Food Rant

[BlindMag]

 I love my feed, but I am really annoyed by the company lately. I feed Purina ONE Lamb & Rice kibble. Over the last couple of years they have gradually "shrunk the bag." Keeping the price at about $1 per pound. I don't care about the price and I love the feed but they have drastically reduced the bag size twice in less than 2 years, now the biggest bag they offer is only 31 pounds!  I have to buy 2 bags at a time just to make sure I don't run low before I can get to the store again, especially in winter. Grr!

[Spectrum]

It seems all dog food companies are doing this. Hills recently lowered their prices after raising them several times in a row. Then they shrunk their bag, and to promote their product more, the bags left of the larger size were offered for the lower price with a sticker on it telling you how aewsome of a deal you're getting to get the big bag at the lower price    (I don't feed Hills anymore except somr occasion T/D for treats, but we sell it at work).

I'm currently feeding Taste of the Wild and I'm just now getting to the end of the first bag, so I have no idea of the price or bag has changed as it's only offered at two stores here that I know of (this bag has seemed to last ridiculously long lol)

[responsiblek9]

 

Yea I had Purina send me their calorie per cup on their dog food . Gets interesting and stunning how their quality on the dog foods has dropped but the prices keep rising. The dogs we had on Pro Plan when the shreds were added majorly lost muscle and weight on those Pro Plan shreds ( those are just glycerin filler). (I took all my dogs to the vet for stool samples thinking my dogs had WORMS or something !! They came back worm free.)

They did not put on those bags any warning or notice they were weight loss formula foods.. Nor were the bags cheaper either...

That food was formulated for the average pet owner who feeds their dogs too much from what breeders who contacted Purina told me. 

There is 100 calorie difference per cup in what I feed and what the Purina has in the  regular Pro Plan ( without shreds) or the Purina ONE. The dogs on the regular Purina Pro Plan or ONE I had to feed much more to keep their weight. So they ate a 30 lb bag per month per dog to keep their weight and muscling. So they were not absorbing the calories as much it seemed as on other foods. But my clients needed the dogs on available food easy to get at a grocery store.


They had to eat twice as much of the Purina as what I feed with the Pinacle Breeder's Choice for my personal dogs. That comes as a 30 lb bag but the individual chessies only eat 15 lbs a month. So my cost is 25$ per month per dog. ( each is on their own version of the Pinnacle)
The cost per month of feeding this more expensive per bag food actually ended up less than feeding the Purina products.

I was paying 37 for the Purina ONE per month 30 lbs , On the pro plan with no shreds was 47 a month for 30 lbs..


I hate it when the dog food companies do bait and switch on us .. 
 

[Spectrum]

Yeah prior to Taste of the Wild I was feeding Purina ONE. I'm feeding about half the quantity now as I was on that. Gavroche was at almost 4 cups a day on Purina to maintain weight, and he's eating just over 2 cups a day now. And holy cow, he's gotten ripped! The amount of muscling that he's gained since I switched blows my mind lol

[responsiblek9]

 
Yea my guys did well on Taste of the Wild . But they had so much GAS I had to switch back to the Pinacle.
I was not saving any money on it because I had to buy the beano to solve the gas issue.
Bummer..

  My other buddies who dont use their retrievers for assistance work did not notice the gas so much because their dogs were not inside all the time and or in public. They loved how it made their dogs muscle up and their coats improved massively. And how they pooped less and ate less without acting like they were starving. 

Sad that we have to find a gourmet type holististic dogs food to equal what we used to get before the pet food companies became absorbed by conglomerates that are not pet focused  and see the pet food as a convenient way to make money while they get rid of by-products from their human food production ventures. 

[Kirsten]

You just weren't looking at the problem from the right angle, Nora.  We're having a gas shortage and it's winter.  You should have been bottling the byproduct and using it for heating or transportation!

