Question about pedigree dog food?

I have been reading alot of questions here about dog food and the majority of individuals recommend the organic dog foods. I.E. Innova, canidae, wellness, chicken soup for the dog lovers soul etc.. My question is...If my dog does well eating pedigree dog food is it necessary to switch her to one of these brands? She is a 6 year old border collie who does not have itchy skin, sensitive belly or anything else which would make me want to switch her food. In fact the only reason i bring this up is because of what i have read on yahoo answers. Thanks.

Question about pedigree dog food?
Well, the foods you listed are high quality foods but not organic. Pedigree is owned by Mars, Inc. who make M %26amp; Ms and other foods. Pedigree is not on the recall list in the US. If your dog is happy and healthy on Pedigree, there is nothing wrong with it. There are some dogs who have allergies to corn, wheat, and soy. Some dogs are also allergic to beef. I happen to feed Canidae here but for many years I fed Pedigree with no problem.





The premium, holisitic and organic pet foods are gaining popularity but they account for less than 15% of the total market which means that 85 % of the dogs in this country eat grocery store dog food. There are two popular brands I would not feed. One is Ole Roy (the biggest seller in the country because it's cheap!), and the other is Beneful which is junk despite their ads that make it sound so wonderful.
Reply:although your dog seems to not have any problems, she may develope it later in life.


quality dog foods should have mostly meats and fillers like grains including rice, corn, wheat, and etc are bad for dogs.


have you read any ingredients about pedigree? no. do you know why? cause the people don't want you to know whats in the food. duh.


check these websites and see what you're feeding your dog and what you should really do. reasearch about it and develop your own opinions about the topic of dog foods. i personally feed my dog completely natural MEATS. raw and fresh. i have only started this because of the new food recalls and toxins in the petfoods. think about if you were a wolf would you eat it? (wolfs and dogs are completely the same internally. they look a bit different from selective breeding.)





it is completely up to you to research and find out what is better for your dog.





http://www.api4animals.org/facts.php?p=3...


http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/je...


http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-ange...


http://www.caberfeidh.com/Truth.htm


http://www.caberfeidh.com/Safe.htm


http://www.rawfeddogs.net/


http://iamskills.com/
Reply:Just think of it this way. You can eat McDonald's every day of the week for your entire life and live. However, it really isn't the best for you. This is what you are doing when feeding Pedigree or any of the other grocery store brands.





I use to feed my dogs Pedigree. I now feed them Chicken Soup. When you see the difference after you change the food, you would be truly amazed!
Reply:It's the things you can't see until it's too late that's the problem. There are so many dies and chemicals in these grocery store brands that they just can;t be good for your animal. Just think would you rather be feeding your dog chicken feet and beaks (AKA chicken by products) or chicken as in real chicken meat as in the other brands you mentioned. Would you rather be feeding your dog orange dyed corn or real carrots? I think the answer is pretty simple. Real meat and veg are so much better for your dog than beeks, feet and dye.





It was not until a friend of mine drew my attention to what really goes in dog food a couple of years ago I stopped and looked what really goes into it. Thankfully I was already feeding a good brand, but then a new pup had problems with it so I changed to Wellness. I have 4 very healthy dogs and I know a big part of it is down to the food along with excellent breeding and care.





I really started to do my own research when the pet food recalls started and continue to do so. I know I would be feeding my dog better if I gave them scraps from my plate than if I gave them something like Pedigree.
Reply:that is a good question and here is all i know well not all. A good diet will keep your dog looking and feeling his best. It provides your dog with the right amounts of essential nutrients: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. Your dog must have all these in correct proportions to stay healthy. Dog food companies make a variety of foods for all life stages, from puppyhood to senior citizenship.With so many dog foods on the market, it's tough to know what's right for your dog. You can ask a breeder or veterinarian for advice, but it's up to you to see how the food affects your dog. If your dog's energy level is right for his breed and age, if his skin and coat are healthy, if his stools are firm and brown, and if he seems to be in overall good health, then the food is doing its job.





Many owners prefer to feed kibble (dry), rather than soft dog food for several reasons. Crunching the hard kibbles keeps your dog's teeth clean and exercises his jaw muscles. It also keeps the dog's stools compact and firm, resulting in easier cleanup. If your dog prefers soft food, you can mix some in with the kibble (try three-quarters dry with one-quarter canned). Semi-moist foods, while convenient, don't offer the nutritional benefits of premium kibble or canned foods.





