We probably will not purchase Halo’s again

Lately there have been so many disturbing comments about Halo’s such as they are sending customers expired products(ie treats),have switched up the recipe without notifying buyers,dogs and cats not being able to digest can/dry food and having diarrhea,smells different, makes me really wonder if we can continue to buy it…Right now I am having Lacey finish up the last 6-8 cups of Halo’s.One brand we are looking to transition to is Taste of the Wild as one of her main brands then Blue Buffalo Wilderness & Earthborn for long term use.

Out of all the foods she’s been on as an adult she’s been on Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural the longest since December 2009.I am always looking for new foods for her to try to add in her rotation over the years.

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.

Halo’s Ingredients Changes from Summer 2010

Wild Salmon
New
Salmon, whole dry egg, pea protein, oats, vegetable broth, pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), pea flour, chicken liver, whole salmon, flaxseed, salmon oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), pea fiber, sweet potatoes, apples, blueberries, green beans, carrots, cranberries, zucchini, alfalfa, inulin, calcium sulfate, potassium chloride, taurine, salt, folic acid, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, cobalt proteinate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, choline bitartrate, niacin, pantothenic acid, ascorbic acid, riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidobacterium longum, enterococcus faecium, lactobacillus plantarum, calcium iodate, biotin, sodium selenite
Before
Salmon, Eggs, Pea Protein, Oats, Vegetable Broth, Pearled Barley, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Whole Peas, Chicken Liver, Chicken, Flax Seed, Salmon Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Pea Fiber, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Blueberries, Green Beans, Carrots, Cranberries, Zucchini, Alfalfa, Inulin, Calcium Sulfate, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Salt, Vitamins (Folic Acid, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Bitartrate, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Ascorbic Acid, Riboflavin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin), Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium longum, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus plantarum.
Wholesome Chicken
New
Chicken, whole dry egg, pea protein, oats, vegetable broth, pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), pea flour, chicken liver, wild salmon, flaxseed, salmon oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), pea fiber, sweet potatoes, apples, blueberries, green beans, carrots, cranberries, zucchini, alfalfa, inulin, calcium sulfate, potassium chloride, salt, taurine, folic acid, zinc proteinate, iron proteinate, cobalt proteinate, copper proteinate, manganese proteinate, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, choline bitartrate, niacin, pantothenic acid, ascorbic acid, riboflavin supplement, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, biotin, calcium iodate, lactobacillus acidophilus, bifidobacterium longum, enterococcus faecium, lactobacillus plantarum, sodium selenite
Before
Chicken, Eggs, Pea Protein, Oats, Vegetable Broth, Pearled Barley, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Whole Peas, Chicken Liver, Salmon, Flax Seed, Salmon Oil (preserved with mixed tocopherols), Pea Fiber, Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Blueberries, Green Beans, Carrots, Cranberries, Zucchini, Alfalfa, Inulin, Calcium Sulfate, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Salt, Vitamins (Folic Acid, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Bitartrate, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Ascorbic Acid, Riboflavin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin), Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium longum, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus plantarum.

New dog food for Lacey

Lacey will be starting and trying the fish protein starting on Sunday.Both formulas are fairly limited to fish & potatoes.Since there are limited dry food with a limited ingredient we’ve chosen Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Fish,Earthborn Holistic Ocean Fusion,Solid Gold Barking At The Moon(Beef & fish with herbs) and Taste of The Wild Pacific Ocean.What we’re doing is sticking to the limited grain/grain free diet and seeking which protein reduces her itchings the most or if all proteins are good in results we’ll just switch up[ the protein every few months.Our neighbor’s dog Brownie is finishing up the remaining of Halo’s Wild Salmon,Taste of The Wild High Prairie and Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural.Lacey has been on chicken protein since last July.Chicken is and was mixed in majority of the low and high quality dry food that she ate since then.

Finally a response from Halo’s!

At this point,I don’t know if I am going to switch her to Blue Buffalo or keep her on Halo’s.It depends on the outcome of the situation w/Halo’s…But the fact they did respond shows that they do care..Maybe not as efficiently but they still responded…Blue Buffalo does have more that she can have while Halo’s only has 2 flavors for dogs…Or maybe a combination with both Blue Buffalo & Halo’s for the primary diet??We’ll see…Thinking of switching mostly to Blue Buffalo either way simply because they have more variety of flavors,ingredients vary from each formula where as Halo’s & easily to get at Whole Food as well as PetCo where Blue Buffalo is being sold,is the same except the chicken or wild salmon.

