It’s been roughly a month since she started Acana Grasslands so now we’re transitioning her to Nature’s Variety Instinct Beef & Lamb.I offered it to her with 1/8c dry +1/8 cup can.At first she took to it somewhat then went back a few times so I made her the Acana Grasslands with can food(1/4c dry + 1/4 c can)..she ate some but ate the Nature’s Variety more which is good because we are trying to rotate between the two formulas on a month to month basis.When she ate 1/8 cup of Nature’s Variety by itself(dry) her bowels were decent so with 1/8 cup dry + 1/8 cup can we’re not sure how it will turn out..If it’s soft we will pick up some pumpkin to add to it over a few days and see if we can up it to 1/4 cup dry + 1/4 cup can eventually.Otherwise we’ll try the transition slowly by trying to mix the two formulas with can food(not to equal more than 1/2 cup) & possibly add pumpkin to it..Think she’ll take it eventually but we’ll try it and see..Hopefully this one(Nature’s Variety)doesn’t need to go to Brownie…
Check back for an update:Lacey does good on it by itself on an 1/8cup but together with can food we need to add pumpkin & add twice the people food topper than usual..We’ll probably end up using Nature’s Variety every now and then but not on a regular basis.
Category Archives: dry dog food
Evangers Can Food Review
Terrible rating from Lacey & her owner.For Lacey she would sniff it but won’t even lick it.For her owner,not all cans have the kcal listed so there is no way a owner can figure out exactly how many calories their dog is getting.It depends on the type of Evangers Can Food.It takes a lot more can food just to get a 1/4cup flat.So in a 12oz can(Evangers@$3.05 per can there is maybe about 14 servings if you calculate at 1/8cup for a toy breed),a 13.2oz can such as Merricks has about 20 servings at about $2.30 a can.They always have calories listed therefore making it easier knowing how many kcal a dog is getting.We’re never purchasing Evangers Dog Food again.
Types of Dry Food and Lacey’s reactions
So so far we know Lace can’t have 3 grains or higher,can’t have a lot of duck/lamb and fish though some fish based food(dry) is okay as long as it’s not heavily based ex are Wellness Simple Solutions Rice & Salmon,Halo’s Wild Salmon..Earthborn Ocean Fusion…
Meat based food seems more appealing and she does best on.Grain Free is also good but we have to watch the fish/lamb/duck based foods.She likes chicken,beef,bison,vension,turkey the best.We will be selling the Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish and TOTW Pacific Stream.Next time we buy Halo’s we are defiantly keeping the receipt in case the change of ingredients DOES affect her otherwise we NEED to hunt down another dry food that’s high quality which she will eat fairly regularly.
Counting Calories in Diet Pet Food
Dog and cat owners who buy diet pet foods may be feeding their animals more calories than they realize.
That’s because the calorie counts of pet foods marketed for weight control vary widely, according to research by the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. The study also found that feeding instructions on diet pet foods are often inaccurate and may even lead to weight gain in some animals.
The study, published in The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, counted the calories in 93 commercial pet foods marketed for weight control, including 44 dog foods and 49 cat foods.
The amount of calories in just one cup of dry diet food varied widely. Depending on the product, one cup of dry dog food had 217 to 440 calories. For cats, a cup of diet food contained 235 to 480 calories. That means a pet owner accustomed to serving one cup of dog food could inadvertently add more than 200 calories a day to their pet’s food simply by switching brands.
The calories in a can of dog or cat food also covered a wide range. For dogs, a can of diet food contained 189 to 398 calories. For cats, a can of diet food had 78 to 172 calories.
Feeding recommendations also varied. For some brands, the suggested serving sizes amounted to feeding about 25 percent fewer calories than the pet’s resting energy requirement, whereas recommendations from other labels amounted to 50 percent more calories than the animal’s resting energy needs. And half the foods studied also contained more calories by weight than typically allowed under federal guidelines for the marketing of light and low-calorie pet foods.
The study authors noted that for most of the foods studied, pets would not lose weight and might even gain weight if pet owners followed the feeding instructions on the label.
The lesson for pet owners is to talk to their veterinarian about the specific daily calories needs of a pet that is overweight. If the vet recommends a calorie-controlled food, discuss the best options and read the label to determine calories counts. If the feeding instructions on the label don’t match the recommended calories suggested by your vet, talk to him or her about adjusting the serving size or switching foods.
Tips:Don’t be lazy to measure out your dog or cats food.If you don’t do this already start now!Once you know how much a X breed should eat a day overall feed it that much.I’d weigh the dog or cat monthly as well.
New changes to Nutro!
We are excited to let the readers who come to Lacey’s site that new changes are coming to Nutro…We are excited to try their new grain free formula which will hopefully be at Kalihi Pets for us to try next year(2011) in the Hawaiian Islands.I am excited to say that corn gluten meal and Vitamin K3 will be taken out of the ingredients which were 1 of 2 reasons Lacey hasn’t tried it yet and that it has 3 grains in it.Read the post on dogster!
http://www.dogster.com/forums/Food_and_Nutrition/thread/677677
Lacey’s getting stablized on regular feedings….
Lacey is doing very good eating on a daily basis.table food is only after she eats her own food.Treats included.She eats whatever is offered to her and still around 8 pounds.She’s been eating steady for about 3 weeks now which is the longest.She’s becoming more mature not eating from her water bottles unless she’s hungry.Starting to accept different dry food on a regular basis,takes water from her doggy water bowel,takes water from her water try,takes water from her crate,takes food from her crate
Lacey will be transitioning from Halo’s to Blue Buffalo for the time being..
