# What's Your Top Five Foods



## bwoz (Jul 12, 2007)

What is the Top Five Foods list (or whatever your short list is) that you like to feed? I love to hear about what's working out there for everyone.


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## jwemt81 (Aug 20, 2008)

We only have one, and that's Fromm.


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## Bob Dylan (Mar 31, 2009)

I just posted about puppy food.

The rest of my crew is on Merrick Dry.


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## 58loosy (Apr 18, 2010)

Switched from wellness to Fromm doing great on it.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

OK...

1. Nutro Ultra (large breed adult)
2. Wellness Super 5 Mix (Healthy Weight)
3. Nutro Natural Choice - Lamb and Rice 
4. Natures Recipe - Farm Stand Selects*
5. Science Diet "Nature's Best"

*I had my guy on Nature's Recipe between 8 months and about 24 months. I switched back to Ultra because he was having UTI issues. I wasn't entirely sure if it was the food or not and did put him on a regular cranberry juice treatment. Either way, he hasn't had UTIs since. 

I still really liked this food though. 

I have him on Ultra and Wellness Healthy Weight right now - it seems to be working out fine. 

Nutro Natural Choice - isn't as high quality a food as Ultra, but I had our dogs on that all their lives. It put a stop to all of their chronic collitis problems that they experienced on the two other foods we attempted back then (Iams and Eukanuba). 

Nature's Best is one I'm curious about, although I haven't checked the ingredients.


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## firedancer722 (Apr 12, 2010)

The one food that I have found that doesn't give Charlie mushy poop is Eukanuba Lamb & Rice - Large Breed Adult. He has perfect poop on this food. LOL 

Other foods I am interested in but won't change unless I need to (food allergies, etc):

Holistic Selects Duck & Oatmeal 
Fromm Duck & Sweet Potato 
Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin & Stomach 
California Natural Lamb & Rice Puppy


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## Debles (Sep 6, 2007)

Nature's Variety Salmon: both Instinct (no grain for Selka ) and Prairie for Gunner.
Gunner has very weird allergies.Lost all his hair and 15 pounds on other foods and treats. I hope they never change this food because it seems to be the only thing he can eat!


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## Laurie (Sep 20, 2009)

Orijen (Regional Red) All Life Stages. All 3 eat it and are doing great.....


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## NuttinButGoldens (Jan 10, 2009)

Same here.

Ronin is still on California Natural. He hasn't reacted to it like the dogs did all of a sudden, so I'm not changing unless I see something.



jwemt81 said:


> We only have one, and that's Fromm.


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## bwoz (Jul 12, 2007)

Which "flavor" of the Fromm's? I'm so glad all these foods are working for your pups, we've been through the ringer ourselves!


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## Jamm (Mar 28, 2010)

Joeys doing the transition to Acana right now and im loving it for him.


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom (Oct 4, 2007)

1. Fromm 4 star duck
2. NOW adult
3. The Honest Kitchen.... Embark, Force, Thrive


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

1. Innova Evo Red Meat - Probably the best Ranger has ever done on kibble. Lots of good energy, lots of stamina, a glossy coat, no itchy skin and no ear/eye infections.

2. Orijen 6 Fish - Ranger did really well on this for the first 9 months I had him. Good coat, cleared up his allergies, no eye/ear infections. In fall 2009, the company did a minor formula change which messed up Ranger. Skin was super flaky, coat became brittle and he had the most noxious dog farts ever.

3. Go! - Never had Ranger on it, but feeding it to my old border collie added years to his life. He loved it and his health, which had been going rapidly downhill, picked up and we had that lovely soul around for another 5 years. 

Um, that's pretty much it. I'd like to try Fromm but Ranger can't handle grains, as I found out when he was on Acana (and did very poorly on). I was also hoping to try Wellness Core reduced fat but I've switched Ranger to raw and he's doing SO well on it, I can't imagine going back to kibble.


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## NuttinButGoldens (Jan 10, 2009)

We call it Quack and Sweet-Po 





bwoz said:


> Which "flavor" of the Fromm's? I'm so glad all these foods are working for your pups, we've been through the ringer ourselves!


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## Adriennelane (Feb 13, 2008)

The girls are eating Blue Buffalo Wilderness Duck and also BBW Salmon. They just started on it, because I was curious to see how well they would do with the Grain Free. I like the results I've gotten so far. They do pretty well with regular BB, and Blue Buffalo Basics, just Dory doesn't with the chicken. I haven't really tried any other quality foods on them.


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## jweisman54 (May 22, 2010)

Izzy eats Fromm Duck and Sweet Potato


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

Ranger said:


> I'd like to try Fromm but Ranger can't handle grains.