Puppies need more calories and essential nutrients than do adult dogs. Choose a food specially formulated for puppies. Puppies under six months should get three or four meals a day. They are growing rapidly, but their stomachs have limited capacity. After six months they can handle two to three meals a day.





Adult dogs should be fed according to their size and energy needs. Most adults should get two meals a day.





All dogs need separate food and water dishes. The bowls should be cleaned daily, and cool, fresh water should be available at all times.





Dogs can be great beggars, but don't let yours charm you into the habit of sharing your food. Dogs' nutritional needs are different from humans', and you're doing your dog a disservice by giving him a diet meant for you. There are plenty of nutritious dog treats on the market, which you can feed as a part of a dog's overall food intake. Dogs also love vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, peas, and beans, and fruits such as bananas, apples, and melon. These make great low-calorie treats.





this is some good information, as for the other brands of dog food, thats realy up to you. if you ask me i realy recommand the innova EVO, you can do a search on EVO dog food and see if you like the things you see, i love the essentials that is in EVO dog brand, but like i said it up to you.
Reply:I found this on another post regarding dog food





Take a look at how to grade your dogs food,





How to grade your dog's food:


Start with a grade of 100:





1) For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points





2) For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat, meal or


fat) reference, subtract 10 points





3) If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points





4) For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source,subtract 5 points





5) If the same grain ingredient is used 2 or more times in the first five


ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer’s rice", "rice flour" are


all the same grain), subtract 5 points





6) If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than 2 meats


in the top 3 ingredients, subtract 3 points





7) If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points





8 ) If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3points





9) If corn is listed in the top 5 ingredients, subtract 2 morepoints





10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil,subtract 2


points





11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic


to other protein sources), subtract 2 points





12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points





13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to


wheat), subtract 2 points





14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn’t allergic to


beef), subtract 1 point





15) If it contains salt, subtract 1 point





Extra Credit:





1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points





2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or


nutritionist, add 5 points





3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points





4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points





5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points





6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3 points





7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points





8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points





9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points





10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point





11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point





12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than


the first one; count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein


source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point





13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point





14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are


pesticide-free, add 1 point





94-100+ = A


86-93 = B


78-85 = C


70-77 = D





69 = F





Here are some foods that have already been scored.


Dog Food scores:





Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+





Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F





Canidae / Score 112 A+





Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+





Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F





Diamond Lamb Meal %26amp; Rice / Score 92 B





Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A





Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+





Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+





Foundations / Score 106 A+





Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 93 B





Iams Lamb Meal %26amp; Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D





Innova Dog / Score 114 A+





Innova Evo / Score 114 A+





Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+





Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B





Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B





Pet Gold Adult with Lamb %26amp; Rice / Score 23 F





ProPlan Natural Turkey %26amp; Barley / Score 103 A+





Purina Benful / Score 17 F





Purina Dog / Score 62 F





Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F





Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+





Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+





Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A





Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F


Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F





Wellness Super5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+





Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A





I do not remember where to find it but I hope this helps.
Reply:Well.. Maybe at this time she doesn't have anything going on that is outwardly obvious. Perhaps as we speak she is suffering inside. Maybe she isn't.. Maybe she'll be one of the lucky ones. With the ongoing class action lawsuit against Pedigree and Iams and everyone else who thinks that they are smarter than pet owners and think that they can put whatever they want in petfoods and get away with it.. I would think that most people would want to avoid foods that are putting those things in there.





If you look at the ingredient list for Pedigree.


And the first 5 ingredients.. There is no nutrition


there at all. Corn? So you got some protein.. where's the nutrition? And is the dog digesting this properly? Not likely. Will he develope an allergy to it, very probably. Meat and bone meal?? Not even a specific meat, just meat. Which means they put the cheapest meat they come across in each batch. They put only the word meat, so when they make their next batch and use something else they don't need to change the bag.. This tells you that they use the cheapest source possible. More corn?? In the form of gluten meal, but who cares.. It's still more corn. Chicken by product meal.. Go look that up and you'll see that it is nothing.. Not worth putting into anything at all, it's nothing more than something that should be thrown in the garbage. It's the left overs of the left overs.. Animal fat, so again not even beef fat or chicken fat, just plain animal fat, changes with the batches and is the cheapest source found.


The BHA / BHT are preservatives that cause cancer in pets and people.. Why is that in there? Don't know but there are other preservatives that won't cause cancer.. You ever had a dog that had cancer?? I have.. It's not pretty. Then tyou have garbage, and poultry flavour. which isn't necessarily chicken flavouring or chicken anything. It could be anything that would taste like poultry.. If an old football tasted like poultry somewhat.. it might be the source of poultry flavouring.. Go down farther and one of my favourites.. Copper Sulfate.. That is a fungicide.. Farmers use it to keep fungus from building up.. Fungicide in pet food.. Enough so that it is listed on the bag. Yeah you see your Riboflavin and a few other vitamins down there. But you know what. They are soooo far down in the list, with nothing good in the top ingredients, that those vitamins mean absolutely nothing at all..