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.

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

Lacey accepts Blue Buffalo……

We got Lace Blue Buffalo on Sunday.We were looking for certain ones of the Blue Buffalo but couldn’t find it so we picked up the Blue Buffalo Small Breed.The ingredient list was very similiar to Wellness so I am wondering what her reaction will be on it…She didn’t take it by hand but within two days she took it from the floor & in her bottle.She hasn’t had any can or dry food since Monday night so when she took it from her bottle I took up her other bottles so she can get used to Blue Buffalo…I was very surprised to see her eat it & I gave her tremendous praise for taking just a bite was a big start for her!Later she took some from the floor after I cleared up her Taste of the wild dry food which I replaced with Blue Buffalo..She even ate the Life Source Bits…the ones that are vital to her health!!Now instead of giving her different bottles w/different brands/flavors I am going to measure it out(3/8 cup of one brand/flavor for one bottle)and once she finishes that I will give her another brand/flavor.She doesn’t have to finish it in one day but whenever she’s done she gets another 3/8 cup of another dry food.She will always get treats,can food attempts at lunch & dinner & of course limited amounts of table food.When she’s hungry she’ll eat her dry food.
In her rotation of 3/8 cups of dry food per bottle it will be consisting of these brands(one brand/flavor at a time not all in one 3/8 cup serving mixed together) Blue Buffalo Small Breed Adult,Halo’s Spot’s Stew Wild Salmon,Taste of the Wild High Prairie,Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural, & Halo’s Spot’s Stew Wholesome Chicken

We’ll see how her body reacts to it.Hoping for no regurgitation or soft bowels.Hoping medically will be no problems too but wel’ll see when her annual comes around in July.By then she’ll be on TOTW & Blue Buffalo for 3 months.Providing she does good on BB medically we’ll try another choice of BB when we go to Petco whenever another bag is needed for rotation.

Lacey accepts Canidae!but I don’t plan to keep her on it…

Lace has finally accepted Canidae after I placed it in a bottle for her.To get her to eat Canidae it was like I had to almost beg her and doing it the bottle method without accepting it verbally by hand for Lacey is not good.Usually if she tries a new brand of dry food and she accepts it by hand that is your biggest hint that she’s good with the new food but if she won’t even take it from the hand and you got to do it by the bottle method that’s not a good start.She was the same way with Hill’s Nature’s Best.
The reason for not keeping her on it is 1)she’s not excited about it 2)didn’t take it from the hand 3)she has chicken/salmon just by eating Halo’s/supplements with Stella & Chewy freeze dried raw Chicken 4)All the other Caindae seems to be grain heavy something we don’t want to go through with more issues of UTI’s. 5)Only has one berry.I like to see at least 2:Preferably Blueberries/Cranberries but at least 2 berries.6)List of ingredients are limited.Another issue with Lacey is she can tell if it has a good amout of meat,fruit,veggies…How?I have no clue!

As for elimination diet I was thinking of it won’t be possible with the limited amount of brands of “high quality”dry dog food brands that has good “quality of ingredients” and enough variation with meats/fish.Maybe in the long run if there are more varieties out there..

Same with grain free & feeding her freeze dried raw:If there were more of the brands she’d eat with good variety of meats/fish/fruits/veggies/L.Acid and so on..none with ACV in frozen/freeze dried raw..more meats..I’d switch her exclusivity to one of these but since at the moment there isn’t enough of that type of foods we’re working with what we have including very low grains-1 grain-grain free dry/can food.Right now we’re doing Halo’s,some Earthborn,TOTW & maybe in July starting Blue Buffalo.

Canidae ALS

We got Lace some samples from naturally pet but she didn’t eat it.like w/natural balance dry/can food & any dry/can food w/limited ingredients.i’d switch her over to 100% grain free if she ate it as well as her Halo’s!Her stool is excellent on TOTW even w/can food.Halo’s is low in grains…eats it close to a daily basis..medically it helps a lot…both Halo/s & TOTW has good variety ingredients which she’s faithful to…So far we tried Science Diet,IAMS,Beneful,Chicken Soup for the pet lover’s soul,prarie,instinct,stella & chewy,solid gold just a wee bit,wellness,canidae,halo’s(current),earthborn(current),totw(current),nature’s best(refused after once),natural balance(refuses can/dry),merricks(will eat sometimes,loves the can food),primal raw,thk ..when we are in pearl city i plan on trying a few different flavors from blue buffalo to see if she’ll eat it..