 
You could try him on the 4 star Surf & Turf if you ever decide to go back to kibble. =) It's Fromm's grain free variety. I also saw on their Facebook page that they're interested in doing more grain free flavors.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

Innova Adult Large Bites
Eukanuba Premium Performance
Fromm Chicken A La Veg 4 Star 
The Honest Kitchen
Canidae


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

bwoz said:


> Which "flavor" of the Fromm's? I'm so glad all these foods are working for your pups, we've been through the ringer ourselves!


Enzo has a super sensitive tummy and his poop has never consistantly been firm, except for on Blue Buffalo before the formula change. Now, he just started Fromm on Sunday and his poops are super firm. He's on the Duck & Sweet Potato kind. I think we'll be trying Pork & Applesauce next time, since they're interchangeable.


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## 58loosy (Apr 18, 2010)

We started on the white fish but later will try the other proteins, read the ingredients and you will be impressed like I was.


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## Roxy_the_Retriever (Jul 28, 2010)

We use Blue Buffalo Chicken & Brown Rice. My DH & I chose this because it's holistic - first ingrediant is REAL meat. There is no by-product, no corn, wheat, or soy, and no artificial coloring, flavors or preservatives. Our vet highly recommended Science Diet, but out trainer told us otherwise, and I must say we are very happy with our decision. We especially noticed an immediate difference in her bowel movements - consistent, not too soft & not too hard! :roflmao:Too much info??


http://www.bluebuff.com/products/dogs/index.shtml


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

Eukanuba Premium Performance
Pro Plan Performance
Eagle Pack Power Formula
Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy
Pro Plan Large Breed Puppy.


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## goldensrbest (Dec 20, 2007)

Honest kitchen, fromm.


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## sameli102 (Aug 23, 2009)

FROMM 4 star, any flavor but seem to use duck/sweet potato most often.
Purina Pro Plan chicken and rice.
They love them both and do well on both.


Orijen made for too many loose and smelly stools for mine, Innova worked well but I didn't care for the sharp pieces of fish bone? that stuck out of the food.


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## Adriennelane (Feb 13, 2008)

Roxy_the_Retriever said:


> We use Blue Buffalo Chicken & Brown Rice. My DH & I chose this because it's holistic - first ingrediant is REAL meat. There is no by-product, no corn, wheat, or soy, and no artificial coloring, flavors or preservatives. Our vet highly recommended Science Diet, but out trainer told us otherwise, and I must say we are very happy with our decision. We especially noticed an immediate difference in her bowel movements - consistent, not too soft & not too hard! :roflmao:Too much info??
> 
> 
> http://www.bluebuff.com/products/dogs/index.shtml



If you haven't noticed, we talk poop all the time. My golden does great on the chicken and rice, but my lab/golden mix doesn't. So, I have them both on Blue Wilderness.


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## esSJay (Apr 13, 2009)

We've tried Fromm's 3 times - all 3 times resulting in horrible poops. Tried as a 4mth puppy, 8mth puppy and again at 16 months. 

Eukanuba Large Breed Adult
Nature's Harvest Grain Free
and now just starting on Raw


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

ProPlan. Nuthin' but ProPlan.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

I like, and have had good luck with

Canidae
Taste of the Wild
Diamond Naturals
Fromm Puppy Gold (for the Bug  )


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## bwoz (Jul 12, 2007)

I forgot to throw in my 2 cents yikes. We can't do anything grain heavy because of skin, coat, ear issues if we do. I've settled on rotating thru mainly these and it seems to work great. Haven't tried raw, but do throw in whole foods too.

FreshPet
Go Grain Free Endurance
Gaea
Evo


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## bwoz (Jul 12, 2007)

Adriennelane said:


> *If you haven't noticed, we talk poop all the time*. My golden does great on the chicken and rice, but my lab/golden mix doesn't. So, I have them both on Blue Wilderness.


: Yup, I know we all understand why someone is excited with the right poop!!!!!!


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## nixietink (Apr 3, 2008)

1. Fromm 4 star line (what we feed now, no plans at all to change-we interchange flavors but usually go back to duck & sweet potato)
2. Acana
3. Innova
4. California Natural


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## HudsensMama9 (Dec 17, 2009)

Fromm 4-star Duck and Sweet potato... I have samples of the Whitefish and the Salmon so I'm going to try those soon now that he has been completely transitioned over from his puppy food (only for a day, but doing great). He ate Precise Premium Large Breed puppy and did great on it until the past could of weeks when he refused to eat it. Once I started transitioning him to Fromm, he would eat the Fromm and leave some Precise in his bowl. Smart baby!


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## sifuyono (May 8, 2008)

1. acana adult dog
2. acana adult dog
3. acana adult dog
4. acana adult dog
5. acana adult dog
but i do not use it anymore because it's really expensive


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Hmmmm.... 

