Dog Food Recommendation Please

Hello,

Our dog is just about a year and 4 months. We have been giving him Blue Buffalo since day one. We started on the puppy small breed (he is a toy schnauzer - 9lbs) then moved to the adult small breed. He has always loved the food. About 2-3 weeks ago, we gave him his heartworm medicine in his food. He could somewhat tell it was there and was hesitant to eat it at first. Eventually he got it all down. Since then, he has been skittish when eating his food. He sniffs it and kind of waits and looks at us then will take a few pieces out and slowly eat them off the floor before finally going in and eating the rest. He started to get diarrhea on and off too. Then last weekend it got worse and one day he wouldn't eat, even when we handfed him. We brought him to the vet, they tested his stool etc. They gave him anti-nausea medicine and water pills because he was a little dehydrated. They had us give him this prescription wet food too which he seemed to like and helped him a lot when going to the bathroom. The tests came back negative for all parasites and he seemed good as new in a few days which by then we were told we could switch back to his old dry food.

Now that we've switched back, he has diarrhea again :(. I find it strange that after all this time his food would cause him to react this way. Has anyone heard of this happening before? We’re looking into changing his food. The vet is recommending Science Diet but I’ve read that it has a lot of fillers that aren’t best for the animals. Can you please recommend a good dog food? I've always read that Blue Buffalo is very good and want to make sure our pup is getting the best. Any food recs you could pass along??

Eta: Has anyone heard of the dog food Zignature? It came recommended from a few stores and is limited ingredient so good for the allergy he may have developed to the Blue Buffalo chicken food. We've been trying the Lamb and it's working out okay so far.

TIA!

Message edited 6/5/2013 9:47:01 AM.

Dog Food Recommendation Please

Science diet is much lower quality food than Blue Buffalo. Your pup probably has diarrhea because you changed his food quickly. It is usually recommended to introduce a new food over a period of time. Blue buffalo, Wellness, Solid Gold and Origin are high quality dog food brands that are not too $$$. Keep in mind most vets do not study animal nutrition. There are "doggie nutritionist" if you want a specialized diet for you dog.

Re: Dog Food Recommendation Please

Message edited 5/30/2013 4:56:24 AM.

Re: Dog Food Recommendation Please

As far as why he was ok before and not now, you'll never know so it's probably better you focus on how to make the situation better. Blue Buffalo is a good quality but also very rich. My dogs can't eat it because one has a sensitive stomach and the other one farts if the food is too rich.

Both places we got the dogs from had them on Canidae. We switched them to Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish because one of my dogs is prone to skin issues / possible allergies. Natural Balance is limited ingredient food.

When NB had a recall and I looked into it more, it didn't sit right with me. So I researched again and switched to Evo Herring and Salmon. Quality food, expensive, very high in protein.

My dogs are 6 and 7 years old now and don't need that much protein so we switched again to Innova Prime grain free Salmon and Herring which is not as rich as Evo, but made by the same company which never had a recall.

Last month, Evo/Innova products were voluntarily recalled for salmonella. I don't know what to do anymore, it seems they all get recalled at one point or another. Some of the dog food makers had really bad recalls that resulted in the deaths of thousands of pets, those I would avoid like the plague.

You can educate yourself on foods, reviews, why some are good and some are cr@p here:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

Dog Food Recommendation Please

I feed my cats and dogs Life's Abundance.

It auto ships to me every month. (you can set the ship time however you want but since shipping is a flat rate I always get enough for at least a month. It is made fresh (every few weeks) and in house. If you look at the comparison charts on their website for their brand vs other brands you can see that is cheaper to feed, fresher and has quality ingredients in it. It is really nice to order it monthly, no more running to the store and always super fresh.

Re: Dog Food Recommendation Please

we stopped Blue Buffalo, because they are a brand that will NOT disclose where their food is made. The store we go to stopped selling it, and showed me articles. I switched to Merrick Grain Free.

Message edited 5/30/2013 12:46:49 PM.

Re: Dog Food Recommendation Please

We have our puppy on Natural Balance. So far so good!

Re: Dog Food Recommendation Please