Bamboo
Well-Known Member
Some basic info on Jade and Rasputin:
Jade is a 12 year old GSD. No allergies or intolerances. She is lucky not to have the characteristic sensitive stomach or horrible joints that have become far too common within her breed. She gets glucosamine and a kelp supplement once a day, on her breakfast.
Rasputin is a 15 year old cat. No allergies or intolerances and no special concerns, such as crystals. He has kibble available at all times and he gets a can of Weruva every morning.
I'm having some issues finding both of them new foods. They had both been eating Orijen for years and doing fantastically on in. Unfortunately, Orijen overhauled their formulas earlier this year and it does not agree with them. Rasputin stopped eating his kibble until he was hardly eating at all. And he was obviously hungry because he started stealing food from the kitchen, which he's never done in the 14 years that I've had him. Jade loved the new formula but it did not love her back. She got horrible, horrible diarrhea. She would run to the door but she would not be able to hold it. She had accidents almost every day for 2-3 weeks.
So, I have to find them a new regular food. It sucks because I really liked Orijen. I'm even more pissed because they were doing so well on it for so long and then the damn company gets greedy and changes to formulas to make a quick buck. Pretty lame, if you ask me...
I tried Acana for a while and they did alright on it. I kept looking because, from what I can tell, it's not that much better then a lot of the other foods out there but sometimes can be close to twice as much. I don't mind paying what needs to be paid (I used to spend $85 on bag of Orijen every 2-3 weeks. I'm not put off by the $60-70 every 2-3 for the various types of Acana) -I just don't like paying for a name when there isn't substance behind it. And, I'm still a little irritated at Champion, so I don't like paying into their brand at the moment...
I tried raw 2 years ago and I didn't like the results. Rasputin was being fed 4 times a day but he seemed hungry all the time. He would wake me up in the night by meowing and whenever I would go to see if anything was wrong, he would run to his dish. I even tried upping it to 5 or 6 times a day but nothing changed. Jade loved it but, similarly to the Orijen, it did not love her. Only that time, she could hardly poop at all. She was always constipated and half the time, when she could get it out, it was just dust and chunks of bone. I lowered the amount of bone she was getting but it didn't help.
I've tried both of them on Natural Balance as an 'in-between' food.. Rasputin really seemed to like it, so I got him another bag. He seems to be doing well on it, though he is getting bored of it. I've gone back and forth between the Green Pea+Duck and Green Pea+Salmon and there doesn't seem to be a preference. I don't think I'll be getting it again.
He's had Taste of the Wild before and he seemed to love it. (Picky cats always do, so I do wonder what they do to it :? ) I'm not too fond of TotW, what with all the recalls in the past but I may look into it again. I haven't ever tried Jade with it.
Right now Jade is finishing up a bag of Go Natural (Lamb). She loves it and actually seems to be doing great on it. Her poops are firm and consistent and she never strains. I might continue with this for a while. I do like that you can get different flavours of it. My main concern is the "Natural Flavour" in the ingredients.
Also, every time I ask people's advice and tell people that I'm feeding Go, it's recommended that I try Now (which is by the same company -Petcurean) Everyone talks like it's so much better then Go, but I've looked at the ingredients and the Go looks superior. If anyone has any experience with Now, I'd be interested to hear about it.
So, my question for you guys is: what do you feed and why?
Jade is a 12 year old GSD. No allergies or intolerances. She is lucky not to have the characteristic sensitive stomach or horrible joints that have become far too common within her breed. She gets glucosamine and a kelp supplement once a day, on her breakfast.
Rasputin is a 15 year old cat. No allergies or intolerances and no special concerns, such as crystals. He has kibble available at all times and he gets a can of Weruva every morning.
I'm having some issues finding both of them new foods. They had both been eating Orijen for years and doing fantastically on in. Unfortunately, Orijen overhauled their formulas earlier this year and it does not agree with them. Rasputin stopped eating his kibble until he was hardly eating at all. And he was obviously hungry because he started stealing food from the kitchen, which he's never done in the 14 years that I've had him. Jade loved the new formula but it did not love her back. She got horrible, horrible diarrhea. She would run to the door but she would not be able to hold it. She had accidents almost every day for 2-3 weeks.
So, I have to find them a new regular food. It sucks because I really liked Orijen. I'm even more pissed because they were doing so well on it for so long and then the damn company gets greedy and changes to formulas to make a quick buck. Pretty lame, if you ask me...
I tried Acana for a while and they did alright on it. I kept looking because, from what I can tell, it's not that much better then a lot of the other foods out there but sometimes can be close to twice as much. I don't mind paying what needs to be paid (I used to spend $85 on bag of Orijen every 2-3 weeks. I'm not put off by the $60-70 every 2-3 for the various types of Acana) -I just don't like paying for a name when there isn't substance behind it. And, I'm still a little irritated at Champion, so I don't like paying into their brand at the moment...
I tried raw 2 years ago and I didn't like the results. Rasputin was being fed 4 times a day but he seemed hungry all the time. He would wake me up in the night by meowing and whenever I would go to see if anything was wrong, he would run to his dish. I even tried upping it to 5 or 6 times a day but nothing changed. Jade loved it but, similarly to the Orijen, it did not love her. Only that time, she could hardly poop at all. She was always constipated and half the time, when she could get it out, it was just dust and chunks of bone. I lowered the amount of bone she was getting but it didn't help.
I've tried both of them on Natural Balance as an 'in-between' food.. Rasputin really seemed to like it, so I got him another bag. He seems to be doing well on it, though he is getting bored of it. I've gone back and forth between the Green Pea+Duck and Green Pea+Salmon and there doesn't seem to be a preference. I don't think I'll be getting it again.
He's had Taste of the Wild before and he seemed to love it. (Picky cats always do, so I do wonder what they do to it :? ) I'm not too fond of TotW, what with all the recalls in the past but I may look into it again. I haven't ever tried Jade with it.
Right now Jade is finishing up a bag of Go Natural (Lamb). She loves it and actually seems to be doing great on it. Her poops are firm and consistent and she never strains. I might continue with this for a while. I do like that you can get different flavours of it. My main concern is the "Natural Flavour" in the ingredients.
Also, every time I ask people's advice and tell people that I'm feeding Go, it's recommended that I try Now (which is by the same company -Petcurean) Everyone talks like it's so much better then Go, but I've looked at the ingredients and the Go looks superior. If anyone has any experience with Now, I'd be interested to hear about it.
So, my question for you guys is: what do you feed and why?