I feel a little embarrassed admitting this, but I probably need to update my "top five" from a couple pages ago. 

I was getting close to the bottom of the bag with Ultra and went to the store to pick up a new bag. There was another shopper there who looked at the bag I was carrying around and told me that Nutro uses something that can damage livers. 

I have run into more than a few people who kinda do this (I must work in an area where dog-people are snoopy or like giving random advice), but I was curious enough to put the bag down. Went home and looked it up online...


> Unfortunately, this Nutro Ultra food also contains *menadione*… a controversial form of vitamin K linked to liver toxicity, allergies and the abnormal break-down of red blood cells.


Ugh. 

I know plenty of other dog foods have the same thing in it and it doesn't bother or affect too many dogs. But I already am peeved about the corn content that they slipped back into the food. 

So I went over to the petstore and wandered around looking at bags for a while... and am going to be weaning Jacks onto "Prairie" - Lamb and Oatmeal. It's got freeze dried raw food coating it, so that should be... _interesting_. And the bags have a zipper. 

Providing it works out, my new top list =

1. Wellness Super 5, Healthy Weight
2. Natures Variety, Prairie Lamb Meal and Oatmeal

That's about it right now. 

The other foods I was looking at were Innova Evo, California Natural (Lamb and Rice), and Wellness Simple (Lamb and Rice). <- They were all about the price I'm used to paying for the Ultra.


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## kwiland (Aug 27, 2009)

We used to feed Winnie raw, but when we found out he is allergic to chicken and beef, we switched to kibble.

Based on advice here, we tried Fromm Duck & Sweet Potato, and are thrilled with it. There is a little chicken cartilage in this, but both Fromm and our vet said it's not signifigant enough to bother Winnie's allergies. They use it as a source of glucosimine. It hasn't bothered Winnie at all. Winnie is doing so well, even better than when he was on raw food. 

Just ordered our 3rd big bag this morning, actually. I think it speaks volumes that so many of us are feeding Fromm.


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

Did you all see the link that was shared in the other thread about the Fromm coupon that they have up right now? The password is variety

http://www.frommfamily.com/coupon

P.S. The PDF form prints right...the other doesn't. =)


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## kwiland (Aug 27, 2009)

I buy Fromm food from k9cuisine, it's free shipping every time, you can get up to 10 free samples, and I've always been able to google a coupon code, too! Plus, they ship fast. I placed an order this morning, and it's already shipped! :google:


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## buckeyegoldenmom (Oct 5, 2008)

My favorites:
Innova large breed adult

Fromm white fish and potato


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## Blondie (Oct 10, 2009)

We are also a Fromm family. Maggie was on Duck and Sweet Potatoes initially. Then, my son picked out the Chicken A La Veg this time around. So far, so good. Fromm had emailed me about recently when I was inquiring about coupons and said this about the Chicken ala Veg:

"Be careful with using the Chicken ala Veg as chicken meat protein can be a source for skin issues with Goldens and Labs. Not always, but sometimes. So if you notice any scratching in one spot, hot spots, and/ or chewing at a paw please consider the Whitefish and Potato or Salmon ala Veg recipe. Again, it may not be an issue at all but if it shows up that is how it will show itself to be a problem."
Just an FYI.


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## MyDogClaude (Aug 3, 2010)

i tried the Nutro with my dog and it seemed to make him very sick. He was fine with Iams, but i heard that Iams isnt so good. What else should I try??


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

Top Five (four I guess):
Eukanuba-When I have expendable income.
Iams-When I have less Expendable income
Purina One-On a Budget
Purina Dog Chow-Broke

Normally Lucky gets Iams....and has been really good for him, his coat and weight.

We went through a big drop of income this and last month....and bought him Dog Chow to help us get through. It serves the purpose but wouldn't want to use it long term because mainly he tends to gain too much weight on even a small amount.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

MyDogClaude said:


> i tried the Nutro with my dog and it seemed to make him very sick. He was fine with Iams, but i heard that Iams isnt so good. What else should I try??


If he is doing fine on IAMS, keep him on IAMS. 

With our goldens, they developed stomach issues on both IAMS and Eukanuba. I think the kibble contains a lot of stuff that can disagree with your dogs - if your dogs are sensitive to that stuff. 

With my guy I probably would have been fine about keeping him on Nutro Ultra, except I started weaning him off earlier this year because he was gaining too much weight on what little food he gets per day (two cups). 

I did read somewhere that Ultra is looking to remove the corn content from the Adult food, which would encourage me to go back to that kibble if the prairie stuff doesn't work out. 

