Foods

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Permalink Reply by Carol Owens on June 13, 2008 at 9:06am

If Orijen is available in your area, you might want to try it. Our Jake is doing very well this. We rotate between Orijen Adult and Orijen Six Fish.
We also do home cooked meals for him, which we started during all the food recalls last year. Jake is allergic to kibble w/ grain but has no problem w/ grains in his home cooked food. Just at vet's yesterday for his annual checkup and blood work. Vet was very impressed by his coat and condition.
Another line of food you might try is Nature's Variety. Their Instinct line seems to please picky eaters.

~Carol

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Permalink Reply by Pam Burkley on June 13, 2008 at 6:56pm

Hi Jo Anne - Never heard of any of them!! Must be the difference across the country... Some of the specialty foods up in New England are not available down here -- I did find a new dry kibble by 'Fromm' - it's very good, and the dogs love it. I also started the fresh frozen raw diet produced by Pat and Michael Landers company, called H.P.P.I. (Healthy Pet Products, Inc.) They have a great web site - as does Fromm. (www.frommfamily.com). I'm feeding half Fromm and half raw.
My dogs have never looked or felt better. Their coats are gorgeous. They love the food - we just had a litter where I fed the mother the raw exclusively, and I'm now raising the puppies on the raw and the are doing great. The picture I put on this website with my grandson Grier - those are the puppies. Even my fussy eaters have no problem with this food.

I'm going to look up the Evangers......

Pam B.

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Permalink Reply by Christine Moe on June 16, 2008 at 1:25pm

Hi Jo Anne!

No experience with the Evangers, but I just tried a bag of the Merrick's B.G. (Before Grain) Buffalo about a month ago, and thus far the girls (and their coats!) love it!

I used to feed Merrick's Wilderness Blend mixed 50/50 with Orijen Adult. I LOVE the quality of Orijen, but the 44% protein makes me very nervous - just my humble opinion, but since my Cavaliers aren't in training for long-distance Tundra runs, *wink*wink* I worry about long-term renal damage (I've seen a lot of it with high protein diet-fed dogs at UC Davis). So, I split the difference by mixing the Orijen with Merrick (may seem silly, but it makes me feel better) - my dogs have always done very well with it.

I like that the Merrick BG is a grain-free food with a lower protein % (at 32%) than Evo, Orijen, Barking at the Moon (Solid Gold), etc.

I wish chicken weren't the #1 true ingredient in ALL the formulas (since the first ingredient listed, "deboned buffalo, salmon, etc.." is wet-weight prior to processing, and is really the #4 or #5 ingredient), and I wish they didn't use canola oil as the fat source, but it still looks like a fairly decent food.

I've been looking at the Wellness Core, and that looks like a really good grain-free food, too.

Hope that helps!
Warmly,
Christine

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Permalink Reply by Julie on June 18, 2008 at 8:05am

Hi Jo Anne
I too have been asking around if anyone uses Evangers. It certainly looks ok!
I'm in the UK, and it is one of very few wet foods on the dogfoodanalysis site I can get here.
I agree with Carol regarding Orijen. I also use both the adult and fish varieties, and our Ralph LOVES it. He is a picture of health, bright eyed and glossy coat, so must be doing him good too! Ralph enjoys his food, but isn't a food fiend....Orijen is the first food that he will actually ASK for! He taps his bowl if he's hungry for breakfast! This is a first for Ralphie!!
I will look in and see if anyone replies to you that has used Evangers!
Julie

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Permalink Reply by Carol Owens on June 18, 2008 at 10:03pm

There were reported problems w/ Evangers last year. I was quietly warned off of the kibble by someone in a state government dept and so have kept silent on the kibble issue. As for the canned, I called Evangers early in 2007 to ask a few questions and they sent me free a whole case of cans which included every variety. Jake liked them and they smelled so good it made me hungry just to smell his food. We were mixing it w/ the Evangers kibble. Some cans had chicken bones visible and the cans carried a warning about might not be suitable for small dogs, not that I would have given those to Jake anyway.