[Spectrum]

I only notice the gas when Gavroche lovingly lays next to me with his butt in my face and farts when I'm trying to sleep

[responsiblek9]

 
I was looking at the calories versus the calories on the Taste of the Wild , Pinnacle and the Purina pro Plan and purina ONE
 Some of the calorie counts are close between them all BUT  it is stunning the difference in the nutrition the dogs pull from the foods. 

The Pinnacle I have Cypher on is 500 calories per cup.
 for Wisp  hers is 405 kcal/cup

 Taste of the Wild formulas
High Prairie Canine formula 370 kcal/cup
Pacific Stream Canine Formula 360 kcal/cup
Wetlands Canine Formula 375 kcal/cup

Purina has similar calorie counts
 but the 2nd ingredient is brewers rice in most of their foods it seems.
pro plan sensitive skin and stomach 419kcal/cup
 second ingredient is brewers rice

Pro plan performance 493kcal/cup second ingredient is corn gluten and 3rd brewers rice

Purina ONE sensitive systems 453kcal/cup second ingredient is brewers rice

Purina ONE adult 400kcal/cup second ingredient is brewers rice

Pro plan large breed formula  adult 366kcal/cup brewers rice second ingredient

Pro plan chicken and rice 489 kcal/cup brewers rice second ingredient

Shred  pro plan versions beef and rice 366
chicken and rice 375
lamb and rice 366

regular Pro Plan Chicken and Rice with no shreds 489
 again second ingredient is brewers rice



So calorie counts may be similar but the absorption is quite different.
 keep in mind some breeds do better on  rice than others.

My chessies dont do that well on rice based foods in comparison to what I get on non rice based foods .
Alos some of the chessies I had ( from different bloodlines)  developed rice allergies as adults for no reason out of the blue.  ..
 

[Spectrum]

Purina ONE sensitive systems 453kcal/cup second ingredient is brewers rice

That's what he was on before

High Prairie Canine formula 370 kcal/cup

That's what he's on now.




It really is amazing how the calorie count is actually lower, but he needs to eat so much less to get what he needs out of it.

[responsiblek9]

 
Well it is a kind of natural gas... Methane.. Ahem
 but my heating stove is not rated for methane...
not sure i could stand to bottle it up for cooking purposes.. That would give my dinner flavors that i dont think i could handle. But then might be the perfect diet resource..  The dogs would LOVE me!!

You just weren't looking at the problem from the right angle, Nora.  We're having a gas shortage and it's winter.  You should have been bottling the byproduct and using it for heating or transportation!

[responsiblek9]

 
They estimate the calorie counts . But that does not mean the dogs can absorb the actual calories from the ingredients.
So if they can absorb the nutrition better and have less filler they dont require as much food to stay healthy and thrive. 

[bj2circeleb]

You just weren't looking at the problem from the right angle, Nora.  We're having a gas shortage and it's winter.  You should have been bottling the byproduct and using it for heating or transportation!

That would help with the environment too, since producing gas is not good for the environment, all we need to do is bottle gas from people and animals alike!

Hey, did I just solve the problem of global warming!! 

Maybe I would need to find a way of storing it first and containers to catch it in and then how to transport it to places to be used and distributed. But the idea is there.

Thanks Kirsten, isn't it amazing what a group of disbled people can achieve, solving the whole world from buring up!!

[BlindMag]

How interesting!   My main issue is also accessibility of whatever I feed; I live in a small town and while there are other small towns in the vicinity, the closest store that carries Taste of the Wild is a 3 hour drive, mail-ordering feed would be cost prohibitive for me; I have not heard of Pinnacle but I will call around and see if anywhere has it. If not, does anyone have any other suggestions?

[Spectrum]

Yeah, Taste of the Wild is hard to come by. Only two stores here carry it, but even then it took a long time to actually find the stores that carry it. That's why I didn't change over any sooner than I did lol. Fortunately one of the stores is right next to the grocery store I usually go to.

[Rovingrebel]

why not order your food of the internet? Sounds like the shipping would be negligible when compared with the gas and time to find food near you?