It's so bad... (dog food problems!)

[TriggerLuvu]

My mom switched the dogs to more crud. (Kibbles n Bits... eew... worst dog food ever!) and I couldn't do anything about it.

I just found out that BHA causes CANCER in dogs and now... I know this will be hard for you guys, but please try...

Name me the best dog food sold at Food Lion, Harris Teeter, family dollar or Walmart that does NOT have BHA and fair ingredients. The best you can find...

I'm begging you! I'm fed up with my dogs getting literal trash every day.

They most be availible in at least 17 lb bags or my mom will not buy it (for whatever reason).

I was thinking about tempting mom to get Lassie (sold at local harris teeter). I would switch them back to Dogswell but mom can't stand that dog food's price. (It's not that bad, actually... but she found a crappy dog food that was 50lb for 20 bucks and now all she wants to buy is that... ugh.)

[mysticpt]

You'd probably be better of to go to a pet supply store, but you may be able to get Wellness at one of the stores you mentioned, and that's a fairly good food. Based on my experience when I've travelled to the US, Harris Teeter would be the one most likely to carry higher quality dog food. Do you have any of your own money, that you could possible offer to contribute towards dog food to convince your mom that a highter quality food is better. Also, generally speaking, you can feed a bit less of a higher quality food, so in the long run it actually does not cost more.

[epoh]

IIRC, the dog food that has something like "Dog Lover's Soul" in the name is meant to be pretty good, and available at like Walmart...

Also, if you can't convince them to get better dog food, don't dispair. Many dogs eat that stuff and live fairly long healthy lives. It's not some sort of death sentence. Just like you can survive off McDonald's and hamburger helper and probably still be pretty healthy.

The issue is that bad food can trigger any underlying problems the dog might have, and are more likely to trigger allergies. It doesn't mean the dog is going to be sick or have cancer at some crazy high rate. We all (probably) want to feed our families free-range organice food 100% of the time, but who can afford it? We do what we can. If you cant' convince them to buy better food, perhaps you can save up your allowance and buy some suppliments like flax seed oil or fish oil to add to the food?

(My dog growing up was fed Alpo for the first 10 or so years of his life. He lived to be 18, and was only in bad health the last 18 months or so of his life.)

[TriggerLuvu]

Okay I looked at Tractor Supply Company and I've hit the jackpot. They sell the best brands for the best price.

But... mom said probably not. She said we MIGHT (emphasis on might) go check it out. I hope I can get TOTW or Blue Buffalo... that would be awesome. Totally awesome.

Wish me luck!

Plus I don't get an allowance anymore (Mom keeps forgetting and every time I ask she goes, Look at all the stuff you have. Isn't that enough?) and currently have ten bucks I scraped up in about two years...

I wouldn't be able to buy horse dung for that much!!!

[Dawna]

Hey. I live in Charlotte, NC. I was feeding the Wellness brand when I worked full time but can no longer afford it. I have been feeding Iams dry food for a while and I dump the bag into a large container when I get home, so I don't know if Iams has BHA or not. I think it's a preservative? Apparently there's been another study that I missed. So I return to my original question-do we "cherry pick" from these new pet studies as to which ones we think may have some credence, believe all of them, or believe none of them? It IS confusing because new information on every aspect of pet care has been flooding the media. Since I'm now very poor, and they seem ok on Iams, I guess I'll go with that one -and if it has BHA--???

[mysticpt]

This is a great website for dog food info: The Dog Food Project - How does your Dog Food Brand compare? But if you cannot afford the premium foods, then as someone else said, a lot of us older folks grew up with dogs that ate Alpo all the time and they were fine. If you can afford the better stuff, that's great, but if you can't, don't beat yourself up about it

[Kayla]

Ally eats a brand that's only sold at Walmart... but I can't remember the name of it. If you're really interested I can search through my old posts to find it.

[TriggerLuvu]

Originally Posted by Kayla

Ally eats a brand that's only sold at Walmart... but I can't remember the name of it. If you're really interested I can search through my old posts to find it.

Oh, that would be great, but I wouldn't want you to waste your time for me... and my big mutt and beagle.

[brandypup]

I have to agree- this is out of your hands and all your going to do is drive yourself crazy. If anything stick to a name brand lower quality food. Doing generic or stroe brands can be riskier. So if you can not convince mom to buy hgiher quality then be thankful it's a name brand.

Another option is ask if every other month (or so) you can buy a high quality food for a month and then switch back to the lower quality.

But be happy, pup is getting food is not starving.

[brandypup]

Walmart sells Ol Roy- (negitive 5 star rating)

Petsmart Authority is one that I fed for a while that was decent for price.