So while your dog might seem healthy, are you sure she feels as good as she could feel? Are you sure she has the energy and endurance that she should have for a dog of her age ? Even if she does at this point, what are you doing to her future by feeding her garbage now? We don't know, but very likely she is going to suffer, from the effects of eating garbage dog food..


The thing is.. This cheap crap is costing you as much if not more than people who are feeding good dogfoods. Not only do you need to feed far more dog food than I do, you have to clean up far more poop than I do. My dogs are getting nutrition out of their food.. Your dog is getting barely enough nutrition to survive from her food.. Wouldn't you rather give your dog the best food you possibly can.. Considering you are spending the same per pound as someone who is feeding a quality food? I won't even suggest a brand, so that it doesn't seem like I am favouring any one food in particular. I just know that when you feed garbage, eventually it catches up to you.





Me, I would rather feed good food and enjoy my dogs as healthy as I possibly can. I would rather spend money on good quality food, to help them live good long healthy lives. I happen to get a whole lot of enjoyment out of the dogs.. And on my list of priorities, they are right up there at the top. You have to decide what your priorities are.. Good Health now, or paying for good vet care later. It really doesn't matter to me what you do, I just want you to know that you could be doing better for your dog, and it won't cost you any more than what you are spending now.. It will cost you less cause in the end you won't be spending your money and time going to the vet. Good food in makes for a good strong healthy dog.








Ground yellow corn, meat and bone meal, corn gluten meal, chicken by-product meal, animal fat (preserved with bha/bht), wheat mill run, natural poultry flavor, rice, salt, potassium chloride, caramel color, wheat flour, wheat gluten, vegetable oil, vitamins (choline chloride, dl-alpha tocopherol acetate [source of vitamin e], l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate [source of vitamin c*], vitamin a supplement, thiamine mononitrate [vitamin b1], biotin, d-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement [vitamin b2], vitamin d3 supplement, vitamin b12 supplement), trace minerals (zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide).
Reply:Ok, so don't thumbs down me until you read the whole thing please!!





When we first got our dogs, we fed them Purina (hey I had a cat and he liked Purina cat food). Then, one of them started acting weird, but not the other, so we switched to IAMS. I am (ha ha) thinking, hey I am doing a good thing - it's waaayyyy more expensive than Purina. (whereby you can get like 50 lbs of dog food for like 13.98!!) whooo hooo.





Then I go to my best friend's baby shower and was talking to a lady who shows champion pugs and she ripped me a new one. I think I almost cried. I am killing my dog, increasing the liklihood of tumors, making their skin and coat icky, and on and on. This was over a year ago. I went home and researched all that she said, cause see, I am a scientist and I don't believe everything that you read on the internet.





And - she was right. I switched to Natural Balance and have never been happier. Their skin and coats are amazing. They look amazing. When I say amazing, people stop me on the street, sometimes while they are driving and say how great my dogs look. They feel amazing.





Switch to good food, you won't regret it.
Reply:Hi,


Pedigree really is trash. It would be better to feed her table scraps.





I also wanted to add something about a previous answer on the recall. Remember than the FDA does not have any power to make the companies recall dog food. Just because it wasn't recalled doesn't mean it didn't need to be. Pedigree was not recalled. I get concerned that it probably should have been, but company was too cheap to do it. There were three BIG companies that did not recall even though the knew their foods were contaminated. The FDA could not make them recall.


I won't use pedigree or purina at all. I just don't feel comfortable with their "honesty" level.
Reply:Hi, They said pedigree isnt the best food but my dogs love it. Canidae and others have more natural ingiediants with more of the good stuff and is more high qaulity but i dont see the need to switch if there not having problems.
Reply:So you want to know what kind of food you should use? I feed my dog weight control food, because hes fat. If your dog is not fat and does not have any issues, i think Eukanuba dog food will do, there are many variaties (weight control, meaty bits, protein,etc.) but origional would satisfy what your looking for. :-)
Reply:my friend has her masters in comp. animal nutrition and she feeds her dog IAMS- if people want to feed their dog other stuff that's fine with me- but I trust someone who has spent 5 years of her life studying animal nutrition with the experts.

broadleaf