Lace will be transitioning from halo’s to blue buffalo wilderness & other blue buffalo lines as it comes in when we go we’ll take it by what petco has and take it from there.With Halo’s,while she did great on it–loved the taste.Very appealing to her…good price…all human grade quality…due to findings that were not food & contacting Halo’s on facebook which they have not responded to,that’s leading me away from Halo’s.Poor customer service & not caring enough to keep their customers happy.
I was looking at Petcurean Pet Foods for Lacey.The NOW!Grain Free in particular.The food is very similar to the way Halo’s was made except that Halo’s had 2 grains while NOW! has no grains period.The ingredients are slightly different but it’s very similiar to Halo’s though I doubt there’s dehydrated bits in it.Unfortunately it is not sold in Hawaii just yet but they are working on bringing their foods to Hawaii.When they do,hopefully in Honolulu,we will be sure to try it out for Lacey.
For now temporarily we’re going to place her on Blue Buffalo Wilderness & other Blue Buffalo formulas..If she eventually favors Blue Buffalo over other brands we might keep her on it permanently.Meanwhile,I am searching out other brands for her.I am looking at all quality levels & will be comparing what we’re looking for..
Although we won’t buy the food we will use other products from Halo’s but not the dry food.The neighbor’s dog is also helping us finish up the bags of Halo’s. Feeding her plus Lacey will help us get rid of the Halo dry food pretty fast.Noting that she eats about a cup & i am guessing her owner feeds about 1 cup.(the neighbor’s dog).Lace eats anywhere from an 1/8-3/8 cups on a daily basis.
Lacey’s calories by brands
Blue Buffalo Small Breed Chicken
452 per cup
56.5 per 1/8 cup
113.0 per 1/4 cup
Halo’s Spot’s Stew Wild Salmon
430 per cup
53.75 per 1/8 cup
107.50 per 1/4 cup
Halo’s Spot’s Stew Wholesome Chicken
441 per cup
55.1 per 1/8 cup
110.2 per 1/4 cup
TOTW High Prairie
320 per cup
46.5 per 1/8 cup
93.0 per 1/4 cup
Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural
717 per cup
(I figured it out at 710 calories per cup)88.75 per 1/8 cup
177.50 per 1/4 cup
Balancing grains & grain free feedings
Most people know that Lacey has started recently on Blue Buffalo & in the past we’ve had issues with grain heavy food.We’ve looked at Blue Buffalo for certain choices of food that she may be able to eat but when we got to PetCo we didn’t see what we were looking for so we picked up the Blue Buffalo Small Breed.Although I knew it did have some grains I picked one up because we drove all the way to Pearl City so we should pick up something so it’s not a “waste of time/gas”.I was going to do this several different ways with her dry food not to mention we’re trying to get her on mostly very low grains to grain free can food too.
The first way I was going to do this was switch out the brands/flavors every time she ate but I thought if I did it this way we couldn’t focus on the new brands…Later I was going to do exclusively BB & TOTW…But..I was talking to my mom and it seemed she was concerned about the amount of grains in the BB,however energy & bowels are also very good on it…One thing I remembered with grain free is as long as she doesn’t regurgitate the food we’re good with grain free so really it doesn’t matter when or what brand of grain free I introduce we’re good.She started grain free(Earthborn back in December 2009 & we’ve had no issues).The way I decided to go with my mom’s concern in mind was to do the usual amount(1/8-3/8 daily)and make 80-85% of her dry food very low grains & grain free with about 15% being moderate grains.Not to mention she will have can food available at lunch/dinner,also low grains-grain free.Out of 21 meals of dry food times 4 weeks=84 meals/month..more on another post.. a week only 3 would be BB.The other 18 meals would be Halo’s,TOTW,Earthborn…If we do good on this rotation with very little(3 meals per week of BB Small Breed) and no health issues we can choose from many types of BB..Her food would go something like this BB,Halo’s Wild Salmon,Halo’s Wholesome Chicken,TOTW,S&C Freeze Dried Chicken,Earthborn,Merricks then
Halo’s Wild Salmon,Halo’s Wholesome Chicken,TOTW,S&C Freeze Dried Chicken,Earthborn,Blue Buffalo.
AND I couldn’t give the BB Small Breed to the neighbor’s dog because on the BB small breed bag it says for dogs up to 30 pounds so Lacey would have to finish the bag
Blue Buffalo Review so far…
So far on Blue Buffalo there are no issues.No regurgitation..Bowels?Pretty good.Surprisingly better than on Wellness Super5Mix & majoirty of ingredients are very similiar..Energy level is higher than on Halo’s!Medically how she will do on 3 grains?We’ll see.4 grains(grain heavy & causes repeating UTI’s),3 grains is still questionable,2 grains she’s doing really well on it since last December after she started Halo’s & Earthborn which is grain free,1 grain she will 99% of the time be good on it,grain free she does good on most brands as long as she does not regurgitate the food like Canidae.Even if she can’t handle 3 grains medically she can still eat the Blue Wilderness line of grain free food but if she can handle 3 grains we have a lot of choices to try from 3 grains to grain free.Basically whatever is there she should be able to do good providing medically there are no issues with three grain in her dry food.Check back for another update in the next few days on Blue Buffalo…Will probably switch to BB Grain Free after this bag.We’ll see though how she does…
