Dog food quality ratings

[sixdogs]

In a search for a quality dog food for my best friends, I ran across a site that rates dog foods based on the quality of their ingredients. Dog foods filled with corn and inexpensive grains get lower ratings and seem to be frowned upon by the veterinarian community. Anyway, based on their approach this site rates dog food on a five star rating system.

Here is the basic site with a listing of ALL dog foods by brand so you can look up an individual name:
Dog Food Reviews by Brand


Here are just the five star rated dry dog foods:
Five Star Dry Dog Foods | Dog Food Advisor


And here are the four star rated dry dog foods:
Four Star Dry Dog Foods | Dog Food Advisor

What we had been buying, and what I thought was good and acceptable was rated one star and apparently no more than ground corn of subject nutritional value. It was a little confusing at first just to find the selection of foods and then to try to cross reference the ratings so I printed the four and five star ratings and took them with me to a local Anderson's store. To my surprise they had many of the five star choices. Sure, good dog food costs more but I look on the cost as the difference between what the good stuff costs and what the old stuff used to cost. The difference is minimal and the dogs definately look better.

:dog:

 

[Depmandog]

We have a golden retriever and a border collie. They are both the same age, around 5. When spring arrived when they were 1.5 years old, both developed some sort of allergies...bad enough that we had to take them to the vet for shots and special shampoo, etc.

They were miserable, we were miserable watching them be miserable..,not to mention the extra money out monthly for the vet bills.

We went through this for two years (mainly worse during the warmer weather). We assumed it was something in the air or out in the yard. The vet suggested it could be a food allergy. So..I started researching and found the site you listed above.

We ended up with a no grain food that hurts the wallet, but it is the only food that has alleviated all of their allergy symptoms. It is fish based and they love it. Oh, I found some others that alleviated the allergies, but either gave them loose stool or they vomited regularly.

100% recommend!

 

[300UGUY]

We feed our guys Orijen organic food. Dogs have a better diet than me!!

 

[Bocephous]

We use this site:

Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble

Quality food makes a difference; we feed our dogs "Taste of the Wild."

 

[gwdixon]

We use this site:

Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble

Quality food makes a difference; we feed our dogs "Taste of the Wild."

Yes, this is an excellent site for dog food evaluation.

To make things easier, this link is to the ratings list for dry food.

Dog Food Reviews - Main Index - Powered by ReviewPost

Canadae All Life Stages (5 star) and Taste of the Wild (TOTW) Wetlands (6 star) is the premium feeds that I use. Tractor Supply has TOTW.

For "free choice" the Kirkland brand from Costco get good ratings (4 star) and is relatively inexpensive - chicken is a couple of dollars less than the lamb. Costco here also sells Blue Wilderness (5 star).

When our most recent lab was a pup he was fed Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover's Soul (5 star). Stupid name but good feed.

Origen and just a few others are on the top rated list (6 stars) but anything 4 stars or better is excellent food.

Anyway, our dogs have never been healthier since the highly rated foods have been used. It is a shame that the cheaper foods are so marginal as to barely keep a dog alive.

 

[NoTrespassing]

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/262161-dog-food-brands-good-bad.html

 

[sixdogs]

There are different dog foods with a brand name, so which Kirkland is the higher rated or do they all have the same rating? Same question with Blue Wilderness?

 

[Bird]

I wonder how accurate such "ratings" are; probably lots of healthy dogs running around that are fed on almost any of those brands, or the manufacturers couldn't stay in business. And I see that a number of Hill's dog foods are listed but Hill's Healthy Advantage, which is recommended by our veterinarian and is what we're currently using, isn't even included. Maybe because it's only sold by vets, and of course that may be the reason the vet recommends it.:laughing:

 

[Travelover]

The Costco Kirkland brand is made by Diamond. The Diamond brand is highly rated, though I have no way to know if it is exactly the same.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I don't worry too much about the ratings of dog food. My (wifes German Shepherd) eats better than I do. He gets Kibbles and Bits dry as filler which according to this site is only 1 star but the wife cooks for him everyday. He gets chicken, beef or pork meat boiled up with vegetables like celery and carrots to give it flavor. This is mixed with his Kibbles to form his diet. He also get a generous supply of bones, beef and pork, to chew on plus any scrap meat from our meals that is left over.