The Prairie kibble looks like cereal - and so far Jacks is gobbling down his 1/4 cup. I gagged when I smelled it, but my mom said it smells just like lamb and started mumbling about how she's going to make lamb dinner sometime. :uhoh:


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## msdogs1976 (Dec 21, 2007)

Lucky's mom said:


> Top Five:
> Eukanuba-When I have expendable income.
> Iams-When I have less Expendable income
> 
> Normally Lucky gets Iams....and has been really good for him, his coat and weight.



Same here, although I'm fortunate in that I have a steady retirement income stream so I could buy the more expensive brands if I wanted to. But my labx has a great coat and perfectly healthy, so I'm sticking with Iams/Euk. Why monkey with it when it works?


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

Innova Evo
Life of Abundance
Chicken Soup


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## bwoz (Jul 12, 2007)

msdogs1976 said:


> Same here, although I'm fortunate in that I have a steady retirement income stream so I could buy the more expensive brands if I wanted to. But my labx has a great coat and perfectly healthy, so I'm sticking with Iams/Euk. *Why monkey with it when it works?[/*QUOTE]
> 
> 
> I hear ya.
> So glad to see what's working for everyone, some interesting options too.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Megora said:


> Hmmmm....
> 
> I feel a little embarrassed admitting this, but I probably need to update my "top five" from a couple pages ago.
> 
> ...


For the sake of total honesty (I'm all about being honest even if it makes me look ditsy, oh doi!).... 

Ok, and this also shows I'm still a little too impulsive even in my old age. 

I must confess I switched back to Nutro after a week. Nature's Variety Prairie was a bit too much for both my dogs, even on the small measurement I fed them (technically I didn't feed the collie any of it, but he accidentally snagged 1/4 a cup from his bro, and then he vomited). 

Nutro's Ultra Adult apparently doesn't have corn content in it - unlike the large breed adult. <- Fortunately, my petstore let me trade bags as the foods cost the same.

The nice thing about Ultra is I know the sensitive stomached collie can eat it without having upsies if he gets into it, or if I feel sorry enough for him to give him a cup of food here or there. <- He's supposed to be on Hills I/D.


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## spruce (Mar 13, 2008)

Nutra Nuggets Lamb & Rice

Since I've never seen anyone else feeding this, I think I must be a bad owner (it's cheap). both our vets gave it thumbs up; our lab's breeder fed it. Got introduced to brand to cure skin condition in cats.

looking forward to bad reports


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## Izzysmom (Oct 3, 2010)

Izzy has been on Nutro natural Lamb and rice. Thats what the breeder had her pups on so we never made the switch. I have however, recently, switched Izzy to Nutro natural chicken meal and oatmeal because she was throwing up often(yellow, mucusy bile). Once I switched to the oatmeal flavor the throwing up stopped. Apparently she was having stomach sensitivities...I would like to know of another food out there that is the same quality of nutro but less expensive though...?


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Megora said:


> There was another shopper there who looked at the bag I was carrying around and told me that Nutro uses something that can damage livers.


Menadione is a well-studied, approved food supplement, and while it can cause toxicity in high doses (like many vitamins and vitamin precursors), there's no reason to run away from it if the food is making your dog healthy.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

MyDogClaude said:


> i tried the Nutro with my dog and it seemed to make him very sick. He was fine with Iams, but i heard that Iams isnt so good. What else should I try??


Don't let unfounded rumors chase you off a food that's working for your dog. Iams is a good food and a good value, and lots of dogs thrive on it.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

The boys eat Eukanuba Premium Performance, though I wouldn't recommend it for dogs that aren't very active.

For the first year they eat Eukanuba LBP.

I could not convince the dogs to eat the Wellness samples I brought home during a guilty "can I do better?" phase. I've since recovered from that guilt, researched the issues like a scientist instead of like a paranoid puppy parent, and will probably not switch away from Eukanuba again unless I learn new information or something changes. The dogs are shiny, strong as bulls, rarely need anything but routine vet care, and have incredible energy and endurance.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

Debles said:


> Nature's Variety Salmon: both Instinct (no grain for Selka ) and Prairie for Gunner.
> Gunner has very weird allergies.Lost all his hair and 15 pounds on other foods and treats. I hope they never change this food because it seems to be the only thing he can eat!


Are you still feeding Gunner Prairie?


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## Cocodaminkie (Aug 5, 2010)

I have only given my pup Large Breed Puppy Food from Blue Buffalo. He is doing great on it and still loves it. I mix in some raw meat, raw eggs and such in with it on occasion so he gets introduced to everything. 

I know this forum is for Goldens, but I also have a toy chihuahua who I feed Halo dog food and she is just gorgeous and totally healthy on it. Halo is much pricier than most other dog foods so that's why I get two different dog foods for two very different dogs.


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