Then due to so many recalls, news of silent recalls, and people just switching to something that seemed totally safe, Evangers was swamped w/ additional demand. It was about that time we ran out of the case of free cans, and we purchased about half dozen cans at a local small store. One can had pieces of plastic in it. The next one brought on a very strange response from Jake. He ran out of the kitchen! It smelled absolutely fine to me, but Jake hid in the other end of the house. (We discarded that can immediately, in the garbage can outside.) Jake was actually shaking. So he got just the kibble that night. Then as I mentioned above we were warned in a "you didn't hear this from us" phone conversation not to use the kibble. Remember, this was in '07, so it shouldn't be brought up today except that as a general topic of "Evangers" you should read Itchmo Forums on problems with pet food and then some other sites as well as talking to the stores that carry it. Obviously, if there were too many customers returning product or coming in with complaints, I doubt these stores would not take up valuable shelf space. Perhaps Evangers works with some dogs but not others? AAR, because you asked, read here (and note that this thread involves canine, feline and both wet and dry foods produced by Evangers:

Also there is the general Evangers dog food thread on Itchmo Forums


It's strange that I can view the links I put into this when I write the post and now when I returned to edit it, but when posted the links do not show up on my browser at all. So just go to itchmoforums dot com or google for Itchmo Forums...or email me carolmaxine59 at gmail.com for links.

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Permalink Reply by Marilou on July 3, 2008 at 2:47pm

Hi I'm new to the site and this topic interests me because I am feeding both my dogs Flint River Ranch and the older one, Dylan who is only 1 1/2 years old is gaining so much weight. I went to the local PetSmart to buy some weight management food which he likes but I would like to find one that has better ingredients.

What I love about Flint River is their free s/h and the food is good but they don't sell anything for weight loss.

I believe my local holistic store sells Merrick but I don't know about the other brands mentioned.

AND exactly how much do you feed your Cavalier? Dylan eats a little more than 1/2 a cup and Fenway less than that. I do sprinkle on some cooked ground chicken or turkey and for treats during the day they basically eat string beans, some lettuce, a baby carrot....stuff like that.

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Permalink Reply by Carol Owens on July 3, 2008 at 5:43pm

Canidae Platinum is for overweight and older dogs as well. Several dogs in our neighborhood that our Cavalier plays with are on this food and seem to do very nicely with it. Also, there is a Wellness Reduced Fat that dogs I know who are older are thriving on. Many other foods, of course, but these are the only two that dogs I see almost daily are eating for reduced calorie kibble. Am certain others will chime in here who are feeding their Cavallers a "weight watchers" food.

How much exercise does Dylan get? Does he have enough free play time in a fenced yard and/or long, brisk walks? Does he like to retrieve? If you have time and a place to practice think about training for agility.

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Permalink Reply by Marilou on July 9, 2008 at 5:56pm

Thank you carol.....Dylan does get a good long walk every day. He and our 11 month CKC play a lot and run around our fenced in yard and in doors also. I used to get them together with some other dogs but that is not the case now....sadly my friend passed away and I only babsat her two Cavaliers once since that time.

Anyway, I did order some Merrick and wrote them about feeding instructions. I got the Buffalo BG and a bag of the Wilderness Blend.

I was told for a 20 pound dog (Dylan is almost 28 lbs) I am to feed him a cup and 2/3....which is a lot considering I only feed him 2/3 a cup now!

But when I checked the Flint River food I did notice the calories are a lot higher than the Merrick BG.

So, I am hoping to get some pounds off him. He is a big Cavalier....long leg and much bigger than his brother (the other lady's pup).

I will see if the Merrick works and if it doesn't I will try to look for the other brands you suggested.

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Permalink Reply by Cindy on March 13, 2009 at 7:17pm

Marilou said:

Hi I'm new to the site and this topic interests me because I am feeding both my dogs Flint River Ranch and the older one, Dylan who is only 1 1/2 years old is gaining so much weight. I went to the local PetSmart to buy some weight management food which he likes but I would like to find one that has better ingredients.

What I love about Flint River is their free s/h and the food is good but they don't sell anything for weight loss.

I believe my local holistic store sells Merrick but I don't know about the other brands mentioned.

AND exactly how much do you feed your Cavalier? Dylan eats a little more than 1/2 a cup and Fenway less than that. I do sprinkle on some cooked ground chicken or turkey and for treats during the day they basically eat string beans, some lettuce, a baby carrot....stuff like that.

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Permalink Reply by Cindy on March 13, 2009 at 7:21pm

I feed my Cav's 1/2 cup of kibble twice a day. One gets a bit less, one a bit more. Their weight is stable at 18 lbs.

Previously my German Shepard needed to lose weight. I got the cat food out of her reach and added a can of green beans (she would only eat the frech cut). The green beans were the vet's suggestion. She loved it. And she lost the weight she needed to. She gave me looks for weeks "where's the green stuff" when she had lost her weight and I stopped it.

Cindy

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