

Members of costco?

They have grain free dog food at about $35 for a 35lb bag!


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## nachoqtpie (Aug 12, 2011)

I WISH we were! There is no Costco here. We only have a Sams Club. There is one an hour away, but if you factor in gas, it would just be cheaper to buy here. 

We did buy the 4health at TSC yesterday. We also got them some treats. They went NUTS for the treats, and when dinner time came around mixed a bit in with the Canidae. Of course, the bag is sitting right next to the food tub and they were trying to get into the new bag! LOL I think it's gotten the seal of approval from our gang. 

Lets just hope that it cures the aweful gas that they sometimes have!! uke:


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## amynrichie (Sep 3, 2008)

I wouldn't hesitate to feed 4 health. It is definately worth a try. If they don't do well on it, you can always explore other options.


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## xxxxdogdragoness (Jul 22, 2010)

i feed TOTW bison/venison formula. i was actually thinking of feeding 4 health, but since they dont have a grain free (that i know of) i went with TOTW. all thair formulas are grain free & their canned food, which i feed now is... well lets say they love it LOL. a can lasts us like... 3-4 days btw 2 dogs LOL, i only add enough to make the food all that much better. BUT TOTW is about $40-odd for a 30lb bag so you'd be in the same boat if you were to switch to TOTW. the high end DF's are always a bit more expensive then letrs say... alpo, purina, pedigree & the like. of course price isnt always an indicator either Beneful is highly expensive for what it is IMHO........ crap 

www.dogfoodadvisor.com is a great site to try to make a choice.


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## nachoqtpie (Aug 12, 2011)

Well, we have been feeding the 4health for about a month, and the gas is pretty much gone, their coats are still very shiny. They have energy and gobble it up as soon as they are released to eat. We are very happy with the 4health!


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## Niraya (Jun 30, 2011)

Yay! Glad it worked out so well for you!


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

I switched to 4health three months ago and am feeding 5 dogs for $71 a month. They have had no health issues from it. The dogs are 2/20 lb dogs and 3/50 plus lb dogs. One dogs eyes quit running after 5 years also. The chicken and rice may tend to give them a little gas at first but I rotate from that along with the lamb and rice. The gas disappeared after a couple of weeks. There coats seem to be fine also. I supplement fish oil and vitamin E for one dog just because of the breed being known for skin issues.........but not the others. I like the 4Health.


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